10 posts tagged “baking”
You celebrate Superbowl Sunday in your way, I'll celebrate in mine.
Fresh brownies! Smelling up the house! AAIIIEEEEE!!!
Oh the humanity!
Napping:
Reading:
Baking:
Yeeming:
So yesterday I turned in my dossier for promotion, and today my resignation from the writing conference board takes effect--my plan for the weekend was to sleep and clean house, but I'm not doing either very efficiently. Did make some cupcakes though:
These are for the birthday of the mother of a friend--that sounds like a French class sentence: Petits gateaux pour l'anniversaire de la maman d'une amie--since she said she and her mother were trying to watch their diets, I used a new recipe, One-Egg Cupcakes from Grandma's Wartime Baking Book by JoAnne Lamb Hayes, which called for just the one egg, 1/4 cup of butter, and 1/2 cup of sugar, so divided by twelve, that's one teaspoon butter and two teaspoons sugar per person, which doesn't sound too bad. Not counting the frosting, of course.
I got this with the idea it might have lower sugar, lower fat recipes--I can't say that's true, because when something's low sugar it's sweetened with corn oil or something instead, and I don't know how beneficial a substitute that is.
Thanks, y'all! If the buyer paid $85, that's $5.32/serving, figuring 16 slices, or $7.08/serving, figuring 12 slices, which seems more reasonable since it's an 8-inch cake. The Wilton yearbook says you should be able to get 20 "party slices" (bigger than "wedding slices") from an 8-inch cake but that's just crazy talk.
This is what I wanted the cake to look like:
...but maybe something even more Wedgwoody, a little more Federalist, y'know? But I ran completely out of white icing after I put on the top border (shoulda used a smaller tip), and the colored flowers were just a panicked afterthought. But somebody liked it, and better luck next cake.
For a leukemia society fundraiser: chocolate cake, vanilla buttercream. I'm not crazy about how the decoration turned out but I decided to let it go.
For a coworker who's moving to Seattle, you know, where it rains--a flourless chocolate cake and a vanilla layer cake.
Today's hedgehog cake post (http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2007/08/happy-birthday-.html) linked to a recipe (http://www.parsleysoup.co.uk/getrecipe.php?section=kids&recipe=hedgehog_cakes) --I think 350F would be a better temp for cooking.
This is an American version of the recipe, without hedgeification:
Crazy Cake
“Crazy Cake” is one of those recipes that show up in a lot of places under various names. This one is from The Wooden Spoon Dessert Book, and in parentheses I’ve added the amounts for a cake that will fill a 9 x 13" pan from A Piece of Cake (that page in my book is marked with a spray of cocoa powder). --dt
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Stir together in an ungreased 8 x 8 x 2” (or 9 x 13”) baking dish (the Purdy recipe says to sift the dry ingredients together--as long as they’re well mixed I don’t think it matters):
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (3 cups unsifted flour)
1 cup sugar (2 cups sugar)
3 tablespoons cocoa (1/2 cup cocoa)
1/2 teaspoon salt (1 teaspoon salt)
1 teaspoon baking soda (2 teaspoons baking soda)
Make three depressions in the stirred ingredients. Into them pour:
6 tablespoons oil (2/3 cup vegetable oil)
1 tablespoon vinegar (2 tablespoons vinegar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (2 teaspoons vanilla extract)
Pour over all:
1 cup cold milk, water, or coffee (2 cups lukewarm water)
Mix with a fork (or spoon, or a spoonula) just until all ingredients are well blended (be sure to get the dry ingredients out of the corners, and wipe splattered batter off the sides of the pan). Bake at 350F for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed in the center. Cool in the pan. Serve warm or cold.
Cinnamon and instant coffee are good additions. This cake is better without a sweet frosting. I’ve been putting any sort of chocolate I have on hand--chocolate chips, peanut butter cups, leftover Valentine’s candy with the unnaturally colored mystery fillings sorted out--on top as soon as it comes out of the oven. The chocolate melts and then hardens as the cake cools (but it might bloom, which looks unpleasant even if it doesn’t affect the taste). I’ve also made chocolate ganache to use as frosting, heating 1/2 cup heavy cream then melting 8oz chocolate--chocolate chips work fine--in the cream, then spreading the mixture over the warm cake.
The fancy formattin' comes from a recipe collection I put together for Christmas presents last year.
My new internet toy: www.flektor.com . Create and edit important videos like this one...coming soon: the Seasonal Bundts!
Olbermann watch: today, a dark taupe jacket, a pink shirt, and a lovely striped silk tie, gold and pale blue, plus a Drone Clubbish mauve and black--colorful yet masculine, though I worry about the way the jacket creeps up on his shoulders. Below the desk: cowboy jammies.
