A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on Rhubarb Cake, the third part of a short series I called My Grandma’s Baking. In this set of articles, I wrote how my Grandmother – the master of yeast cakes had learned how to make them and how she later passed this knowledge to me.
In the third part of the series, I was explaining myself a bit about using the same dough recipe again. My excuse was that if you had something perfect, there was no point in improving it. But life verified it, and here is how it happened:
Although I’ve made quite a few yeast cakes, I still don’t remember the exact recipe for the dough. So, whenever I am to make it, I prefer to have the instructions in the vicinity.
This was also the case when I was preparing the dough for my new Raspberry and White Chocolate Loaf Cake. I was in a rush, so whenever I wasn’t sure about the ingredients or next steps, I threw a quick glance at the recipe. Everything was going as usual until I added the prepared wet ingredients to the dry ones.
I noticed the dough was much thinner than usual. I was a bit surprised and started thinking that I probably accidentally added too much milk or butter. Another glimpse at the instructions dispelled these doubts: the amounts I used were correct.
In this case, I decided to follow in my Grandmother’s footsteps. She always used to play by ear when it came to making her yeast cakes. If the dough felt too thin, she would have added more flour. Or more milk, if the dough had felt too thick. Thus, I was adding more flour, bit by bit, till the dough seemed to have the right consistency.
When the roll was finally in the oven, I was slightly frightened to even look at it. I was afraid adding more flour made the cake denser, harder and not as nice as the previous ones. So, you can only imagine how surprised I was when we tried the cake and discovered it was the best and fluffiest yeast cake I had ever baked!
I was completely puzzled. Thus, I looked at the recipe again, this time without rushing. And I discovered that instead of using 2 egg yolks, I used 2 WHOLE eggs!
That was apparently the reason why my dough was so much thinner: 2 beaten eggs create much more volume than 2 beaten egg yolks. And a huge part of this extra volume consisted of air made by beating egg white. That is why my cake ended being even lighter and fluffier than my previous ones.
So, there were two results of my mistake. The first one – the perfect recipe for Raspberry and White Chocolate Loaf Cake. And the second – a lesson for me that maybe sometimes it makes sense to work on improving something that seems to be perfect. Or that it is ok, to make mistakes because they may lead to incredible results 😉
Related terms: white chocolate loaf cake recipes, white chocolate and raspberry cake great british bake off, white chocolate and raspberry sponge cake, raspberry loaf cake uk, raspberry and white chocolate cake mary berry, raspberry and white chocolate cake nigella, raspberry and white chocolate tray bake, raspberry and white chocolate cupcakes, http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/33719/raspberry-and-white-chocolate-loaf-cake.aspx, https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7034/white-chocolate-and-cherry-loaf
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☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Great suggestion!
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Thank you :)