alright, once again i’m going to say, it’s not like i’m up on every damn baking secret, i’ve just been a fan of cake for years. well. the aforementioned Jennifer Walton has clued me in to a mind-boggling “trick”. Soaking your cake. That’s right, you’re soaking in it. As in, soaking that sucker with any kind of flavor you can think of. UH. MUH. GUH. I could not believe my ears when she told me and I immediately tried it.
I whipped up a batch of from-scratch pound cake cupcakes and proceeded to soak those babies with orange simple syrup. OK. then i had to taste one. well, they were gross. dry and flavorless, just like nothing had happened other than the tops were sticky and moist. i told my friend Jessica, and she said: don’t worry, icing fixes everything. she was right, but i was still bummed. I wanted this to be my new secret weapon!
but a day later, they were fantastic! a whole lot more moist and the flavor was still subtle but better than nothing at all. I obviously still need to practice, but i was thrilled that it did anything at all, as i would usually be the one who could screw up something so seemingly simple.
it’s a great way to get flavor into a cupcake or cake and help with the moistness. you can use just about any flavor you like and there are many recipes online and lots of people’s opinions on how much to use, etc.
it’s going to be my new favorite thing, i mean, you can even put alcohol in a cake? i want Kahlua-soaked vanilla bean cupcakes. or you could actually just soak your Red Velvet’s with the Bourbon. wonder if that would work? what other combo’s would be fun?
