experimenting

As I said in July, my main guinea pig, I mean my son, was diagnosed with diabetes.  His birthday was coming up. So I began to look for alternatives to his favorite "Cheeto cake" (see photo on left). I am not familiar with using artificial sugar replacements in baking. I was a little concerned because I wanted to make him a cake,  but I also wanted it to turn out right.
So I chickened out. I bought the Pillsbury sugar free yellow cake mix*. I didn't even know such an item existed until I seen it in the store.**I also bought the orange sugar free Jello*** as well as Pillsbury's reduced sugar  white frosting. I wasn't sure how or if I could punch it up.
Well, this is how I did it.
For the cake, I used milk instead of water, it gives the cake a richer taste. I also replaced 2 teaspoons of the milk with 2 teaspoons McCormick's orange extract. I filled the 2 prepped cake pans with about one half of the batter (each pan got one quarter of the mixture). I mixed the sugar free Jello with the remaining cake batter and swirled that into the already prepped pans. Then I waited.
It seemed to me that the cake had to bake a little longer then what was stated on the box. Do_not_ take that as advice to bake the cake longer. My oven can be a bit strange sometimes so I normally have to adjust to its quirks.
While the cake baked, I fiddled about with the frosting. I wanted to add some orange extract to it, but I was apprehensive because I might put in too much. I started off with a teaspoon of orange extract to the can of frosting. I wasn't completely satisfied, so I upped it by one half of a teaspoon and the flavor was right. If you intend to do this, you may want to do some tasting of the icing  to make sure it has the right flavor. Orange extract is clear, so you don't see the icing turn a pale orange color.
The cake was baked and frosted and ready for the ultimate taste test - my sons Dan and Will. The cake met their rather high expectations. Believe me, if it was off in any way, they would have no problem in letting me know.
So the experiment was a happy success. I would like very much if Pillsbury produced  an orange sugar free cake mix (they do produce chocolate****) to use. The color is much more intense with the varying colors of orange.  If I intend to use the frosting again, I would buy some orange food coloring. It is amazing to me how much color can trick the mind and make something taste so much better. I know it works.  But I always think I could have done better. Maybe use orange juice instead of the milk or water? I'm not sure.
Bur now I have about 2 months until the next birthday at my house. So I have 2 months to troll the internet for a diabetic friendly chocolate cake recipe. That will also give me some time to fiddle about with it, seeing if I could make it better. Then there is Christmas coming up and sometimes I bake for it. If I am going to bake for Christmas, I am going to have to troll for diabetic friendly recipes. So perhaps I should shut this down for today and start looking.


* I  know, you are thinking, sheesh, do you call that baking?  Well, yes I do.
** If you must know, I found it at Wal-Mart
*** No, I do not get a kickback from any of the products mentioned or Wal-Mart. I can be bribed but nobody offers me a bribe.
**** besides the sugar free chocolate cake, they produce a sugar free brownie mix and sugar free icing

baking change

It's been a very long time since my last post. Most of that time, I was not doing much in the way of cooking or baking. An occasional cake or a pan of brownies here and there, but no major baking. I don't even do a major dinner for Thanksgiving anymore.

And meanwhile, something has come up that has to change my way of cooking and baking. My son has been diagnosed as Type 2 diabetes. He is good with the oral medication and watching his carbs. But that also means I got to adapt what I do so I take his dietary restrictions into cooking and baking.

So now I begin to look for diabetic recipes. Haven't found too much of anything (he was diagnosed a bit over a month ago) but I have to really start looking hard soon, His birthday is in a few weeks and he has to decided between his beloved Cheeto cake, which, of course, has lots of sugar in it or another type of cake. It should be fun.

homemade vanilla extract

Way back in January (I think) I announced I was going to get some vanilla beans and make my own vanilla extract. Well, it's been finished for some time, but I haven't gotten around to posting the results yet. So here goes I drained the extremely dark liquid and discarded the vanilla beans. The vanilla extract was extremely strong smelling, mostly of booze. The smell faded away after I left the jar open for about 5 minutes. I poured the extract into 2 canning jars I had purchased just for this experiment. I was a little hesitant to try it, I thought it would knock me on my butt. I figured I'd use it in a recipe instead of sampling it straight from the jar. In my opinion, it made a difference in the brownies and cake. But maybe it's just my imagination, because nobody said "holy Moses, this tastes like vanilla". But that's probably a good thing, I wouldn't want one flavor to overpower the rest. Would I do it again? Yes, and I plan too prior needing the vanilla. I considered doing it now so I will have lots of vanilla extract for holiday baking. I think I would use vodka the next time around. Not that I know using the vodka would be better, just to try out different ways to make vanilla. I want to see if the vodka vanilla works better than the rum vanilla. What would I do differently? I'd make sure I had jars/bottles ready to put the vanilla in. I'd make a note to myself to shake it up every day (I skipped it some days, I forgot). So I would say if you use as much vanilla as I do, making your vanilla is a great alternative.... Here's the basic recipe 5 whole vanilla beans 8 ounces of alcohol (bourbon, rum, vodka - anything that's about 35% alcohol) Take the vanilla beans and split them down the middle. Place vanilla beans in container. Add the booze, seal the bottle and keep it in a dark place for 8 weeks. Shake the bottle every day for a minute. After 8 weeks, the extraction process should be finished. The liquid will be dark. There's some disagreement on what happens to the vanilla beans. Some people re-yse them, making another batch. Others leave the beans in the extract and add a little booze to replace what they used cooking. I tossed mine because they looked mushy and were in small bits and pieces. (that's because I thought if I exposed more vanilla to the booze, it would become vanilla quicker & give a different flavor). So here it is, you can get cracking on those Christmas gifts;)

Will I ever bake again?

It has been a long hot summer. A summer that I spent on having whooping cough and that's not fun, I felt like I had been run over by a train. But (finally) I am starting to feel better. I miss the baking but it's been too hot... I did bake Will's "Cheeto cake". That, of course, was a hit. He wants me to make one without icing for his girlfriend (she's diabetic). I have managed a few thrown together dinners. Luckily for me, Craig doesn't seem to mind eating lots and lots of sandwiches. But today the weather cooled off. And I thought "hey maybe tomorrow's that day" The day for what, you ask? The day to make a Sunday dinner, the day to make bread sough (man I miss that). I think a nice roast beef with veggies and some yeast rolls will do just fine. I'll use one of my favorite bread recipes - Bernard Clayton Jr's potato bread recipe. It always turns out perfect. I have only used a few of the recipes in his book. I may like to experience with cakes and brownies, but with bread, I pretty much stick to the recipe - unless I don't;) I need to explore the book a bit more so I can make other goodies. Maybe I'll do more bread experiments in the fall, when it is cooler. Baking bread is a great experience because I believe if I can bake bread, I can do anything if I put my mind to it. And sometimes I just need to knead the bread, it's very relaxing

Happy 100th Birthday, Julia

I can't say for sure whether Julia Child ever made brownies. Believe it or not, I am not that familiar with her recipes. However, I am familiar with Julia Child's television shows. Julia (because, come on, all of us have know of her forever) is a fascinating person. Not the least bit interested in cooking until she was in her 30s, Julia managed to become the "French Chef" of renown. There was a new book by Bob Spitz about Julia. it's Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child and it is as remarkable as Julia's life was. Mr Spitz manages to put Julia's passion for food between the covers of a book. It starts out with Julia's childhood, not especially remarkable, and ends with her death. Along the way, you get to Julia grow as a person as well as a chef. And Mr Spitz describes Paul Child, without who there would not be an iconic chef as Julia Child. Mr Child had some rough breaks (his twin brother was sent to college, he wasn't) along the way. It also sounds as if he could be a difficult man to live with, but Mr Spitz shows the reader what Julia knew and loved about Paul. He was an extremely supportive husband, especially considering the time frame the Childs inhabited. But I love the little "bad Julia" stories. For instance, Julia walked out on Regis and Kathie Lee. The three of them were supposed to spread ganache over a cake. Kathie Lee, however, refused to do it because she didn't want to get "dirty". Regis decided to go with Kathie Lee decision and also refused to frost the cake. Julia was not a happy camper because that was not the way the demonstration was supposed to be shown - it was the 3 of them frosting their own cake, not Julia frosting all 3 cakes. So Julia did what I bet many stars would like to do - she packed up her equipment and left at the commercial break and never looked back. I would have loved to seen that particular show, the 2 hosts looking at each other thinking "What now?" when Julia bolted. And how Julia bedeviled Jacques Pepin on their shows and live performances. I get a sense that Julia just loved being alive and wanted to get every single second of fun she could from each moment of her life. There's a lot more to this book (it's over 500 pages)than the small crumbs I present here. But don't freak over the length - Mr Spitz writes in such a way that it makes the book a quick, enjoyable read. I really enjoyed this book and I think you will, too. FYI I did get the book from the Amazon Vine program as a freebie, but I would have bought it anyway. Outside of the free book, I received no other compensation fro reading or reviewing this book... Bon Appetit!

too much chocolate?!

I have a confession to make. Yes, I have continued to bake brownies and experiment with the ingredients. I still find the half a cup of applesauce (to cut down on the fat) and the whole wheat flour (because who doesn't need more whole wheat?) to work out pretty well. But I tried one experiment that made me go "UGGH - too much chocolate". Nope, I am not a pod person. It is just when I chose to using chocolate chunks in the brownies, it became too much for me. Incredible but true.
But it didn't slow down my sons for 1 minute. They didn't praise it but they didn't complain.
Not going to put chocolate chunks in the brownies again.

making vanilla extract

Yes, I have gone completely nuts and decided to make my own vanilla extract. Not so I can drink the rum or vodka, although it's a great idea. It's just I use a _lot_ of vanilla while baking - 2 teaspoons here, a tablespoon there and you go through a small bottle of vanilla very quickly. I don't know if it's really a savings to make your own, but it certainly seems cheaper than buying it.
I purchased my vanilla beans (Madagascar) from Olive Nation. I get no kickbacks from them for mentioning Olive Nationand the only only experience I have with buying vanilla beans happened at a grocery store. But Olive Nation was fast and fresh- best of all free shipping. The beans arrived vacuum sealed, a very cool thing. In the grocery store, they are generally in bottles, loose.
The first difference I noticed was the smell. The wonderful smell of vanilla hits you as soon as you open the pouch. The beans seem softer, more supple, so that seemed good, too.
I choose Bacardi rum to use to make the vanilla. I had it in the house already (rum cakes) and thought, hey, why not. I got 3 small jars, measured a cup of rum for each jar and placed the vanilla beans in it. I just did it maybe 30 minutes ago, so obviously I have no clue how it will turn out - for that I have to wait until close to the end of February. But it definitely is an intriguing kitchen task. I found the full instructions on this web site, http://www.noveleats.com/how-to/make-your-own-vanilla-extractHow to make vanilla extract
Again, no kickbacks from these folks. I will keep you posted on how it works. I'm thinking about buying some vodka to test that recipe out, but first I'll try the rum. Should be fun.

_Enjoy_

hello again

I've still been baking brownies - okay not so much during the hot summer months but I'm still baking. I doubt the kids ever notice the difference but sometimes they surprise me. I have added peanut butter (1/2 cup) but it seems to get overpowered by the chocolate. I've added Nutiva's coconut oil (emulsion?) and while it gave the brownies a richer taste, no taste of coconut.
And believe it or else, I managed to make a cheesecake that didn't crack. I know, it amazes me, too. I told my older  son no one could touch it until we had a photo of it. He whipped out his cell phone that's equipped with a camera and he took the shot. Then he  put the phone away and went to work on the cheesescake;)
In my quest to find different recipes to try, I have come across a few British recipes that I would like to try. British measurements are almost totally unlike  American cooking measurements. So in case you have a Brit recipe you would like to try, here's a link to do the conversion to US cooking measurements, too. (They also have other languages.) 
So now I got to clean up the mess I made already today. I baked my first fruitcake of the season last weekend, it went over pretty well. I don't give them to anyone unless I know they like fruitcake. There's no use spending the time and money to make a homemade fruitcake and it not be appreciated.
later - dishes don't wash themselves (and why is it?)

hey, I'm still here (I think)

I got no excuse for not writing in so long. I could say I was busy (and I was) but still it's a long of water under the bridge, so to speak.
I still am making brownies, I didn't make any this week, it's just way too hot. Plus I plan to put the energy into baking my "baby's" birthday cake, the famous Cheeto cake.
I did make blondies from the King Arthur cookbook. I used just chocolate chips. That worked out pretty well. My sons suggested I add peanut butter chips. I used those mini peanut butter chips as well as chocolate chips. The peanut butter chips did not stand up to the chocolate and you couldn't tell they were in the blondie.
So far, the faves of my sons are the brownies with peanut butter chips (and no additional chips), brownies with orange extract flavoring and the frozen mini marshmallow brownies.


I keep a bag of the mini marshmallows  in the freezer. Sometimes I take the  frozen mini marshmallows and mix them in with the brownie batter. It creates a little pocket of marshmallow goodness in the brownie. Sometimes I put them on top and they dot the brownies. It's pretty cool, even if I say so myself.

I did make some brownies with cream cheese in them. I loved it, but I like cream cheese. My sons didn't seem to notice any difference. But generally they don't notice anything different. Which, I guess, is good because I could sneak ground up pickled beets in the brownies - but I'm not going to because I also eat the brownies.

For Father's Day, I baked my beloved a chiffon case. For some reason, it was easier than I thought it would be. But I can't say I remember making a chiffon cake before. It might be possible I'm thinking of angel food cake. And what gives? "Back in the day" you hung the tube upside down on a glass bottle while it was cooling, something like a soda bottle. But mostly everything comes in plastic now, so there's no way you can do that. I might have to find an old soda bottle just for that purpose. Probably there's a gadget that I could buy and use for that purpose. I'll have to look into that.

_enjoy_

cooking and me

well, today I am home getting ready for about 20-30 people to come over tomorrow night for a Thanksgiving dinner. I started doing it the week before because the siblings usually had other places to go and I wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving at my house. So today I am thankful for the ability and the desire to learn to cook.
I had been helping in the kitchen for quite some time before I attempted to bake anything. I was 11, I asked my mom and she said if I made something edible, that was fine. It seems my two older sisters had wasted a lot of baking supplies by dumping them in buckets and such, not really practical applications for food.
So I began. I made chocolate chip cookies, yellow cake with chocolate frosting, peanut butter cookies. I still maintained the "prep" status by peeling potatoes, cutting up onions and celery for whatever needed to be cooked. I used to cut the last class on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so I could go home and do prep work for the Thanksgiving dinner. That should have given me a clue as to a future occupation, but of course, I didn't take it.
And as I begin the prep work today, I am reminded of the gift my parents gave me by allowing me to experiment in the kitchen. I am also reminded of my parents' presence in gathering my siblings together. I am very thankful that I have been given this talent and gift for cooking. I'm not always so thrilled to cook on a daily basis (I get tired from work) but basically I do enjoy it. And I get cranky when it's a long week and I want to cook but I'm too tired. It doesn't make any sense, does it?
So far, I have the pound cake baked and the stuffing bread made. It's time to stop fooling around on the computer and make the chocolate cheesecake....hmm, chocolate cheesecake......

cooking action lately

Not much at all, I'm sad to say. The only baking I did last week was a pineapple upside down cake for my brother's birthday, And I forgot to get a photo of that. I didn't even bake brownies and boy was _I_ sorry about that....
But this week I made up for it.  I baked a blueberry swirl cake. Basically, I made a yellow cake and swirled some blueberry pie filling in it. It looks pretty ugly because, as you know, blueberries mixed in something looks grayish. I put blueberry pie filling inbetween layers and frosted with a vanilla buttercream frosting that I sort of winged it on. I couldn't find the recipe I use all the time (I know, I got to be better organized). So I thought I could recreate it from memory. Turns out I was wrong. I think it will be okay, at least I hope so.
I also made brownies (but of course). I made them the "normal" way but instead of 6 eggs, I used 5. I wanted to see what type of effect that would have, chewy or fudgey. We will see - and taste.
Believe it or not, I am already starting to think about Thanksgiving dinner. I'm thinking instead of ham, I'll make chicken and noodles like my mom used to make (not for Thanksgiving). My oldest cat and I really love eating the ham, but secretly even we get tired of it after a few weeks.  I should run the idea by my beloved, see what he thinks.
I try not to mess with the Thanksgiving menu too much, I'm a traditionalist. But I do think the chicken and noodles would be warmly received at Thanksgiving.
Nope, haven't thought of what to bake, Of course rolls, lots and lots of rolls. I tried making sweet potato rolls one year and they just weren't all that special. Perhaps it was the recipe or I messed it up, but there was no great sweet potato taste. So the usual dinner rolls and the potato rolls will be fine.
That's all I got for now. I should think about getting my lunch together for the week (boo! hiss!), but it must be done. Work, the curse of the eating class;)
_enjoy_

if it's going to be hot like an oven outside,

it should smell like a brownie inside;)

yes

I have been baking although it's been horribly hot. How do I manage to do this? It's called sweating;)
So what have I baked? Of course, the "usual" brownies. I've added overripe bananas to the batter but later it's been a straight forward stick by the recipe baking. Oh, wait, not quite true. I have been melting bits of baking chocolate and using it in the batter. I have bits and pieces of baking chocolate that don't really add up to make a whole recipe, but a little extra chocolate is always good.
I made a strawberry swirl cake for my beloved. Instead of using a cake mix and Jello, I tinkered with Trisha Yearwood's recipe for key lime cake. I used the Jello to flavor the whole cake. I cooked some frozen and fresh strawberries into a puree and strained them.
I had reserved some cake batter after putting most of the batter in the pans. I mixed the puree strawberries into the reserved batter to give it an extra taste of strawberries. I was a little apprehensive that since I messed with the proportions of liquids, the cake wouldn't rise properly or taste okay. I topped it with a vanilla buttercream frosting.
My beloved said it turned out great. I had a piece of it today and I liked it. But honestly I love chocolate cake.
Besides baking my honey a cake, I baked a birthday cake for my "baby" boy who just turned 29. Last year, he picked the Cheeto cake that shows up as the photo on the blog. This time, he wanted a chocolate cake. So I lucked out, made his cake and got a slice of chocolate cake.

cake saw in use

Will trying to keep all his cake to himself

I bought the cake saw and really like it. I have a few photos of Will cutting the cake, but this is the only one that didn't turn out blurry because of his speed to cut it. 









This is Will in an attempt to make sure no one else will eat his cake. It failed miserably because we still ate a slice. I should have swiped a slice before he took it home, but didn't think about it. oh well.

I have to admit, I did enjoy baking a cake for my brother and sister-in-law. My brother wanted me to knock it off as my sister-in-law is diabetic and should watch her cake eating. I did make her a coconut cake for her birthday.
I should make my brother a pineapple upside down cake for his birthday. He likes that and his birthday isn't that far away. Chocolate cake is the usual tradition for siblings, but why not a pineapple upside down cake? It's his birthday.
Anyway, that's what I have been up to lately, Trying to stay out of trouble and the heat and just baking now and then. I think I would love to open a bakery but I don't honestly know if I could do that much work.  I'd like to believe it's all just baking and the customers will flock in. But I do know it's a lot more complicated than that.  I should research it more to really see if I could manage to work more baking into my life. Maybe I should find a family to bake for? hmmmmmm

whoopie pies

I'm not entirely with it, I think. Maybe it's because I think I should be on summer vacation, maybe it's brain fog, maybe.....I just don't know....
But I reviewed a book for Amazon

 and actually made whoopie pies.... so I thought I'd share a few photos with you. The recipe was quick to put together and used ingredients you most likely already have. They do suggest you use parchment paper and I have to agree - it makes the clean up so much easier.
My beloved loved them (after they were out of the fridge. I stuck them in the fridge to begin with because I was tired and it was late). My younger son and my youngest sister also gave them the thumbs up. So if you like whoopie pies, this is a shameless plug  for the book. Nope, I don't get a kickback from the authors. However, if you do use the link I provided, Amazon pays me a referral fee from the cost of the book.
They have a lemon whoopie pie that looks interesting. I think the next time I make the whoopie pies, I'll use more instant coffee. These were supposed to be mocha, but I didn't add enough instant coffee (what can I say, I don't like coffee). But next time I will.
I also made brownies this week. I did something a little different - I had left over vanilla mousse from my beloved's cake and I put a half a cup of it in the brownie batter. Again this is the  Hershey recipe with the exception I melt the butter and add the cocoa in it to give the cocoa a chance to bloom. The brownies seemed somehow richer, but not overly rich.

The mousse reminds me a bit of vanilla ice cream, but not frozen. I still have more left, I'm thinking of using it in the coconut cake I'm making for my sister-in-law today for her birthday. Maybe mix some coconut with it and use it as the filling between the first and second layer.
These are photos of my honey's birthday cake. It got eaten up relatively fast, believe it or not

The mousse reminds me a bit of vanilla ice cream, but not frozen. I still have more left, I'm thinking of using it in the coconut cake I'm making for my sister-in-law today for her birthday. Maybe mix some coconut with it and use it as the filling between the first and second layer. I used the mousse in the buttercream frosting I made for the cake.

This is how the filled cake looked when it was sliced. The mousse held up much better than the Baviarian cream has in the past.






_enjoy_

more disasters in cooking;)

Yup, it's true.  I had more disasters this weekend in cooking. But it happens to the best of us (and the worse of us, too).
Here's the latest. Every Memorial Day weekend Sunday, I make a big to do over the Sunday dinner. I know I'm not going to cook a big meal on Sunday until after Labor Day - and since it's my love's birthday weekend (usually), I try to make it special.
This time it was going to be roast chicken. I had a nice Purdue Oven Stuffer and I was looking forward to roasting and eating the chicken.
So I prepped the chicken and put it in my slow cooker. This slow cooker has a light on it so you know you turned it on and I made sure it was on. I baked some bread in the bread machine and it smelled pretty good. It didn't occur to me I couldn't smell the chicken. My sense of smell is not that good, but still......
About 7 hours later, I decided to remove the chicken from the slow cooker so we could eat supper. When I turned the chicken over (I roast mine breast side down so all the juices drip into the breast), I noticed the pop up timer was not popped up.  I thought that was weird. Than I stuck the chicken with a fork. It was still raw inside. Definitely not cool.
I debated whether to try and nuke it or put it in the oven, but my fear of having a chicken sitting out on a very warm day and the chicken stayed raw made me decided to trash the chicken as well as the slow cooker. I was not a happy camper, I had to rustle up some canned chicken breast and make a quick chicken and rice dish. Not what I wanted, but what could I do? Just the thought of eating that chicken turned my stomach, so I figured it wasn't worth it. 
Now my slow cooker has died without even giving me a warning. I got to start the process of finding another slow cooker. If anybody's got any suggestions on brands or types of slow cookers, I'd be glad to hear them. 

But I do have photos of my love's birthday cake. It turned out fine the second time around.

Betty & Pam save the day

Yesterday, I decided I would make my love's birthday. It's a filled cake, I'm sure I described it before. Last year, I used a sort of delicate vanilla cake and it didn't stand up to the Bavarian cream. So I decided to make a few changes this year - going with vanilla mousse with strawberries in it and a sturdier cake.
I decided to try a cake from an ancient recipe (okay, it's older than me so that makes it pretty old;)) and I should have know I was in troble when it called for 4 teaspoons baking powder. Just because a recipe is in an old cookbook doesn't mean it's good. Plus the page was completely clean, no evidence the recipe had ever been used. I baked the cake (40 minutes at 375 degrees - not kidding, 375 degrees). First, it took longer than 40 minutes to bake all the way through. Okay, strange, but maybe some weirdness.
But to depan it! well, I throrougly  greased the pan with Crisco. The filled cake pans are a little weird and I thought I'd go that route. The cake would _not_ come out of the pan. I tried the few tricks I knew to depan a cake, but it didn't work. So when the pan finally released, a good portion of the cake stuck to the pan.
Or maybe I should refrain from using the word "good". That cake was one of the driest cakes I ever made in my life - it was like a very stale generic yellow cake. My love suggested I cut it up, cover it with the mousse and it should work out. And probably he was right. But I said no, I'll make another cake. The birds were happy about that.
I turned to my buddy, Betty Crocker. I used the recipe for "Bonnie Butter Cake" and coated the pans with my other cooking buddy, Pam. The cake tastes great and depanned like a dream.
I got to finish adding strawberries to the mousse and make the frosting, But I just wanted to give a huge thank you to my cooking pals, Betty Crocker and Pam - they never let me down.

Misleading ad?

I get a lot of junk (snail) mail and today was no exception. There was an ad for Anne Byrn's  "The Cake Mix Doctor Deluxe Edition" for a free 21 day trial and a price of probably $34. There's 4 payments of $7.49 but that doesn't include shipping and handling.
I like Anne Byrn's books, I have three of them. And my beat up copy of  "The Cake Mix Doctor" was not the "deluxe edition". It had a completely different cover. So I was debating with myself did I _really_ want this book for that price.
Since the book is "not available in any store", I decided to try Amazon to see if that had it or if it was a brand new book. And here's what I found

Looks like the same book from the ad and most likely it is. I ordered it from Amazon because Amazon had a price I was comfortable paying. The front of the ad, where my address is, has "Postmaster Deliver 5/27/10 - 5/29/10" but I'm not sure why that particular time was specified. I got the ad on May 26, 2010.
I just wanted to alert any buyers out there about this book, Maybe somebody has purchased this particular edition from "Cake Mix Doctor, 33 E. Minor St, Emmanus PA 18098"  and can tell me a little about it. It could be different than the 2003 edition in Amazon's database. But somehow I doubt it.

McCormick rosemary roasted chicken spice package

I received the McCormick package of spices and the recipe for rosemary roasted chicken with potatoes from Gather yesterday. I decided I would try it today.
Most of the spices I would normally have on hand except for the coarse ground black pepper. I just don't normally use that much pepper. But this collection of premeasured  spices made it easy to put together this meal.
I didn't want to buy anything else to make dinner, so I used the white potatoes I had on hand in substitute for the small red potatoes. I washed the potatoes and cut them into 1  inch cubes. I mixed the ingredients in the olive oil as per the instructions. I mixed the chicken and potatoes, lined a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and placed in the oven.
While the meal was roasting, I managed to squeeze in a look at my mail and a quick shower. It was great not to stand over the stove to make sure sinner was cooked. I had to cook the food just a bit longer than what the recipe called for, but my oven is a little quirky when it comes to the temperature.
My husband and I ate the results. We both liked the way the potatoes turned out, but we felt the chicken itself was a little "edgy", a little too much spice for the chicken.  But it didn't bother us enough to make us stop eating the food.
I would give this recipe over all a 4.5 stars out of a possible 5 stars.  Even though I got home later than I usually do from work, the meal came together quickly and easily, perfect for a work night dinner. The ingredients are premeasured, so the seasoning is not a problem.  The clean up was easy and quick, always a plus for a week night dinner.  For us, it seemed a little spicy, but we tend to shy away from spicy food. I would definitely make this again but maybe reduce the amount of pepper and paprika than what is given in the recipe.
I would recommend this McCormick seasonings for rosemary chicken and potatoes highly to anyone who likes chicken. I think I with try the pork one next.
Thanks to Gather, who supplied me with the ingredient pack.

another cake!?

yes, this soon. My younger son asked me to bake a "birthday cake" for one of his co-workers. He decided it should be chocolate (it's the tradition cake here for birthdays) and so I baked it, using the Hershey's cake recipe.
And what to frost it with? Well, none other than the chocolate frosting I have tweaked to make it more powerful than normal chocolate icing;) One problem - I could not find the corn syrup, an important part of this recipe. So okay, I thought, I'm make buttercream frosting. Well, I didn't have the ingredients on hand to make a chocolate buttercream. I thought, oh heck, won't need it until Wednesday, so I'll just let it go until tomorrow.
Than it occurred to me I will probably be working late tomorrow and won't be in the mood to fool around with frosting when I got home. So it's marshmellow frosting to the rescue.
Yup, you may know it as "7 Minute Frosting" or "Boiled Frosting", I just call it marshmellow because that's what it tastes like. And I've been making it for a very long time, so I think I can call it what I like;)
With a cup of sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar, some vanilla, hot water and the powdered whites of eggs, it's pretty simple to put together. (You could use an egg white, but I don't think that's recommended anymore). This is a recipe your really need an electric mixer - unless your hands are much better than mine, which is possible. It takes 7 minutes of intense beating to make these ingredients into this fluffy frosting.
But now I got to wait until Wednesday to see how it's received.......

April 25, 2010 in baking

This is my new toy, a "Cakewich" cake pan  by Fred and Friends.


This is the first time I used it and  you can see I had a little trouble cutting the cake in half.  The box the "Cakewich" pan comes in has a white pound cake recipe, which is what I used in the pan. The pan releases well, but I think I was in too much of a hurry. I should have waited for the cake to cool a little longer. The inside frosting is damson jelly and a peanut butter icing.  It tastes pretty good, even if I do say so myself.

In other baking action, the cake of the week is another pound cake - my Aunt Roe's pound cake recipe. It's strange because you start it in a cold oven and it bakes for about an hour and a half up to 2 hours.  My sturdy tube pan was, as always, up to the task It looks pretty good, too.
The third and final thing I baked was (what else?) brownies. I followed my normal procedure of "blooming" the cocoa in the melted butter, substituting 1/2cup of applesauce for 1/2 cup of butter and using whole wheat flour. Now you're thinking "yuck", but it comes out fine. That's the way I usually make it. That way I can fool myself into believing it's a little healthy for me;)
That's all I got so far this week - _enjoy_