Cherry Cake, S1E1-Technical Challenge

My first technical challenge, was a challenge. 

To start off with, using recipes from 'across the pond' present more challenges than I anticipated. In addition to the mathematical struggle of converting grams to cups, the ingredients themselves are harder to find in the States. I circled the grocery store for about an hour while simultaneously googling things like "what is caster sugar?" and "can I use maraschino cherries instead of candied cherries".

To answer, caster sugar is a more finely ground sugar than granulated and no, you cannot use maraschino cherries in place of candied cherries. Unable to find caster sugar, I decided to grind my own, using granulated sugar in my (cleaned) coffee grinder. I was also happy to discover you can candy your own cherries fairly easily, by cooking down maraschino cherries in a little of their own juice and lots more sugar. Check and check.

Here is where I made my first measuring mistake. When shopping for the cherries, I bought the approximate weight I needed in maraschino cherries. Once they cooked down for an hour and were dried out as true candied cherries, they weighed significantly less. I was already an hour in and had everything else measured out, so I chalked it up to mistake one and plowed ahead.

This recipe calls for 225g of self rising flour. After consulting various charts I decided 1 3/4 cup measured by the scoop and level off method, should get me close to the correct weight. Another snag in my plans, the grocery store didn't have unbleached self rising flour, so I again made my own version of an ingredient using baking powder and salt. As this bake progressed, I began realizing I had way too many variables to be precise, and I then of course threw in my egg replacement on top of it all. For every cake I've made in the past, my powder soy based replacer has worked wonderfully as a leavening and binding agent. Without second guesses, I went ahead with that substitution. 

Knowing that my oven runs hot, I chose the lower end of the bake time range of 35-40 minutes. At 35 minutes it was golden brown and the tester came out clean, so I removed the cake to cool. At first glance, the cake seemed a bit shallow in depth and perhaps a bit too dark. Nevertheless, after decorating I was quite pleased with it's appearance and eager to taste it.

This cake is delicious, absolutely lovely. I'm affirmed in my decision to do every bake from the series. I would have never chosen this recipe when looking to bake a cake. To start off with, I'm typically not a huge fan of lemon and in general, when I want cake, I crave chocolate. This sponge is light and the hint of almond and lemon come through delicately. The sweet cherries are a nice pop of flavor and everything balances so well, complimenting without overpowering. I would like to see more cherries throughout, had I measured those quantities correctly it would be that much better, I'm sure.

One of the most challenging parts of this project for me, is going to be determining how well I did. I don't know how things are supposed to taste in every circumstance. Not to mention, I won't know exactly where I've gone wrong. The texture is much more crumbly than I think it's supposed to be and perhaps a tad too dry. Is this a combination of slight over-baking, my measurement translations being off, and/or my ingredient substitutions? I'll only know as I progress through experience, and as others critique. 

While planning how I wanted to approach this project, I admit I had my reservations. It's all very exciting but a bit daunting to take a step back and look at the range and expense of doing each and every bake. More than once I contemplated skipping recipes I didn't have a strong interest in eating. This recipe was a great affirmation that I'll discover new flavor combinations and techniques along the way. While I am dreading that fruit, tennis court cake technical challenge from season 3, I am more excited than ever for this journey. 

Recipe can be found here

Egg substitution was made with Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer