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Sunday, February 27, 2011

Baking Adventures

Recently I had really been wanting to try and bake a cake from scratch since I had never done it before and it sounded like an interesting challenge. Keith also really loves cake, and the last time I made cookies he said, "maybe you could make a cake sometime?" I went into it with no expectations, so it was actually fun instead of stressful. I learned a thing our too about beating egg whites and how to flour a pan. I spent a few hours flipping through my copy of The Joy of Cooking to find the perfect cake and icing recipes and reading all the tips on cake baking. I love love LOVE this cookbook because it's pretty much just an encyclopedia of cooking knowledge and is extremely helpful when you're doing something for the first time. I learned that shortening is the best thing to grease a pan with? I totally would have just used some Pam if I hadn't read that haha.

I'm not going to post the recipe because that could take a long time, but if you're interested I would be more than happy to pass it along! I made a yellow cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting and a peanut butter frosting filling. It was pretty much one of the greatest cakes I've ever consumed and I don't even like cake that much haha I would recommend it, even though it is a lot of work. I think if I did a cake from scratch again I could do it a lot faster... but this definitely took up a chunk of my evening.

I finally got to use my cookbook stand!

Tonight I found out just how un-level our oven is... check out those lopsided cakes haha




It didn't look the best, but that is never the most important part, right?

More important! Today is my beautiful mothers birthday, so I'll dedicate this cake to her, even though she won't get to eat it haha I miss her a whole lot and can't wait to see her again soon! Hope that your birthday was awesome mom!!!

2 comments:

  1. Awesome! If you are bothered by uneven cakes, try soaking and wrapping "magic strips" around your pans and rotating in the oven every 10 or so minutes. An offset icing spatula makes icing a lot easier and if you lay down four strips of 4" wide parchment in a square on your plate before you lay the cake on the plate to ice, you can pull them out and have a clean plate edge :0) Then send it to me to eat. <3

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  2. That icing idea is genius... I wish I had thought of that before, because our plate was a total wreck when I was done haha. The funniest part though is that when I was done with the whole thing I thought to myself "Jenn probably would have tossed this cake out because it looks like such a mess" hahaha

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