Cake # 90 Plum Sponge Cake

 ONLY TEN MORE CAKES TO GO!

As I sit on my bed this morning, staring at Evie jumping on the bed, breakfast slobber still running down her face, and Liam, contentedly laying in his bassinet talking to bear stuffed animal Evie placed in with him on one of the first days he came home, I am reminded of the fast approaching truth that I have attempted to ignore for the past few weeks that Ted has been back to school; my summer is rapidly coming to a close, and the precious moments that I have spent with my children are dwindling by the second. These past weeks have been fantastic, we have gone to the park, made meals, watched movies, danced, played Barbie's, and just generally hung out as a family in a way that I have not done in a while. Liam has gone from a newborn lump that sleeps 22 hours a day, to a more active, personable lump that only sleeps 18 hours a day. He smiles and sticks out his tongue when you touch his cheek, and giggles every time he sits on his changing table and sees the hippo painted on the wall. Evie on the other hand has matured into quite the young lady. Not lacking in the personality department to begin with, she has now grown not only to be a spectacular daughter, but also the sweetest big sister ever. She plays with Liam, helps feed him, gets pacifiers and burp cloths from his room when needed, and tries to hug and kiss him at all the wrong times. It makes me proud as I watch them to consider that they are my children!

 

One week left and this phase in my life ends. I will be heading back to school on Monday, and both Evie and Liam will be heading to daycare with the greatest daycare Mom ever, Heather. I won't pretend that there is not a small part of me that is excited, if not happy about returning to school. There are classes full of students and even a fair number of new teachers who know of me in name only, and I look forward to meeting them all. I do love teaching and the challenges that it brings, and I am sure as the daily routine settles in, we will adjust accordingly. But in the back of my mind, there will always be the last few weeks and the joy that they have brought me. 

However, I am incredibly sad to leave my kids. This is the longest I have been a "Stay-at-home" mom, and it is a wonderful thing! It is so much more relaxing than working (lol)! So much so - that I have been able to set up an at home business and take a teaching job at Towson, in the off time.  I was shock at how much I could get done with the house when I am actually home during the day instead of at work from 6am to 6pm! But more importantly, I got to see Liam go from a scrawny preemie to a really big boy! Ted told me yesterday that Liam needed to move to his own crib before I went back to teaching full time, I cried. I am not ready to leave him. He is the sweetest little boy, and no matter what I write it cannot cover the feeling that many moms feel when they leave their kids - dread - dispare- depression, only cover a few of those feelings.

So, in honor of these last few days of extended summer family time, I chose the easiest, simplest cake left in the book (which in itself was a challenge as there are only a few cake recipes left and they are all the ones we have put off for two years because they looked complicated/ expensive/ gross!) so that I could maximize my time with Evie and Liam, and Ted as well. I made a Plum Sponge Cake, which, while not particularly spongy, did incorporate one of my most favorite fruits that do not receive much glory in the pantheon of the Safeway produce section, the Plum. The cake called for butter, eggs, flour, sugar, baking powder, almond extract, and ground almonds. Once the batter was made and poured into the pan, quartered plums, slivered almonds, and raw brown sugar were placed and sprinkled on top.  

My Cake:

The Book's Cake:

Check in next week as I prepare for my first craft show as a vendor on Sunday (The Perry Hall Apple Festival). It should be a great distraction from my first day back at Edgewood on Monday! Happy eating!

Cake # 89 Peachy Oat Crumble Cake

In a recent blog, I mentioned how I had significant trouble finding a fairly common ingredient ... mango. This week I was faced with a slightly different challenge, to locate and procure an ingredient which I am seriously unfamiliar with, despite it being common in apparently everything (from what I have read on one dubious website). Star Anise is the ingredient, and flummoxed was I. Sounding more like an astrological sign than a cake ingredient I reluctantly set off to Safeway in search of an ingredient that is common to many Asian dishes and also Christmas food; a natural connection if ever there was one. Star Anise tastes like licorice, which I hate, and looks like a star-shaped pine-cone, which I am ambivalent about. Long story short, it resides in the spice aisle of Safeway, next to Allspice, and apparently has been there all along, only to be passed over by myself and normal shoppers everywhere.

This particular cake was a Peachy Oat Crumble Cake, and the final result was quite delicious (weird ingredients aside). The cake called for flour, baking powder, ground star anise, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and peaches. The topping meanwhile called for a mixture of oats and sugar, mixed with melted butter to give a stick consistency. Though I personally found the licorice flavor to be a bit much, overall the cake reminded me of a mixture of a coffee cake and a peach pie, which equals winner in my book. 

My Cake:

Book's Cake:

As this blog winds down, look for the cakes to get more and more crazy as all of the recipe we have been putting off for two years become more and more inevitable.

Cake # 87 and # 88

This is the first double-header cake blog ever written in the history of the One-Cake-A-Week blog. This past week has been one crazy, jam-packed week, so though last week’s cake was made on time, the blog was postponed until this week.  This past week was the first week of school, and therefore the first week that I have spent home alone without Ted, who returned to Edgewood. I remained at home with the two kiddies. Each day ended up a bit differently. On some days, Evie was great, playing nicely in her room, helping me with Liam, and eating all her food the first time. We laughed, watched Mickey and Princesses, and danced around the house laughing.  On other days, like on Thursday when Ted stayed late at school for Back to School night, Evie was not so good, neglecting to take a nap and instead running about the house in an aimless bout of craziness.  By the time Ted came home, I was at my wits end.

Friday afternoon was also quite eventful, as Shakespeare ripped two of his nails out of his paw and squirted a murder-scene’s worth of blood across the basement floor. I panicked and rushed the dog to the vet, who was able to stop the bleeding without any surgery or expensive medications. That night however ended on a high note as the whole family attended the first EHS football game of the year and were able to watch the entire first half before Evie got tired (a Childs’ family record). Evie loved seeing and our Ram mascot, Rammy, and still continually talks about how he gave her a hug. We even got ice cream on the way home, which was a nice treat for her and I.

Ted was responsible for the cake we made last week and took it to my Mom’s house for an end of summer, Jessica’s Birthday, cookout. It was a Mango and Ginger Roulade, and called for flour, butter, sugar, eggs, baking powder, vanilla, orange juice, chopped mango, and candied ginger. Ted did a good job making the cake, but had a bit of trouble rolling the roulade and consequently, it cracked a bit. It didn’t affect the taste however.

Ted’s Cake:

 

The Book’s Cake:

This week’s cake is a Chunky Apricot Loaf and called for lots of flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, butter, almond extract, orange juice, and dried apricots, and was brushed with a combination of apricot jelly and lemon juice.  Unfortunately, Safeway was out of apricots (apparently they are out of season) so in an effort to recreate the texture aspect of the apricots chunks while choosing a flavor that would not hinder the cake, I chose to incorporate sliced almonds into the cake. Ted had a piece after dinner and was quite enthusiastic about its taste. 

My Cake:

The Book’s Cake:

Check in next week to see what the second week of school, the second week of staying at home, and my experience teaching at Towson has in store for me.