Bakers, help me salvage this cake recipe

[Anonymous]

I previously made this cake (http://www.myrecipes.com/m/recipe/plum-kuchen-50400000113763/) for Passover using almond meal in place of the flour. It was pretty much a disaster, but I loved the flavors so much I saved the recipe to try it again sometime made with flour. I tried it out on Thursday night, using whole milk instead of skim (all I had on hand), and it was definitely too dry. I probably over baked it a bit, but it would have been too dry regardless. I've since made it twice more trying to make it more moist. The first time I replaced half of the whole milk with Canola oil (since my favorite, very light and moist cupcake recipe uses oil). It tasted delicious, but the texture was less cake and more shortbread. I probably over baked a bit again. The second time (tonight) I replaced all of the milk with sour cream, added about 1 Tbs of Canola, and a few extra Tbs of sugar. More moist than the first cake using milk, but I underbaked it by a bit, and I think if fully baked it might still be a bit too dry. Flavor was great, though, and it was more cake-like than #2. My husband declared this one the best of the three.

I'm willing to try making this cake one last time tomorrow, and then I need to pick one variation and go with it to take somewhere on Tuesday. All of the variations have been more then edible (all have tasted good), but I'd love if someone could give me a suggestion to make this cake nice and moist (without it being too light to support the fruit). The original recipe comes from Cooking Light, but I don't care at all about keeping it light/lower calorie/lower fat.

Any suggestions for adjustments to the recipe??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I previously made this cake (http://www.myrecipes.com/m/recipe/plum-kuchen-50400000113763/) for Passover using almond meal in place of the flour. It was pretty much a disaster, but I loved the flavors so much I saved the recipe to try it again sometime made with flour. I tried it out on Thursday night, using whole milk instead of skim (all I had on hand), and it was definitely too dry. I probably over baked it a bit, but it would have been too dry regardless. I've since made it twice more trying to make it more moist. The first time I replaced half of the whole milk with Canola oil (since my favorite, very light and moist cupcake recipe uses oil). It tasted delicious, but the texture was less cake and more shortbread. I probably over baked a bit again. The second time (tonight) I replaced all of the milk with sour cream, added about 1 Tbs of Canola, and a few extra Tbs of sugar. More moist than the first cake using milk, but I underbaked it by a bit, and I think if fully baked it might still be a bit too dry. Flavor was great, though, and it was more cake-like than #2. My husband declared this one the best of the three.

I'm willing to try making this cake one last time tomorrow, and then I need to pick one variation and go with it to take somewhere on Tuesday. All of the variations have been more then edible (all have tasted good), but I'd love if someone could give me a suggestion to make this cake nice and moist (without it being too light to support the fruit). The original recipe comes from Cooking Light, but I don't care at all about keeping it light/lower calorie/lower fat.

Any suggestions for adjustments to the recipe??

Did you lightly spoon the flour into the measuring cups? If you didn't you might have used too much flour. That would create the dryness you are seeking to avoid

[Anonymous]

I would try making it by following the recipe exactly before you go subbing items in and out.

It's like on epicurious when people sat "this recipe is terrible" but then comment about the myriad of things they changed.

[Anonymous]

First use a scale and follow the recipe. A "4 oz" stick of butter from the store is real 3.75 oz.. This and the flour(measuring by cups) can real give you inconsistent results. Also, look around for a different recipe(go to a site where they really test the recipes). 425 is pretty hot for a cake. Try 400 or 350, watch and keep it in longer. As a recipe note, 1/2 of fat free milk? Really?

[Anonymous]

Not quite a kuchen, but this dessert has the same feel and is fabulous.

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/07/peach-and-creme-fraiche-pie/

[Anonymous]

Cooking Light is traditionally terrible for baked goods because of the need for them to present "light" versions.

My recommendation would be to totally scrap that recipe and go with this one instead: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Plum-Kuchen-4666 It has an appropriate amount of eggs and fat for the cake to be moist!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would try making it by following the recipe exactly before you go subbing items in and out.

It's like on epicurious when people sat "this recipe is terrible" but then comment about the myriad of things they changed.

+1

[Anonymous]

I agree with PPs. Follow the recipe, except ignore the skim milk. Cakes need fat for proper structure and tenderness. Use whole milk instead.

Then let the butter and sugar cream for a good 4 to 5 minutes. This is the step that puts the air bubbles in the batter.

I might use 2 eggs if they are not large.

Or find a similar recipe for the cake, which is a basic butter cake, with better reviews. You can still do the plums according to the original recipe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cooking Light is traditionally terrible for baked goods because of the need for them to present "light" versions.

My recommendation would be to totally scrap that recipe and go with this one instead: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Plum-Kuchen-4666 It has an appropriate amount of eggs and fat for the cake to be moist!

+1

[Anonymous]

I am the 8:51 pp. just checking my copy of Cookwise by Shirley Corriher. If you want to understand what is going on and why with your baking, this is the book.

Anyway, besides recommending long creaming to aerate, she says eggs serve multiple roles. Yolks emulsify and add creamy texture, whites are leavening but also drying. If your cake is dry, you could ad an extra yolk, and slightly more sugar and butter.

She says shortened cakes (all cakes using fats such as butter or oil) that contain large amounts of sugar or liquid may need extra emulsifiers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with PPs. Follow the recipe, except ignore the skim milk. Cakes need fat for proper structure and tenderness. Use whole milk instead.

Then let the butter and sugar cream for a good 4 to 5 minutes. This is the step that puts the air bubbles in the batter.

I might use 2 eggs if they are not large.

Or find a similar recipe for the cake, which is a basic butter cake, with better reviews. You can still do the plums according to the original recipe.

OP's recipe is a pastry style where you rub the fat into the flour. Like a pate brisee.

I think it needs more fat, OP. And "shortbread" is about the texture you'll get from this recipe.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, all. I appreciate the suggestions. I did follow the recipe exactly the first time, with the exception of using whole instead of skim milk (which certainly wasn't going to make the cake drier than using skim). I have been spooning the flour into the measuring cups, but didn't weigh because the battery on my food scale died a few weeks ago. I'll pick up a new one today and try weighing the flour and butter.

Immediate PP, yes, more fat is what I was thinking to moisten it up - hence trying the oil and sour cream. The additional egg yolk suggested by a PP sounds like it might help as well.

I think I'll try again today with the sour cream in place of milk and extra sugar like last night, plus an extra egg yolk, and maybe a slightly lower cooking temp (my oven does run hot, so I always shave off 25 degrees anyway; I'll take it down another 25), and see how that goes. If still not the cake I'm looking for, I'll try out one of the other cake bases suggested.

Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cooking Light is traditionally terrible for baked goods because of the need for them to present "light" versions.

My recommendation would be to totally scrap that recipe and go with this one instead: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Plum-Kuchen-4666 It has an appropriate amount of eggs and fat for the cake to be moist!

I love Cooking Light but this is true - their baked goods are really hit or miss. This recipe is great and easy http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/388962.page

PS - I'm not into substitutions generally, but for milk in baked goods I've found skim is generally a fine substitute.

[Anonymous]

I'd love to hear how it all turned out.

[Anonymous]

It's really tough to substitute in baking without knowing the mass of each input and what it does. Baking is about chemical reactions. When you sub ingredient, you must take in to account things like ph, fat, salt, etc of each ingredient and how it will react with the other ingredients. So not wieghting the ingredients really will make your results inconsistent. A cup of flour can wieght b/w 3-6 oz depending in how settled the flour has become, a tablespoon of butter will always be a different amount each time.