Week 24, January 31, 2011: Lemon Cake

We are in the home stretch and not a moment too soon!

Plans are being made for my 3 oh b-day celebration.  I originally wanted an 80s party, then, we (my college roomie and I) thought it'd be fun to go somewhere random for the weekend, but it's looking like party is back on and I'm shamelessly trying to convince my bro and sis in law to bring up little miss Eme Lou Ficus Tater-tot.  I'll let you know how that goes.

I walked/ran this morning- it's about 24 degrees F here and the F wasn't only on the thermometers while I was out and about.  I spent a good deal of the outing scaling and jumping off of piles of snow and slush and trying not to wind up on my butt.  This week I'm doing 90 sec intervals of running with 2 minutes of walking in between.  I really want to be able to run a straight 30 minutes by my b-day and it would be the icing on the cake (hehe) if I could do a whole 5k by then.

Nose in a book

I'm also in the process of grading midterms and working on two projects in addition to coursework, so baking today's lemon cake is a nice break from the busy- busy.

I heart lemon.  Last week's extra coconut cake may have been one of the tastiest creations I've ever been in on (Seems messaged me three OMGs while she had it with this morning's coffee), but lemon and ginger really have me when it comes to flavor.

The recipe for this lemon cake with lemon icing came from joyofbaking.com.

It was probably the lowest fuss cake I've made so far: butter, sugar, eggs, flour, salt, baking powder, vanilla and lemon- that's it.

I sifted together the dries first.

Then creamed the butter and sugar.

Mixed in the eggs, zested a massive orange and added it and vanilla.

Then the dry and 1/4 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice-- which happened to be the juice of one big lemon!

Stuck it in a prepared springform pan and popped it into the oven.

The frosting was no fuss as well- I made two batches at once using two cups of sifted confectioner's sugar and the juice of another big lemon and voila!

I definitely could have stirred the icing more, I noticed some lumps as it was drying, but I'll call it a pass.

The cake was very heavy- basically a lemon pound cake and I think it won for the best tasting batter I've made so far.  Hopefully the faculty and fam will enjoy it.

In other news, I spent part of my afternoon at a 90th birthday celebration:

Those are birthday hats hanging from the ceiling of my parents' church--my elementary/ middle school turns 90 this week.  The birthday hats are part of a tradition that my kindergarten teacher started.  She made every student a birthday hat for his/her 6th birthday.  Both mine and my bro's hats were in attendance.  The celebration was lovely.

With today's cake, we're up to 27 different kinds of cake... I have 8 more that I'd like to attempt before I hang up the apron for a bit.

Next week: Yellow cake

And our final seven (drum roll, please): chocolate heart cake, pavlova, molten chocolate cake, tiramisu, hummingbird cake, marble cake with bavarian cream filling and marshmallow fondant and black forest cake.  I want to throw in creme brulee at some point, but we'll see how things play out.

Be well!

from the lib

Hello from the library!

I've been here since 10ish this morning... came out to the university today to get some reading done- following the motto "whatever works" this semester.  You can see just how thrilled I am at this point from the look on my face.

It hasn't been all work work work: I have a past student on campus and he dropped by for a chat.

I also had a delivery to make this morning.
Seems commissioned me to make an Almond Joy type cake and with Lisa's help, I think I made something pretty tasty.

Ingredients- super excited about the new cake!

 The recipe is a modification of a Brazilian Coconut Cake that Lisa found on all-recipes.com.

Here's the link, and I'll explain the modifications.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Brazilian-Style-Moist-Coconut-Cake/Detail.aspx

1. don't separate the eggs.

2. Substitute in coconut milk for the orange juice.

3. Less flour- 2 1/2 cups, not three.

4. For the "bath", I used the recipe's mix, but Lisa used evaporated milk with sugar mixed in instead of the sweetened condensed and her cake came out way moister-- I'll do that in the future.

The heart tins were not a good idea!  Look at the mess!

Soaking in the deliciousness!

And lastly-- remember last week's frosting?  That ganache?  I used that for frosting.  It solidified a little more than I would have liked, so Lisa recommends a cooked chocolate frosting, which is more puddingy.  I'll post that recipe when I get it and she gives me clearance to share (it is so tasty).

Seems just text messaged me.  I quote: "The cake = my heaven"

SUCCESS!

I forgot to take a pic of the frosted cake, but you get the idea!

 Lemon Cake tomorrow! Yum!

Week 23, January 24th, 2011: Boston Cream Pie

I spend a lot of time complaining, so I think I need to start this one out gratefully.  In my next thirty years, I need to complain a whole lot less and just enjoy what's around me, because there's a lot of good and there's a lot of funny.

I'm thankful for my family- they're hilarious and interesting and will do anything for me.  My dad came over at nine last night to deal with frozen hot water pipes in my "liberace" bathroom, Lau always has a different perspective on things and Ang is always a phone call away with a new fabulous story or video of her singing with the cutest person alive:

Emers!

And of course, Ker and Miss are always there with a spare bedroom and a beverage in the sunshine.

I'm thankful that I have the opportunities I have and the friends and colleagues I've made along the way.  Planning my pilot is intense, but I always have someone to bounce ideas off of, provide me suggestions or to read drafts.

I'm grateful for problems, the big and the little.  The ponderous and the ridiculous.  They're there to teach me something... though I don't always know what.  I'm looking forward to attempting to learn how to deal with things with a little more grace and a lot fewer expletives in my next 30 years.

I think bottom line is that the fuss and the fight are so easy to get involved in... the politics of every institution, the awful weather, the little things that gnaw on us... but we forget about the good stuff: there are people who love us, there are people about in this world doing wonderful things, and no amount of hatred, greed or petty garbage is going to stop us from connecting as people and being who we are and aspiring to do better.

So, thank you for reading and onto:

Boston Cream Pie!

Recipe for filling and icing from joyofbaking.com

Sponge cake recipe from pieceofcake.blogspot.com (same as tres leches week).

The cake was straight forward- it's a sponge cake.  The joyofbaking recipe seemed a little too wordy, so I went for what I knew from the pieceofcake recipe.  I substituted in 1/2 cup flour for whole wheat on both of the cakes I made and baked one in a 10" springform and the other in an 8".  The 10" went to work and the 8" went to my parents (my 9" bottom was still in the drying rack in the faculty room from the week before).  Only comment on the 8" was there seemed to be far too much cake for the cake: filling: frosting ratio.

Pastry cream and the different chocolate ganache frosting were the two new parts of the equation and the stars of the show.  I've had interesting luck with cooked custards (zabaglione and I aren't friends), so I was worried about this.  It really was so simple.

Mix the sugar and yolks, sift in flour and corn starch (one modification- tastes a little too floury and for the love, 1/8 cup is 2 Tbs, let's use the easier measurement!).  Heat milk to a foam, whisk milk into egg mix, return all to saucepan on medium heat and whisk, whisk until it thickens.

Assembly was delightful.

And the ganache was ridiculously good!  I'm keeping this recipe and sharing it with you:

Chop 4 oz of semi-sweet chocolate (I used Baker's) and place in something heat proof.

Heat together 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1 tsp butter just to boiling.

Pour cream mixture over chocolate and let sit for 4ish minutes.  Stir until smooth and then pour.

Look at that shine!

Once again, a little too much cake for the ratio, but I'm calling it a pass.  Onto lemon cake this weekend.

Be well!

P.S. I mentioned some weeks back that I wanted to do a 100 days challenge.  I was planning on walking, doing sit ups, push ups, etc every day for 100 days.  I choked.  So, Sunday, I started Couch to 5K (http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml).  Don't quote me as being original on this.  I found out that Seems was doing this two weeks ago and finally realized that it was time.

 This is me before the initial run/ walk.  I was far too shaky and cold to take one at the end... starting on a 12 degree day wasn't my best idea ever.

 the mean streets of the big pineapple!

I did my second session today- 30 degrees felt like a heat wave!

from the bathroom floor...

What a busy couple of days-- the semester just started, I posted two blogs, made tres leches for my morning class, got stuck in Seem's driveway, and now, I'm hanging out on the bathroom floor--that is the tub behind me.  It seems to be the only place I can actually get any work done in the house.  I have reading to do on creativity theories, feminist pedagogy and humor and evaluation... and I probably should outline the methodology for my pilot... sitting on the bath mat.  Pretty sad, considering I have six furnished rooms with a choice of seating.  Eh.  I guess you have to stick with what works.  Sometimes I feel like I get so caught up in not knowing how things are going to turn out that I don't just get down to it and trust the process... and accept that sometimes you wind up with death cake, and sometimes you wind up with a wicked tres leches.

Boston cream pie tomorrow... mmmmm.

Week 22, January 17, 2011: Ricotta Cheesecake

Well friends, this is it for cheesecakes: our sixth and final variety, Ricotta Cheesecake-recipe from joyofbaking.com

While I've learned that pretty much every ingredient in baking needs to be room temp, I've realized something else, that I really really don't like planning ahead.  I mean, I don't mind having to leave eggs or butter or cream cheese out on the counter for thirty minutes before starting to bake, but I really don't like things that need to be done hours or days ahead--something that's irritated me about pretty much all of the cheesecakes I've done.

Most cheesecakes want to be refrigerated for an hour or overnight after baking to allow the flavors to intensify and blend.  I get this and do this, but ricotta cheesecake is a little more miss'ish.  The ricotta needed to be drained 1-2 hours up to overnight.  This was irritating and I think I found a way around it.

The traditional recipe says either put the ricotta in a fine wire strainer or cheesecloth and suspend it over a bowl.  I did and left it in the fridge over night--it didn't wind up draining much.  This could possibly be due to the fact that my strainer is small, so to remedy the wet ricotta, I took the ball o cheese, wrapped it in cheesecloth and squeezed the liquid out.  It worked very well (and made the ricotta look so cool) and I think I'll be doing the same when I make the recipe again.

Besides draining the ricotta, this was simple as cheesecakes go.  First, wrap the pans in foil to get them ready for their baths.

Prepare the dry for the crust: graham cracker crumbs and melted butter.

Mix, press into pan and refrigerate.

Then, the filling!

Cream the cream cheese.  Add ricotta and sugar.

Add cornstarch, then, eggs one at a time.  Followed by vanilla and lemon or orange zest.  I used orange zest. 

Ta da!

Pour into crust.  Place pan in water bath...

Bake at 350 for an hour and 15ish.  Take out when top is browned and center wiggles slightly.

I brought it into work and discussed it with a few faculty members who'd heard that ricotta cheesecakes were traditionally Easter desserts.  My knowledge of ricotta in Easter desserts is that Cassata is for Easter.  Cassata has two forms, the mainland Italian form is a white cake layered with ricotta cheesecake containing candied fruits and chocolate.  The Sicilian form that I grew up with is an actual ricotta cheesecake with cherries or candied fruits and chocolate.  I recommend the ricotta cheesecake as a nice change in pace from the traditional New York cheesecake- it's texture is more complex and less dense.  And I'm now a huge proponent of water baths--no cracks to be seen.

So easy to make and very tasty!

Next week we're onto the complex and intriguing Boston Cream Pie.  Happy Baking.