Tuesday, January 20, 2009

TWD: Berry Surprise Cake


January is nearly over and the TWD bakers are down to their last two recipes for the month. This week, Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen, chose Berry Surprise Cake, a simple genoise filled with cream cheese, whipped cream, and fresh berries. Since this isn't fresh berry season here in California, I substituted frozen blueberries, which I always have on hand. My daughter said it was the first time she's eaten something containing blueberries that she liked, so I presume it was successful.

I made this rather at the last minute, since life has been somewhat dramatic lately, and I did half the recipe so it wouldn't double me.

At first, I thought the genoise would bake up just fine, but in the last 10 minutes, I observed a huge crater had formed in the middle of the cake. Well, sometimes holes happen. Upon re-reading the instructions, I realized that we were going to remove the middle anyway, so it wasn't a big deal.




For carving out the center, I used a grapefruit knife. The slight curve made it easier to create the bowl-like center that would hold the filling and berries.




The cake went together very nicely and tasted just fine. I didn't change any of the ingredient
amounts, and, while some people thought it wasn't quite sweet enough, we felt it was just perfect.


I would bet that fresh strawberries would be just the right berry for this cake, so when late spring comes, and the berries show up in the farmers market, I'll be giving this recipe another try.

For now, I'll be checking out how the other TWD bakers fared with their cakes.


12 comments:

Megan said...

I do think this dessert is better suited to summer - but yours does look pretty with the blueberries. And your daughter liked it! Bonus!

Anonymous said...

i agree that it's more of a summery cake. yours looks beautiful with the blueberries. i used blackberries which were delicious.

NKP said...

I was going to use my frozen blueberries until I found Florida strawberries on sale.
Your cake is beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Your cake looks gorgeous. I'm glad it worked out for you.

chocolatechic said...

Oh, I'm sorry yours sunk.

Mine didn't even raise.

Engineer Baker said...

No worries, mine sunk too :) Yours looks absolutely stunning!

Kimberly Johnson said...

Your cake looks beautiful!

Cooking for Comfort by Jennifer said...

I love how you did the step by step of building your cake! Beautiful job!

The Food Librarian said...

Looks soooooo beautiful and tasty! I would like to try this with blueberries.

Liz said...

That looks beautiful with the blueberries! And I think the grapefruit knife is a genius touch! I'll have to use that tip next time.

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Seems like a lot of people had the sinking meteor crater thing happen - maybe that's what was suppose to happen. Love it with the blueberries.

Nancy/n.o.e said...

Look at how perfect your cake turned out! Sorry about your recent drama - I'm in the same boat! All of your recent baking looks delicious; I can't believe how many groups you juggle.
Nancy