I’m probably going to get a lot of flak for saying this but this cake is a total rip off. I spent my whole day off on Friday driving all over town trying to locate quail eggs. We have not only Chinese but Korean, Vietnamese, Thai and Philippine neighborhoods here and I had the worst time finding these eggs. I would call all over to looking for them and be told they had them only to arrive at the store to find that what they actually had were duck eggs. I am not kidding, I spent all day trying to find these eggs. When I finally located some, I couldn’t believe the horrendously high price I had to pay for them. These eggs were $3.00 a piece. $15.00 just for eggs to make a 5 inch cake. I am not opposed to spending alot of money on a good quality product as it produces a good quality finished product, but, this was a ridiculous amount of money to pay for such a mediocre, bland tasting finished product. I set about to bake the cake and I was truly disappointed to end up with this puny little mediocre cake. It tastes no different than the countless other butter and egg cakes that we have made many times before. Not to mention the special 5 inch heart pan that the recipe calls for. I wouldn’t even waste my time trying to find that thing. When would you ever use it again? The cake ended up looking like an oversized English muffin and didn’t even taste half as good as one. Indulgence is hardly the word I would use to describe this cake, madness is the word that comes to mind for me. I considered it an act of insanity on my part that I wasted so much time and trouble to even bother to make it. I imagine that the heart shaped pan was supposed to indicate that this would be a good Valentines day dessert for two. Well, I hardly think that this cake would elicit any sort of romance. I was truly disappointed in this cake. I made it on Saturday morning and when we ate it at dinner it was hard and dry. We literally took one bite and tossed the whole thing into the trash. Trust me, just make your favorite genoise cake, flavor it to your liking and serve it. Your time and effort, not to mention your wallet, will be better rewarded. If you truly feel the need for an indulgence, then go to your favorite bistro or coffee shop and order a special dessert, your money will be better spent. Needless to say, I will never make this cake again. I truly felt like just tearing this page right out of the book.
Making the cake is easy. Combine egg yolks, vanilla and 1 tablespoon cream and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and blend to combine. Add the butter and remaining cream and blend until the dry ingredients are moistened. Raise the speed to medium high and beat for one and a half minutes. Add the egg mixture in two additions beating between each addition. Scrape the batter into a prepared pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until done. Set the cake on a rack and cool for 10 minutes. Unmold onto a rack, then reinvert the cake so the top side is up. Cool completely.
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I love it when you don’t mince your words, Raymond. Love it.
But listen, are you sure they were quail eggs? Because in the UK, we get quail eggs from the Chinese store in boxes of six of so for about 79p. That’s something like a dollar. Maybe you got special ones?
Don’t tear any pages out of the book. I love seeing your cakes.
After reading this I’m glad I didn’t bother with trying to find quail eggs. I decided to skip this one.
I was not very convince when we had this choice, and was on the fence in making it, then I got sick and could not bring myself to go on the hunt, even after I called my local Whole Food and they told me they had them in stock. 16 eggs at $4 bucks.
After reading your take on it, I’m passing this one by.
Mine just came out of the oven. I didn’t bother hunting for quail eggs, although I confess I was curious to how much they cost. I made them into cupcakes and got five small ones.
I’m about to make mine, but after reading this, I may not share it with a friend as I had planned.
Love your plate!
As others mentioned, I think you really did get ripped off on the quail eggs. I can buy them for .50 a piece at my Asian market, so I was shocked to read you paid $3 a piece. Incidentally, I’ve read that duck eggs make a wonderful cake.
ב”ה
A rant as lovely as your cake.
Well….it sure looks good from where I am sitting! Sorry u were not so happy with the cake.
Sorry you didn’t like it–for once, I served a non-chocolate cake and almost everyone really enjoyed it. I doubt my taste buds could distinguish the quail egg yolks from chicken (which I’ll use the next time I bake this), but at least my quail eggs were only $1.59 for 10. The only reason I wouldn’t use them again was the pain of separating those puppies!
For that price, you’d expect the eggs to be gold-plated. I paid $3.49 for two dozen. I thought it was a delicious cake, but I’d be angry too if I’d spent that much money on the quail eggs–that takes it out of the fun-to-track-down-ingredients category and moves it into the “I’ve been ripped off” category, especially if you didn’t even like the cake.
Too bad, because your cake looks very pretty.
Awww.. I can’t believe you had a hard time finding those eggs. And the price are nuts!
Like Mendy, I enjoyed reading your rant
. I’m sorry you didn’t like the cake – it’s very pretty though.
Thank you so much Raymond as you cured Rose’s headache, as she and I were both in tears of laughter from reading your adventures in quail egg hunting. I had a similar experience when Rose set me out to get duck eggs for a new recipe. The Asian supermarket had baby duck eggs and duck eggs. Well, when I cracked one open, which was very difficult, I knew I was not going to be using it. Then the next, no. I had to take a photo to convince Rose that I must have picked the WRONG eggs, unless we were having almost born ducks in our recipe.
I paid about the same price as Marie, since she bought them from the same Asian market.
We hope you do keep the pages in your book, but you could paper clip them together or glue them.
Interesting, I was just reading about an Asian specialty called Balut which is boiled, fertilized eggs where the embryo is partially developed. check out the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut_%28egg%29
I find this fascinating.
J