As it seemed the flatter of the two, I used the cake made with Light at Heart as the bottom layer. It was a little lopsided so I attempted to level the bottom by shaving off a little of the cake. I then sandwiched the cakes with half a jar of orange curd, and made a glacé icing with icing sugar, two heaped teaspoons of orange curd and a few drops of water. The result was a very well flavoured cake, but it threw up a couple of questions:
1) Why can't I level off cakes properly? This was still lopsided and I was contemplating pushing in cocktail sticks to stop the top layer sliding off!
2) Why didn't I know that orange curd isn't suitable for a cake filling? I'm sure I've seen recipes which fill cakes with fruit curd, but as soon as I set the top layer in place, it just pushed the lemon curd out at the sides.
This cake wouldn't win any prizes for appearance, but it was very tasty, and as yet another adaptation of this Annie Bell recipe, it convinced me that this is a really useful recipe.
This sounds to be a very tasty orange cake. Really liked your idea of putting curd in the icing. Can't help you with lopsided cakes as mine are invariably so, but I've used curd as filling and it's mostly been OK. It just depends on the thickness of the curd as to how much it squidges out the sides. The celebration choc cake I made using apple curd, didn't squidge at all when the cake was cut, but did a bit when sandwiching the layers.
ReplyDeleteI really wish baking wasn't so hit and miss. Why is that that when you REALLY need something to turn out well, it fails. But I wouldn't class this as a failure, looks ok to me!
ReplyDeleteI'd just like to say yum yum. Although you've just reminded me that I should have used some of my Seville oranges to make orange curd rather than use all of them for marmalade. I usually mix curd with other things when using it in cakes - not that I worry too much about filling falling out or cakes being lopsided since I'm fairly lopsided and falling apart myself these days.
ReplyDeleteI think it looks quite pretty like this. Like the curd in the middle. The important thing is that it tasted good :)
ReplyDeleteHa! I know just what you mean, Phil!
ReplyDeleteBy the way - I know you have a good flapjack recipe, is it on here? There is no flapjack tag in your cloud!
ReplyDeleteHi Foodycat - flapjacks are hidden in the 'biscuits and bars' tag. Here's the basic recipe:
ReplyDeletehttp://mainlybaking.blogspot.com/2010/12/flapjacks-with-apricots-and-sultanas.html
You can reduce the butter by up to 50g, although it does make them more crumbly.
I avoid making cakes that have to be layered because I never get even cakes! If I try and choose a recipe I think will make flat cakes for layering it invariably peaks, and if I want peaks for presentation and icing my cakes are invariably flat. Just can't win ;-)
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