This cake, as its name would suggest to you, calls for quail eggs. I have fond memories of quail eggs. Growing up, I was skinny as a toothpick. My concern mother, who is afraid people will look at me and think that she did not feed me, tried to feed me all kinds of things between meals to get me to gain weight. When I say all kinds of things, I really meant it. From fish oil in liquid form, a glass of milk, a bowl of ice cream, kraft cheese (the ones in singles pack), soft boiled eggs, and hard boiled quail eggs. With the exception of fish oil, I like all my "mandatory" snacks, quail eggs included. I have not, however, tried it in a cake. So when this cake comes along, I was determined not to miss it.
Mendy, a fellow Heavenly Cake Bakers, said that he found quail eggs at Whole Foods. I called my local Whole Foods and the very helpful employee there said they don't carry quail eggs, but they have duck eggs, FYI. So then I went to a nearby Asian grocery store and found some - $1.99 for a dozen.
The cake is pretty easy to make. The most difficult part is breaking the eggs and separating the yolks from the whites. I ended up using 7 yolks to get the required 28 grams, and 5 out of 7 yolks broke. The yolks are then mixed with vanilla and a bit of heavy cream.
Back to the cake. Mix the dry ingredients together, add in the butter and all but 1 Tbsp of heavy cream. Mix until combined. Add in the yolk mixture in 2 additions, beating for 15 seconds each time to incorporate.
I got a couple of 6 inch heart shaped pan last month at Ross for about 30% off the original price. I have stopped counting how many pans I have, I figured I will just buy if it's inexpensive and if it's something I will use several times. And I can see myself using this heart pan again, especially since it's perfect for half recipes.
I'm not sure why Rose said this cake serves two. It is quiet big and I can't imagine eating half of it in one sitting. Unless I'm super hungry or haven't eaten in a couple of days. In which case I'm pretty sure I can eat the whole thing.
Tasting impressions:
It is pretty good. It has a interesting flavor that I can only attribute to the quail eggs, as all the other ingredients are quite basic. I am not sure if I will make it again, since it requires a special trip to the Asian market. But I'm glad I made it.
I also made Chocolate Streussel Coffee Cake. Mainly because I want to scratch another cake off my list (32 cakes to go YAY!).
This cake is also easy to put together. The only thing that baffles me is that the cake turned out dense and looked like it's not baked at all even though I baked it for 50 minutes and a cake tester came out clean.
You can see in the slice picture below that the texture is weird. It tasted pretty good though and I like the streussel filling.