Friday, February 5, 2010

Better Luck Next Time Rum Cake


Rum Cake, page 66, Desperate Measures, Kevin Crafts, 1993

Notes: The recipe called for a 10" Bundt pan. Instead I used my mini-Bundtlette pan. The Bundt-lette pan is a "6-cup capacity" but I don't know if that translates to "I need 6 cups of batter" or "It will hold 6 cups of batter, but don't fill it that full or you'll have cake batter baked to the bottom of your oven". So... I filled the Bundt-lettes up a little over half-full. I used Trader Joe's Baking Spray With Flour And Canola Oil to prep the pans with. I know I should have buttered and floured the molds, but we have the canned stuff and I'm trying to use it up.

The big cake needed 45 minutes to bake, but how long would these little ones need? I don't like to do this (because of my penchant for distraction and subsequent culinary ruination), but just set the timer for a reasonable amount of time and then checked periodically until they looked and tested done. At 20 minutes they looked set and tested almost done (with a toothpick). Five more minutes did the trick. Then after a 10 minute rest, I flipped them out onto racks to cool. They were so light in color that I questioned their done-ness. But the toothpick don't lie. Weird. They all released perfectly, but might have had sharper definition had I not cheated with the pan prep. They also had shrunk some in the pan during their rest period. Big concern though was the color, or lack thereof.

I know now that they needed to cook longer, but after resting and releasing, there's no going back. Lesson learned: the toothpick test may not lie, but it doesn't necessarily tell you everything either. I probably should have used the regular Bundt pan like the recipe called for. Whatever the reasons, as I try not to kick myself too hard over this waste of food*, I vow to one day try the recipe again.**


*Three sticks of butter, nearly a whole cup of dark rum, and our first two homegrown lemons... all in the garbage. Makes me sad... and mad... and then sad again.
**
Did I mention how utterly delicious this cake batter was? I usually taste the batter when I bake a cake, but it's more for information gathering than for pleasure (it's not like it's cookie dough, if you get my drift). This batter, was a different story. Such fantastic flavor! I've just got to give it another go some day. I know it'll be great.
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