05/11/12

my first layer cake

Yesterday was my birthday, and in 27 years, I had never made my own, from scratch, layer cake.

Last night, I decided it was time to alter that, and high on a false sense of my own capabilities. I went out and bought the ingredients for Smitten Kitchen’s best yellow layer cake, and Quick Vanilla Buttercream Frosting from the food network.

While I was cooking, I whistled the happy tune of the blissfully delusional. Till I realized I didn’t have circular cake pans. And then when when the cake cracked when I turned it out of the pan and cut it in half to make two layers. And then when boyfriend accidentally flipped the top layer onto the bottom without a layer of frosting. And again when I realized the frosting (which I put in the fridge so it wouldn’t get too soft while the cake cooled) was so hard it fused to the bowl.

Both of these recipes seem lovely by the way, but this poor cake just suffered too much user error. It tastes, fine, it’s just a hot mess in the looks department.

You’d think this cake fail would discourage me, but it just makes more determined to make a passable layer cake. And so I declare this

the year of cakes!

Each month I will make at least one cake and document my progress, with whatever tips and tricks I can cobble together along the way.

Birthdays are a good time for resolutions, and while I’ve also been thinking about personal types of growth, I resolve not to let another year go by with subpar cakes!

04/30/12

Quick Baguettes

The lace was a flop. Like, ugh, I don’t even want to talk about it. So here’s some bread!

See how I distracted you there, did it work?

Yesterday, I got home from the grocery store and realized we forgot to get mozzarella, so pizza was out. After a minute of mourning for my dinner, I decided I still wanted something yeasty, but it needed to be quick. I still needed to eat dinner soon. So after a minute of searching I settled on the Baguette by the Sisters Cafe.

For a very speedy bread, it’s very good.  There is only one, 30 minute rise, which meant that I could satisfy my home baked bread craving fast. The texture is more like white sandwich bread than french though, the crumb is very fine and doesn’t have the nice big holes I would generally expect in a baguette. It also has more of a sandwich bread taste. I suspect this is due to the short rise, there wasn’t enough time for the yest to produce the lovely bubbles in the bread or the complex flavor we associate with a baguette. Also, a real french baguette is often a two day affair, starting with either a preferment, either a biga or a poolish and including multiple rises to help ferment the yeast.

Still, I didn’t have that kind of time so this was an excellent alternative.

Another fairly speedy baguette recipe I’d like to try
Steamy Kitchen’s How to Make the Perfect Loaf of French Bread 

 

 

04/22/12

FO – Eliina Shawl

Another back shot, because, well, I’m not photogenic.

This is the Eliina Shawl, and while the pattern is wonderful, the real show stopper is the yarn. It’s Creatively Dyed Yarn – Calypso that I bought at Rhinebeck a couple of years ago. I had spent all day waiting to buy something special and for some totally unknown reason it called to me. Or depending on your oppinion, screamed at me. This is not a subtle yarn color. But that’s why I love Creatively Dyed Yarn, they go where most yarn colors don’t dare. Their booth stood out of the crowd like a crazy orange shawl in the middle of the woods.

The great thing about the yarn though, is that it actually is a lot more complex than your average crazy orange. There are a lot of yellow and brown tones that make it feel more like an autumn leaf and less like a traffic cone.

 

04/21/12

FO – Folded

Last week I suckered a couple of my friends into a photo shoot of our finished knitting so that I could finally update my Ravelry notebook without having to make use of my self timer and awkward poses where I’m hopefully mostly in the shot without any of my laundry showing.

A good, if awkward time was had by all.

The pattern is Folded by Veera Välimäki, I didn’t like the pleats in the front so I pulled them around to the back. I looove this sweater. I used 2 skeins of Malabrigo sock and I had 1 gram left over at the end! It curled up a bunch so I added a hem to the bottom which helps keep weigh it down and keep it from riding up.

Here’s my ravelry project page

 

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