Lemon Pineapple Cake

Around the office I work at it is custom that the person with a birthday brings in treats. Although this is a little early I thought I would give the cake a try that Manny left the recipe for. First here is her recipe.

The cake was interesting, a little different than I expected however. When I mixed the cake part of the batter almost did not fill the pan. I think it was just because the batter was pretty thick and I needed to encourage the batter to spread to all corners. This was my first sign of things to come.

I got the cake into the oven after preheating to a higher temperature than I was suppose to because my oven cooks on the cool side. Unfortunately it was a little to warm.

Next I went about making sure I was going to do the glaze properly and, truthfully, I was not in a big hurry with the cake being in the oven for an hour.

Per the recipe I put all the ingredients into a sauce pan but, it was a small sauce pan. The ingredients barely fit. How was I going to reduce the glaze? I did my best and made a real mess of the stove. I have my work cut out for me to clean that burner after work today. (I finished so late that I just needed to go straight to bed skipping most of the cleanup) Part way through reducing the glaze (and stirring continuously) the timer went off, the cake was done.

Of course while all this was going on the cake should have been checked and it never was. I pulled it shortly after the timer went off but the damage was already done. The cake was not burnt or anything but it was over done.

Anyway I finally finished reducing the glaze by about a 1/3 after a half hour or more of stirring and put it in the fridge to cool. After a little time passed I added the glaze on the cake and put coconut on most of the cake. I left a portion open since I know at least one or two people do not like coconut at work. I then covered the cake and stuck it in the fridge for the night. I just thought this kind of cake may benefit from that.

Here is a picture of the cake from this morning.

When I went to cut the cake at work I knew right away something was wrong. I had a sharp knife and yet the cake was way to stiff as it was being cut through. Trying it you could tell it was over cooked. Normally at work food items go pretty fast. Well this one is only about half gone. I predict I will either take a third of the cake home or leave it in the office fridge. I am sure it will go tomorrow.

Now I think this is a great cake if I had not overcooked it. I personally love lemon and the coconut goes great with lemon. The pineapple almost disapeared in the flavor. I just know this is a great right cake that everyone would love if only...

So what did I learn? First there is a slight typo. The lines that read

6 eggs1
1/2 c. sugar

should read

6 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar

No problem, I caught that before starting.

I also learned that I need to use a medium sauce pan and I need to get right on making the claze cause it takes some time to reduce the glaze.

Keep an eye out on the cake to make sure it is not over cooked.

I need to figure out how much off my stove is. If I would have lowered it 5 degrees it may have been just right.

So this is the first cake I made that did not turn out real well but it was all my fault. I will be revisiting this cake again sometime soon and then everyone will love it, I can just tell.

Thank you Manny.

Egg whites are good for a lot of things - lemon meringue pie, angel food cake, and clogging up radiators. --MacGyver