L'shana tova

[psocoptera]

I tried making honey cake for the first time - I believe by the logic of the holiday, our year is going to be sweet, slightly burned on the bottom, and an absolute mess of crumbs trying to get it out of the pan. Oh, and my kid will ask over and over why we're doing it.

Seriously, it wasn't terrible as a first attempt, by an ultra-beginner cake baker - I mean, it wasn't the bread of affliction, we were in the right season at least.

Comments

[prof-fran.livejournal.com]

By that logic ours will be sweet, tiny and flecked with green.

(made as mini muffins, with zucchini added for extra moisture as I don't like honey cake as a rule because it's often heavy and dry)

Happy New Year!

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Ok, so I was being general when I said pan, and I actually tried half of ours as mini muffins and the rest as normal-sized muffins - *how* do you get them *out*? I had greased the heck out of the (silicone) muffin pans with butter - do I need to use cupcake papers? (Do they *make* mini cupcake papers? They must...)

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

I am quite fond of pam baking spray. Works to get cakes out of some of the fancy-ass pans I have.

It sounds very tasty! You can always make it into cake/bread pudding!

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Pam! Good to know. The recipe even suggested using a non-stick spray but I get used to substituting a lot, there are a lot of things recipes think you own.

[prof-fran.livejournal.com]

Me too. I use Pam Baking spray as it is a combo of spray oil and flour. Don't be stingy with it either.

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

Pam lasts a while so you can have it hanging around for the times you need it. I wouldn't bake an octicake without it!

[myalexandria.livejournal.com]

oh, I have advice!

(1) use the smittenkitchen honey cake recipe next time. It's aces.

(2) don't use silicone pans, they're terrible. They don't conduct heat well and nothing browns and everything sticks. (Part of what makes baked goods release from the pan is when they're properly browned.)

(3) That said, unless I'm making a recipe with a lot of butter in it, in which case just greasing the pan is usually enough, I almost always use cupcake liners just to cut down on the pain in the ass factor. And they do make them mini. Should be in the baking aisle either in the vicinity of the chocolate chips, or in the vicinity of the birthday candles/other decorations.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

1) I used the smittenkitchen honey cake recipe! Except I cut it by a third (should have cut it *to* a third) and thus there was a certain amount of rounding and I don't own whiskey and, you know, various other things like that. But the tops of everything are tasty, I just wish the bottoms had come with, so, yeah, I endorse this recipe.

2) Silicone pans go in the dishwasher. Couldn't ever pull off post-baking cleanup without them.

3) Yeah, I think if I'm going to be doing more baking (which I am - we're now doing a regular "Monday bake" so that Junie has something she made for her school lunch), I need to invest in hassle reduction technologies.

[prof-fran.livejournal.com]

If you don't want extra whiskey hanging about, use the little bottles they sell. I also prefer to use a flavored brandy.

[myalexandria.livejournal.com]

yay to points 1 and 3 :-)

dishwasher: ah, I see. I've never had a dishwasher (well, I guess my parents do, but I don't bake much there) so this point has never been drawn to my attention.

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

Oh, and my kid will ask over and over why we're doing it.

I think that is probably an accurate prediction. ;-)

Shana tova!