It’s Cake Wednesday again (I have been baking my way through a cake book!) and I have to say it has been an interesting cake baking extravaganza this week.
I was pretty excited and more than a little nervous to make this cake because, frankly, I thought it sounded really, really weird.
I had never heard of a Lord Baltimore cake and it’s always fun to try something completely new and totally different. Well, this fit that bill. From the way you make the cake itself to the filling ingredients, this is a strange cake.
The strangest thing about it?
It was REALLY good.
I struggled with this one I have to say. Have you ever tried to make 7 minute frosting? I hadn’t before this and I went to make it and discovered you need to have a hand mixer. Which I don’t have. Mine broke a while back and I have neglected to replace it.
After this I will be getting a new one.
Don’t try to make 7 minute frosting without a hand mixer. I was semi-successful, as you can see in the picture, and it did taste fabulous. I just wasn’t overly happy with the visual results.
You are supposed to beat the frosting in a double boiler with your little hand beater unil stiff peaks form so what I did was use my immersion blender for 10 minutes and it was pretty thick but not stiff so I transferred it, at that point, to my stand mixer and gave it another 10 minutes on high. At that point it was stiff-ish, but not like you would use to frost a cake, unless you’re thinking of doing a glaze. Which I was not. I ended up adding a bunch of powdered sugar to get it to stiffen enough to sort of stay on the cake. So I hope you are more successful with your frosting.
I also did look at other 7 minute frosting recipes just to check and make sure this one wasn’t a dud or something but they’re pretty much all the same so I am completely confident my lack of success was due to my lack of a hand mixer.
I will totally be trying it again once I get that mixer….
But this cake, I have to laugh. My sister in law, Natalie, was helping me, emotionally, survive this. I get a little worked up when my frosting doesn’t work AND I thought for sure this cake would taste horrible. So she kept encouraging me to keep going, saying it looks fine and then sat through my ‘photo shoot’. Well, I was dying to try this cake so as soon as I was done shooting, I picked up a fork and we dug in:
We both looked at each other in amazement and said, “This is really good.” and ate some more. We decided the crunch from the macaroons was the best part and then the lemon flavor, but we just LOVED it. In fact I am likely going to have to throw it away because if I don’t I am going to eat the whole thing today and I am seriously trying to get the last couple pounds of baby weight of off.
Maybe I’ll give it to someone. I just have no self control.
FOR THE CAKE- 3 cups sifted cake flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3¾ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1½ cups milk
- ¾ cup soft butter
- 1½ teaspoons lemon extract
- 4 egg yolks
FOR THE 7 MINUTE FROSTING - 1½ cups granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup water
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 egg whites
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
FOR THE FILLING - 6 - 1¾in. almond macaroons (or enough to yield ½ cup crumbs), crushed
- ⅔ cup candied cherries, chopped
- ½ cup almonds, chopped
- ½ cup pecans, chopped
- 1 tablespoon sherry extract
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
TO MAKE THE CAKE- Preheat your oven to 350˚ and prepare two 8" cake pans by coating in a thin layer of butter and then place flour in the pan and tap until the butter has a coating of flour, tap out excess and set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg, set aside.
- Add ⅔ of the milk, the butter and the lemon extract to the flour mixture and beat just enough to moisten.
- Add the eggs and beat on medium-low for 2 minutes.
- Pour into the prepared cake pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then carefully run a knife around the edge of the cake, place a wire rack on top of the cake and then invert the whole thing so the cake comes out of the pan and sits on the wire rack to cool. Repeat with the other cake.
TO MAKE THE FROSTING - In a double boiler, combine the all the ingredients except the vanilla extract. Beat with a hand mixer on high for 7-10 minutes or until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
- Remove from the heat and blend in the vanilla extract.
TO ASSEMBLE THE CAKE - Take half of the frosting and fold in ⅔ of the macaroons, candied cherries, almonds, pecans and all of the sherry extract and lemon juice.
- Carefully slice each of the cake layers in half so you have 4 layers. Place the bottom layer on a cake board or stand.
- Place ⅓ of the filling on the cake and spread evenly over the top, repeat with remaining layers.
- Once it's all stacked, use the remaining frosting to ice the entire cake.
- Top with the remaining ⅓ of the nuts and cherries.
#lordbaltimorecake
- Huckleberry Plum Pie - January 1, 2017
- Fresh Mango Sorbet - July 17, 2016
- Steak Caesar Salad - June 8, 2016
