Idea behind:
A classic. Vanilla was a flavour I couldn't miss. Especially after being able to source extremely cheap vanilla pods. Twenty pods for €20.00. Which turns out to be 65p a piece. Amazing.
The cake:
First of all, I need to fill the papers a little higher. Three-quarters full at least. Need to obtain a metal spoon. Folding the egg whites in with a plastic spat is proving slightly more difficult; not to mention is flattening the mixture.
The vanilla hit needs to be much more pronounced. Vanilla extract and vanilla sugar will be the answer. Can use the left over vanilla pod skins as this is a wasted resource. Another possible answer could be to make vanilla milk. Infuse the milk with the pods; dry the pods and stick them into the sugar. Surely that would get out as much flavour as possible!
The icing:
Very happy with the larger swirl. Think that this is the way of the future. Again, a much needed vanilla hit is missing which can be achieved with extract. The "icecream" effect was achieved.
The cherry:
"Something" was indeed missing. The pecans weren't doing it for me. But what could be more obvious than a cherry on top? Need to have natural coloured cherries next time. I think a stem might get in the way though...
Main points:
- Prepare vanilla milk in advance.
- Stock vanilla sugar.
- Maybe make own vanilla extract (needs further investigation).
- Source cherries
