Cake #5 Marbled Chocolate & Vanilla Ring

Got to an early start today and as of 11:00 am our cake was already finished! Although I love that fact that my kitchen is already cleaned from the baking and I have already sat down and ate a piece of my cake, (this has been my favorite tasting cake so far) the reason behind the cake's early completion is not as much fun. My beautiful, lovely, and teething daughter Evie, was up ALL NIGHT. Ted and I went to bed at 11:00pm, and two hours later Evie was up. So, Ted, the good husband and father that he is, got up, made Evie a bottle, and tried to put her back down. Evie was not having it. She screamed so loud, I am sure our neighbors think that we were killing the poor child. At that point, Ted was about to lose it, so I went in and tried to come her down, we finally got her quiet, with teething medicine and pats on the back and kisses and an ice teething ring for her to sleep with and a baby doll for her to grab (which she wouldn't let go).

I crept out of the room and slid down into my bed, tired, but sure that Evie would be asleep for the rest of the night. After all, Evie is an excellent sleeper. She put herself to bed and slept through the night almost every night since she was 3 months old. I was wrong, but this time Evie's disturbed sleep was my fault. See, I just can't go to bed knowing that she has a stuffed baby doll in her bed with her. All I think of is Evie suffocating and I can't let it go. So I wait for another half hour, ensuring that she was in a deep sleep and I sneak in her room and pry the baby doll from her hands. She stirs, but I stand still, and slowly step backwards step by step until I am out of her room, I shut the door, I think success . . . and then the scream.

At 3:30 am Ted, Evie, and I are sitting in our bed watching the food network channel. Evie is giggling and talking up a storm to her baby doll, she leans over and gives the baby doll a kiss, giggles, and then hears the music for some commercial and starts bobbing back and forth. I look over at Ted and his -in -a -coma -glazed eyes - and laugh.

So by 9:00 am the whole family is up and I have started to bake my cake. Looking at the ingredients of this cake, I know it is going to taste great. Any cake, well really any thing that calls for 3/4 cups of butter is bound to taste delicious.  The cake also called for the standard flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, and milk. It also called for cocoa. Normally, I am a chocolate girl, but the buttery vanilla flavor of this cake, was so good, it definitely beat out the chocolate marbled part.Ted and I decided to have a piece for breakfast - and let me tell you when we bit into this cake it was flaky and warm and buttery and a little bitter from the cocoa and everything a cake should taste like.

Unfortunately, I did something stupid in my no sleep delirium - I forgot to put baking spray in the pan, so of course the cake stuck and it does not look as pretty as the picture this time, but it sure tasted great!


My not so pretty-looking cake.

The much prettier book picture.

Next week Ted and I are going to make a Banana Cake with Caramel Frosting. Which we are looking forward to just for the fact that Ted and I say "Caramel" differently and that will surely lead to some interesting debates.

See you next week.

Cake #4 Chocolate Fudge Cake

Fudge! That's right. Nothing can go wrong with a Chocolate Fudge Cake. This super sweet cake just happen to be a perfect representation of my sugary sweet weekend. Recently, Ted and I taught Evie how to give kisses. It was slow going at first, with a many slaps, raspberries, and fingers to the face and mouth. However, once Evie understood what "kiss" meant, she would let both Ted and I kiss her if we said "kiss". Yesterday, while I was playing with Evie, I hopefully questioned, "Evie come give Mommy kiss?" And that beautiful red-head crawled her way over and kiss me right on my lips! It was slobbery and sticky and everything sweet. Now Evie's new game is kissing. She has kissed her unicorn pillow pet (see the "after-effects" picture below), her pooh telephone, Daddy, and Shakes. Boys- watch out, Evie will come for a smooch!

What a better way to end this already sweet weekend with a saccharin induced tooth-ache? When Ted saw that the cake was a chocolate fudge cake, he got anxious that I was a little slower today in the baking process and actually began make the cake himself! He got out all of the ingredients, which consisted of butter, semisweet chocolate, milk, flour, baking powder, dark brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla, and to top that off, he melted the chocolate and beat the eggs! After that stressful endeavor, he handed over the whisk and told me to get to work. This was one of the more straight-forward cakes we have had to make so far, the only thing that was different for this cake was that we were making our own icing this time. The frosting was a simple recipe of semisweet chocolate, butter, sugar, vanilla, and milk.

What I still do not like about this book's recipe's is that all the cakes are dense and on the dryer side, I prefer light and fluffy cakes, and I am hoping  once I get to some of the cupcakes or Puff desserts they will be more to my liking. My husband on the other hand, LOVED the chocolate cake. Favorite part of making this cake - shaving the chocolate on the top!

Here is the book's picture:

Here is my copycat picture of our cake:

Here is our full cake:

Next week we will be attempting a Marbled Chocolate & Vanilla Ring... Until then!

Cake #3 Sticky Ginger Loaf

Good news! Our dog's surgery went well, and we will find out on Monday if his tumor is cancerous or not. So now on with the cake! Today Ted and I trudged our way through Wegman's for some special ingredients that we needed for this week's cake. Wow. Wegman's is a food paradise. We had been there once before, but I had forgotten how insane that place is. I wanted to live in the cheese isle alone for just one week, and I would be the happiest person. The blue cheese looked so good, that Ted and I actually ate in the grocery store and had blue cheese and roast beef sandwiches. Never in my life did I imagine a grocery store that had a whole eatery in it, bigger than the one in our mall in Harford County. Needless to say, the blue cheese was delicious.

Anyway, the recipe called for sunflower oil and ginger preserved in syrup. Now, most organic marts like Trader Joe's carry sunflower oil, but ginger preserved in syrup is not a regular ingredient. We happened to be looking in the Irish foods section at Wegman's (really do you need to ask why?) and bam! - There was the ginger preserved in syrup. Which, of course got me curious and I had to google to see if ginger preserves is traditionally an Irish food.

Today is a big day for Ted, it is the playoffs for our home football team, The Ravens. Now, I could care less about football, buy my hubby is ecstatic. So, we figured we would take our Sticky Ginger Loaf, which is more of a sweet bread than a cake, and take it down to my sister's house and watch the game with their family.

Now I am not a fan of ginger. Every time I see a ginger bread cookie, I always want to eat it, it looks so yummy, but when I bite into it my mouth automatically goes dry and I think "blah". Because this cake is infused with all different types of ginger, I was not looking forward to making it. But let me tell you about the smell - Christmastime and pine trees and your stomach yearning and everything your grandmother's kitchen should smell of- smell, was coming out of my kitchen. I literally awoke from a nap to this fantastic smell. If the smell is any indication of its taste, I might be inclined to try this sweet bread instead of pawning it off on my husband and my sister's family.

To bake this "cake" you not only need those two special ingredients you also need time. It takes an hour and twenty-five minutes to cook. It also calls for flour, baking powder, ground ginger, dark brown sugar, dark corn syrup, eggs, preserved ginger, ginger syrup, and sliced ginger.

Here is the picture from the book:

Here is my cake minus the ginger slices (did I mention I really don't like ginger?)

Anyway, off to the game and to eat some cake! Next week I am looking forward to make a Chocolate Fudge Cake!

Cake #2: Coffee & Walnut Ring

It has been one week and my husband and I set out to make our second cake, Coffee and Walnut Ring. Unfortunately, life got in the way and we had to change our game plan for this cake the very last minute. On Thursday we found out that our dog Shakespeare has a tumor. It was any other typical Thursday night, I was sitting in bed after a long day of school, we had just fed the baby and put her down to bed, and Shakespeare had eaten his dinner and been taken out, when Ted asked me, "Now, what are we going to eat for dinner?" After much deliberation (as food is almost always our number one topic of conversation), we decided to get Arby's. We were too tired to make something, and even though take- out and fast-food has been our dinner of choice too frequently as of late, we did not argue our poor choice. Ted left to get us dinner, and I stayed home propped up in bed, with Shakespeare on my lap, hoping for a peaceful and relaxing night. That was at 7:00 p.m.

I flicked on the T.V. and started to scratch behind Shakespeare's ears, he loves that. He was enjoying it so much that he leaned his head back and tried to lick me. I was horrified at what I saw. Shakespeare, is a Basset Hound, and he fills his role perfectly. He is a little chunky, has sad eyes, droopy ears that sweep our floors, crooked feet, and enormous lips that catch his never ending puddles of drool. I love this dog. In fact, Shakespeare is my first true pet, growing up I was not allowed to have any animals in the house minus a fish or a turtle we caught on the road.

When I was 11 I was attacked by a neighbor's dog, right in the ass. The dog bit me and would not let go. I had no idea how bad the bite was, I knew it hurt, but I could not see the damage. When my parents were called they rushed over, and the sound of my father yelling "Jesus Christ!" let me know how bad the bite was. They rushed me to the ER, where the doctors promptly asked if the dog had his rabies shot. My neighbors could not find the papers that proved their dog had had his shots, and the doctors warned that they might have to stick a huge needle in my stomach if the papers were not found in enough time. Fortunately, they found the papers right before the doctors needed to stab my belly. Ever since then I was terrified of dogs.

Then I met Ted. Ted had a sweet, gray miniature schnauzer, named Lady. She was the smallest dog and when she barked at me the first time I met her, I ran and hid behind their couch. Years later, Lady won my heart and rekindled my love for dogs, even though when you touched her, your hands would stink hours later, I loved that dog. It was getting to know Lady, that made me want a dog, and when Ted and I bought our home, we knew that a dog would be our next purchase.

Right away I knew I wanted a Basset Hound, how could anyone not love a creature as sad and as adorable as that? We found a place, paid for our dog, drove the two hours to get him, and picked up this scared little mite who tripped over his own skin. He was just four months old and it was love at first drool.

Here is Shakespeare as a baby:

So you can imagine, how terrified I was to be looking down at my dog's mouth and to see a big, pink, bubblegum - looking growth on his gums on top of his front teeth. I touched it thinking, "Shakespeare got into the trash again and got gum stuck to his mouth." But when the blob wouldn't move, I knew something was wrong. I called Ted in a panic told him to forget about dinner and to get home immediately. Two hours and eighty dollars later, we find out what I was dreading, he had a tumor and it needed to come out. We weren't overly worried though, because the ER vet said that Basset Hounds are notorious for tumors and most of the time they are benign.

Here is my poor puppy's tumor

 Here is my wonderfully sad puppy normally:

The cake we were going to make on Saturday morning called for coffee extract, and after much research and four grocery stores, we knew that we were going to have to make the trip Saturday morning to Wegman's to buy this speciality ingredient. However, those plans got changed when we spoke to the vet this morning who is going to remove Shakespeare's tumor. He said it did not look good, and that it needed to be taken out and biopsied immediately. By the time the phone call was finished, and I finished my blubbering it was too late to buy the coffee extract since the closest Wegman's is in Hunt Valley.

So we made our own!  This is the recipe we followed:

• Grind the beans medium-fine

• Boil water

• Put your ground coffee in the filter, make sure the grinds are packed firmly

• Put the filter on top of a pot

• When the water boils, take it off the heat... count slowly to 10 and pour about 2 -3table spoons of the water on the packed ground coffee; make sure the whole surface of the coffee is moistened....

• Wait until the the bubbling has stopped.

• Slowly pour about half the remaining water over the ground coffee.

• Put the kettle back on the fire.

• Wait until the extract has dripped from the grinds.

Other than the coffee extract, our cake called for the typical flour, baking powder, butter, and eggs. We also added chopped walnuts in the mixture. Then after the cake baked we drizzled maple syrup on top of the cake and decorated it with more chopped walnuts.

When I took the cake out of the oven, Shakespeare ran in the room and tried to eat it. Since Shakespeare will eat anything in sight, I know he is not an accurate judge on the cake's taste. So, after I put the cake on a plate, I ate some of the crumbles from the pan, and although I hate coffee, this cake tasted great! If I make this cake again, next time I think I will go to Starbucks and get a shot of espresso and put that into the cake, I think that would make the cake have even a stronger coffee flavor than the cake has now.

Tonight, we have another Birthday, Ted's cousin Donny, is turning 23. So, we are bringing the cake to the party, and I will update with how the cake was received. I cannot wait to taste the whole cake, especially with the maple syrup drizzle, it smells like breakfast in my house, and that is always a good smell. 

Here is my cake:

Here is the book's picture:

The one thing I have noticed about these recipes is that it does not make for a large cake. All of the recipes' serving sizes are 7-10 people. And even the pictures of the cakes in the book look small. But, with all of our fast-food eating, this might not be a bad thing.

Next week's cake is a Sticky Ginger Loaf and it includes another ingredient I have never used, Sunflower oil. Friday is also our 5 year wedding anniversary, so we will have a cake to celebrate!

Week 1, The Idea and The First Cake

The holidays are over and for Christmas my husband bought me a cake recipe book, 1 Mix, 100 Cakes: Take 1 basic recipe and make 100 kinds of cake. I love to bake, if I were not a teacher, I would have my own bakery, aptly named "Just Desserts". Anyway, the recipes are all very simple, so my husband comes up with the idea of each week making one of the cakes. Of course, I think this is a great idea and wonder if he would be assisting me in this process. "100 cakes with one a week is going to take about two years, can you really say that you will remember to keep this up for two years? Or are you just going to be the cake-tester?" I tease. He thinks that it would be a fun thing that we could do together, you know be "romantic." "I'll be just like that girl from Julie and Julia," I muse, "I will write a blog about our progress and everything." "Just don't let our relationship go down the tubes like theirs," he joked.

Yes, my husband watched all of Julie and Julia with me, and he actually liked it. My husband and I met when we were in high school. We sat next to each other in Earth Science our Junior Year. He was the captain of the badmittion team, and his team used the gym right before my Volleyball team did. I remember the volleyball players, including myself, would laugh at the Badmittion players and their "injuries." A birdie to the head! How would they ever survive! Clearly, it was love at first sight. The first words I spoke to him were, "I'm going to kill you." We were at a carnival with mutual friends, neither of us really knew each other, but we ended up riding the zipper together. I hate heights, when he asked me to go with him, I shook my head "no", but he looked at his other option, a somewhat scary misfit friend of a friend, and grabbed my hand and pulled me to the ride. Like I said, love at first sight.

A few months later in our Calculus 2/3 course I felt a tap on my back, "Will you go out with me?" I looked at Ted, said "Yes" and turned back around. It was Halloween and our first real "date" as a couple, was to go out trick-or-treating with our friends. We were sixteen.

Now, ten years later we have successfully maintained a relationship from high school, to college, to marriage, to a dog, to jobs, to grad school, and now to our first child. Both of us ended up going to the same college, for the same profession. We both are teachers, I teach English and he teaches History, and yes we teach at the same high school. This past March we had out first child together, a daughter, Evalyn.

So I guess you can say that our life has become somewhat predictable, on the 14th of January we will be celebrating our 5th year wedding anniversary, and my husband asked me today, "should I make reservations at our regular spot?" Though at times I think we both wonder how our lives would be different if we didn't start our relationship together so young, we also know that we share something special that most couples never get a chance to - we watched each other grow up and grow together and that truly is a wonderful thing being able to see a person for who they are, for who they have been, and to know that you will forever be able to see what they will become.

Anyway, back to the cake! We made our first cake from the book today. When I say "we" I really mean "me" while Ted watched and held the baby. The first cake was a simple "Chocolate Layer Cake". It called for: flour, cocoa, baking powder, butter, sugar, eggs, and milk. The batter was unlike most cakes that I have made before, more fluffy and creamy then thick and syrupy. Unfortunately, when I went to look at the picture again to compare it to my cake, the pages were stuck together with some sort of left-over goop from the baking and as I pulled apart the pages, the picture ripped a bit, which you can see below in the comparison of my cake to the one in the book.

(I will learn to rotate my pictures in the future!)

Tomorrow is Ted's 27th Birthday, and that is when we are going to try the cake - his whole family will be together, so I will update tomorrow with the reception of its taste...but it looks and smells good (even if I did go overboard with the powdered sugar).