Cake # 31 Flaky Chocolate Cupcakes

Dear Reader

It should not surprise you that although I am on vacation in Florida, I am sitting here typing away on this beautiful Saturday afternoon, to you, of course. Now, "vacation" is an interesting word to use when one is traveling with a little one. For example, "leisure" doesn't really describe high pitched screaming melt-downs in a restaurant. And, "empty time", as one dictionary defines it, doesn't quite fit in with scrambling to scrap shovel-fuls (literally) of sand out of a child's mouth. Saying "No" and "don't touch" and "stop that" are really not "relaxing" words. Yet, this is my best vacation of my life. This was a vacation of a ton of firsts for Evalyn. She flew on a plane and got her wings and was excellent the whole flight. She learned new words like "door" and "flower" and "table". She went to Florida and played in the sand and the ocean. She rode in a convertible with the top down. She had butterflies practically land on her face. She got to be inches away from a parrot and she touched him. She even touched a snake! She sat at two bars for happy hour. She laid on a big-girl float. And most importantly she fell in love again with her grandparents.

She said "Nanny" and "Pop" she gave them hugs and kisses, she let them feed her and play with her, take her on walks, and swim with her. She even shared her lovee (a pink giraffe) with them. So, when Saturday came around it was easy to make the Flaky Chocolate Cupcakes for her Poppy's birthday. The cupcakes called for eggs, flour, sugar, butter, milk , vanilla, baking soda, cocoa, apricot jelly, and chocolate flakes. By the time the cupcakes were finished, Nanny and Poppy had come home from their bike ride and were able to eat them for breakfast.

Here is the book's picture:

Here is our picture:

Let's hope that  our plane ride home is as pleasant as the plane ride here was. Next Saturday, another cake and finally home a Saturday!

Cake #30 Walnut Torte

Just like MacArthur wading ashore in the Philippines, I too have returned, minus the God complex. Laura is off again at school conference and I am home baking this week’s cake, a Walnut Torte. So while she basking in the beauty of the Riverwalk in San Antonio, I am stranded and sweltering in the humid tropical jungle that is Baltimore in late-July. And so, with Shakespeare and Evie, my minions, in tow, I began the process of baking my Walnut Torte.

                The cake was fairly easy to make. The recipe called for flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla, milk and walnut. The icing however gave me a bit of trouble. It called for powdered sugar, butter, and light cream, and while it wasn’t particularly difficult to make, for whatever the reason (possibly the Milton-like heat) the icing never quite thickened to its proper consistency. It came out a bit too runny for proper application on the cake. Furthermore, when the recipe asked me to use only half of the icing on the middle layer f the cake, I apparently eyeballed it wrong and used too much icing, leaving not enough for the outside. By the time I got to part where I was supposed to make little icing squiggles on the top of the cake, there wasn’t enough icing left to put in the pastry bag. Now while I have successfully dealt with numerous douche bags throughout my life, it turns out pastry bags are whole other animal.  My cute little squiggles turned into puny lines. The Cake Boss I am not!

                Anywho, tune in next week to see our newest cake, made on location in Deerfield Beach Florida. Until then… happy baking!

Cake # 29 Pistachio and Lemon Ring

It is both a special and terrifying moment when you realize how you’re little baby isn’t so little anymore. Though only sixteen months old, Evie has already transitioned in many ways to a young, hellacious toddler, and as I made the cake for this week, I couldn’t help but to notice the change. The cake this week was a lemon and pistachio ring, and while the cake itself has nothing to do with Evie, as I made the cake this morning, I had the chance to observe my Evie fluttering around the kitchen, laying her head upon the dog’s stomach, and just generally being a little girl.

                Today we went to two different parties, and each one showcased Evalyn’s changing state, my sweet darling baby to no fear toddler. The first party was my father’s Birthday and with that came the swimming pool.  After dousing Evalyn in sunscreen, (little red-heads with blue eyes and pale skin burn quicker than marshmallows in a fire pit) we put Evie in her Dora the Explorer float and watched her kick in the water. Within milliseconds Evalyn juts her body to the right in order to dunk her head into the water. Ted and I were terrified, but Evalyn was exhilarated. She repeated the process to the other side of her head, and eventually thirsted herself face first into the water. My little daredevil loved the water.

                The second party was a family reunion for members of Ted’s grandfather’s family.  Here was where we brought our cake, which tasted surprisingly good, for a cake that was made with pistachios. The cake also included, butter, flour, sugar, eggs, lemon, water, baking powder, lemon extract, lemon rind, and lemon juice.  

Here is my picture:

Here is the book's:

Evalyn, like the lemon in the cake, proved to her parents that she was no longer a sweet little baby, but a toddler approaching the sour twos. Sitting on the deck steps and drinking a water bottle all by herself, Evalyn did not want or need anyone’s help to do anything. If one of us touched her water bottle, she would fling herself down to the floor and scream. She wanted to sit alone, and that was what made her perfectly content. There was a huge Golden Retriever at this party as well, and I got a whiff of déjà vu from this morning as Evie began to climb on the back of the Golden Retriever. Evie has NEVER met this dog before, yet she fearlessly ran up to it and gives it a kiss on the nose.  Although her growing temper tantrums make me bonkers, and her fearlessness makes me my heart beat so hard I feel it in my ears, I cannot help but to stare into my daughter’s eyes with awe at the brave little girl she has turned out to be.

Cake # 28 Strawberry Mousse Cake

As we get older, we do not grow out of toys and games, they grow with us. If watching Evalyn and Ted playing with jumbo Legos at Port Discovery isn't an indicator of this, than the fact that the Queen of England has a golden Wii certainly must be. That is how I feel about baking. It started with the EasyBake oven that turned brown liquid into brown mush that we called a "cake", and moved to this obsession to find new "toys" to bake with and new things to create- and sometimes they still are brown mush.

Today was a flashback of my childhood. Ted, his mom, his sister, his sister's boyfriend (who I adore), Evie and yours truly squeezed in my Hyundai Veracruz and made the trip down to the Inner Harbor to spend a day with Evie at Port Discovery. The place was amazing and I think Evie will have even more fun there when she is older. We got to play with toys, blocks, books, puzzles, puppets, and balls, and we got to make believe we were shopping  (Evie really wanted to buy the fake box of Cheez-Its). All the while, Evie flirted with Ronnie (Katie's boyfriend) and was extremely pleasant.  Our family is extremely lucky to have these people in our lives, they love our daughter to death and beg us to let them babysit just so they can spend time with Evie...how cool is that?

So I am finally home, and finally able to post the picture of the toy that grew with me from my childhood to my adulthood. My cake. A Strawberry Mousse Cake, that in every way  reminds me of childhood- first of all, it has mousse (what kid didn't eat some sort of mousse growing up?) made by whipping heavy cream, and pureed strawberries. Next, it has strawberry gelatin. And finally, besides the massive amounts of sugar, it is topped with strawberry jelly... Hello elementary school lunch! In addition to those ingredients, the cake called for butter, flour, baking powder, eggs, vanilla, milk, and orange juice.

Here is the book's cake:

And here is my cake:

I just can't leave the stems on the strawberries like the picture in the book does- I don't care if it looks more artistic, it isn't practical!

Anyway, another weekend and another cake down. Hopefully next week I will have another Easybake cake.

Cake # 27 Chocolate Honeycomb Cupcakes

I'm ba-ack! Lake Tahoe, California is the most beautiful place I have ever been to, I could pick up and move there in a heart beat. A co-worker and I went for a training, and we had a blast, I couldn't have imagined anyone else to go with, she is super funny and we definitely have the same philosophy when it comes to teaching. However, I did miss my Evie. So it is officially summer break, and I cannot think of anything better than watching Baby Einstein: Shakespeare with Evie, watching Evie swim in her kiddie pool, and going to the park with Evie (noticing a trend?). About the only thing that beats all of that is watching Evie chow down on my cupcakes while she growls "MMmm". These cupcakes were no exception.

They are basically cupcake batter mixed with candy and then sprinkled with candy on top- who could resist that? Not Evie. In fact, Evie has been a little spoiled with the sweets lately. We got ice-cream two days in a row and now cupcakes! I wish I could blame her, but really it was my hankering for some cold, chocolatey, goodness (well mine, and Ted sister Katie's) that led us to Blooms Broom on Thursday and Yogi Castle on Friday. Friday, we were over my in-laws and my sister-in-law asked us if we have ever eaten at Yogi Castle. We had not. So, of course we had to try this ice-cream place. It is a self-serve frozen yogurt shop, with about twenty different flavors of yogurt and forty different kinds of toppings. Because I am obnoxious, and I wanted to try things I never tried before, my ice-cream consisted of: chocolate, strawberry, cookies and cream, peanut butter, Irish mint, and banana. I was shocked and excited when I finally got to the toppings...fruity pebbles? What? Now I believe that cereal should be a food group all of its own, but I never liked fruity pebbles as a kid, so I was hesitant, but of course not too hesitant to give it a go. So my toppings were: bananas, M&Ms, gummy bears, fruity pebbles, nerds, chocolate covered raspberries, and chocolate sauce. Sound disgusting? You bet. Taste disgusting? Definitely some bites. But it was worth it.  

So when I got to the cake this morning, I thought we would go for a more simper cake. Besides chocolate covered honeycomb candy, the ingredients were flour, baking powder, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, powdered sugar, cocoa, and water. I use silicone cupcake liners, and I really enjoy using them because they are re-usable, but be careful, if you wash them and use them right after they have been washed, while they are still hot, the cupcake will not come out of the liner.

Here is the book's picture:

Here are my - well Evie's cupcakes:

Next week another cake and another day of no work- already loving it!