TWD: Berry Surprise Cake

Also known as: why genoise is not shortcake . . . and never will be.

I was a little perplexed about how to size down this cake for one. I knew that I wanted to make it as I love berries, I love cake, and I love cream, and any combination of the three is fantastic as far as I'm concerned. But I didn't want to eat a whole 8" cake all by myself. For one thing, whipped cream doesn't age well and I didn't like the idea of eating this cake 6 or 7 days later. That's why I'm so fond of things that I can freeze these days -- then everything old is new again. So, I pondered getting little cake pans. Nope. I am already very low on space right now. I pondered cupcakes. Nope. I just didn't think that it would work very well. And then I spied my Nordicware Shortcake Basket pan. Maybe. This was a gift from a friend of mine who understands my love of kitchen schwag of all sorts and it's tied with my beehive cake pan (also a gift from the same friend) for the title of cutest, but definitely least multitask worthy, item in my kitchen. I liked the idea of using the shortcake pan for the cake because it produces small (individual) cakes that already have a hollow in the middle. So, I'd be cheating a little bit by going around the whole "surprise" part of the cake but I figured that it'd be a little deconstructed and the end result would be fine. We'll leave the emphasis on deconstructed.I've made genoise before, it doesn't scare me. I guess that sometimes fear can be healthy though because my genoise was pretty much a disaster. Well, I'm not sure how bad it would have been in a regular pan but in the shortcake pans -- an unmitigated disaster. I cut the recipe in half, and this is a very easy recipe to halve, got the eggs together, sifted, folded, and placed into the shortcake pans. Now, the shortcake pan professes to have a non-stick coating but I gave it a shot of extra grease because it never hurts, in my opinion. And, when I was about to put the pan into the oven, I looked at it, and I thought: "look at all of those bubbles, I've never seen a cake batter do that before, it almost looks like pancake batter."

Tiny little bubbles:

I baked the little cakes for about 13 minutes, until they were golden brown and looked ready to come out. I was feeling fine because there was no sinkage of the cakes. They were perfectly level and flat. They rose, and all was well. Ha. Ha. Ha. Famous last words. I turned the pan upside down. Nothing. Not even a crumb came out. I shook the pan gently, nary a crumb. I shook the pan hard enough to make my arms hurt, still nothing. And then, I started humming Tom Petty's song, "Don't Do Me Like That." Because, really, don't do this to me.

Don't do me like that, don't do me like that
What if I love you baby, don't do me like that
Don't do me like that, don't do me like that
Someday I might need you baby, don't do me like that

So, I was humming Tom Petty and I did what I had to do: I got out a knife and very carefully attempted to extricate the cakes from the pan. This took awhile actually. It required careful excavation because, somehow, in 13 minutes, the crust of millenia had developed around these cakes, it was like a dig of sorts. And when it was all over, here's what was left.

So, 3.75 out of 5, better than 50% and not bad as far as I'm concerned. For what it's worth, I think that I overcooked the cakes because they were sort of, actually really, dry. Maybe I should have cooked them at a lower temperature? I'm not sure.

I made the cream mixture and let me say, dang it was good! I love berries and cream. When I was little I had strawberries and cream for breakfast every year on my birthday. I love to have a bowl of strawberries with sugar and cream for breakfast or for dessert, I think that it's one of life's great things. I don't usually like sweetened cream cheese but I suppose the addition of the heavy cream is what made it so yummy to me. I just loved it and I immediately wished that I had just gone the berries and cream route that Dorie offers.

For the syrup, I used Smuckers fruit pancake syrup. I think this was a mistake. I love this stuff with melted butter on hot pancakes but it was just too sickly sweet for me in this case. I wish I'd just used a simple syrup. But, as I mentioned, my cakes were dry so I liberally applied the syrup.

Then I layered the cream cheese, the raspberries, and then drizzled a little more syrup. So, the end result was a little raspberry cake and, while it's not the most glamorous or sophisticated thing in the world, it worked for me.

So, what to do with all of those hunks that came out of my pan? When life gives you broken cake, make a trifle! I made a trifle with strawberries instead of raspberries this time.

Verdict: I liked this recipe simply for the combination of berries and cream. Am I going to make it again? I'm not sure. I like the idea of the berry surprise cake and the light genoise with the cream and berries hidden inside. But I think that if I made it again I would definitely make it a single big cake and I might use a different recipe for the cake part. It was fun to make though. Thanks to Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen for choosing this week's recipe! And, check out Tuesday's With Dorie if you'd like to see other, better, versions of this cake.