Hazelnut Raspberry Layer Cake

This week, the bakers of "Sweet Melissa Sundays" tackled Hazelnut Raspberry Layer Cake" which was picked by Candy over at Candy Girl. And although the recipe looked yummy, I wasn't so sure about trying it because of my egg white phobia. Any time I have to deal with whipping egg whites and manage to successfully whip them into peaks, I feel like  Superman having just saved the earth. Egg whites and I have had a bit of a rocky relationship in the past and although I've gotten better at working with them, I do occasionally fall flat with them as I did with this cake. 

Although, really, it was the frosting that did me in. The cake turned out well. I enjoyed the flavor and the texture overall although I could definitely see that it could be a bit dense if you had made traditional layers . I had made the cake two ways - one in traditional cake pans (which I'm saving for another day) and the remainder in a more shallow pan where I cut out small circles for individual frosted cakes once it had cooked.  The frosting was another matter. I had had two packages of egg whites in my kitchen. And unfortunately, the older (read past it's prime) egg whites were what was left when it came time to do the frosting. So they never quite whipped, the syrup did nothing but lead to a watery mush and after adding the butter, I finally gave up and started whipping in some powdered sugar to make the best of a bad situation. Which basically resulted raspberry flavored sugar in the end and a bit overpowering with the cake.

I think I would try the cake again but use a tip Candy mentioned in her blog with cream cheese and cooked down raspberries. That sounds delightful and well worth the egg white extravaganza! 


Please check out the other bakers over at the Sweet Melissa Sundays blogroll to see how they fared with the cake.