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_

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

8/16/09 baking

It is hot and humid now in my part of the world, but that's the way it is usually this time of year. Here's the breakdown on all the excitement in baking this week.

It was a rough week at work, a lot of drama and of course, coming back from vacation. So Thursday night, I baked a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. Turned out pretty good.My sons came over on Saturday and ate some of the cake.

The brownies this week was the "usual" Hershey's recipe - but I browned the butter in a frying pan, than mixed the cocoa with it. It seemed to make the brownies chewier with just a slightly richer taste.

The cake this week - it's a vanilla cake that is flavored with seedless raspberry jam as well as raspberry extract. The frosting....well, that's sort of a swiss meringue type (at least that's what Martha Stewart calls it). It's a mixture between a 7 minute boiled frosting and buttercream. I added the raspberry flavoring to the frosting as well. The frosting was very runny. I don't know if it was the humidity or the heat, but it just ran off the spatula and down the counter onto the floor. I wasn't too thrilled about that, but it was easy to clean up. I put the frosted cake in the fridge so maybe the frosting will set up there. At least I hope so. I did remember to put a bigger plate under the cake so I wouldn't have to hose frosting out of my fridge. That wouldn't have made me happy.

I also made my brother a cake for his "cake of the month". It's a pineapple pound cake with pineapple glaze. I made the regular size Bundt pan as making 2 small cakes doesn't work. I end up giving one cake to the birds. So he will either have to take it to work and share it or freeze it. I will be making the traditional birthday cake for him this week - maybe. Two cakes in a week might be too much.

Poop! I forgot to get sour cream when Iwas at the grocery store. I was planning to make more puff pastry. I'll just try to remember next time I'm shopping.

Gee, I hope they make a movie of this blog;) I could use the money. I wonder is Roseanne Barr would play me?

Later