I was convinced to be scientific, so I made the high altitude adjustments and switched to milk (instead of the leftover half-and-half). No mucking about with the eggs. Here we go…
I ran out of vanilla extract well shy of the tablespoon mark, so I put in a 1/4 teaspoon of the almond extract.
The rooster in the back is a watering can. Its beak has a very controllable flow. I used that to rewet the paper towels inside the foil bands; shown before being wrapped up again. Also note the parchment paper rounds! They’re a bit large, but they worked just fine.
This is a half-batch of the Italian Buttercream frosting (see Part IV). When math fails: What’s half of five eggs? I chose three. I had the amaretto coffee flavoring laying about. I also picked a handful almonds out of a bag of trail mix and ground them up. It seems we have an almond theme.
And they collapsed, again. The oven temperature was 350. I set the timer for 25 minutes. They were perfect, but not yet done. When I came back 5 minutes later, they were collapsed, but still not toothpick clean. This is after another 5 minutes. Given that I followed the recipe, with high altitude adjustment, exactly, I’m going with the “don’t open the oven!” hypothesis. Note that I’m quite sure it is not the recipe. If King Arthur is printing it on their box, I’m quite sure it is well tested and has a very high success rate. I will also look for my grill thermometer and check the oven temperature. Barring any updates, the next attempt will be at 350 for 40 minutes (although 375 for 30 is very tempting).
The parchment paper worked. It may not appear to have been successful, but this is very dense, wet cake; as much as, if not more than, the previous attempt. It would not have come out whole without the paper.
I still need to work on frosting skills. I trimmed the sides to get a cylinder. I smushed the extra together and it put in the middle to cover the dent. It is tasty, but far too dense to be “cake”.
As much as I don’t want to, next time will be the same cake with baking adjustments. Given that it’s half gone, already (I’m writing this not fifteen minutes after the final picture), I suspect “next time” will be Thursday.
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