When for the umpteenth time in a week someone asks you – „You bake cakes so often, when are you finally going to put a cake recipe on Hungry Bae?”, you start thinking that the time really has come. 😂 But then you stop and think – hmm, what could I share that would surprise people who have already seen everything and tasted everything? Honey cake? Nooo… A yoghurt cake? The height of boredom… A Napoleon? Bad idea – extraordinarily hard to please everyone, because we all have our own idea of the king of the cake/pie/slice kingdom. A buttercream cake then? Also not much to the taste buds of the average Lithuanian…😁
I sit on the sofa, close my eyes, think… I try to reach cream-and-sponge nirvana and work out what people like. „What matters to me is that it isn't rich” – a woman's voice sounds somewhere in my subconscious; „and I want a fresh, light cake” – I hear another woman say; „and I don't like things that are very sweet” – a man's voice grumbles. No, I don't have a problem with voices in my head. 😁 It is simply that, one after another, things other people had once said to me about what makes a great cake surfaced. And then the revelation came – now I knew what kind of cake it would be!
The two main features of this cake – a cloud-light sponge made with just 90g of flour, which gives the cake extraordinary lightness and softness (and no, it will not turn into scrambled egg, provided you genuinely take the time to beat the eggs and sugar very thoroughly. I once made a sponge from a similar recipe with very little flour but was too lazy to beat it properly – and ended up with sweet scrambled eggs😂 But I learned my lesson and no longer have this problem – I would advise you to learn from my mistakes too, it works out cheaper😁). The second feature – an unbelievably fresh and light curd and cream filling. Neither rich, nor sweet, nor heavy – exactly what the voices in my head wanted! And the combination of this filling with blackcurrants will bring summer back into your home. Sounds good, doesn't it?
Straying a little from this wonderful cake, I wanted to say that it matters enormously to me that every reader of my blog gets the best possible result from following my recipes. From the very beginning of the blogging era right up to today I often look for food ideas on other blogs, in books or in newspapers, and I can say without embarrassment that I more often fail than succeed in getting the same end result as the other blogger (especially where baking is concerned). That is precisely why, every time I write up my recipes, I try as far as possible to flag the places where difficulties can arise, to give tips that look obvious at first glance but are often forgotten, and to add the warnings that, to my mind, would have led me to a better result.
I understood long ago that food (especially baking) will never turn out the same for everyone, even if we follow the same recipe. A lot of factors influence it – different products and their temperature, the temperature at home, the oven (I have no doubt at all that the temperature in your oven is quite different from what you set. I have never yet used an oven whose internal temperature matched the dial; my current oven, for instance, reaches 170 when I set it to 215, and that is an insane difference. For that reason I suggest always using a thermometer. I would have been lost without one). Even something like the humidity can lead to a catastrophic result (I have seen it – the same cake in another country may not rise at all, and icing may not set). All right, all right, I have got too worked up… I simply felt a duty to tell you what I have learned after many years of baking, and I very much hope it helps you.🙌
Coming back to this splendid cake, I have a few tips that really might help you.
- As I already mentioned, it is very important to beat the eggs and sugar thoroughly. I beat mine at maximum speed for 8 minutes.
- The ingredients for the sponge should be at room temperature.
- For the filling, buy the dry, loose curd cheese in a bag rather than the wet kind in a tub. Otherwise there may be too much water and the filling will go runny.
- Use cream with at least 35% fat.
- The ingredients for the filling must be well chilled.
- Once you have filled the layers, put the cake and the remaining frosting cream in the fridge overnight. If you try to coat the cake straight away, the layers can start to move or even slide off. Since we are working with a product as unstable as cream, chilling it always matters. Even after coating the sides, I would recommend a few hours in the fridge. It is always better to play it safe.
- As I said – cream is not a very stable product, so I would not recommend transporting this cake. It is best suited to sitting down together at home.🙂
