Cake #9 Fig and Lemon Bar

It is Sunday, so I am posting late about the cake I made this week; however, I did get a chance to make the cake on Saturday, but Saturday was so hectic (and so much fun) that I did not get a chance to post until today. Yesterday, Ted and I woke up early to get ready for the Luna Carpet people to come and give us an estimate on carpet in two rooms. Of course, they said 9:00am but did not get here until 11:00. So at around 10:30 I started to make the cake, because I had to bring the cake to a girls day at Fiore vineyard in North Harford, we brought food and for five dollars we were able to get a glass to take home, six wine tastings and one full glass of wine, it was a lot of fun! It was a teacher's special, and the band that the was playing was called Chalk Dust- they were both Social Studies teachers from North Harford High. Anyway, I had decided that I would bring my cake of the week to contribute.

This Fig & Lemon bar "cake" was the first time for this project that I had to reduce fruit down to make a paste or compote. I used a cup of figs, some lemon juice, some water, and some raw brown sugar. The result was tasty! It tasted like the inside of a fig newton. Anyway, while I was making the compote Ted helped me out with this cake, because we were worried about timing with the carpet guy, and he made the batter which was flour, cinnamon, baking powder, butter, light brown sugar, eggs, and the rind of one lemon. By the time we got everything into the oven, the doorbell rang and the Luna man was here.

He was really nice and not pushy at all, we knew we wanted to spend about a thousand dollars, (yay tax rebate!) his final price was 1232. We told him that we were sorry for his time, but Arcade floors could do it for 1000. He said "let me check my numbers and see what I can do." He came up with 980, and we were sold! We didn't really know how much Arcade floors could do it for, but we used them before for a bedroom and stairs and they were about 1000 for those two areas, and they didn't include hall away, where Luna does, so it was pretty good. The first carpet in our room and it is going to be a gray- sliver carpet, and the next one is in the computer room and it is going to be a light brown -tan color. We figured that our computer room would turn into a bedroom for our daughter Evie and the nursery would stay a nursery for our next child.

Anyway, we got him out of our house at 12:15, and I sliced the the lemon and fig bars and drove to North Harford with my bestie Colleen. I know what you're thinking, Laura drove, it has been hard after the accident, but I am trying people! The wine tasting was a lot of fun, and I believe the teachers like the fig and lemon bars, but when you are comparing it to wine,it is hard to be the favorite, after all wine is...wine.

Here is what the picture from the book shows them looking like:

Here is what my bars looked like:

Next week I am making a fruit cake- hopefully it is not the traditional type of fruit cake that everyone chucks on Christmas!

Until them, keep baking!

Cake # 8 Date & Spice Loaf

On to cake number eight, the Date & Spice Loaf cake, and another adventurous weekend with "The Children". Ted had all four of his wisdom teeth surgically removed yesterday, and boy was he in pain. The Novocain wore off in the middle of the the surgery on his last tooth, and by the time I got home from work Ted's mouth looked like a chipmunk full of blood. It was nasty. So my night was busy taking care of two toothless babies. That is why I was surprised when Ted wanted to go out to the store to get the ingredients for my next cake. Apparently, Hydrocodone is a powerful pain killer. Only twenty minutes after taking his drugs (as he likes to call them), Ted was feeling F-I-N-E. He was literally chasing me around the house asking me to kiss him. Because, as he said, "it would be like kissing a new man! How it exciting, I have four less teeth!" On top of that every so often he would ask me to stick a flashlight in his mouth so he could admire his sutures. So against my better judgment, I let Ted go to the store, really it was a toss up between my sanity and his safety - and in the end I realized that Ted was not safe acting the way he was around me either, I would have probably hurt him, so to the store he went.

While he was at the store getting one of the main ingredients for this recipe, dates, I suddenly realized that I wasn't exactly sure what a date was. I had seen one before, but I had never tasted one, and I was only partly sure that they were a fruit. So I did what any respectable baker would do, I Googled it. Turns out dates are a fruit that come from a date palm tree that is native to the Middle East and Northern Africa. When Ted came home with the dates, I immediately popped one in my mouth to see what it would taste like, because after all, as Top Chef Tom Colicchio would say, "You have to know your ingredients!" It was amazing! A sticky, juicy mixture of raisin and grape flavor with a hint of some sort of nuttiness. I don't know why I haven't eaten these  before, but that is going to change. Eating dates was one thing, but chopping them into coarse, tiny pieces, was something completely different. They were so sticky, that the chopping process took longer than the whole baking process. Besides dates this cake also called for: butter, whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, apple pie spice, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

While the loaf "cake" was baking my house smelled like Christmas. Although it has been unseasonably warm, and it is almost March, all I could think of this morning was Christmas cookies. The apple pie spice mixture made my house smell like cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. The smell wasn't the only pleasantry about this cake, visually it looked beautiful, and very hearty.

The book's verison:

My version pre-slice:

Fortunately, this cake tasted as great as it looked. Although Ted had to eat around the dates, sticky dates do not make for good food after the removal of four teeth, he still said, "This was your best cake so far!" Now, Ted is a bit bias, he loves me too much and says that about all of the cakes I make, plus he loves food even more. However, I can attest that this cake is good. It tastes almost like a oatmeal wheat cookie with nuts. I can't explain it, but it tastes amazing.

Here is the loaf sliced:

Next week we are baking a lemon and fig bar, I am super excited about this cake because I love lemon, the sour the better!

Happy Baking.

Cake #7 Sponge Roll

After a craptastic night with Evie, who was up at 3am and did not go back down until 4:30, after Ted drove her around Bel Air, I continued the vibe and made a craptastic cake. Let me first start off by saying that I have never made a Sponge Roll before. I have made Sponge cakes, sure, but not a roll. I have made tons of home-made bread, but never a Sponge Roll.

Maybe I was just delirious from a lack of sleep, but my first attempt at this cake this morning was, as my students would say, "an epic-fail". Just take a look at the picture below and you can understand why. It looks like some zombie BRAAAaains.

In the middle of mixing the cake batter, making breakfast for Ted and myself, making breakfast for Evie and feeding Evie, and giving the dog treats so he didn't feel left out, I missed an ingredient. The sugar. Ever try to make a cake without sugar? Just don't. Not only does it taste like you are eating a spongy loaf of butter, it falls apart into clumps, as the picture perfectly portrays (some alliteration for my English teachers out there). Then, came the rolling, did you know a cake won't "roll" if it doesn't have sugar to bind all that buttery dough together? Now you do. Besides the freakin' sugar, this cake called for butter, flour, baking powder, vanilla, eggs, milk, and raspberry jelly.

Here is the book's picture:

This is the first cake that I had to make twice, and I am pretty miffed about it. I wanted to go through all 100 cakes without any big screw-ups. Anyway, round two went much better. For starters, I added the sugar, secondly, by the time my husband got home from an appointment he had brought back an early Valentine's day present- some flowers. He said that he knew we had a bad night and that my morning wasn't looking too hot either, so he thought this would cheer me up. Ted may have the biggest ego out of anyone I know, (just get him to walk by a mirror without checking himself out and making eyes at himself) but he always manages to find room in there for me. Definitely a sweet guy. So, with my new flowers on the table and a new, improved sponge cake out of the oven, and a daughter FINALLY in a nap, today is looking up.

Ted, not a fan of raspberry jelly still ate a piece of my cake, he loved it, but still thinks that it would have been better if I did strawberry jelly instead. I love raspberries so of course, I had no problems with it.


Here is my cake, and my attempt to make my plate look nice (ha):

Next week we are making a Date and Spice Loaf, which I am looking forward to because I love the taste of whole-wheat flour, and this is the first "cake" that has called for it.

Until next post, don't forget to add sweetness to your life!

Cake # 6 Banana Cake with Caramel Frosting

It taste like bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

The whole time I was making my cake this morning Ted and I were singing Gwen Stefani's song, needless to say it was hilarious! Ted attributes his ability to spell words to Gwen Stefani and Fergie - but it does have a point, this banana cake is G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S. It called for butter, flour, baking powder, sour cream, light brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and of course two very ripe bananas. When Ted went to the grocery store last night to pick up some of the supplies we needed, he flipped out when he saw sour cream on the list. He swore that there was no way he would eat this cake. And to top it off (literally) the home-made frosting would have sour cream in it too. I thought it sounded delicious, he wanted to vomit. Refusing to eat any foods that have the word sour in its name, (sour patch kids, sour beef and dumplings, sweet and sour sauce, and most especially sour cream) Ted has, up until now, thought that he has led a food-filling life. Thankfully, as his wife, I make it my daily mission to prove him wrong.

I made Ted taste the batter (something he normally loves to do) and he crinkled his nose and shook his head, of course, I made him taste it anyway. To his ultimate surprise and said, "Bananas! It takes like bananas." (Gwen Stefani's song is on repeat in my head at this point.) Holding back the rush of snarky comments, No Duh a Banana cake tastes like bananas, I smiled and said, "Let Evie have a taste."

My daughter is 100% Ted, and I couldn't be more happier. She is happy and carefree, rarely gets mad - though she does have an attitude like her daddy-, she is content by herself or with people, she loves all people, and she laughs all the time. It makes me glad that she took on his tendencies and not my neurotic, stressful, Type A personality. Besides also having incredibly flat (and stinky) feet like Ted, she shares his appetite. I have never seen a baby enjoy food more than her. The noises she makes when she eats would put Julia Child, Emeril, and Buddy Valastro's Mmms to shame. So when she took a bite - and I can say bite now because her first tooth just came in three days ago! - She made the biggest Mmmm you could imagine, so I knew the cake would taste great.

While the cake was baking, Ted and I made the caramel icing, a simple recipe of butter, light brown sugar, sour cream, and sugar.

Here is what the cake looks like in the book:

Ans here is our cake:

We have been told by certain members of Ted's Social Studies department that they were pretty peeved at Ted for not bringing the cakes to school. I mean seriously what were you doing with all those cakes? Ted told them that he was eating them all by himself. Which for the last few cakes, have been completely true. I only eat a bite of a piece, or one piece max, why? The secret is out - I don't like cake. But I love to make it. Next week we are making a Sponge Roll, (it has raspberry on the inside, I love raspberries!) so maybe because it is not technically a cake, I will like it.

Until next week, happy baking!