82/99: Golden Lemon Almond Cake

I feel really behind on my cakes.

After this one, I have another one that I haven't posted yet so that means I have 16 cakes to make in the next 48 days. I'm getting a little worried because I'll be gone for spring break and I have midterms coming up. But I am going to make it.  I am determined.  I set a goal and I am going to meet it- no extension or exceptions.

I think my problem is that I'm getting a little sick of it.  I absolutely love it when I'm doing it but I think it's the planning part that I don't like- grocery store trips, prepping, mixing, baking, cooling, cleaning, photographing, blogging. Add that to 18 hours of upper level courses and my to do list gets pretty long.  But i'll stop complaining... no one wants to hear that. On to the cake:

75/99: Swedish Pear and Almond Cream Cake

I love foreign food and the fact that this recipe is Swedish made it even more exciting.  Rose says that "the pear adds luscious moisture to the crumb; the almond cream imbues it with lovely flavor." I think that she very eloquently and accurately described the cake.  It wasn't an overwhelming flavor nor was it bland.  It was a simple, sweet taste that was enhanced by the moisture in the cake.

I don't plan ahead very well when it comes to making cakes. I just open the book, pick a recipe, and open the pantry or the groery store.  This one called for almond paste. Almond paste is $15.99 from Amazon and no telling how much at the grocery store, if they even carry it.  Noooo thankyou.

So with my hefty stash of nuts (whole, sliced, and slivered almonds, pistachios, walnuts, pecans, etc) I pulled out a bag of slivered almonds and got busy making the almond paste.  Since I had all the ingredients handy, I like to think that I saved 16 bucks.  Totally worth it.  I got the recipe from allrecipes.com so if you need some almond cream, take an extra five minutes and save yourself some cash. Here's the recipe:

54/99: Chocolate Ingots (Financiers au Chocolat)

A few days ago, I planned out my recipes for the week and then made my grocery list.  The chocolate ingots called for a very unique ingredient that I had never used before: Cacao Nibs (the base ingredient in chocolate).  Cacao nibs are roasted cacoa beans that are split in half.  It's not really a typical wal-mart item which makes it a bit difficult.  The cacao nibs were completely optional but I'm in a go big or go home phase so I wasn't going to bake the ingots without them.  Since my grocery store manager thought I was crazy trying to buy cacao nibs locally, I turned to Amazon to help me out.

46/99: Gold Ingots (Financier Classiques)

 

About two weeks ago, I made the brioche so that I could make the caramelized apple pudding cakes. I made the crème anglaise for the cakes and then let the little brioche cubes soak in it as required. They had to sit for awhile so I put them in the refrigerator and forgot about them.

A day or two went by but I decided that I’d use them anyway. Then a week went by. And then two weeks.  Sadly, my little brioche cubes and their marinade found a new home- in the trash can. The lonely pineapple is still sitting on the counter top with half wilted leaves.

Since that recipe has been nagging me for a few weeks, I felt like I should just complete it today. Plus, that would keep the pineapple from dying.  The plan was to buy brioche from our local bakery and cheat. I already made brioche so it counts if I buy a loaf for the next recipe, right?

After class I hurried to the bakery that closes at 2:30.  It was 1:58. Whew.  I got to the counter, ordered my coffee (it’s the best in town), and then asked for a brioche.

The man at the counter looked at me regretfully and said that a gentleman had just come in and asked for 10 brioches. Sadly, he took the last ones.

I called the other, not so exciting bakery and they didn’t have a brioche either. They said I could special order one and it would be ready by the weekend. I could make my own brioche by then so no thank you.

Time was ticking because my next class was at four.  The goal was to get the majority of the cake done before class and that way my evening would be free for other things.  I flipped open Rose’s Heavenly cakes to see what I could make with the ingredients in my pantry.  I’m going out of town this weekend so I didn’t want to make anything exceptional because then it wouldn’t get eaten.

The final decision: Gold Ingots (Financiers Classiques). They contain only ingredients that any good baker has in the pantry at all times, no exceptions: eggs, sugar, flour, vanilla extract, butter, and baking powder.  The only ingredient that I could reasonably not have were almonds but thankfully I’ve acquired a semi-impressive nut assortment from making all of these cakes.

45/99: Gâteau Breton

It looks simple. It looks plain. It looks delicious.

I think I had a croissant crust in my mind when I looked at this cake.  Rose says that it is "crisp like a pastry around the edge, but has a soft, dense, and moist interior." There really is no better way to describe this cake.

38/99: Almond Shamah Chiffon

The Almond Shamah Chiffon was the final cake of the Lacey's 30th birthday cake extravaganza.





 "Shamah" in the title actually stands for one of Rose's friends, David Shamah.  A bunch of people at the party were curious and therefore looked up the word "shamah" in a translator.  They came up with something and then proceeded to discuss why the cake would be called this.  Sadly, I don't remember the word that they found but, if you were one of those people, I must inform you that you were wrong.  Sorry about that friends.