Charlotte Cake for Epiphany 2026

 On this day of Epiphany 2026, we're not having our usual festive dinner.  We're all still tired from the holidays, my elbow is injured, R* has to work late, on and on.  We're just having salmon patties and a salad, so it's extra important to have a nice dessert.

And yet, I haven't been to the store and am trying to avoid shopping, so I needed to make do with what I have at hand. Pantry ingredients, 3 squares of bakers chocolate, and 1/2 cup of whipping cream.  I thought of my Nordic Ware Charlotte Cake pan! It's easy to make a sponge cake and it looks beautiful right out of the pan. I didn't have any fruit for the topping but a bit of chocolate ganache and some whipped cream will put it over the top!

I found this recipe on the Nordic Ware website. Here are the directions:



From reading the reviews, it was evident the recipe makes too much batter and the pan overflows.  I modified the recipe as follows:

3 eggs instead of 4

100g of sugar instead of 133g

60g of flour instead of 80g

1/4 heaping teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

I made a mistake while ribboning the eggs and instead of beating them for 1 minute until foamy and then adding the sugar, I beat them for 6-7 minutes before I realized I'd forgotten the sugar. By now the eggs had risen big time! I "ignored this" (aka hoped for the best!) and gradually added the sugar and beat for another 8 minutes looking for that ribbon stage where they fall off the beater and sit there for a few seconds before incorporating into the batter.  It almost happened, and after 8 minutes I lost my nerve and decided to go with the batter as it was.  I didn't want too much air and have the cake collapse.

The cake rose in the oven to just the top edge of the pan. Good thing I cut back on the ingredients!  It released easily and cooled on the rack looking beautiful.

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