Recent Baking

And, once again, I'm back from an unplanned hiatus

When I last posted in February, I was working on a new baking project, where I baked my way through Erin McDowell’s Savory Bakes. And then we decided to move and the next few months were nuts, and much of my baking stuff went into storage. I did keep my 9 inch pans and my mixer with me until after I made a birthday cake for mine and my sister-in-law’s birthday lunch, but after that any tool I would use to do much of anything was packed away.

Now that I am mostly on the other side of the move (with more counter and storage space to show for it), I wanted to share the birthday cake and the first bake in my new kitchen.

Birthday Cake - Three Layer Funfetti Addition

I am not sure why I decided that I absolutely had to have a confetti cake for the March birthday celebration, but I did. I went and bought cake pans for it (the only sensible thing to do in the middle of packing).

I used Sally’s Baking Addiction recipe for the cake. I was drawn to it because it used oil and butter, instead of just butter.

Cake aside: When I was growing up, my mom made us boxed cakes for our birthdays. This has left me with a deep and abiding belief that cake mix cakes are better than homemade cakes. They are soft and fluffy in a way that I have yet to replicate with a homemade cake. The exception to this is chocolate cake, which seems to be easier to make light and fluffy.

Anyway. I was trying to bake a cake that achieved cake mix texture. While this cake was good, it didn’t succeed in that regard, which has left me thinking that maybe I should just make cake mix cakes if that if what I really want.

For the frosting, I decided to make Swiss Meringue Buttercream for this cake, instead of the American buttercream that Sally uses in the recipe.

Frosting Aside: I don’t feel the same way about store bought frosting. I generally prefer homemade because storebought is often sweeter than I like.

Last year I made Swiss Meringue Buttercream for the first time. You can tell that the texture wasn’t quite right in the first cake in the linked post, but, I didn’t know how to fix it. When, a couple days later, I wanted to use the leftover frosting and make it chocolate, I read Sally’s tutorial on how to fix broken Swiss Meringue Buttercream, and it worked great.

Making the Swiss Meringue Buttercream

On the March cake, I knew what I had done wrong, did it correctly, and it worked great! I did a strawberry filling, which I barely remember, except that it didn’t work out quite the way I wanted it to. Oh well. The final product was cute and whimsical!

Lemon Snacking Cake

For Mother’s Day, I made a small lemon snacking cake from Jessie Sheehan Bakes. After weeks of packing, moving, unpacking, I wasn’t in the mood for anything more ambitious, but also, this was very good and lemony. In a small 8x8 cake, there were three tbsp of lemon zest and three tbsp of lemon juice, which is really what I want in a lemon dessert.

The cake had a simple lemon glaze and the end result was very moist. Also, the glaze gave it that little crunch on the edges, which I love. Definitely recommend!

Pie is Coming

I just had four pies bought at my church’s spring auction, so I have much pie in my future. Plus, it’s time to decide what to enter in the county fair!!

Politics PS

If you are upset by the new Republican murder budget, the absolutely wild corruption, the destruction of our public lands and the National Park Service - to name a few outrages - please remember you can call your member of Congress to complain about all of this, and more. The switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. Or Five Calls is a handy website and app that gives you scripts, if you want to use one, as well as numbers for your senators and representative. If you use the app on your phone, it will connect you directly. Also, plan to join a No Kings protest on June 14th!