swear my time's never cheap
A Festivus for the rest of us!
I will skip the traditional airing of grievances, because the feats of strength portion of this post is going to be very long and also I don't think I can stay awake long enough to do both. And anyway, this is me. When have I ever needed a special day to air my grievances?
Onward!
the feats of strength
Today was busy! And productive!
I wrote two yuletide treats for people who at the time did not have stories uploaded for them (according to the information I had at the time, anyway). I have at least one more in the hopper, too, I think. If I can stay awake. Anyway.
Today was the baking of many cakes day.
Let me say upfront that while I am a good baker, I am a lousy photographer, so while I did include pictures here because I wanted to feel like a real food blogger, the pictures are not exactly quality, and that is all on me.
I started at around noon. Here is a picture of a bunch of ingredients in no particular order:
I started with this flourless chocolate cake.
two essential ingredients of flourless chocolate cake:
This is what the batter looks like after it's all mixed in:
I mixed it all by hand in the top pot of the my mother's ancient pyrex double boiler, because why mess up another bowl? It is a little bit of work to stir it all, especially as the pot wasn't really that big, but I did it. Twice.
Because the first cake cracked. As you can see from this picture:
I baked it in one of the bake and give paper pans I bought from King Arthur Flour, and I don't know if it is just that this cake is too heavy for a paper pan, or if the pans are just not very good, but the points of the star cracked and buckled. Since I was making the cake as a gift for my sister and her husband, and it isn't being iced, I couldn't actually give it. Not just because I'm embarrassed it cracked, but because I would never ever hear the end of it from them.
So, a second cake, this time in a proper springform pan:
It also cracked, but in a much more subtle, acceptable way. And I probably could disguise that with some powdered sugar and chocolate ganache, if I really wanted to.
Then it was onward to the self-frosting Nutella cake, which I am giving to Mary and Sal.
I have a fondness for creaming butter and sugar. It's the two best parts of any recipe, beaten together until light and fluffy and mmm...so tasty. And I love my parents' industrial grade Kitchen Aid stand mixer. It's black and badass.
Since I didn't trust the bake and give pans after the cracked chocolate cake debacle, I made this one in an 8x8 aluminum pan. That is unfortunately orange. I believe it was bought for Thanksgiving and not used. Wrong holiday. oops!
And here is what it looks like once it's been baked:
It's a fairly dry yellow cake - nothing special - covered with Nutella. It's actually very tasty. Unfortunately, once it cooled, the center sank for some reason. It was done - the cake tester came out clean - so maybe I used too much baking powder? I don't know. The cupcakes sunk too, when I made them, but I thought that was just because I overfilled the cups.
Alas, baking! It is a mystery sometimes.
No matter! I tarried ever onward with the baking!
Next was innie_darling's orange-cranberry loaf, which is exceptionally delicious and also very easy to make. My dad told me it was the best thing I'd ever made when he tasted it last month, so I knew that I would be making it for my parents for Christmas.
Here are the eggs (2, beaten lightly) and the orange zest:
And here I am folding the cranberries into the batter:
I left the nuts out, since Nicole is allergic to nuts and they're coming over tomorrow and I didn't want to makes something she couldn't eat if she wanted to, so I added extra cranberries. They're the best part, imo.
I also sprinkled some on top, as you can see here:
And, the finished product:
It really is extremely scrumptious, and great for breakfast. I highly recommend it.
Then it was time for cheesecake. Sicilian cheesecake to be exact.
I made two - one for my brother and his wife, and one for Anthony's younger sister and her husband.
I just use regular PollyO or Sorrento whole milk ricotta. I'm sure it's probably even better with fresh ricotta. One day, I'll try it and let you know.
I added the vanilla (I always add extra vanilla to everything), the cinnamon and the orange zest (all I ate today while I was doing this was two of the oranges I denuded for their zest).
This is my attempt at some kind of artsy food bloggish photography. Don't worry. I won't subject you to any more of it.
Cheesecake, on the way into the oven:
Cheesecake, on the way out of the oven:
cheesecake number one:
cheesecake number two:
And here are the results of the day's work:
I'd already wrapped the other two cakes so they weren't available for this picture.
So there you have it, in words and pictures.
Maybe tomorrow I will make the buttermilk cake again, with cranberries this time. I also still need to wrap the kids' gifts, and see if I can't write some yuletide treats. And possibly get some sleep. *g*
Hope all y'all had a good day too.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/110100.html.
people have commented there.
I will skip the traditional airing of grievances, because the feats of strength portion of this post is going to be very long and also I don't think I can stay awake long enough to do both. And anyway, this is me. When have I ever needed a special day to air my grievances?
Onward!
the feats of strength
Today was busy! And productive!
I wrote two yuletide treats for people who at the time did not have stories uploaded for them (according to the information I had at the time, anyway). I have at least one more in the hopper, too, I think. If I can stay awake. Anyway.
Today was the baking of many cakes day.
Let me say upfront that while I am a good baker, I am a lousy photographer, so while I did include pictures here because I wanted to feel like a real food blogger, the pictures are not exactly quality, and that is all on me.
I started at around noon. Here is a picture of a bunch of ingredients in no particular order:
I started with this flourless chocolate cake.
two essential ingredients of flourless chocolate cake:
This is what the batter looks like after it's all mixed in:
I mixed it all by hand in the top pot of the my mother's ancient pyrex double boiler, because why mess up another bowl? It is a little bit of work to stir it all, especially as the pot wasn't really that big, but I did it. Twice.
Because the first cake cracked. As you can see from this picture:
I baked it in one of the bake and give paper pans I bought from King Arthur Flour, and I don't know if it is just that this cake is too heavy for a paper pan, or if the pans are just not very good, but the points of the star cracked and buckled. Since I was making the cake as a gift for my sister and her husband, and it isn't being iced, I couldn't actually give it. Not just because I'm embarrassed it cracked, but because I would never ever hear the end of it from them.
So, a second cake, this time in a proper springform pan:
It also cracked, but in a much more subtle, acceptable way. And I probably could disguise that with some powdered sugar and chocolate ganache, if I really wanted to.
Then it was onward to the self-frosting Nutella cake, which I am giving to Mary and Sal.
I have a fondness for creaming butter and sugar. It's the two best parts of any recipe, beaten together until light and fluffy and mmm...so tasty. And I love my parents' industrial grade Kitchen Aid stand mixer. It's black and badass.
Since I didn't trust the bake and give pans after the cracked chocolate cake debacle, I made this one in an 8x8 aluminum pan. That is unfortunately orange. I believe it was bought for Thanksgiving and not used. Wrong holiday. oops!
And here is what it looks like once it's been baked:
It's a fairly dry yellow cake - nothing special - covered with Nutella. It's actually very tasty. Unfortunately, once it cooled, the center sank for some reason. It was done - the cake tester came out clean - so maybe I used too much baking powder? I don't know. The cupcakes sunk too, when I made them, but I thought that was just because I overfilled the cups.
Alas, baking! It is a mystery sometimes.
No matter! I tarried ever onward with the baking!
Next was innie_darling's orange-cranberry loaf, which is exceptionally delicious and also very easy to make. My dad told me it was the best thing I'd ever made when he tasted it last month, so I knew that I would be making it for my parents for Christmas.
Here are the eggs (2, beaten lightly) and the orange zest:
And here I am folding the cranberries into the batter:
I left the nuts out, since Nicole is allergic to nuts and they're coming over tomorrow and I didn't want to makes something she couldn't eat if she wanted to, so I added extra cranberries. They're the best part, imo.
I also sprinkled some on top, as you can see here:
And, the finished product:
It really is extremely scrumptious, and great for breakfast. I highly recommend it.
Then it was time for cheesecake. Sicilian cheesecake to be exact.
I made two - one for my brother and his wife, and one for Anthony's younger sister and her husband.
I just use regular PollyO or Sorrento whole milk ricotta. I'm sure it's probably even better with fresh ricotta. One day, I'll try it and let you know.
I added the vanilla (I always add extra vanilla to everything), the cinnamon and the orange zest (all I ate today while I was doing this was two of the oranges I denuded for their zest).
This is my attempt at some kind of artsy food bloggish photography. Don't worry. I won't subject you to any more of it.
Cheesecake, on the way into the oven:
Cheesecake, on the way out of the oven:
cheesecake number one:
cheesecake number two:
And here are the results of the day's work:
I'd already wrapped the other two cakes so they weren't available for this picture.
So there you have it, in words and pictures.
Maybe tomorrow I will make the buttermilk cake again, with cranberries this time. I also still need to wrap the kids' gifts, and see if I can't write some yuletide treats. And possibly get some sleep. *g*
Hope all y'all had a good day too.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/110100.html.
people have commented there.