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#1 |
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Girl Detective
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Join Date: Jul 2006
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Cake bakers--help me please? (Cream cheese)
So tomorrow is Mr. Kane's 40th birthday, and I'm going to bake him a cake. I've baked plenty of cakes, of course, but in this one I'm going a bit...off-road, as it were.
I want to make a key lime cake. Searching for recipes turns up a bunch that used box cake mix and Jello powder, which, no way. I have a bottle of pure lime oil (I used the lemon oil to make the most awesome lemon bundt cake ever last week) and I figure I can add a Tbsp or so of lemon juice to make up for the tartness lost by not using key limes, which can't be found here. Anyway. I have found a recipe that uses lime juice, and I'm comfortable substituting the oil etc. That's not my question. My question is...it occurred to me that adding some cream cheese to the batter might give the cake a more "key lime pie" type of flavor, as opposed to just "key lime." That tangy sweetness, if you know what I mean. But the only recipes I can find for cake with cream cheese are pound cakes or bundt cakes, which of course, I don't want to do either of those; I'm doing a triple-layer cake with cream cheese frosting. I'm figuring I'll simply sub cream cheese for some of the butter. Anyone have any thoughts on the workability of this? How about using sweetened condensed milk? I may use it in the frosting instead of regular whole milk. Any tips, advice, thoughts would be welcome--I am going to grab my cookbooks and have a look-through, but it would be great to get opinions etc. Hubs is a Florida boy, and I'd love to give him something at least nicely reminiscent of key lime pie. (Plus I love lime anything, so...) But I don't want to make a pie because, you know, birthday pie? I have candles and everything! Picture number candles stuck in a gelatinous pie. No. ![]() Help me AW bakers!
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http://www.staciakane.com CHASING MAGIC is available now in the US/Canada and the UK/Ire/AUS!! "I can’t recommend these books highly enough. If you love urban fantasy with an edge, Stacia Kane delivers every time."-- All Things Urban Fantasy on CHASING MAGIC/the Downside series |
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#2 |
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MacAllister's Official Minion & Greeter
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Join Date: Jan 2011
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Nothing wrong with a birthday pie, I do those a lot. But, yeah, the candles could be a messy proposition. LOL Anyway, cream cheese really is more suited to heavier cakes such as bundt types. Would a lovely cream cheese frosting with thin twisted slices of lime around the base of the cake not work?
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#3 |
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Dream Killer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Middle of Nowhere, Utah
Posts: 11,535
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Cream cheese tends to make the cake heavy, which is why it's perfect for heavy cakes such as pound and bundt.
I would suggest going with a cream cheese lime frosting or a heavier cake.
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#4 |
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Girl Detective
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Thanks, guys. You don't think subbing, say, 1/4 cup of the butter (total butter called for is 1 C.) would be okay without making the cake too heavy?
I thought that might be the case, sigh, but glad it's confirmed. That super-dense pound cake texture is what I'm hoping to avoid, so... (I am going to do a cream cheese frosting, yeah, I was just hoping to get more flavor into the cake itself, too, you know?)
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http://www.staciakane.com CHASING MAGIC is available now in the US/Canada and the UK/Ire/AUS!! "I can’t recommend these books highly enough. If you love urban fantasy with an edge, Stacia Kane delivers every time."-- All Things Urban Fantasy on CHASING MAGIC/the Downside series |
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#5 |
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Cultus Gopherus MacAllister
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: þone þe in meoduhealle
Posts: 22,648
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What about a key lime cheesecake?
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/01/key-lime-cheesecake/ http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/fo...esecake-236210 http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/e...ipe/index.html
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#6 |
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Girl Detective
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Nope, I need cake.
Thanks, though!
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http://www.staciakane.com CHASING MAGIC is available now in the US/Canada and the UK/Ire/AUS!! "I can’t recommend these books highly enough. If you love urban fantasy with an edge, Stacia Kane delivers every time."-- All Things Urban Fantasy on CHASING MAGIC/the Downside series |
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#7 |
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Sophipygian
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Chicago, Illinois USA
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Our nephew loves birthday pie. Last year for his birthday Richard wrote him a cookbook and I did a picture of a birthday pie for the cover.
I suspect the cream cheese flavor would be mostly lost in the baking. |
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#8 | |
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MacAllister's Official Minion & Greeter
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Quote:
Medi's idea of a lime cheese cake sounds scrumptious. ETA: oops, you said you want cake.
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.. A big welcome to our New Members! Get started here with our Newbie Guide. . Active community members: Learn the ins and outs of promoting your writing on AbsoluteWrite here. Self-promotion doesn't always come naturally to writers, does it? An excellent place to start is the Book Promotion Ideas and Advice forum.
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#9 |
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Girl Detective
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Join Date: Jul 2006
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Yeah, I have a recipe and everything, I'm just trying to see if I can't tweak it a little to make it, like, key lime PIE cake, as opposed to just key lime cake, if you know what I mean.
For me, playing with the recipe and seeing if I can customize it a little is the best part, you know? But I've never made a substitution like this, so I figured I'd ask for some advice.
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http://www.staciakane.com CHASING MAGIC is available now in the US/Canada and the UK/Ire/AUS!! "I can’t recommend these books highly enough. If you love urban fantasy with an edge, Stacia Kane delivers every time."-- All Things Urban Fantasy on CHASING MAGIC/the Downside series |
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#10 |
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How does one know that?
AW Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Chicago, Il
Posts: 4,632
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What are you using for rising agent?
I've found that doubling up by using both baking powder and folded in whipped egg whites or eggs whipped to the ribbon then whipped egg whites can counter a lot of heaviness. Failing that, a genoise with the key lime juice whipped in could work, but it would be a much lighter and dryer cake.
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#11 |
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Opinionated
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 3,557
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Have you thought of adding some sour cream? It would give it a more sour/creamy tang, without the heaviness of the cream cheese.
I've added sour cream to muffins that have lemon in them for that creamy, tangy addition. If the recipe had a small amount of butter - like 1/4 cup - I might just sub the entire amount with equal sour cream. But I'm not exactly sure on the substitution for a larger portion, and in a cake - you loose some oiliness when you sub out butter... if I was going to try it, I'd probably sub half the butter for sour cream. ~suki
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#12 |
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Dream Killer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Middle of Nowhere, Utah
Posts: 11,535
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I agree with suki with the sourcream. It would be an acceptable sub and would keep your cake light. Then if you have the keylime cream cheese frosting on top of it, I think you'd have your desired effect.
You could also do a poke cake with like lime jello if you want even more lime flavor.
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"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." — Albert Einstein I helped write this!!!!http://www.ibnbattuta.tv/ |
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#13 | ||
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Girl Detective
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Join Date: Jul 2006
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Actually, the recipe calls for baking soda AND baking powder: 1 1/2 t powder and 1/2 t soda.
It uses regular flour, not even cake flour. Which is fine with me since you can't get regular cake flour here, only self-rising sponge flour. I sub it for cake flour with no problems by simply eliminating or cutting down the leavener, but it still sucks. So I'm glad I don't have to mess around with that here and can use regular flour. The recipe also uses 1 C buttermilk, so I assume the extra baking soda will react nicely with that, and the acid in the citrus. Quote:
Quote:
Thanks again, everyone, this is really helpful. I'm going to give my books a look-over after dinner, too.
__________________
http://www.staciakane.com CHASING MAGIC is available now in the US/Canada and the UK/Ire/AUS!! "I can’t recommend these books highly enough. If you love urban fantasy with an edge, Stacia Kane delivers every time."-- All Things Urban Fantasy on CHASING MAGIC/the Downside series |
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#14 | |
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MacAllister's Official Minion & Greeter
AW Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2011
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Quote:
__________________
.. A big welcome to our New Members! Get started here with our Newbie Guide. . Active community members: Learn the ins and outs of promoting your writing on AbsoluteWrite here. Self-promotion doesn't always come naturally to writers, does it? An excellent place to start is the Book Promotion Ideas and Advice forum.
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#15 |
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Benefactor Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 1,466
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My husband's family "go to" birthday cake is a lemon angel food cake. The angel food cake is purchased, split in half and filled with a lemon curd filling and then frosted with whipped cream that has a several generous spoonfuls of lemon filling added to it. It occurs to me that you could do something similar with your cake and instead of using lemon curd, you could make a lime curd.
I've posted Martha Stewarts Key Lime Pie recipe here a few times which uses a lime curd. I could dig it up for you if you are interested. Btw her recipe to make Key Lime Pie is far and away the best I've ever tasted.
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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. Groucho Marx |
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#16 |
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The Girl in the Steampunk Hat
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Join Date: Feb 2005
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#17 |
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Girl Detective
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: In cahoots with the other boo-birds
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__________________
http://www.staciakane.com CHASING MAGIC is available now in the US/Canada and the UK/Ire/AUS!! "I can’t recommend these books highly enough. If you love urban fantasy with an edge, Stacia Kane delivers every time."-- All Things Urban Fantasy on CHASING MAGIC/the Downside series |
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