An Utterly Cute Cake

This cake might fall into the , "it's the thought that counts" category. One of my coworkers, who is a livestock agent is having a birthday. She is very big on birthdays and the group of people we eat lunch with wanted to have a surprise birthday lunch for her. Of course I volunteered to make the cake. I wanted to make her a cow cake but it needed to be different from the last cow cake I made for a colleague of hers. This was going to be a traditional brown cow. Of course I did make it a girl and even put a pink bow in the tuft of hair at the top. However when I got done, I wasn't sure that it didn't look more like a brown bear rather than a brown cow. Of course it was made with milk which would be the difference between a cow and a bear. :)

Maybe a Little Monkey Business

You know me. I love a little monkey business, it can be so much fun. So when the sister of a friend called me and we discussed a cake for a baby shower this cake just jumped into my head. She was describing the colors with browns, blues, pinks a little yellow and well there wasn't a theme but there would be a monkey or two because the mom to be likes monkeys. Suddenly my mind went from crawling baby to stroller, baby bottle and suddenly a baby monkey. How can you tell a baby monkey from an adult monkey? By the diaper, of course. The cake itself was a butter cake, because the dad to be (who yes, was at the shower) is allergic to chocolate. Although there were several suggestions of putting chocolate creme in the part of the cake with the diaper, I did refrain. However, now I am in the mood for chocolate creme. Go figure. I think the cake, which had stiff competition with Krispey Kreme Doughnuts was a hit. There was not a piece left by the end of the shower. Congratulations Missy and Jeff on Sami who should be making her appearance in June.

Chemistry Experiment or Cooking?

I am very excited to introduce my very first batch of root beer ever! I admit I did not come up with this concoction all by myself. I have a kit that came with all the ingredients (except sugar) and bottles. Actually I wanted to try this out to see if we could do this as part of the 4-H Summer Fun Program (Bio-tech Day Camp) next year. You see making root beer is more than following a recipe (which I am told is the only way I can cook) you have to watch temperatures and timing and then be patient.

After mixing all the ingredients and filling the bottles it was time for carbonation. This is different then the process that soda usually takes in factories. There is wine yeast in this recipe and the yeast eats the sugar in the soda to carbonate. This process takes place in a warm dark place. When the bottles are firm they go into the fridge for 24 hours and they are ready to be opened. Turning the lid the pressure lets off like any soda. When you pour it it does not foam up like mass production root beer. You can see some bubbles but it is not quite as fizzy. When you drink it you can feel the natural carbonation. Overall the root beer has a smooth and creamy taste. Whether you think this is chemistry or cooking the end result is the same, mmm mmmm good.

MMM mmm Good!

There is nothing like the smell of bread baking in the oven. You have heard of comfort foods, well this is a comfort smell for me. Thanks to my sourdough starter it is one that I will get to smell about once a week.

You may remember my post last year about the Sourdough bread I was making. Sourdough bread was a favorite of my dad's and something that has always been coveted in our family. The key to this is making sure the starter stays alive. If you don't bake with the starter once a week you must feed it (discard a certain about of flour and water and add more). Sourdough is not an easy bread to make. It requires patience. A great deal of patience. Usually what happens is that on Friday night after I get home from work and have dinner I get the starter out and start making sponge. By Saturday morning the sponge is usually ready and I am making dough. It takes all day Saturday for the dough to rise. Right before I go to bed I punch the dough down and put it in a greased bread loaf and let it rise overnight and most of Sunday. When it has reached the top of the loaf pan it is time to put it in the oven for an hour. After cooling in the pan, and dump it out on the cooling rack. Suddenly, I have a loaf of Sourdough bread. Doubling the recipe doesn't take much, it just requires twice as many ingredients and bowls for rising. Wait time can happen all at once.

I make this once a week, but don't expect a post every week concerning bread. Of course if it is an interesting situation I am likely to post about it. Just know that if you smell that most wonderful aroma of fresh baked bread over the weekend chances are it is coming from my little oven in between cakes and other baked delectable. If you are interested in purchasing a loaf of sourdough please feel free to contact me at customcake4you@aol.com. Time to go slice a piece and watch the butter melt on my fresh out of the oven warm bread. YUM!

A Twist on a Classic Cane

I love a good twist on a story or a cake. You may have seen the candy cane cake before. It is one of my favorites to bake at the holidays. This time instead of decorating it in the traditional red and white I decorated it with green and white stripes with red pinstripes. Just something a little jazzier this year. The cake itself is a butter fudge cake (I was thinking mint chocolate when I made it). This cake was made for a festive office party for a friend who enjoys a good cake. Looks like the people he works with enjoyed it as well.

Silver Bells?

As you can tell the bells are not exactly silver but they are Christmasy. A friend was throwing an office party for his staff and I helped out with some food. Now I must say I did offer up a cake because what is a party without a cake. I also had selfish reasons for offering this cake. You see this is the first time I have baked this one and I have wanted to try this pan for some time. The cake is a yellow butter cake with my basic decorating icing. It was really golden with golden icing and a red ribbon on top to add to the festivities.

Don't You Love the Smell of Fresh Baked Bread?

Yes, it smells so good in my kitchen right now. I love it. There is nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread, and there is something especially sweet about this loaf. Growing up my father's favorite bread was sourdough. To make it involved a special starter, that is kind of high maintenance, you have to feed it once a week to keep it going. I was under the impression that it required a very special yeast to make this batter so imagine my surprise when I found out with a little effort each day over a week I could create my own sourdough starter. I got the perfect glass container (sourdough starter does not do well in metal) and got started mixing flour and water in proportion until a wonderful sour bacteria started growing (no joke).

I have tried several times going through the steps and I don't know if the temperature was to cold or if the batter was just not quite right but I had several failed attempts. My bread just did not want to rise. Finally this weekend all the elements came together and the bread started to rise. On the second rising it took overnight to get it the size of the loaf but it finally worked. Baking the bread was not only aromatic but satisfying because it turned out to be what it is supposed to be.