For the past 2 weeks every time I made a batter for a cake, I felt the need to add something else to it. I love experimenting with desserts and sometimes it works, and sometimes it flops. Literally. But a few failures will not stop me from playing with my desserts.

My new favorite thing to do with my loaves and cakes is to add a custard, or a curd to it. What I do is make a batter for a cake or loaf, and also make a curd or custard. Once the 2 are completed I spray the baking pans(s) with cooking spray and pour the cake/loaf batter into it followed by the curd or custard.  You can try to create one line in the middle of custard or curd by pouring one layer of the batter then the curd or custard mixture, and then pouring the rest of the batter. Or you can mix both the batter and custard/curd together.

Here are 2 examples:

Lemon Loaf with Lemon Curd

I made two loaves and on this one pictured I poured the curd on top of all the batter and this is why it sunk a bit (curd is heavy and does not rise). On the other loaf I put the curd in the middle (i.e,. poured batter then curd then the remaining batter on top of the curd) and that one was nice and uniform (‘the good one’ it was eaten straight out of the oven so I did not get any pictures).

Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Custard

In this case I made a chocolate cake and then I poured a vanilla custard on top. Because custard does not rise and because I had swirled the custard in with the batter, the cake was not uniform. Here are 2 pieces from the same cake. You can clearly see that one slice has more custard than the other. My favorite is the one that has the most custard. I love custard. 🙂

Here is an example of the same chocolate cake batter and the same vanilla custard, but I did not swirl the custard into the mix but rather I poured some of the cake batter first followed by the custard and then the reminder of the batter on top  of the custard. Oh, and I also used a loaf pan for this one rather than a circular one like the cake above.