Marvellous Meringue May

This is my 1^st entry for May.  It’s been a rather busy month with Lincoln’s exams which took place on 2^nd & 3^rd week of the month.  He didn’t do to well this time around, which I found rather frustrating since I’d been accompanying him each night, studying for his exams.  I know he can do the problems, but he just can’t focus long enough to do them during exams.  I’ll find out more about his issues from his teachers next week during the parent teacher meeting. 

I also had time to bake more than usual, although these were more out of curiosity rather than consuming the baked goods fast.  So far I have baked muffins, pies, chiffon cake & cheesecake, so this time I tried my hands at baking butter cake.

In total, I made 3 failed attempts.  Each time I ended up with a cake that was dense instead of fluffy.  I was rather pissed off to be defeated by a recipe on my first attempt and tried again twice.  However, both efforts yielded the same results.  In the end I figured that I haven’t mastered the technique of creaming butter & sugar yet… my egg beating technique is quite sound as demonstrated by my successful attempt at baking a chocolate chiffon cake.  I guess I will need to find more reliable information regarding creaming butter.  

The butter cake I was trying to make was a marble cake, in particular.  So called due to the chocolate swirls emulating the patterns found on a marble slab.  I followed the recipe from a youtuber by the handle Gracious Treatz.  She's a very talented baker with good tutorial videos. 

The ingredients for a marble cake are quite basic: butter, sugar, flour, eggs, milk, melted chocolate and the usual baking powder & baking soda.  

Ingredients For Marble Cake - Galaxy Note 9

The first step to making this cake is to cream the butter and sugar, mixing them at medium speed for 10-15 minutes – which I did…  The curious thing here is that I found the cream still coarse due to undissolved sugar even after beating for 15 minutes – I wonder if this is normal…  

Creaming Butter & Sugar Till Pale & Fluffy - Galaxy Note 9

on the 1^st attempt, the cake failed as I used the wrong sized pan, it was too big so the cake couldn’t rise properly.  On the 2^nd attempt, the cake was dense at the bottom, although this time I used the correct sized tin.  

2nd Attempt - Galaxy Note 9

Waiting Patiently For 2nd Attempt - Galaxy Note 9

Still Came Out Wrong - Galaxy Note 9

The 3^rd attempt baffled me even more as the whole cake was just dense… 

Total Failure, All Dense... - Galaxy Note 9

At first I thought the problem could be due to my egg beating technique, which I somehow doubted, because I did beat the mixture to achieve a ribbon consistency.  For the sake of dispelling any doubts on the egg beating technique, I tried my hand at baking a chocolate chiffon cake which was successful.  The ingredients for this chocolate chiffon cake were even more simpler: eggs, flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder & vegetable oil.  And just to add some "ZING" I threw in some semi-sweet chocolate chips for that extra gooey texture.     

Chiffon Cake Just Starting to Bake - Galaxy Note 9

After 65 Minutes of Baking - Galaxy Note 9

Cooling The Cake - Galaxy Note 9

With that, I concluded that the issue is with my butter creaming technique.  

So why do I name this month's entry "Marvellous Meringue"?  Because to make chiffon cake you separate the eggs' yolks from the whites, and beat them separately before finally combining them together.  It's the egg white beating technique resulting in meringue that makes or deflates the cake.  

I'll be finding out more about butter creaming techniques for sure.  In the meantime, here's a closing shot for this entry:  

Airy, Spongy, Fluffy & Delicious Chocolate Chiffon Cake - Galaxy Note 9

~ Photos taken with Samsung Galaxy Note 9 ~