Gratuitous Glaze Experiment
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 
Here's the thing about most loaf cakes. Instead of frosting, they're often served with glaze.
In itself, this is not a problem. But what is a problem is that the glaze is only on the top of the loaf cake, leaving a lot of uncovered (unglazed) territory.
There's all this cake...
and only the thinnest sheen of delicious glaze. No fair! I want more!
And so I started to wonder...what would happen if there was more? Like, a LOT more? Like, a cake so saturated that it was practically bloated with glaze?
and so, I decided to experiment with it.
First, I took a slice of loaf cake (in this case, a slice of the olive oil lemon poppyseed cake I had just made).
And then, I whipped up a batch of glaze. A big batch of it--like 2 cups of cream mixed with about 2 cups confectioners' sugar and a dash of almond extract. And a squeeze of lemon. But if you want to do this experiment, you could use any cake and any glaze you'd like.
Next, I took a shallow bowl. I laid a piece of plastic wrap across the bottom of the bowl.
Into this vessel, I poured a generous amount of glaze. And then I placed the cake slice in this delicious pool.
I then coated the rest of the cake with glaze. DROWN!
Then, I covered up the cake to seal in the glaze, and let it set overnight.
The next morning, this is what greeted me. Oh, hello, glaze saturated cake. Amazingly, it had maintained its solid shape, it hadn't come apart with all of the liquid. But it was definitely altered in texture--like a sponge saturated with water, it was heavy and thick. But unlike a sponge, it was also highly delicious.
When cut into, it oozed glaze. Texturewise, in your mouth, it's sort of like a tres leches cake or a steamed pudding--extremely moist and rich. Unlike a typical loaf cake, it didn't *need* coffee, tea, or milk to keep your mouth from drying out.
This glazed cake was an absolute pleasure to eat.
So, if you were hoping I would be grossed out by the glaze overload, you are wrong. It tasted effing fantastic.
However, I realize that it may not be possible to give your cake this much glaze all the time, so for now, I am simply going to simply make sure I always quadruple glaze recipes so that I can have extra to serve on the side with my loaf cake -- you know, as a dipping sauce.
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