Archive for the ‘adventures in food’ Category
baking: mother’s day edition.
Posted on: May 25, 2013
My last adventure in baking was the No Bake Raspberry Cheesecakes. It was Mother’s Day weekend, and I also planned to bake something for my mother that Sunday morning. I decided on Joy the Baker‘s Cream Cheese Pound Cake from her cookbook. I had to go out and buy aluminum loaf pans because my sister someone stole my loaf pan. The recipe is for a 9×5 loaf, which was no problem until my pan was liberated from my kitchen, but the ones I bought were 8×3 or some other not correct measurement. As such, I ended up with too much batter and tossed what remained in the cupcake pan. To go with the pound cake, I made whipped cream topped with the raspberries left over from the cheesecake.
I’m not sure if it makes me sound snobby, but I don’t much care for store bought whipped cream anymore. That’s why I usually keep heavy cream on hand. I might eat store bought desserts and cakes made out of a box, but the whipped cream is made in house every time. I used to go by a recipe in Delicious Pastries, but now, I eyeball it and it works out pretty well. For your first attempts at making it, you might want to follow a recipe.
Looking at this picture, it’s easy to see why I’m not a food photographer… or photographer of any kind, actually. The pound cake was REALLY good. My mom loved it and shared some with her sister the next day, and she loved it, too. And, yes, I still call my mother, Mommy. What’s it to you?!
a dinner + (video game) dance party.
Posted on: May 21, 2013
Or How to Host a Party, But Get Your Friends to Cook
Despite the fact that I’d been complaining about not having any time to myself, when I discovered my mother was going out one Friday night, I did something I never did in this situation as a teenager – invited my friends over for a party. Now, don’t get it into your head that this was some wild free-for-all. I only invited two friends over and the primary reason was to play Dance Central and Just Dance. The fact that I even have friends who were not only up for it, but were enthusiastic about playing rhythm games makes me happier than I can even say.
Now here’s how you get to host a party and not cook. Ready? The background work is very simple – make sure it is well known that you do not cook and, in fact, eat most of your meals from the freezer, already made. This is important, because I asked Friend 1, if I was expected to supply cheese for the wine. (Did I not mention it was supposed to just be a wine + dance party?) She replied that it was up to me, because I was the host. At that point, I asked how would she like to have my kitchen all to herself to cook in. BAM!
Let me be clear – this was not at all sneaky. She was well aware of what was going on. She even mentioned that it was crazy that I was hosting, but she was cooking dinner. But she went along with it, and that’s all that matters. The only stipulation was that I make dessert. Which, of course, I did. I made two. When I invited Friend 2, she immediately asked what could bring and ended up supplying a Mediterranean quiche (which was tasty in spite of my dislike of eggs, cheese, and most vegetables) and more wine.
And that, boys and girls, is how it’s done.
My friends and I drained mounds of pasta (Friend 1 made shrimp scampi, which is one of my most favoritest meals), quiche, cupcakes, cheesecake, and 3 bottles of white wine (Moscato, Strawberry Riesling, and Pinot – if you were curious) while dance battling on the XBox. We may have looked foolish, but we did not care one whit. I am beyond lucky to have these lady as friends and never was it more apparent than while we tried to keep up with a routine to Whip My Hair.
If you want more information about the desserts I made, keep reading.
So, you know how I love baking? Well, I’ve packed my schedule full of activities (social and volunteer), and I haven’t had time to relax and bake in what seems like forever. Whenever it’s been a long time since I’ve baked anything, I usually grab one of the spare box mixes I keep on hand and get to work. This time, I had a spare banana quick bread mix (the same one I used to make these muffins) and since I didn’t have milk (which muffin form requires) and I didn’t have a loaf pan (as I suspect my sister stole it), I decided to use my bundt cake pan. I knew from flipping through my baking cookbooks that bundt cakes often have some sort of frosting or such drizzled over them. I always have the following items on hand:
- Butter
- Flour
- Sugar
- Brown sugar (light and dark)
- Confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)
- Cream cheese
- Heavy cream (usually)
- Vanilla extract
- Cinnamon
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
You would think it wouldn’t be hard to find something, but it kinda was. You know why? Because I don’t have milk. And do we know why I don’t have milk? Because I hate it and it expires so quickly. Well, I couldn’t make cream cheese frosting because I didn’t have time for it to soften and all the other recipes called for milk. Until I came across a brown butter frosting section to Joy the Baker’s Banana rum cake. I didn’t have rum, but that was the only ingredient I was missing. I cut down the portions since I wasn’t going to frost an entire cake and gave it a whirl.
I was terrified that I browned the butter wrong. I mean, what does it mean to wait until it’s “nutty in fragrance??” That has no meaning to me! However, I had no other options, so I went with it. Because I played around with the quantities, the frosting was looser than I wanted, but I used my slightly-maybe-just-a-tiny-bit-beyond-the-expiration-date heavy cream (IT WAS UNOPENED! AND STILL GOOD! Stop judging me.) and I got it to the perfect consistency.
Here’s the finished product:
It was quite tasty. Next time, I’ll make something from scratch. I’m thinking Joy’s cream cheese pound cake with whipped cream and berries… mmm.
Disclaimer: These photos have received the Instagram treatment.
Do you know how to get a bundt cake out of the pan without tearing it? I clearly don’t.
As I Cee It 