I started by beating together eggs and sugar, then folded in flour, baking powder, melted butter and milk. I poured this mixture into a 25cm round cake tin - the recipe states a flan dish, but I didn't have one that size. It seemed like quite a large tin for the amount of mixture, and I wondered how much it was going to rise.
While the cake was in the oven, I mixed up the topping, combining sliced almonds with sugar, melted butter and milk. After 20 minutes (though the given cooking time was 30), the cake was baked golden brown - even too dark around the edges - so I took it out and poured the topping over.
I'd placed the cake back in the oven and when I glanced over the recipe again for some reason, and realised I'd missed a step. The topping should have been boiled and the sugar dissolved before I poured it over the cake.
Whoops.
Oh well. It was too late to do anything about it, so I just left the cake in the oven until the topping mixture started to bubble. The result was more of a sugary crust than the toffeeish coating it should have been, and by the time I was satisfied with the topping, the edges of the cake were quite overdone.
The cake was very flat - only about 2cm high in the centre, and lower at the edges. A flat cake with a ruined topping? I very nearly decided not to take it in to work.
My coworkers are not notably fussy eaters, however, and I decided to bring it anyway. I was glad I did - my tosca cake was actually very tasty: soft and sweet with a crunchy, sugary almond topping. Even if the cake was described variously as a 'pizza' and a 'giant cookie' by the workmates, everyone agreed that it tasted good.
I gather tosca cake is supposed to be pretty flat - I can't see how it could be otherwise. If I'd used a flan dish instead of a cake tin, it might have looked a little less odd and be less overdone at the edges. And while I liked my sugary version of the topping well enough, I think the toffee-style one would be better. So basically, if you actually follow the recipe, yours will be better than mine!
Just found your blog! Wow, my partner will be relieved as I threatened to do just what you are doing with the Edmonds cook book and blog about it! He had a very worried look on his face :)
ReplyDeleteI've got a 1989 recipe book that I use religiously for everything.
Aw, c'mon Michelle - just because I'm doing this doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a go too! I'm not the first; I shouldn't be the last! Also, I have a copy of the 1989 version, and it has quite a number of different recipes than mine.
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