Rhum Baba? Hell yes!

I am not certain what drew me to this cake but I am sure glad it caught my attention.  The Rhum Baba is delicious, scoring a 4.5 on the husband cake approval scale.  Although it is distinctively not a cake that can be eaten for breakfast, unless, perhaps, you are on vacation or have demons that extend beyond excessive cake eating.

Baba au Rhum

The recipe calls for chocolate chips to be baked in the middle, however, I noted in the user comments that one reader successfully opted to use rum soaked raisins and was reminded that I had a jar of pineapple infused rum on hand.  So out went the chocolate chips and in went 1/3 cups diced rum soaked pineapples and raisins.  I was a bit worried that the fruit mixture would be too wet for the cake but that worry didn’t  prove out.  If anything I would say that the Baba came out a tad on the dry side. If I could go back in time, I would have taken it out of the oven sooner.  The good news is that a dry baba is very easy to overcome by soaking it in extra spiced rum sauce and crème fraîche whipped topping.

You may note that this recipe calls for serving the Baba lit on fire.  I didn’t do it!  Definitely an opportunity missed.  If this cake ends up a cake off finalist,  I will most certainly need to execute at this level and practice would have given me a leg up. But mostly I regret not trying something new and rather exciting on a rainy, locked in Saturday night.

If you do want to try to light up your Baba, I suggest you follow the recipe. Simply trying  to light the Rum syrup on fire with a lighter in an attempt to impress your friends, a technique attempted by my husband, does not work.  Here may be a good place to mention that this cake should be served with the following warning label: Over indulgence may lead to impaired judgement.

Husband Cake Approval Rating Week 3

Did you like It?   Yes! Maybe best yet.  

Would you eat it again?   Hell yes!

Would you eat for breakfast?   Too boozy

Would you enter it in Cake off 3?  Yes

On a scale from one to five, five being cake cock certainty, what would do you rank this cake?.  4.5 for adults but kids won’t like

For more on kids and the Cake Off see my post from a few weeks back.

Also, I should note that the Baba did not elicit any response from our dog walker.

Cake for breakfast?

This past weekend, I made the second cake in my year long post Cake Off comeuppance.   After my husband, citing what I will now call the “chocolate rule”, declined to eat the pear chocolate cardamom cake from week one for breakfast, I became bound and determined to make a cake that would be considered breakfast worthy in his eyes and stomach.  To fit this bill, I chose a carrot ginger cake with salted butterscotch frosting.

What can I say other than delicious!

For most of my life, I have had to avoid carrot cakes because I am allergic to certain nuts, in particular the walnut.  This cake is nut free but for the topping which calls for roasted hazelnuts, a nut which I don’t know whether or not I am allergic to or not, but where I subbed in almonds, a nut I can eat. This cakes does include coconut, which I don’t consider to be a nut at all and have always been perplexed when people inquire whether or not I can eat this type of nut.

For the record, I can eat almonds and cashews.  I cannot eat walnuts, pecans, pine nuts, or peanuts.  For those of you in the know, this is a seemingly random  assortment of cans and cannots.  For one, peanuts are not nuts; they are legumes.  I can eat all other legumes.  Someone once suggested that maybe I am allergic to nuts but not seeds which would explain why I can eat almonds but not walnuts.  But where does that leave the pine nut?  And good luck turning to the dictionary for any clarification.

nut (nŭt)
n.
1.
a. An indehiscent fruit having a single seed enclosed in a hard shell, such as an acorn or hazelnut.
b. The usually edible seed of such a fruit.
c. Any of various other usually edible seeds enclosed in a hard covering such as a seed coat or the stone of a drupe, as in a pine nut, peanut, almond, or walnut.

But enough about nuts.  Let’s get back to the question at hand: cake for breakfast?

In an effort to keep track of my cakes over the next year and continue to up my cake game, I realized last week that I need to establish some metrics. As promised in my last post, I have developed and launched the following husband cake approval survey:

Did you like it?
Would you eat it again?
Would you eat for breakfast?
Would you enter it in Cake off 3?

On a scale from one to five, five being cake cock certainty, what would do you rank this cake?

Here are the results for the carrot ginger cake with salted butterscotch frosting.

Did you like it?  Yes
Would you eat it again? Yes
Would you eat for breakfast?
Maybe, icing isn’t breakfast.
Would you enter it in Cake off 3? Why decide now? There’s 11 months to go!

Total cake score: 4

For the record, this cake was eaten for breakfast multiple times over the week by both myself and my husband.

This cake also warranted a text response from our dog walker, aka the fairy dog father, who is an unknowing participant in my evaluation system.  Each Monday, I leave him a big hunk of cake.  Those cakes that elicit a response will be noted and reported on here.  This week’s response:  “Thank you for the delicious carrot ginger goodness”.

Next up:  All Hail the Rum Baba!