Idea for a cake?

[sattie]

I need a "bakers" help here. I love cakes, but not much on baking them. Recently I have had a hankering for citrus and dark chocolate. (I had these key lime cookies dipped in dark chocolate one time and I fell in love, so this has inspired my idea for a cake.)

Here is how I invision the cake.....

a lemon cake mix / batter (made with fresh lemon juice and/or pulp or maybe lemoncello liquer.)

short bread cookies or something similar to crumble up into the cake batter to be baked in. (this may be a bad idea, but I was trying to get a soft crunch, a slight deviation from the tartness of the cake)

Topping...

Drizzling of a fine dark chocolate or a lemon based drizzle (or both) for on top of the cake.

Garnish....

Thin lemon slices and or mint leave sprigs.

Other ideas I had was to have a pudding type center... is that pushing it? I know when I think about this, it makes my mouth water (and I am fully aware that to others, this will sound disgusting, LOL).

I guess I need to buy the stuff and give it a whirl... but would it be best to start with a yellow cake mix and move out from there? (Remember... I don't bake!)

I would appreciate your feedback on this... just trying to get a better handle on things to take into consideration when delving into the unknown!

 

[Alix]

Sattie, that sounds lovely!

I think I'd use the lemon cake mix and add lemon juice and zest to zip it up. If you want crunch try either rice crispies in there or crush up cornflakes. I think the rice crispies would work better flavour wise.

You can do a lemon curd/pudding in the center and then top with a lovely dark chocolate ganache and you have a winner there. There are recipes here for both the lemon curd and the ganache. Please do try this and let us know how it turns out.

 

[jkath]

Day before yesterday, I made this again:
http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/139730-post1.html
It's really moist, almost like a custard that you can cut into squares.
(and it's a cinch to make!)
Anyway, last night I cut the refridgerated leftovers into little squares, and layered them with whipped cream and blueberries.
My older boy changed his up and layered with whipped cream and dark chocolate sauce.
Maybe that would be an idea?

 

[VeraBlue]

Instead of putting crunch into the batter, why not spread it between the layers? The weight of the crumbles will sink to the bottom and quite possibly loose the cruch altogether.

While lemon and chocolate sounds wonderful, how about orange and chocolate? Or lemon and white chocolate?

 

[mudbug]

I can't see the lemon-chocolate connection, but I am most definitely on board with the orange-chocolate idea.

 

[lulu]

I am a huge fan of lemon with either white chocolate, (unusual because I normally don't like white chocolate!) and very very dark chocolate.

Hope this works out and you tell us how you did it!

 

[fawn]

that added crunch seemed like a good idea.

verablue what else can you put in the layer aside from cereals? roasted nuts perhaps?

 

[sattie]

I have to admit that I get strange ideas all the time... be it for cooking or other things... and as stated, I have experienced the citrus/dark chocolate thing before and it was quite surprising and addicting.

Alix, I was thinking a soft crunch, that is why I thought of the short bread cookies, not sure that the corn flakes would provide what I am looking for, and the rice crispies may dominate the cake to much.. but I like the suggestion and it may have to be considered.

Jkath... that recipe sounds wonderful!!!!! That is def. one I will have to try.

VeraBlue.... thanks for the tip... you make a good point there and that is something to think about. Maybe a layer of crunch and then a layer of cake and then a layer of lemon custard/pudding??? Hmmmm....

Mudbug... I never got the orange/chocolate thing, for some reason this flavor meld never appealed to me, but to each his own. It is not like I see lemon/chocolate in the store!!! I take that back, Lindt had a chocolate lemon dessert bar that is just lovely!!!

I have never been a big fan of white chocolate, mainly for the reason that it is not really chocolate, but I do admit that it has it's place in the grand scheme of enjoyable treats!!!

Thanks all for the input, I may try to tinker with it this weekend and see what I can come up with. As for the chocolate drizzle, what do you have to add to the chocolate to make not seep into the cake?

reever2... awesome!!!!

 

[VeraBlue]

that added crunch seemed like a good idea.

verablue what else can you put in the layer aside from cereals? roasted nuts perhaps?

Hi Fawn....I'm not convinved that putting something into the batter is a good idea. I'd put one layer onto the plate, frost it, then add the crunchies, and then top with the other layer. I love crumbled amaretti cookies...ever have those?

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

adding citrus to the batter will imballance the acid/base ratio and cause the cake to be flat. The ballance can be frought back by the addition of extra baking soda to the cake mix.

A cake that you might enjoy is a simple yellow cake with lemon jellow or pudding. Let me explain this to you.

Take your cake mix and add 1 extra egg beyond what the box recipe calls for. Additionally, add 1 tsp. baking powder to the dry mix. Add two extra tbs. of cooking oil.

These additions will make the cake lighter and more moist. The extra egg will give the cake enough body to hold together.

After the cake is done. remove and let cool. When cool, poke veticle holes all over it with a toothpick. Heat up water according to package directions for lemon jello. While the jello is hot, slowly pour the entire batch over the cake, allowing it to soak in. Place the pan into the refridgerator and allow to chill for two hours. Remove and plate the cake. The jellow will have set and won't leak out. But the texture is a supremely moist cake with a wonderful lemon flavor. It is suprizing. It doesn't feel like jello and cake.

Serve with a good chocolate ganace (sp) made by melting 1 cup of chocolate chips in a double boiler and adding an equal amount of cream.

You can also pour no-cook jellow puding into the cake instead of the jello. But it must be done while the puding is still in its liquid state. Some like this better. I prefer using the gelatine.

I promise you, you won't be dissapointed with this type of cake.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North.

P.S. you can use any flavor of jello you want for this cake. Try raspberry, or strawberry. If you want, use lime on St. Patrick's day and make a lime, or better yet, pineapple frosting to go on top. To do this, I would make a standard butter-cream frosting, and add crushed pineapple to it. Then I would add additional confectoiner's sugar to get it to the proper consistency. You might also want to add unflavored gelatine (dissolved in boiling water) to this icing to stabilize it.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Just had another thought. And interesting cake would be to use a white cake mix, and prepair to make a pineapple upside down cake. But intead of using brown sugar and pecans, I would add sweetend, flaked coconut to the batter, and place coconut over the pineapple rings before pouring the batter into the pan. Then, when the cake is done, pour pineapple jello into the cake. You would end up with a pina-collada cake.

Sounds good to me.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North