At last we've come to the fourth November recipe for this month's French Fridays with Dorie. What a great month it has been! I enjoyed much success with roast chicken, potato gratin, and pumpkin flan so I have no doubt the Caramel-Topped Semolina Cake would be wonderful as well. Yes, the end result was marvelous but the journey was not completely free of obstacles.
From the get go, I was determined to make this cake in individual servings instead of the full 8" round called for in the recipe. In my head, I visualized an elegant dessert that would not look out of place at a dinner party. I dug up my precious set of timbale molds (imagine individual popover tins) and got to work. The original recipe is intended for 8 servings. Since the amount of batter yielded approximately 2 1/2 cups, dividing them among 8 timbale molds made sense without being too tall or too squat. I made the amount of caramel called for in the recipe thinking that the surface area of an 8" circle ought to be similar to 8 of my molds. Unfortunately I was wrong. I only had enough to cover four molds so I made a second batch of caramel, all the while muttering under my breath for having to clean another pot due to my poor estimate.
I had a bit of trouble with baking time since mine were obviously much taller than a round cake pan would yield. The cakes were puffed but I was doubtful the centre was set after 25 minutes of baking. I lost track of the total baking time until the cakes passed the clean toothpick test. As the recipe suggested, I tried to unmold as soon as the cakes came to room temperature. I should have listened to my gut feeling and wait for them to rest in the refrigerator for 24 hours. The one that I dislodged from the mold, a third of the cake remained with the caramel. It was delicious and unusual (love the plump golden raisins) but clearly I was not happy. Recalling lessons from baking school, we always made creme caramel a day in advance because the caramel sauce would liquify during the 24 hours of chilling. This is the same reason why you never store hard caramel garnishes in the fridge because sugar attracts water and your garnish would simply sweat and melt. The bottom of the custard ought to slide out of the mold effortlessly with the added bonus of more caramel sauce. This semolina cake should be no different. When I tried to unmold the cakes again a day later, I knew my patience paid off.
I followed Dorie's suggestion to serve the cakes with fresh pineapples. I lined the bottom of glass ramekins with small chunks of fruit and then unmolded the cakes directly on top. No need to shake, just let gravity does the work. The caramel stained the top of the cakes into a lovely mahogany hue with just a hint of bitterness (I like my caramel really dark). I broke into a satisfying smile as I watched the excess caramel dribbled gracefully to the bottom of the ramekin, saucing the sweet tart fruit. I agree that this dessert is perfect for occasions when we don't want something too heavy or decadent.
Don't forget to check out what other members made this week at French Fridays with Dorie!
