27 December 2020
I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my flatmates and their parents here in Madrid. Madrid is still observing quarantine rules, so gatherings were limited to 6 people. There was an incredible amount of food, it took several hours to get from appetizers to dessert both days. While I love eating, and everything was delicious, I did miss participating in the cooking. So here I am, doing my holiday cooking after the holiday is over.
Today I made a potato leek soup, which turned out delicious and the perfect easily digestible comfort food to recover from a two day Christmas eating marathon. Unfortunately, it is not very photogenic. And no, I don't have the patience to put it in a bowl with fancy garnishes and photograph it. This is not that kind of blog, this is my life as it goes along.
It was super easy: several potatoes, one leek, three cloves of garlic, water, vegetable bouillon cube, some leftover fresh parsley and rosemary, thyme, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Cook until it's all soft, then blend it up. (Remove the bay leaf first!)
I am also in the process of making Jamaican Rum Cake, using a recipe from the blog RockRecipes. I don't have a bundt pan, so am using two loaf pans. The oven in this apartment runs hot and has a very vague temperature knob with four little post-its stuck on it with numbers. I haven't mastered the temperature adjustment yet and almost everything I make is overbaked, even though I lower it by at least 25 degrees Celsius. I wonder if it's possible that because the oven is smaller than I'm used to, it reflects more heat from the walls.
Anyway, here is how they came out looking. Once they are completely cooled, I will make the butter rum syrup to drizzle over and into the cake.
I have just done a little searching online and the reason for the giant crack is as I suspected, the oven was too hot at the beginning of baking. Always good to learn something new.
Why did my cake crack? – BakeClub, Aug 27, 2018
The oven temperature is too high. If the top crust forms and sets before the cake has finished rising, the middle will try to push through the crust as it continues to bake, causing it to crack and possibly dome. Check your oven with an oven thermometer and reduce the temperature accordingly if it is running hot.
I don't imagine the cakes will look very different after the syrup, so here's hoping they taste good!
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UPDATE: Taste tested with a Jamaican friend and they pass the test! However, as a disclaimer, he does not recall ever eating this type of cake in Jamaica, but rather a dark dense fruitcake with wine-soaked fruit. So its Jamaican authenticity may be in question, but it definitely tastes rich and yummy!
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UPDATE 2: I've been searching online to try to find the origin of this cake, and from the available information, it looks like this recipe is "Caribbean" because the recipe was originally published in the 1970's by the Bacardi company to promote their rum.
Also, it occurred to me that different flavored liquors could be substituted, such as Kahlua, Bailey's, Amaretto, flavored Schnapps... this could be fun.
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