A Cake and a Website
A few weeks ago, I made some uncharitable comments about cakes and other sweet confections in Japan. I take it back. Well, some of it, anyhow. I recently went to a wedding, and one of the thank-you gifts was an apple cake made, according to the box, by King Macadamian--whoever that is. From past experience, edible thank-you gifts in Japan tend to be fairly blah in nature. But this little block of (much to my chagrin) likely mass-produced apple cake was... I don't want to use the word "astounding," but it was the best damn cake I've eaten in Japan so far. Seriously!
I should have taken a picture but my husband polished it off today--which had me feeling aggrieved but helpless to object (I mean, if someone says to you, "Oh, this is the best blah, blah, blah I've ever blah" and she's been slowly savoring it, stretching it out, for days, and there's only a bit left--do you polish it off, I ask you? No. The answer is firmly no. Even if you haven't tried a single bite. It doesn't matter because you never would have known what you were missing anyway. But for the person who had already tasted of the forbidden apple cake...).
The cake was very simple. A little pale-golden loaf, very fine light crumb, a fanned layer of poached apples on top, as well as thin apple slices within the cake itself. It was so good, I'm going to have to unsuccessfuly attempt to recreate it, I think. The two ingredients that caught my attention were almond powder and cornstarch. In addition, it used oil instead of butter, so it seems to be some kind of sponge, and yet it was denser and moister than a sponge--but so fluffy...
I tried to track down the cake by searching for King Macadamian and was taken to "murmurer de patissier"--whatever that is. I never found it, but this website (which I don't believe is connected to my apple cake) did have a fun Flash trick for their cake section, whereby you can view each of their cakes from four angles and also move a magnifying glass over the cake to get a close-up view of the details. It's quite funny... Okay, I at least found it amusing. If you are also someone who is easily amused, go play.
I should have taken a picture but my husband polished it off today--which had me feeling aggrieved but helpless to object (I mean, if someone says to you, "Oh, this is the best blah, blah, blah I've ever blah" and she's been slowly savoring it, stretching it out, for days, and there's only a bit left--do you polish it off, I ask you? No. The answer is firmly no. Even if you haven't tried a single bite. It doesn't matter because you never would have known what you were missing anyway. But for the person who had already tasted of the forbidden apple cake...).
The cake was very simple. A little pale-golden loaf, very fine light crumb, a fanned layer of poached apples on top, as well as thin apple slices within the cake itself. It was so good, I'm going to have to unsuccessfuly attempt to recreate it, I think. The two ingredients that caught my attention were almond powder and cornstarch. In addition, it used oil instead of butter, so it seems to be some kind of sponge, and yet it was denser and moister than a sponge--but so fluffy...
I tried to track down the cake by searching for King Macadamian and was taken to "murmurer de patissier"--whatever that is. I never found it, but this website (which I don't believe is connected to my apple cake) did have a fun Flash trick for their cake section, whereby you can view each of their cakes from four angles and also move a magnifying glass over the cake to get a close-up view of the details. It's quite funny... Okay, I at least found it amusing. If you are also someone who is easily amused, go play.
0 Comments: