Midweek Roundup: "Quite tasty"

Photo by Raymond

Your Just Desserts

I thought this week was going to be all about the prune filling, but it was more about the multiple steps involved and what might have gone wrong, or almost went wrong, and did go wrong.

Not so much for Raymond, whose biggest problem was the same feeling of deja vu that he had last week (deja vu all over again?) when he made the monkey dunkey bread.  Fortunately, he's not going loco.  He just baked them both as a Beta Baker, and since those top-secret posts have been erased from history, he couldn't check on it.  But he liked the cake the second time, just as he liked it the first.  He also thought the cake was "very easy," and making the caramel was "old hat," and he had no problem rolling up the cake.  (See above photo).  "All in all a really nice dessert."

Although Raymond made a double batch of lekvar to have some on hand for morning toast, for Faithy it was "plums yes, prunes no," so she substituted mango preserves for prunes.  She also substituted canned dulce de leche ("lazy me," says dynamo Faithy), and made the cake a little thicker by using a smaller pan and adding a little water and oil to the cake mixture.  Because the cream melted so quickly, she put it in the freezer, and served it with ice cream.  And presto!  The prune roll became an Arctic Roll.  who

Rachel, who took the cake to a party, admits that she didn't tell anyone what the fruit was in the cake roll.  "But then again, they didn't ask."  Are we getting better through experience or is it just my imagination?  Rachel thought that making the cake went "really smoothly" and the sugar syrup was "easy peasy."  The unrolled cake was "in good shape," and there was no problem with rolling it back up, although "the edge view reminds me of a wrinkly-faced dog.  Homely but appealing."  She drizzled the glaze atop instead of using a piping bag, which brought her some criticism from her would-be food stylist daughter, but the cake got gobbled up at the party, barely giving Rachel herself a chance to eat a piece.

Kristina titled her post "Caramel Cream Cake Roll" because "that sounds so much better than a recipe that starts with the words 'prune preserves,' right?"  As her husband was about to invite some friends over for dinner, with homemade dessert as a principal draw, he discovered the name of the dessert in question and said, "I can't sell that."  As it turned out, thought, she ended up "loving" the dessert.  And so, I surmise, did everyone else.  "I didn't expect to [love it], but the stewed prunes (aka Lekvar) took a back seat to the caramel whipped cream, and really just added a subtle fruit flavour that you wouldn't be able to put your finger on if you didn't know it was there."

Jen enjoyed making this cake because each component could "hang out and wait" for a time to fit in busy schedule.  Here's a hint:  wrap the cake in a Silpat instead of a kitchen towel--works just as well and you don't have to launder the Silpat.  And nothing went wrong, except for "Eliot was intrigued with the chocolate drizzle and asked his mom if she was making a tiger cake.  Even though the tiger cake was headless, Eliot was still OK with that.  "We all liked the cake, and I love the feathery lightness of the biscuit.  The prune lekvar is really good and pairs well with the caramel.  It actually felt like a great autumnal dessert, and a nice departure from all things pumpkin and spice and apple."

Mendy made his caramel whipped "cream" with Rich's Whip so it would be parve and he wouldn't have to get out the toaster oven.  This was a good plan except that Rich's is sweeter than cream, so the caramel whipped cream ended up to be "cloyingly sweet."  He made up for that by using 82% dark chocolate "love me a Scharfenberger 82%."  Mendy's used to buying lekvar, but he made it this time and found that he missed the allspice flavor that he grew up with.  Still, no complaints about the lekvar or the cake.  And from the smiles on "Omi girl's) and "Ez man's" faces, no complaints from them either.

Considering all the things that might go wrong with this cake, you probably wouldn't put "whipping the cream" high on the list.  And yet that's what happened to Catherine.  You'll probably guess that sad turn this take is going to take when you see that her post is titled, "The Prune Caramel Swiss Roll adventure on which we learn never to turn out back on a stand mixer."  That's what she did, and "instead of deliciously light caramel cream, I found myself looking at a large bowl full of wet sand."  I'd like to say something encouraging, but I have to admit that a cake filled with wet sand sounds singularly unappetizing.  She did manage to cobble together at least one edible piece (more cream and some gelatin).  "The combination of flavours (who would think of adding prunces?) was sophisticated and interesting as well as being delicious."  Just think how great it would be without the sand!.

Next week:  I think I told Tony many months ago that he should buy some mini madeleine pans because we'd be making them soon.  Well, it wasn't soon but it was eventually.  You can also make these in regular madeleine pans.

The countdown:  We're moving so fast.  Down to 5.