creation
I just about baked my butt off today! 2 batches of shortbread cookies (from scratch), and the big accomplishment: an actual cake made from SCRATCH with icing made from scratch, and then some decorations. It's not so huge a deal, except for all the sifting... I only have this tiny, really old thing that hardly lets any materials through and it took forever to sift. And evidently, everything had to be sifted.
So the cake is dark chocolate, with white (pepper)mint icing. Baked in a 9x13 pan, it came out 9x11. Cooled it. It was like this [--] and then I cut it down the centre into two so it was like this [-|-]. Stacked one on top of the other, held together with icing, and I now have a small tall cake. Quite pleased with it, actually, despite some small problems and concerns. I learned that if you buy those cake decorating icing tubes, you need to not only knead them as per the instructions, but sit them in hot water a bit to moisten the likely very-old icing. The cake came out slightly dodgy with the decorations, so I know what to do to make the one for Christmas Day better.
As well, I'm mildly concerned about the cake itself. It was meant to be a dark chocolate cake but it came out with a texture similar to that of a brownie instead. Also, it did a fair amount of rising in the oven... but then it fell. I dunno why. Ugh.
So tomorrow we test the cake with Grandma, and hopefully she'll have some suggestions on how to improve texture and keep from collapsing. Then on the 24th I need to bake 2 cakes. This cake needs to be bigger, so instead of cutting one in-half to make 1 tall one, I need 2 long cakes stacked atop each other. What a mission.
My cookies are delightful, though. Dunno how the recipe works so good, because so much shortbread I've tried really just... sucks. Either it's the taste or texture... but mine are velvety, hold together well but are light, melt in your mouth, and have exceptional taste.
Sore back... sick of kitchen... guh! Gonna go to bed now.
So the cake is dark chocolate, with white (pepper)mint icing. Baked in a 9x13 pan, it came out 9x11. Cooled it. It was like this [--] and then I cut it down the centre into two so it was like this [-|-]. Stacked one on top of the other, held together with icing, and I now have a small tall cake. Quite pleased with it, actually, despite some small problems and concerns. I learned that if you buy those cake decorating icing tubes, you need to not only knead them as per the instructions, but sit them in hot water a bit to moisten the likely very-old icing. The cake came out slightly dodgy with the decorations, so I know what to do to make the one for Christmas Day better.
As well, I'm mildly concerned about the cake itself. It was meant to be a dark chocolate cake but it came out with a texture similar to that of a brownie instead. Also, it did a fair amount of rising in the oven... but then it fell. I dunno why. Ugh.
So tomorrow we test the cake with Grandma, and hopefully she'll have some suggestions on how to improve texture and keep from collapsing. Then on the 24th I need to bake 2 cakes. This cake needs to be bigger, so instead of cutting one in-half to make 1 tall one, I need 2 long cakes stacked atop each other. What a mission.
My cookies are delightful, though. Dunno how the recipe works so good, because so much shortbread I've tried really just... sucks. Either it's the taste or texture... but mine are velvety, hold together well but are light, melt in your mouth, and have exceptional taste.
Sore back... sick of kitchen... guh! Gonna go to bed now.