I’ve always thought the old Bill Cosby skit was hilarious – although I wouldn’t be like the mother in it – and he did (sort of) have a point. I mean, cake is no worse than sugary cereal, and it’s got eggs, which cereal hasn’t got. Protein to start your day is good.
However, the cake I made the other morning wasn’t that kind of cake. I was playing around with the idea of crepes, again, and I had a bunch of fresh berries on hand. I’d picked up the berries cheap but use-them-right-now aged, and some of them were no longer beautiful. Tasty, still, but..
So I made a compote with them. And then my crepey experiment wasn’t really working (you can’t do it with a baking mix and without the long stand-time to activate the gluten in the flour).
Compote
- Berries (about 10 oz)
- 2-3 tbsp white corn syrup (depends on the tartness of the berry and your personal taste)
Put the pan on med-low heat on the stove top, adding the corn syrup and then mashing the berries with a potato masher (lightly, you want chunks of fruit still). Heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture just starts to bubble. Remove from heat.
Pancakes
I do the simplest possible ‘cakes, most of the time. This morning was no different. I just tweaked the recipe a little.
- 2 c pancake mix
- 3 eggs
- enough milk to reach the consistency of heavy cream.
Heat a flat, well-season cast iron pan (I’m using a 12″ found griddle, but any crepe-pan would work, or even a flat griddle, but I was controlling the size of the pancake for the appearance of the overall dish). Drop a 1/4 spoonful of batter on the pan, and swirl to make it uniformly round. Flip gently with large spatula, this will not hold together as well as a crepe would.
Layer the finished ‘cake on a plate with a big spoonful of compote. Repeat until you have just enough left (about double what I put between cakes) to top the whole thing with. Add reserved ‘pretty’ berries to the top, cut in wedges, and serve. It looks like cake, but it’s not!
This was very good, the berries ruled the flavor. I like them tart, you might want to taste and add more sugar. I also can’t eat whipped cream, but this is a meal crying out for whipped cream or créme freche. Clotted cream… mmmm…
Enjoy your cake, and eat it, too!