Cake Contest - Latvijas Gardaka Kuka

To those of you who so faithfully supported me with your daily votes, and many kinds thoughts. Thank you for believing in me!  And for those of you who have wanted to follow up and know how the contest went here is my LONG and detailed summary with photos :) 

I was very nervous in the days leading up to the contest- knowing I had very little time to devote to my cake planning due to the wedding cake I had to finish in order for me to even participate. I was on a strict deadline to complete the wedding cake by Friday evening so that I would be able to go to the contest Saturday morning and participate there and then come home and in the evening deliver the wedding cake. 

Saturday morning I was so nervous I could  not even eat and headed to Valmiera ( a 2 hour drive one direction) for the competition with my friend along. At least our chatting helped ease my nerves on the drive there. 

We arrived, got my stuff taken to the tent and waited for the other participates to arrive. The day was already hot- probably about 90 degrees F. and inside the tent it was hotter. 

I did all my prepping, was informed of the days schedule and tried to decide when to remove my butter from the fridge so that it would be soft, but not squishy. I cut it into the glass bowl I had along and immediately it started melting along the sides of bowl- proving that the heat of the tent had so warmed my bowls that they could melt COLD butter. I then placed both of my glass bowls and butter in the fridge to chill. 

The contest started with a nice introduction and we each had to tell why our cake was the best. I had been so nervous to get up and talk in front of everyone- but my neighbor here in the orange dress was also nervous and we chatted and got to know one another a bit. 

Once the contest started, we were sweating with the heat of the 90 + degree weather inside the tent, and constantly being photographed and filmed and working our fastest while being bombarded with questions by the jury. 

Breaking the caramelized sugar. My amber. . . 

 Answering questions. 

Because of the heat several of us had problems with our cakes. My whipped cream filling separated, making it impossible for me to decorate with it as planned. I was thankful I didn't have any more problems than I did- though because of the distance and heat I was not able to assemble my cake ahead of time which resulted in it being very hard to cut. 

 My neighbor was one of the ones who went on to advance to the next level with her beer chocolate cake (which supported the local city festival). 

It was great fun participating, and a delight to get to know some other bakers. I wish those who advanced to do their best. 

I was not disappointed not to have advanced because I knew this was not my best work- I submitted this recipe because it was different and unusual and I knew full well that it was not a good cake for clarity and precision- but the taste is amazing! 

That being said I was so relieved when the whole thing was over because of the stress, the horrible heat and extreme cake decorating conditions. 

I hope the next contest I am is in a nice cold/comfortable setting where we don't have to battle with the heat melting our fillings. 

I got to redeem myself in the evening with my well received and very tasty wedding cake which was very quickly devoured.

Honey Cake- My Favorite Cake

Since I work in a bakery I bake ALOT of cakes. Were I to count them they would be in the hundreds this year :) But my all time favorite cake right now is this Latvian honey cake. I love that it is sweet, but perfect with coffee and as moist as one could wish! YUMMY. This cake vanished in no more than 10 minutes this evening!

I have borrowed this recipe from the website cetrassezonas and tweaked it some. I hope it will work with your American sour cream or wherever you are from. But as long as you can get your hands on real sour cream you should be fine.

You will need:

Springform pan 10-11 inch. 

Dough:

1 1/4 c. sugar
3 cups flour
7 T. butter
2 eggs
2 T. honey
1 t. soda.

Filling:

2 cups sugar
3 cups sour cream
2 T. grated lemon rind
1 t. vanilla extract

Decor:

1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup cream

Method: 

Melt the butter, sugar and eggs. Stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Pour into separate bowl.

Place soda and honey in pot, heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture is caramelized. It will be foamy and gradually turn a rich brown. Do not burn! This part is always so cool! I didn't know you could do this with honey :)

Add this mixture to the egg mixture and stir well. Stir in flour. The dough should be stiff and you can let it cool and it will become even easier to handle.

Prepare sheets of baking paper by  tracing the size of the pan on the paper. You will need 5 such prepared baking sheets or papers. Divide the dough into 5 equal portions. Flip the paper over and roll out so that the dough is the size of your drawn circle. Use flour as necessary to keep from sticking. It will be thin, apx. 1/8 inch. There is no need to have a perfect circle, you will trim the edges later.

Bake until brown, and crisp. DO NOT  BURN! It bakes quickly.

When the rounds are ready let them cool and then trim them to fit inside your springform pan. Save the trimmings for later. Prepare the filling by stirring it well, until the sugar is dissolved. It will be soupy!

Layer one cake round at a time, then spread apx. 1 cup of the sour cream mixture. Then another round until you have used up all the rounds and all the filling. Pour any remaining filling under the last layer. Do not put filling on top layer if you desire to top with chocolate. Chill overnight. You can also add the chocolate at this point or do it the next day.

The next day if you haven't already topped it with chocolate then melt the chocolate with the cream and then spread over the cake. I topped mine with rough sugar grains here and chilled the chocolate. When it was set I then removed the cake from the pan.

You can put the remaining edges that you cut off in a blender and grind them into crumbs which can then be used to garnish the edges of the cake. This cake is meant for home so the decor is simple, but you can decorate it as you desire!

Slice and enjoy!

Delicious!

So let me know if you make this cake and how it turns out for you!