Tuesday, January 20, 2009

TWD--Berry Surprise Cake

Our chosen recipe this week for Tuesday's With Dorie from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home To Yours was for Berry Surprise Cake and it was chosen by Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen.

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The cake wasn't my favorite.  Just didn't care for the taste, it was too egg-y, BUT I am happy to say that I followed Dorie's suggestions in the recipe to a T and many complained on the TWD questions and problems board that their cakes sunk in the middle, but mine didn't really.  It did just a little bit, but otherwise was spared the crater!  PRETEND that you don't see the flour on the top of the cake.  I know that others mentioned having some unmixed flour in their cake batter, but wanting to be ever so careful folding it in to the delicate beaten eggs, I chose to not overmix and did have a bit of the flour still there.  I'm kind of bummed that the cake just didn't wow me, because the rest did.  Mostly.

I liked the cream filling with the cream cheese.  I did add a little extra sugar to it as many also mentioned it wasn't sweet enough and it definitely needed more sweet to it.  Then, I spent a little bit of an arm and bought fresh raspberries--but THAT was the best part of this.  Loved the hidden fresh berries!  I would totally do this again, but use a different cake recipe.  Also, having grown up on good ol' Cool Whip and not real whipped cream, I just don't care for the real stuff.  I know, I know--no one hate me, please.  But I did use real cream for the filling, but wasn't about to "frost" the entire cake in whipped cream. 

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So I did this.

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I piped some more of the filling around the top and added a few raspberries and called it good.  It was oozing with filling inside and I thought it was plenty.  Not to mention the little hidden treasures.

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All in all, it was just okay.  I'm glad I made it, I really almost just skipped this week as Kevin just doesn't like cake, but I wanted to "see" if I could do it.  We had some friends over tonight and it got eaten up and everyone liked it.  I'm glad I bought the raspberries.  Thanks for picking this one, Mary Ann.  I'm sure I'd have never flipped through the book and chose it and it was fun to try a cake like this that I hadn't made before.

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28 comments:

Megan said...

Wow - yours looks picture perfect! I'm surprised the berries didn't require a second mortgage, but if you were having company, I can see that it would be worth it.

BTW - my husband loves Cool Whip too - more than whipped cream!

chocolatechic said...

Oh...it is so lovely.


I am so glad to see that you were able to make it work.

Maria said...

I love the raspberries inside the cake! YUM!

Pamela said...

I love the way you did the top! And the inside looks great with the raspberries. It was good, but I'm not sure I would do it again. But like you, I'm glad I tried it.

vibi said...

Too bad you didn't enjoy it... I sure did!
Nevertheless, it looks fantastic, Katrina!

Welcome to our crazy blessed life said...

Love it! Glad you made it even though you weren't sure about it. I think it looks great the way you frosted it! :)

Anonymous said...

wow, that picture of the inside with all the berries lined up looks perfect. :)

Clumbsy Cookie said...

I was about 25 when I tasted Cool Whip for the first time, so I actually love the real stuff! It's a neat cake, with all those raspberries in the middle!

Unknown said...

WOW!! This looks absolutely delicious!! This may sound crazy, but I wish I had a digital photo frame to put all these delicious pictures on so I can enjoy dreaming of eating all these goodies all day while I'm working! I love sweets, but can't eat too many!!

Sihan said...

oh gosh.. now you're making me fee guilty for downing all that cream. ARGH... haha.

kimberly salem said...

it looks delicious! love how the raspberries in your filling are so perfectly lined up :) congrats on getting the cake to succeed, i guess it is a toss up between fallen cake and flour pockets!

Cathy said...

Love how you made this your own. I think prefering Cool Whip to real whipped cream is probably a good thing. Sorry you didn't love the cake, but it sure looks like you did a great job with it!

NKP said...

I love raspberries, looking at yours make me wish I had used them. Yours does look great!

Anonymous said...

I love the way you did the insert. Too bad you didn't like the taste.

Judy said...

It looks wonderfully delicious. Sorry you didn't like it after all your work but glad it got eaten up!

Jennifer said...

Great shot showing the berries.
I'm glad to hear you mention an eggy flavor, because I thought it tasted eggy, too, but no one else has mentioned that.

Bungalow Barbara said...

I'm envious of your nice cake! Mine was a flop (literally). Good work for trying it!

Anonymous said...

Very nice. Glad yours turned out well....the inside is so pretty!

CookiePie said...

It looks beautiful! I'm sorry it wasn't so great, but you certainly made the most of it!

Stacey said...

Your cake looks great!

snicketmom said...

Your cake is the prettiest one I've seen. The way the berries are arranged and sliced is spectacular!

Cooking for Comfort by Jennifer said...

You did a beautiful job...this may sound strange, but I thought the cake smelled like scrambled eggs!

Unknown said...

This looks like a "kicked up" berry shortcake. Mmmmm...sorry you didn't like it that much but I think I may just have to try it!

The Peanut Butter Boy said...

The berries on the inside looks like a nice touch but I think I'd agree with you, overall the cake doesn't seem too tempting and especially not with an egg-y flavor. But raspberries and creme...I'd just eat that!

Anonymous said...

That's a yummy surprise~! I love your choose of berries!, I think it would be even good with mixed berry combo too!

Nancy/n.o.e said...

I'm SOOO glad to see how a fabulous filled berry cake actually looks! That last picture is stunning. I'll bet everyone liked it (and it's good to have other people over when making these 'big' recipes - to help eat it all up! I'm trying to figure out what to do about that black out cake. I want to make a whole cake to try it, but really, really have to find a way to foist most of it off!)

Great job, and I'll just ignore that Cool Whip thing.
Nancy

Anonymous said...

Well, I didn't make it around last week to see your lovely cake...and it is lovely. I really like the look of only frosting as much as you did...I think it looks fantastic that way and oh-so-good! Nice job.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm!! This filling looks so tasteful!! What a rich cake!!