Cake test results #2

This morning I finished the genoise cake as part of an experiment for Joseph/Mary's wedding. My goals were to:

1. Determine the texture of genoise and see if it's a suitable wedding cake
2. See if the genoise can withstand being soaked in liqueur without becoming soggy
   
3. Make white chocolate ganache and see if it tastes good and goes with the rest of the cake (it would be part of the filling)
4. Use whole fresh raspberries as part of the filling and see if there's enough raspberry flavor
5. Frost the cake in cream cheese icing that is supposed to harden and can be smoothed in 15 minutes

I would've done this all last night, but at 9:30pm as I read the recipe for the ganache I realized it had to be refrigerated for a few hours before being used. That totally made sense, since I first boiled the heavy cream and then mixed in my white chocolate, resulting in a hot mixture. Cream can only be whipped if it's cold, so the mixture had to be refrigerated so it could cool off and then be whipped.

So anyhow, I leveled the cakes and lightly brushed on a raspberry liqueur syrup (made from simple syrup mixed with framboise). Following a recipe, I created an even layer of raspberries on the bottom layer and spread the white chocolate ganache on top of them. However, it was kind of hard to spread it over the raspberries without moving them around, so I ended up taking all the raspberries off the cake and mixing them into the ganache, then spreading that on the cake. But that didn't work out too well either, because the raspberries were not spread evenly over the cake and some of them became crushed. I finally just plunked some more raspberries onto the cream and called it good.

I frosted the cake with cream cheese icing...


And let it sit for 15 minutes, per the recipe for this "magical" crusting cream cheese icing.

15 minutes later I tried to smooth it, but it hadn't crusted yet and I really needed to head off to work, so I just said, "forget it." I took a slice of cake for myself, then brought the rest to work.

Here's how it turned out:




And at work:


I'm not really happy with the filling. First of all, raspberries go well with cream cheese and they go well with white chocolate, but white chocolate and cream cheese do not go well together. So I'm going to nix the white chocolate filling and just use cream cheese or whipped cream. Secondly, the whole raspberries didn't provide enough raspberry flavor. I think I will spread the bottom layer with seedless raspberry jam to get a more even layer of raspberry flavor. Plus, fresh raspberries won't exactly be in season at the end of the month and frozen berries taste nasty.

Other improvements: I didn't soak the cake with enough raspberry liqueur. Now that I know the texture of genoise (kind of crumbly and dense, able to withstand extra moisture), I am going to poke the cake with toothpicks to allow the raspberry liqueur to penetrate further into the cake. Also, I'm going to keep messing around with the cream cheese frosting to see how long it takes to crust.

Feeling better lately

I don't want to jinx myself (knock on wood), but it seems like things are looking up.

• I have a place to live with a real lease
• I'm no longer exhausted and stressed all the time
• I am excited to try out new recipes
• I've been eating more
• It's getting cool outside, which means I can take walks during the day
• I'm more able to handle the crappy things that come my way

The last month was pretty crappy for me, so I'm glad things are getting better.

Today's Lunch:
Japanese pan noodles with shrimp (from Noodles & Co.)

My good deed

Yesterday I did my good deed for the year. I was at the devil's asshole (which is what Mel once called the DMV, lol) and this guy next to me gave me this long sob story about how he's homeless and he just got out of jail because he wasn't paying child support, but how could he pay child support if he was homeless and didn't have a job? and he tried to go to a homeless shelter so he and his five kids (that he had with "his girl"), three of whom are 1 year old (I don't get it, they must be triplets), could have a place to live, but the homeless shelter wouldn't let him in without a proper ID, so he came to the DMV all the way from the east side of town and now he has to pay $9 to get a new ID card but only has $4, so could I just help him out?

He really didn't have to give me the story about his kids and his girl and his time in jail, etc., I would have just helped him out if he kept the story limited to the homeless shelter, but whatever. I paid the $9 and told him to keep his $4, fully realizing he may spend that $4 on crack and not on his kids (if they exist), but whatever. And it's not like I gave him the cash, I just gave it right to the DMV guy, wished him luck, and went on my way.

So yeah, that's my good deed for the year.

Cake test results #1

The White Cake

Last night I filled and frosted the white cake as an experiment for Mia/Abu's wedding. My goals were to:

1. See how the white cake tasted
2. Determine if the white cake had good texture
3. Make homemade buttercream for the first time
4. See how the buttercream tasted
5. See if the buttercream-frosted cake could withstand sitting out for an extended period of time

I began making the frosting at 11:00 (kind of late, I know, but I didn't get home until 8:30 and I was tired). It was really fun to make - first I whisked together 4 eggs and 1 cup of sugar in a heatproof (glass) mixing bowl. Then I set the bowl in a pan of simmering water, stuck in my candy thermometer, and whisked gently but constantly until the mixture reached 160 degrees (to cook the eggs). I removed it from the water, added some vanilla and salt, then began mixing the heck out of it with my hand mixer. Soon the mixture became very creamy and uniform. Then I added a pound of butter, bit by bit, and mixed the heck out of it until it thickened. Viola - I had my buttercream frosting.

I iced the cake...


And let it sit out all night to see if the frosting would slide off or anything. Fortunately, the cake looked exactly the same this morning.

I brought it to work and gave it the guys in the shops (carpenter shop, metal shop, forklift operator, etc.). They had once mentioned they'd be my guinea pigs and would eat anything... and I totally believe them. Of course, I had to take a slice for myself so I could do some taste testing!

The frosting rocked. It was light and fluffy and buttery and not too sweet. The cake had really great texture - nice, light crumb, airy and soft. However, I had forgotten to add vanilla to the batter, so it tasted a wee bit eggy. Oops.


My only complaint about the homemade buttercream frosting (as opposed to the overly-sweet, kind-of-gross Wilton recipe) is that it has a yellow color to it, most likely from the egg yolks. However, Wilton makes white dye that actually whitens icing, so I may give it a try some day. But Mia is having a fall wedding and wants her cake decorated with fall flowers (made with icing, yay!), so I think a yellowish icing base would look nice with that.

Patriot Day

"NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim September 11, 2007, as Patriot Day. I call upon the Governors of the United States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as appropriate officials of all units of government, to direct that the flag be flown at half-staff on Patriot Day. I also call upon the people of the United States to observe Patriot Day with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and remembrance services, to display the flag at half-staff from their homes on that day, and to observe a moment of silence beginning at 8:46 a.m., eastern daylight time to honor the innocent Americans and people from around the world who lost their lives as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001."

C'mon, Dubya.. just bite the bullet and make it a federal holiday!

Patriot Day

"NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim September 11, 2007, as Patriot Day. I call upon the Governors of the United States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as appropriate officials of all units of government, to direct that the flag be flown at half-staff on Patriot Day. I also call upon the people of the United States to observe Patriot Day with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and remembrance services, to display the flag at half-staff from their homes on that day, and to observe a moment of silence beginning at 8:46 a.m., eastern daylight time to honor the innocent Americans and people from around the world who lost their lives as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001."

C'mon, Dubya.. how 'bout making it a federal holiday??

Grrr...

Thursday I was driving back from Janesville when a rock was sprayed at me by a farm truck in the other lane. It made a loud "thunk," but I didn't see any damage on my windshield so I thought it just hit the hood or something.

Friday a little crack had appeared at the bottom of my windshield. It has increased in size each day, and now it's about 8" long. I called my insurance company, and I'll probably have to shell out the $250 deductible to get the windshield replaced. However, I'm having a company look at it tomorrow to see if it can be repaired. Just in case.

Also, Kevin left friday for a trip to California and won't be back until wednesday. I miss him!

Oh, and I ran into the creepy ex-landlord at the credit union saturday. I asked him how things were going (trying to be nice) and he said something like, "the FBI is after you because of the painting," to which I denied taking his painting. Then he started spewing a bunch of crap about my boyfriend stealing it and I was the accomplice. I just walked away.

Then, today, I received this email from my former landlord (okay, 3 landlords ago, but the most recent "real" one I've had (Buddy's parents)):

A guy stopped by this weekend and was asking about you- Annie talked with him. He said you applied to live at his apartment and was wondering if we had any complaints or police reports about you. Obviously it was the yahoo who threw you out on your backside a few weeks ago. What is he up to now? Anyway, we we told him how wonderful you were.

I love Mr. T (that's what I call him). He and Annie were the best landlords EVER.

Oh, and maybe this will help offset my whining (this cat looks just like Kitty):

Mouth is watering

I read last week's Isthmus and there was an article about a family who is only eating foods grown within 100 miles of Madison. They mentioned Willow Creek bacon, saying they "literally moan" every time they eat it. I am obsessed with trying this bacon! I am planning on getting my hands on some of it tonight. I'll let you know how that goes.

Speaking of food, my latest yummy treat is Camenzola cheese. I believe it's a cross between Camembert, a soft French cheese, and gorgonzola, an Italian blue cheese. It's yummy on crackers but I think I will make it into a sauce with tomatoes and basil and salt and pepper and toss it with pasta.

Also, I finally had some late-summer vegetables this week - cucumbers, tomatoes, and corn on the cob. I hadn't purchased anything local and in-season for a long time. The corn totally rocked my world and I'm planning on buying more. Even better, you can wrap raw corn on the cob in wax paper and nuke it for 2 minutes per ear. That makes it sooo easy to prepare.

Weekend

Friday night I relaxed at home and watched Shopgirl. I was really impressed with that movie! I could totally relate to the main character (Mirabelle) with her feelings of loneliness as a young person losing the protective blanket of college and family and entering the working world. There aren't a lot of movies that hold my undivided attention, but this was one of them.

Saturday I worked at a local event, the SoCo Music Experience. I originally wanted to attend because The Flaming Lips were playing, but then they needed people to work at it and the pay was $14/hour, so I went for it. Here's what I did: you had to be 21 to get in, so there were security people checking IDs at the door. After going through the security check, patrons would walk past my table, where I would ask for their ID and scan it through a little machine that took down information about them - name, address, birthdate, gender. The information was gathered on Southern Comfort's behalf for "marketing research." Then we were supposed to ask for the person's email address so they could receive junk email from SoCo.

I probably won't be asked to do any future event promotion work by this company because I kind of had a negative attitude about digging for people's information. The other workers would say, "I need to scan your ID," and the patron thought we were checking it to make sure it wasn't fake, so they'd hand it over. Then they'd say, "could I get your email address?" The lines were SOOO long and it took forever to punch in the email addresses on the little computer things, so I only asked for them when I felt like it. Plus, they were just going to receive SoCo spam, anyway, and who wants that? I didn't like the idea of misleading people in order to get their information, so I said, "could I scan your ID?" and if they asked why, I told them the truth - that it was for marketing research purposes by SoCo. Then I would say, "and if you want you can give me your email address but you don't have to." And usually they didn't.

When I finished working it was 8:30 (7-1/2 hours tax-free, not bad) and The Flaming Lips began playing. My favorite part of the show was hearing "Race for the Prize," the only song I recognized (I only own one of their CDs, The Soft Bulletin). It was fabulous. They had some really crazy videos playing on a large screen behind them, which were entertaining to watch. The lead singer had a little video camera attached to his microphone stand, which showed his face at a strange angle. And the onstage dancers were dressed like Santa Claus and fairies. All these things together made the concert very entertaining.

Sunday I baked. I made two practice cakes - a white cake (for Mia/Abu), and a genoise (for Joseph/Mary). The genoise was kind of involved, which made it really fun to bake. It involves beating together eggs and sugar over a pan of simmering water, then removing from heat and beating until they triple in volume (it was really cool). Then flour is folded in, then clarified butter is folded in. I had never clarified butter so that was an interesting experience. The recipe contains no leavening, which makes it kind of tricky- the cakes turned out a little flat, but that could just be the nature of the recipe... or I could have done it wrong. I guess I'll find out when I frost it and cut it tonight!

Kitty seems to like the new apartment. Whenever I leave the room and sit somewhere else, she'll come and join me (but still keeping her distance a few feet away). Oh, and I got a microwave, toaster, and table last week for $31. Now I just need a couch. I've been laying on the living room floor to watch TV and it isn't the greatest.

Today's Lunch:
Don't know yet! Need groceries, so will probably just grab something

P.S.

I'm running to the complete opposite side of town to look at an estate sale. According to the ad on craigslist, they will have household items like a toaster and microwave - things I need. I hope the drive will be worth it. Wish me luck!

Also.. for work, we were asked to provide some information to include on the webpage. They wanted things like our name, title, phone number, email address, and a few bullets describing the research we take part in. We could include a photo of ourselves, too. I don't really have a "posed office photo" so I sent a few of my favorites and said the website people could pick the one they like. Here are the photos I sent:









I couldn't resist sending this last one. :)

2%

My latest food obsession is my discovery of non-skim milk, particularly 2% milk.

When I lived with Dante he received a free half gallon of milk for getting a rewards card at a gas station. He said he never drinks milk and he doesn't like the cereal he has anyway, so I could go ahead and use the milk if I wanted to.

I was a little wary of using 2% milk in my cereal. "It's so fattening, do I really need to drink it?" I've always been a skim milk person (excluding my childhood but I can't remember what my parents bought). Skim milk is healthy, it's good in cereal, I can use it for baking, whatever. But all we had was the 2% stuff so I used it... and I was immediately hooked.

I loved how it was so white and thick. When I pour it on my cereal it actually sticks to the cereal rather than just settling in a pool in the bottom of my bowl. So this is how people get milk mustaches! Now when I think of skim milk, I think of its gray color, its watery texture, its boring flavor.

In my opinion, 2% is what milk should taste and look like. And since I hardly use it (only for my cereal), it's not like I'm getting that much more fat and calories into my diet by switching over to it. To me it's worth it.

Today's Lunch:
No food in the house. Will have to grab something while running errands.

Okay, fine

The dish on Kevin:

We broke up for a while after the big fiasco in July, but have since gotten back together. We are working through some of the issues we faced earlier and it helps to have heard his side of the story. Overall he's a great guy - a good communicator, romantic, adventurous, handsome. We could do anything and have a great time together. He understands that I'm leaving for the Peace Corps in a few months, so we are trying to appreciate each other as much as possible before I leave.

We were kind of keeping things on the downlow because I'm afraid his crazy ex-girlfriend will read my blog and start harassing us again. But I haven't heard anything from her yet, so I'm just gonna go with it.

Here's a picture for your viewing enjoyment (back off, ladies - he's taken!):


Today's Lunch:
Last of the Jamaican chicken foot soup
Baby carrots
Grape tomatoes

Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!

I have the hottest date with Kevin tonight, but he doesn't know it yet.

We're meeting at our park (it's where we always hang out). I'm going to surprise him by bringing him over to a picnic blanket behind the trees, where there will be chilled champagne that we'll drink out of real champagne flutes, candles burning, reggae music playing on my mp3 player, and food - coconut-date rolls, fresh strawberries, and pineapple.

Right now I'm waiting for the music to load onto my mp3 player. I wish it would go faster.

Can't wait!

Wedding cakes

I'm getting ready to make Joe and Mary's wedding cake (they're getting hitched in less than a month, so I guess it's about time!). First I need to test the recipes for the cake flavors they have in mind. Then I need to construct a practice cake (using just cake mix) to make sure the tiers will fit together and nothing collapses.

It's going to be a 4-tier cake for 250 guests and will have cream cheese frosting on the outside.

• Bottom tier - 18" - red velvet with regular cream cheese filling
• Second tier - 14" - white almond cake with raspberries potentially folded into the batter and some type of raspberry filling
• Third tier - 10" - ambrosia cake - coconut cake with alternating orange and pineapple fillings
• Top tier - 6" - anniversary tier - red velvet with regular cream cheese filling

The 18" layer is made with a special half-round cake pan because an 18" round pan is just too big to make a cake that cooks evenly.


So far I've made the red velvet cake a few times and we know it's a winner. I need to test the ambrosia cake and white almond raspberry cake recipes, so that's my goal in the next week. Then I'm going to buy the pans I need to make the practice cake.

I'm a little concerned about cream cheese frosting being on the outside of the cake, since it doesn't crust and smooth the way buttercream does. But I have a new "crusting cream cheese icing" recipe that I'm planning to try, so hopefully it will work.

As for the actual wedding cake, I'm going to take over Mary and Joe's apartment kitchen starting thursday before the wedding and I'm going to bake the cake there. Yep, it'll be crazy, but I want it to be as fresh as possible and their kitchen is bigger and nicer than mine.

Also, Kevin has a friend, Abu, who is getting married to this woman, Mia, who has since become an acquaintance of mine. I told Mia I'd make their wedding cake if she wanted me to, and as far as I know I'm still doing it. Making a Ghanaian-style cake will be interesting... I will be doing a practice cake for that wedding, too, and it takes place in early October. Looks like September will be a busy month of baking!

Stay tuned for future updates on the wedding cakes..

Today's Lunch:
Leftover Jamaican chicken foot soup (no feet this time)