Nice looking cake Jenn. The lemon rose in the middle adds just the right touch.

Bill and Jenn,

Both cakes look wonderful and tempting.  Now if I could get hubby to eat frosting I might be able to have this cake around the house.  I’ll have to wait until I can drive again and bake it and share it where I volunteer.

Jenn, I was away visiting my daughter and family when you posted your cake and lemon rose pictures. Saw them but didn’t get a chance to reply in the midst of the hubbub of a house with young ‘uns. Good job!!! Hope you’re pleased with how your skill is growing by leaps and bounds. The more you do, the more you learn. That’s what I love about baking.

About the bitterness, your intuition to maybe simmer the peel is a good one imo. I noticed when I candied more peel for mincemeat that Rose said to do that with the orange peel, though not necessarily the lemon. So I simmered the orange for 30 minutes and put the lemon pieces in the last 10 or 15. Can’t quite remember. Hedged my bets, in other words. It is thinner than the orange peel, and I didn’t want it to turn to mush.

The other trick is, of course, getting rid of every last bit of white pith that you can. That’s where the bitterness is. I got quite compulsive about it. Used a thin sharp knife - sort of a paring knife but slightly serrated. Held the peel with my left hand, laid the blade against the pith and bore down as I cut almost horizontally across each piece. Got most of the pith before simmering, and went at it again, but gently, after simmering and drying with paper towels. You want to see dimpled yellow peel on both sides of the piece, very little of that white pith. Worth it, I thought, for the improved taste and more delicate roses. Hope that makes sense.

Carol, thank you! You are always so thorough with your comments. It’s always a pleasure to read and learn from them. I am indeed very pleased with how my skills have improved (patting myself on the shoulder here ). Baking is truly super fun and am always looking forward to trying the next recipe.

If I remember correctly, I didn’t get rid of all of the white pith - so that is probably why it was too bitter. I will make lemon roses again and it’ll be better next time .

I made this lemon cake this past weekend and have two issues. 1) I felt like I needed more butter-cream icing to cover the cake fully. 2) the cake was a bit dry. The filing between the layers helped, but the the cake was dry. The flavor was good. I used bakers brand white chocolate and I used half cake flour and half bleached all purpose flour.

What a gorgeous cake!  This was the second cake I made out of RHC, and I vastly underestimated the time it would take…I was taking it to my in-laws for dinner, and I showed up just before everyone was ready to go home, haha.  But they were suitably impressed with the cake, and everyone stayed long enough to eat most of it!  My m.i.l. proclaimed it “like a bakery cake” which for her, is high praise!  : )  The cake layers are so delicate and fragile I was really afraid they would fall apart when I was frosting/slicing/moving them but miraculously they stayed intact.  I wish mine had looked half as beautiful as yours does, but it did taste good anyway!  Looking at yours makes me want to make it again!

ruralrenderer - 10 May 2010 11:03 AM

I made this lemon cake this past weekend and have two issues. 1) I felt like I needed more butter-cream icing to cover the cake fully. 2) the cake was a bit dry. The filing between the layers helped, but the the cake was dry. The flavor was good. I used bakers brand white chocolate and I used half cake flour and half bleached all purpose flour.

I think many have made this cake without it being dry.  Overbaking (by time or temp) or using too much flour are common reasons for dry cakes.  Did you weigh the flour?

yes I weighed everything in grams on a digital scale.  Checking the doneness was done with a tooth pick, so maybe I did bake it too long.  My oven is gas and was set to 350f.  I don’t have the silicon pan rings yet, so should I remove the cakes slightly sticky using a tooth pick?

Hmmm, so the flour was weighed, no problem there.  Did you weigh the yolks, too?  And you probably didn’t substantially overbeat, right?

So it seems logical to focus on the oven.  Was the cake peaked in the center (higher than the sides)?  If so, then cake strips are definitely in order, you can make your own from wet paper towels and foil.

The goal is to take a butter cake out of the oven is the first minute that the toothpick comes out clean.  It should only flatten a little on top and shrink a little from the sides after you remove it from the oven.  If you take it out with a crumb or two still clinging to it, you’ll have a moister cake but might have a little dipping in the center as it cools.

You might also consider an oven thermometer to check temp.

Good luck!

I did weigh the yokes, and all of the ingredients. The cake was slightly higher, but not a peak like a muffiin. As far as over beating, I’m not sure—it’s possible. I use a 15 year old Kitchen Aid heavy duty stand mixer. I may need to work on just making the cake part of the recipe until I get it right.  Over all the cake taste great just a little dry.

Thanks,

Tom

ruralrenderer - 11 May 2010 11:13 AM

so should I remove the cakes slightly sticky using a tooth pick?

I remove it when there are a few crumbs attached, but no batter.

I haven’t made this cake yet, but I’ve had this issue with other cakes and I also weigh my ingredients.  When I made the Devil’s Food Cake with Midnight Ganache, the cake was very crumbly and somewhat dry.  I even took the cake out of the oven 2 minutes early.  I usually don’t have a problem with my oven temperature on most recipes, but for some reason I’m having more issues with doneness and drying with Rose’s recipes.  (I hate to say this.  It is obviously my fault.) I want to try to use the cake temperature of 190-205 degrees F, but I’m concerned about change in oven temperature when I would have to open the oven door more than once.  Any thoughts or suggestions?

I made teh German chocolate cake—it was dry, but I failed to use the dutch processed cocoa which probably caused the dryness.

Tom