C/mon, you're acting like you never heard of a tuxedo cake!

We are into week two of student cake month and thus far there has been little of the wow factor.  Our participants thus far have all opted for commercial solutions for their entry. Although there was some merit to what they found we have a long way to go for sure.  Today's entry was something with a great name, at least...a Tuxedo cake. It turns out there are several versions of this. The predictable one is the cake that is made to look like a tuxedo.  There is another version that we would love to try as it involves a lot of chocolate cake and whipped cream. The third one we saw is the one that is similar to what we had today, so was the one being listed as coming from Costco in the picture.  It involves marble cake, cream filling a and a chocolate glaze on the top.  Perhaps the different shades of white and chocolate in the cake is where the name comes from. 

This is a tuxedo cake......

...and this is a tuxedo cake...

and this is a tuxedo cake!

This is a tuxedo cake from Costco!

And this is my tuxedo cake..which I had never heard of!

 Today it was a long rectangular cake with the layers visible from the sides.  It consisted of three layers of marble cake with a chocolate mousse filling between the bottom two layers, a white chocolate mousse filling between the top two layers and a dense chocolate frosting on the top. 

Nicely put together!

Good solid chocolate frosting!

We don't know where it came from but it was good and fresh and although it looks like it might be heavy it was pretty light. This might be due to the mousse consistency of the fillings.  In any event everyone was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the day's treat. It gets a four star rating.

Layers of mousse!

The marble cake comes into view!

A representative slice!

The joke of the day was when people were asked what it was and couldn't answer, they were told what it was with some false incredulity and the statement that opens the post.

The Eastside Marketplace?? #not again

We seem to have gotten into a rut for student cake month.  Instead of using this opportunity to further explore and expand their culinary capabilities due to either convenience or lack of imagination our student cake month participants have been relying a lot upon the commercial sector...in particular the East Side Market.  The problem lies in that most of those cakes have already been tried..some of them several times.  So if you are looking to wow and impress this is probably not the way to go...hello?

It's something new for me!

Dèja vu!

A little asymmetry makes a statement!

Choco-crunch for contrast!

Today's treat was also a rerun of something we have had before.  Our intern for the day lived up to her distaste for chocolate cake and instead found a yellow cake, with a few embellishments. In some respects this was the negative of the cake from two days ago. Whereas on Tuesday it was chocolate with white accents, today's cake was white with chocolate accents.  The cake itself was yellow with a vanilla shortening based frosting.  There was a choco-crunch type thing adorning the sides and several sticks of dark chocolate making a pattern..albeit not entirely symmetrical...on the top.  A candied cherry was in the center.

Yellow cake and white frosting..no chocolate need apply!

What's there to say? The cake itself wasn't bad...fresh and not dry.  The frosting was perhaps a bit too basic and commercial. There was a lot left over on plates providing another opportunity for cake frosting art though the white color of the frosting did not contrast well with the plate so our cake art creation is not so distinctive. Overall the cake wasn't either so it gets a two star rating.

A tsunami of swirls!  Today's frosting art!

We did learn that our cake hour intern of the day is trying to gain weight.  That prompted a whole lot of suggestions such as having more than one piece of cake...with which she easily complied today since the cake was not chocolate.  The more creative involved the suggestion to use the high fat rodent diet pellets as croutons on a salad to give extra calories.  We're not really serious but consider ourselves up to the challenge to getting her to put on the pounds. Perhaps she can spend time with her beer drinking colleague!

Have two or three of these a day and you'll pack on some pounds!

Working on that weight gain!

Our younger tech friends helped explain the whole concept of hash tag to yours truly who does not and likely never will tweet.  Hearing it everywhere, it was explained that was the way to link together things that have similar subjects. Assuming you could only follow individual twitter accounts it is comforting to know you can also keep up on all the people who use certain words or phrases like fart.  (That was the example given.) This is truly monumental.  #don't you think. The other question about why on Twitter it has to be called a hash tag and not the pound sign like on the phone was left unresolved. #any ideas?

I would so love to biopsy her liver!

Today we had a duo of cakes for student cake month day three.  These came from the East Side Marketplace in Providence as did yesterday's cake. We see a trend, maybe. 

It's a twofer from the Eastside Marketplace!

Two respectable looking treats!

I'm happy to add a volume element to the competition!

The first one that got sliced up for everyone to try was some described as a lemon torte.  The presentation was nice, for sure  A small rectangular cake frosted on the sides and top with swirls of vanilla cream.  The sides were subsequently covered with some crunchy thing.  A few candy lemon slices completed the look.  The torte was composed of several layers of yellow cake with different fillings between layers. One of the fillings toward the bottom was lemon curd which was a nice touch.  The other filling was lighter vanilla cream. This was not the same as the top which was a typical, heavier cake frosting.  This was unfortunate because it looked like the frosting on the top was whipped cream.  That would have gone better with the lighter filling inside so we suggest this adjustment to their recipe. Overall the cake was moist and the fillings added to the taste. It was a light treat that was easy to eat. This was pretty well received and was a good choice on the part of today's student.

It's a lemon torte!

It should be whipped cream on top...but it's not!

Layer with lemon curd and mousse type vanilla cream inside...nicely done!

But the lemon torte was not the only treat he brought.  The second was a Bailey's Irish Cream Cake.  We have had this before and it is good. It is a chocolate cake with two layers that have a thick layer of Bailey's Irish Cream flavored frosting in between and more on the top.  Add a few florets and some chocolate drizzle and you have the whole thing.  This cake is very moist and the Bailey's cream very light and airy.  This is a replacement type non-dairy whipped cream frosting...like cool whip.  We have had this type of frosting on many cakes before. It is appreciated because it is very light but real whipped cream is always preferred. Altogether this was another good cake. With to offerings that were original and creative we award today's student four stars.

Another good looking offering!

Unfortunately these top florets are also not the real whipped thing!

Lots of cake and lots of filling!

The whipped frosting made it less heavy than it looks!

While eating a piece of the latter cake one of our interns asked the question "What is the alcohol that is in this cake?"  As said person has dietary preferences and thinking there might be beverage issues also the question was asked, "what, do you not drink either?"  This prompted quite a few chuckles from the friends of the individual as the person does indeed drink.  The preferred drink is beer.  Lots of it apparently. Jokes about the amount of her drinking ensued. This led to other comments about how good it is that our dipsomaniacal intern  is working in a Liver Research Center and that since we do research on alcohol in the liver she could be a subject. We study NASH and alcoholic hepatitis and it was mentioned that if she had problems we could do a liver biopsy.  Upon hearing this her friend immediately remarked "I would so love to biopsy her liver!"  Isn't that what friends are for?

Quote of the day: I would so love to biopsy her liver!

This is all it would take!

Our biopsy subject is not so sure!

Oh, oh...we've seen this before!

And student cake month continues with our second entry.  As this is technically a contest we are looking for whatever is spectacular in execution, appearance, presentation, and taste. It is a good idea to research your ideas to see if it will be something unique that will make its mark.  One thing that is guaranteed to set you back is if you come up with something that we have already had.  That was the case today.  The second cake to be offered up is the chocolate plastic cake that we have had before. A little scrutiny or previous blog posts would have determined that. But who are we to tell you what to do, right?

I think we have seen this before!

Pile o' white chocolate shavings on the top!

The shavings are also a prominent feature embedded in the frosting on the sides!

Made it for the official picture just in time!

This is actually a standard American style chocolate layer cake.  The cake is chocolate as is the frosting which is probably a butter cream. Butter cream is usually the preferred frosting as opposed to the standard commercial frosting which is mainly vegetable shortening (or lard) and powdered sugar.  Butter cream may be just as fattening but it has less of a chemical taste. Of course the most favored form of frosting is whipped cream based but I digress.

Plenty of cake and "plastic" shavings to go around!

So this is a standard chocolate two layer cake with chocolate frosting on top and also as filling betwixt the layers.  Some frosting florets on the top embellish it but the striking feature of this cake are the white shards of what looks like plastic thrown all over the sides and the tops.

Tell the truth...they really do look like pieces of plastic!

These are supposed to be white chocolate shavings, we assume, but it is not any kind of quality white chocolate.  Interestingly, white chocolate always has a hint of yellow color whereas these things were really white.  It does make for an interesting look but the taste might have been more notable with a better quality to the white chocolate.

There were plenty of the "plastic" shavings to go around!

I still hate chocolate cake but am still eating it!

On balance this cake was fine. The cake was good and moist and the frosting not overwhelming. Not bad but nothing to write home about.  We give it a basic two stars.

And Student Cake Month is off and running

Today was the first entry for student cake month aka the month of July. Once again we have the....pleasure..of hosting several students during the summer months.  These students do summer projects to dip their toes in the endless ocean of research so that they can gain experience in preparation for a stellar career in the field.  We have student cake month in July so that they can display their other talents. It is intended to be a fund social event but it has happened that a student decides that despite their parents spending a fortune getting them a science education, they preferred to become bakers. That's not the intent but whatever makes them happy.

An east side bakery cafe that we hadn't tried before!

Some interesting flavors for sure!

This year's student month got off to a start with some treats from The Duck and Bunny. This is  a coffee house type place on the East Side of Providence where they serve up crepes, pastries and...surprise....cupcakes!  Cupcakes are the trend, you know.  It is actually a surprising trend that has lasted longer than you might have expected.  Something is to be said, however, for small cakes flavored more creatively than standard American gateaux.  There were several interesting flavor combos in this grouping including honey lavender, red velvet, lemon raspberry and mocha. 

Almond chocolate something or other!

I wonder if this is red velvet??

Mocha with chocolate drool!

Lemon raspberry!

Or maybe this is the mocha one, hmmm!

This must be carrot cake!

Our provider today brought in about 13 cupcakes - a baker's dozen - for about twice that many people so it was half a cupcake time!

Showing off her contribution to student cake month!

So many people, so few cupcakes...everyone gets half!

The first attempt at slicing was a bit of a disaster.  Instead of a clean cut the cupcake kind of fell apart.  This particular one was a bit on the dry side. We don't know for sure what it was but the cake part was brownie like. Maybe it was intended to be less moist or maybe it was because they were bought the day before.  Day old cupcakes may indeed be drier than fresh ones and we noticed that a few more tended that way though were not as dry as the one that disintegrated.

This did not cut it!

Another issue one has to remember with cupcakes is that it is a very good idea to leave them out of the refrigerator for about an hour before serving them.  This is mainly to avoid the frosting staying congealed together with the consistency of a stick of butter.  These are much tastier when the frosting has softened. Since these came right out of the fridge we were more on the stick of butter end.  Frequently this leads to a good amount of frosting staying on the plates.

This honey lavender cupcake tastes better when that purple glob is not chilled!

We had a few presentation problems also. Judging by the condition of the box things got moved around a bit with a few of the cupcakes looking damaged.  This it not a good thing when you are trying to impress people! On balance these Duck and Bunny selections were fine. Not bad but nothing to rave about.

The red velvet cupcakes took a beating!

The box was a tad greasy!

The overall rating is 2.5 stars - middle of the road - as there were points for creativity of the flavors and and for trying an interesting baker.  On the other hand the mediocre taste, serving and presentation issues did nothing to help the final score.

I hate chocolate cake...but I'm eating it!