What's the most difficult cake you have made

[Winterybella]

It's no secret that I am still a green baker and learning as I go along. I fear bread making and think I should 'perfect the cake before I try to decorate' which is my baking slogan of sorts. For the sake of it I went to Pinterest to look for difficult bakes to bake and just by looking at some of them I knew I have a long way to go. For me, the most difficult I have ever made was probably a carrot cake which came out all wrong.

This one right here looks crazy difficult. http://www.winnish.net/2013/08/2362/ Special Honey Cake Layered with Dulce de Leche.

What's the most difficult cake you have made? What cake do you want to make in the future that you think might be challenging?

 

[ChesterV]

Well, it all depends on what you mean by "difficult". A difficult recipe? A difficult cake to bake? A difficult cake to decorate?

One of my most difficult cakes was "back when"......this woman wanted a half sheet cake for a baby shower. She wanted Noahs Arc on top of the entire cake, done in colored gels. That cake was a B***H to do!!!! It took me 2 hours JUST to decorate in gel, and about 1,000 hand cramps!

 

[Becky]

Hmm I'm not sure! I tend to stick to easy cakes! The most difficult that I've tried are probably fatless sponges, because of how carefully you need to fold in the flour. In terms of bread, the most difficult thing I've ever done was a savoury brioche couronne - it was very tricky but absolutely delicious!

https://www.baking-forums.com/threads/savoury-brioche-couronne.1311/

 

[ChesterV]

Oh! I remember one!!!!

This was back in High School, in Home Economics class.

I wanted to show off a little bit, so I found some kind of really hard to make German dessert cake.

I don't remember what the name of the cake was, but it was something like this:

Bake 4-6 layers of a meringue cake, and cut out a hollow center in all of the center layers.
The top layer and bottom layer are to be solid.

Once you have "built" the meringue cake (minus the top layer), you fill the center with some sort of fruit mousse/pudding. Then you put on the top layer and decorate the top with whipped cream and fruit pieces.

It was a b**ch to make, and it did NOT want to stay upright, but I finally got it together, and it stayed.
It turned out pretty good.

 

[Winterybella]

@ChesterV, I think I mean any and all that make difficult come to mind. With my failed carrot cake, I don't know it was difficult in the true sense of the word. I might have attempted it thinking it was easy but the result made me think it was more difficult than I thought. I look at some and without reading the recipe I see difficult written all over them. I want so badly to make a cheesecake but in mind I am just thinking 'difficult' all the way.

I looked at what @Becky made and that sure looks like a tough cookie right there.

 

[Trellum]

The impossible cake I failed the first time I tried, so I was surprised to see everything went much better the second time. You see, the trick is in the chocolate batter, you need to make sure the batter is much more dense than the flan mix.

 

[Winterybella]

@Trellum , I remember us talking about that cake before. The name says it all. I would take one look at this

and know it's near impossible for me to have any immediate success with it.

 

[Becky]

The impossible cake

I've never heard of that before! Must have missed it when it was mentioned previously. It sounds intriguing! Can you recommend any recipes?

 

[Winterybella]

I've never heard of that before! Must have missed it when it was mentioned previously. It sounds intriguing! Can you recommend any recipes?

Yes..We spoke about it here in the thread Size matters! It's also called Chocolate Flan cake and @Trellum can correct me if I am wrong.

This is one recipe I found but Trellum should be able to provide you with her own recipe.
https://www.elmejornido.com/en/recipes/flan-cake-flan-impossible-145356

 

[Trellum]

I've never heard of that before! Must have missed it when it was mentioned previously. It sounds intriguing! Can you recommend any recipes?

Becky, you can simply use a chocolate cake mix from a box, I recommend that the first time you try making this. But you want the batter to be dense enough, so make sure to use a bit less liquid. The top of it is just Spaniard flan, basically eggs, condensed milk and vanilla. You could use cream cheese to make the flan (love that). The technique to cook this is bain marie (because of the flan sitting on top of it). This one looks perfect:

 

[ChesterV]

That looks yummie, but I'd probably eat the cake part and leave the flan.

Like Baklava, I've had different varieties and types, and I find that they have no taste to me.

 

[Zyni]

I made a pistachio almond cake from scratch for a birthday once. I had to find roasted but unsalted nuts of both types. I then had to shell the pistachios and ground them up as well as the almonds. Then, I needed slivered almonds for the garnish.

The darn cake took me all day to make, ha ha. I guess it wasn't necessarily "difficult," so much as it was a time-consuming pain in the backside. The almond layer was much easier. The butter cream frosting only took me two tries.

 

[Winterybella]

I found this list right here and it includes some things I have seen mentioned around the forum. Check number 2. I can't even understand the picture.

http://www.hotcourses.com/study-gui...ost-difficult-cakes/16180339/0/studyguide.htm

 

[ChesterV]

I found this list right here and it includes some things I have seen mentioned around the forum. Check number 2. I can't even understand the picture.

http://www.hotcourses.com/study-gui...ost-difficult-cakes/16180339/0/studyguide.htm

HA! I've NEVER tried Baked Alaska, and never will. Thats just TOO much work to go into something that isn't going to last but a few minutes on the plate!!!

The picture you see is a single serve Baked Alaska, it looks to have a very flammable liqueur poured over it and lit, so that "bakes" the meringue right there in front of you.

 

[Rainbow]

The most difficult cake i ever made is layer cake aka spiku.. this cake use lot of egg yolk..
its so hard especially if i over mix it the texture not smooth.. and its very tricky the proportion of butter, egg yolk and even temperature..

 

[Winterybella]

HA! I've NEVER tried Baked Alaska, and never will. Thats just TOO much work to go into something that isn't going to last but a few minutes on the plate!!!

The picture you see is a single serve Baked Alaska, it looks to have a very flammable liqueur poured over it and lit, so that "bakes" the meringue right there in front of you.

Thanks. I was wondering what camera ticks I was missing. It's delightful to look at though. @ChesterV, I think you can do just about anything in the baking department based on what I have seen around here.

 

[Zyni]

Oh, I have another one. Have you seen those beautiful multi-layer cakes with the impossibly thin, beautiful layers? Yeah, not so much when I try to make it, ha ha. Slicing layers didn't work very well. I'd have to spend all day making thin little layers, washing out the pans, filling and baking again. I only have two round layer pans.

 

[Winterybella]

Thanks. I was wondering what camera tricks I was missing. It's delightful to look at though. @ChesterV, I think you can do just about anything in the baking department based on what I have seen around here.

I was not ticking when I typed ticks for tricks. Anyway @Zyni, I see layer cakes on the difficult least everywhere I check online. I applaud you for even trying. I am a long way from there.

 

[Zyni]

I was not ticking when I typed ticks for tricks. Anyway @Zyni, I see layer cakes on the difficult least everywhere I check online. I applaud you for even trying. I am a long way from there.

Ha, well you didn't see the end result! That applause would have quickly turned to laughter. Heck, I had to laugh too. It was that bad.

I'll probably give it a try again at some point. I really want to make one that works. They look so pretty.

 

[Tina Nord]

Any cake that involves layering for me. My cakes always seem to come apart and I learned that you are supposed to cut off the humps when you pull the cake layers out of the oven. I have literally had cakes that have split in half after I put on the third layer. I never go more than 2 layers high now.