Last Cake, Next Cake

I've been so busy this week that I haven't had time to send out my mid-week summary.  I finally decided I'd rather send out an abbreviated version rather than skip it entirely, and those were looking like my only options.
It was fun to look at all the different kinds of pans we used--the more elaborate the pan, the more difficult to get the cake out intact. Monica reminded us to use a pastry brush to get every square millimeter of the pan covered with Baker's Magic (or Baker's Grease, if you make your own).
Most people liked this delicate genoise as is, but a few thought it needed a little something extra. Top marks for gilding the lily--or the rose, in this case--go to Svetlana, who not only used a Cointreau syrup, but also drizzled her cake (made with a silicone rose mold) with chocolate ganache, and cleverly placed a few gum paste rose petals atop.
This week's FEATURED BAKER is Joan, whose motto must be "Never say die!" I got a panicked-sounding email from Joan last weekend, asking if she was doing something wrong--she was weighing her egg yolks, and it had taken her 17 to get at the required 250 grams. Now all she had was a big, fat, eggy mess. Joan thought I must have laughed my head off when I read her email, but I was as puzzled as she was. And, showing that you read what you expect to read, I looked at the recipe and thought, Hmmm, it is 250 grams of egg yolks. But then why did it work for me? Finally, I saw the mistake--250 grams of eggs, not egg yolks! I suggested to Joan that she just bake up her mess and see what happened--maybe it would turn out to be some delicious new invention! But she tossed it, and proceeded to make a perfect genoise--22 eggs later. Congratulations to Joan for persevering and ending up with a cake that her friends had only one complaint about: the pieces were too small!

Our next cake is the perfect one for your Fourth of July celebration--or, if you don't celebrate the Fourth of July as Independence Day as we do in the U.S., it's perfect just for fun.
The cake base is Rose's German chocolate cake, which is unlike the pale, anemic-looking German chocolate cake you're used to. This one is a rich, dark chocolate that can be frozen without losing its texture. The recipe calls for 3/4 of the German chocolate cake, made in a 10-inch round cake pan. I wasn't about to do the math for that, so I made the 10-inch cake for the ice cream cake and some additional cupcakes. There are lots of different options--you could divide the recipe in half and make one cake in a 9-inch pan. The cake is molded in a 9-inch springform pan, so I don't see any reason that wouldn't work just as well for a 9-inch round pan. Lynnette has already made her own homemade ice cream for the cake. Those of us who just buy the ice cream are going to have a hard time living up to that standard.
The next week, July 12, Mini Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes are up. These can be made in 2-cup disposable paper loaf pans--I ordered a couple dozen of these pans, in hopes that these cakes will turn out to make good presents. If you don't want to get the pans, you can make vanilla bean cupcakes.
I'm going to Montreal with my daughter Elizabeth for a quick three-day weekend, but my ice cream cake should be posted early Monday morning if all goes well.