I know, I know...It has been almost a month since I promised to post the recipes for the cake layers of the Buzz Lightyear cake.
Now tonight, even if I am half asleep, I'll post them!
I used 2 basic recipes - a Devil's food dark chocolate cake layer and All purpose yellow lemon cake. Both are from the book of Christopher Kimball " The dessert bible". You probably got tired of me singing him praises, but what can I do?! He is just unbelievable! I had never tried a better tasting layers in my entire life! The lemon one was moist, rich and the lemon flavor exploded in your mouth, but the chocolate one...Gosh, just by thinking of it...it is mouth watering! Rich chocolate flavor and so moist, that I bet you have never tried a better one!
First make sure that all ingredients are room temperature! It is extremely important! I finally bought a digital thermometer and I am sooo happy with it!
Next thing, preheat the oven at 350F.
Grease two 9 inch cake pans and cover the bottom of each pan with a circle of parchment paper.
Master Recipe for All-Purpose Yellow lemon cake
( IMPORTANT: This is a Single dose recipe!For the Buzz Lightyear I used 2 dose recipe and baked it in two 9"/11" rectangular pans! If you want to make 2 sheets in two 9 " pans, double the recipe!)
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons ( 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still firm ( 58-65 F)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 tablespoon ( or more) lemon zest
Mix the dry ingredients together.
In a mixer bowl stir the butter, then gradually add the sugar , beat around 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating on high speed for 30 seconds. Now at this point if your butter looks grainy- it is too cold! It has to be room temperature! The batter has to be smooth!
After all of the eggs are beaten in. beat for 1 more minute. Add one third of the flour and the milk and beat on LOW speed until incorporated. Add the vanilla and lemon, then the remaining flour and milk. Scrape the bowl and continue to mix by hand. Divide the batter between the 2 pans and bake for about 30 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking.
When the layers are ready, take them out of the oven, let them cool for 5 minutes and then take them out. At this point I left them to cool down completely, then I wrapped in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer. It is so much easier to work with frozen layers!!!
And that's it :-) Sorry I don't have a better picture of it, but you can get the idea.
The recipe for the Devil's food cake follows.
-How to make a Buzz from fondant
http://www.anniesartbook.com/2008/05/buzz-lightyear-is-born.html
-Decorating the finished Buzz figure-
http://www.anniesartbook.com/2008/05/frankenbuzz-is-born-or-how-to-make-buzz.html
- How to make Buzz's ship:
http://www.anniesartbook.com/2008/05/buzz-lightyear-cake-tribute-to-buzz.html
- Decorating Buzz's ship
http://www.anniesartbook.com/2008/05/buzz-lightyear-cake-tribute-to-buzz_23.html
- The cake recipes ( yellow all purpose cake layer)
http://www.anniesartbook.com/2008/06/long-overdue-cake-recipes.html
- The cake recipes 2 ( the Devil's food cake layer)
http://www.anniesartbook.com/2008/06/long-overdue-cake-recipes-part-2.html
Annie
19 comments:
Hey, It's Beth again. Random question... do you sell your cakes? by the way, your kids are adorable!!
No, I haven't sold any so far :-) I mean, the ones that I make are for my family and friends( I often give them as a gift :-)).
Nobody asked me to make one, usually I make them for my pleasure. Why :-)?
Just curious! I sell some cakes and always have trouble pricing.
Oh, I don't have trouble pricing at all, just nobody asked me :-D.
You should take a look at this :
http://www.earlenescakes.com/business.htm
thanks, I've so much reading to do! You've been a great wealth of information and inspiration!! You ROCK!!
Oh, I read a lot!!! If you need anything you just have to ask! :-)
Thanks for the kind words :-)
I just saw your Buzz Lightyear cake and it is awesome. I am planning a Buzz party for my son who is turning 2 in August. You don't happen to live in Texas? I would love to have this cake a his party.
Thank you Heather, I really am flattered :-) Unfortunately for you I am located in NY state, it's a long distance to transport a cake :-) If you have more questions, write me at tandoori.chick@gmail.com.
Hi Annie. I have made this recipe six times and very time the cake turns out very eggy. It does not cook in the middle no matter how much I bake it and when I cut it, it is very dense in the middle.I followed the recipe to the T. Do you think if I increase the Baking Powder to 3 tsp. instead of 2 tsp. would give me a better result? Thank you for your response.
Hi Annie. I have made this recipe six times and very time the cake turns out very eggy. It does not cook in the middle no matter how much I bake it and when I cut it it is very dense in the middle.I followed the recipe to the T. Do you think if i increase the Baking Powder to 3 tsp. instead of 2 tsp. would give me a better result? Thank you for your response.
Hi Hanadi,
Unfortunately I don't think that adding baking powder will solve your problem, in fact it might make it worse. There can be couple of reasons why it can be soggy in the middle. First of all- your oven might not be properly calibrated ( temperature wise). 350F in your oven might not be 350F at all. Why a cake can be soggy and undercooked in the middle mostly depends on the temperature it's baked on- the cake first bakes on the outside, then in the middle. I would try baking it on 325 and see if that will change anything, since your oven is probably too hot in the beginning of the baking and it "crusts" on the sides too quickly, leaving the middle raw. I would also line the baking pan with parchment paper on the sides as well. It will probably take longer to bake than the regular recipe, but the best way to figure out when it's done is to see if the middle springs back if you lightly touch it with your fingers. Do you have gas or electric oven?
Thank you Annie for your quick response. My oven is an electrical convection oven. I did bake one of the recipes at 325F and still had the same result. I checked my oven temperature with an oven thermometer and it was accurate. I baked a 6 inches pan and a 10 inches pan. The 6 inches was worse than the 10 inches. My pans are Wilton 2 inches in height. I filled them half full. When the cake cooked it was barely one inch in height and very dense. I am puzzled. I love your work and I really would love to make the Buzz Lightyear cake.
Thank you Annie for your quick response. My oven is an electrical convection oven. I did bake one of the recipes at 325F and still had the same result. I checked my oven temperature with an oven thermometer and it was accurate. I baked a 6 inches pan and a 10 inches pan. The 6 inches was worse than the 10 inches. My pans are Wilton 2 inches in height. I filled them half full. When the cake cooked it was barely one inch in height and very dense. I am puzzled. I love your work and I really would love to make the Buzz Lightyear cake.
Hi again Hanadi,
this is very puzzling indeed! When you mix the ingredients, have you noticed the eggs to "curdle" the batter?
Yes It did. The batter was loose and curdled even after I mixed all the flour in.
Hanadi, it's not supposed to curdle. That might very well be the reason why it's not baking properly.
Use a kitchen thermometer and make sure that the eggs and the butter are the exact same temperature. As I have mentioned in the recipe, it is extremely important for all the ingredients to be room temperature, otherwise the batter will curdle. And no, the flour wouldn't help the curdling. Next time you try to make it, if you see that it begins to curdle, stop, get a large bowl of hot water and place your mixer bowl in it ( make sure the water reaches only the bottom of the mixer bowl to warm it). Then with a spatula continue mixing it by hand until it becomes smooth again. After that and only after the batter is smooth you can add the flour.
I hope this helps, let me know how it worked out. These butter based cakes can be tricky but once you get the hang of it, it becomes easier, trust me!( I've thrown away my share of curdled batters too until I learned to make them properly, but the taste is incomparable once you do it right!) Good luck!
Thank you Annie so much. I will follow your advice and I will keep you posted.
Thank you Annie so much. I will follow your advice and I will keep you posted.
You are welcome! I hope it helps and you bake the perfect cake next time!
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