vanilla bean cream sprinkle cake.

Sometimes, I just feel like writing. Not about baking, not about food; nothing in particular, really.

I like writing, even though I don't think I'm that good. I like crafting sentences. I think the English language is so pretty. A sentence is like a plain white T-shirt and adjectives are the ribbons and lace. The nouns can be the fabric, since they are quintessential in a proper sentence. The verbs are the buttons and zippers as you have to move your fingers to button up those buttons and zip up those zips. The colors and designs of those buttons and zips are the adverbs, as they make them more interesting.
I also think that English is also one of the most melodic languages to be spoken.

Do you know that English is the second most-spoken language in the world? Right after Mandarin.

I like finding new words, and I've learnt many browsing through blogs. Here's one of my new favourites: panache. You pronounce it just like ganache. I feel so cool just by saying it. And here's another: quel que soit, meaning whatever. Like, I know that this counts more as a phrase than a word, but quel que soit. This the kind of word that I want to show off while sticking my nose in the air. But first, I have to learn how to pronounce it with a bit of french flair.

My paragraphs don't link together, I know. That happens to me all the time when I want to write about too many things in a bout of excitement. Since there is already no structure whatsoever, I'm going to talk about cake now. This post pretty much feels like a Christmas tree with no color coordination to me.
Or even worse- hot pink pants with a neon green top. Oh please shield my eyes.

I was really anticipating for this to be an outstanding cake based on its ingredients- vanilla bean, cream and rum. Sadly, it didn't quite live up to my expectations. Part of it was my fault. I ran out of almond extract so I didn't include any. I also messed up the glaze. I dumped all of the ingredients into the pan at once at the beginning of the recipe by mistake instead of following instructions. Although the taste of the cake was pretty much mundane, I loved its dense yet moist crumb. The funfetti, which was my spur-of-the-moment addition, surprisingly managed to retain a bit of crunch. (I can only vouch for the first day though.)

Vanilla Bean Cream Sprinkle Cake
lightly adapted from Baking by Flavour

I made a few, okay, a lot, of changes to the original recipe. I didn't have shortening so I substituted it with butter, used more vanilla bean since I didn't have any vanilla sugar, added sprinkles and most obviously, downsized the cake. The measurements are a bit finicky but try your best!

For the cake:
70g all-purpose flour
23g cake flour
1/10 tsp baking powder
1/5 tsp salt
3/20 tsp ground nutmeg
3/5 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
seed scrapings from one-fourth of a vanilla bean (save the pod for the glaze)
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/10 tsp almond extract
50ml light cream
3 tbsp sprinkles

For the glaze:
15g sugar
1 tbsp water
vanilla bean that was used for the cake
1/2 tsp dark rum
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
a drop of almond extract

For the cake: Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and flour a 3-cup tube or bundt pan.

Sift the flours, baking powder, ground nutmeg and salt together into a bowl.

Beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the seeds of the vanilla bean. Add the sugar in 3 additions, beating until combined after each addition. After all the sugar has been added, beat until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Add the extracts and beat to combine. Add the egg in 5 parts, beating to fully incorporate each part before adding the next.

Alternately stir in the flour mixture in 3 additions and cream in 2 additions. Stir in the sprinkles.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before unmolding onto a rack with a tray below to catch any dripping syrup when applied later.

For the glaze: (You should make this while the cake is baking.) Combine the sugar, water and vanilla pod in a small saucepan. Place the pan on low heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar has melted. Bring the syrup to a boil and boil until it has reduced and thickened slightly. Add the rum and heat for another 10 seconds. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the extracts. Remove the vanilla pod and set the pan aside to cool.

Using a pastry brush, brush the top of the cake (previously the bottom) with the syrup while the cake is still warm. Cool the cake before slicing.