Cake #91 Lime Halva Cake and #92 Pear Cake

For a weekend that is steeped in baseball significance unseen in Baltimore for fifteen years, it seems apropos that this week's blog will be a double-header. Let me just say that I, like all Baltimore sports fans, am totally psyched that this weekend we have playoff baseball, as well as a still-dominant, if aging, Raven's team taking the field at 4-1 (oh boy ... Ted would be so proud at the theme of this blog so far). The reason why this week's blog is a double-header is because this week was spirit week in school, and between Baltimore sports and Edgewood sports, there was  just no time to get a blog written for last weekend's cake, so I am incorporating both cakes into this blog.

So this week was spirit week at a school and what a week it was. Just being back to school from maternity leave, I was overwhelmed to say the least, not even counting the added stress that teaching two nights at Towson adds. Ted had soccer two of the nights as well, which meant that on nights that I wasn't at Towson, I was with the kiddies after school until Ted got home; both of the kids were fantastic and I got lots of great times with them taking pictures and posing for the camera, but it was still stressful.  We had a great time dressing up for Manic Monday, Twin Tuesday, Nerd Wednesday, Superhero Thursday, and Spirit Friday ... special thanks goes out to all my A-side buddies who dressed up with me as well! The week was great, but of course, anytime you allow students to dress up, there is going to be some extra-special craziness in the classroom - kind of like a week long full moon! 

On Saturday night, Ted and I then chaperoned the homecoming dance. I feel like after five minutes on the dance floor, I could easily write a best-selling book entitled, "How to know when your dress is too short... and other life lessons learned at a High School Dance." The dance went really well, and I certainly do not mean to imply that every, or even most young ladies were dressed inappropriately, but it was enough to make me feel old. Only a decade removed from my own homecoming,  I on more than one occasion looked at Ted and made some comment that started with the line, "back in our day..." I think this is why I love teaching at Edgewood and at Towson, as well as why I love participating in things like spirit week; it keeps me in touch with the youthful moments in life that many people lose over time, and yet it always keeps me self-aware of the positive attributes of aging, like maturity and responsibility. Anyway, enough Dr. Phil-like speeches, on to the cake.

The first cake I made, last week, was a Lime Halva Cake, an interesting creation that would have seemed quite appropriate to eat in a swanky Cuban nightclub in 1950's Havana. Calling for semolina, baking powder, butter, sugar, eggs, ground almonds, lime juice and lime rind. Working with semolina was weird, as I had never actually seen it before, and assumed that it was really only used in pasta. It worked well though. The cake was topped with a homemade lime syrup made with sugar, lime juice, water, cinnamon.

My cake:

 The book's cake:

This week's cake was different than the Lime Halva cake, and yet brought it's own uniqueness. Aside from the standard ingredients of flour, brown sugar, pears, butter, eggs, baking powder,vanilla, and lemon rind, the cake also called for a mixture of rolled oats, sunflower kernels, and pumpkin seeds to mixed into the batter right before baking. As the cake was placed in the oven, I had to sprinkle raw brown sugar on top, in order to give the pears on top a crunchy, sweet crust. 

My cake and the book's cake:

Overall, both cakes were successful though Ted admitted that neither were to his real taste. I think that will be the status quo for these last few cakes, as they are all ones that we have saved for two years to bake (many for obvious reasons). Check in next week to see what crazy cake we have in the oven! Until then, happy baking!

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.

Cake # 86 Mango & Coconut Brulee Cake

Ted Childs knows his way around a grocery store. This is just a basic fact of life. As a small child, I watched countless hours of Supermarket Sweep, the mid 90’s game show that pitted three teams of contestants in a race around a fake supermarket to rack up the largest possible grocery bill, all while answering trivia questions related to supermarket products, and all I could think was … “damn, when I get older I am going to run this show.” I could be the Ken Jennings of buying expensive frozen turkey and fresh chorizo.

Sadly though, in the quest to make this week’s cake, I was defeated by the local Safeway. Walking casually through the aisles this week, I quickly worked my way down the grocery list until there was one solitary item left; an item so basic and inconspicuous that it seems still so surreal that it stumped me. That item was: Mango (insert crazy montage of SNL’s Mango the Dancer skit from a decade ago here).  You may be saying to yourself, “But Ted, mango is such a normal ingredient. How could you not find it? What is your problem? Are you stupid?” If you are saying this, you are not a nice person. I know what mango is, I know the flavor, I know the color… I just have never seen a full on, skin and all mango.  As it turns out, a Mango looks like smaller, seasick football that is slightly shriveled at the end. Who knew? Not me!

Anyway, this week’s cake, the Mango & Coconut Brulee Cake, called for the following ingredients:  Flour, Sugar, Baking Powder, Eggs, Butter, Lime Juice, Lime Rind, Shredded Coconut, and Mango. Once the cake was finished baking, more sugar and coconut was added  to the top, and the cake was put into the broiler to brown the top (Laura did this for me!). In terms of the visual, I think this was one of my closest cakes to the book in appearance:

My Cake:

The Book’s Cake:

Make sure to check back next week, as school starts on Wednesday and I am sure to have had five nervous breakdowns by then. Just don’t ask me to go to the store for a full mango!

Cake # 85 Orange and Almond cake

Only 15 more cakes to go until I have completed my challenge of 100 cakes- one a week! This week, as the last two weeks has been as hectic as ever with trying to make It'sTulleTime my small at home business run successfully. Right now things are looking up! I am going to have 9 items of my products in a local botqiue the first week of September, and I am going to my first vendor show in Cockeysville. I just ordered my first set of business cards, and I bought my first items wholesale. (Which means I can eventually lower prices for all!)  I have also completed my 10th order and soon (hopefully sooner rather than later) I will be making an actual profit!

Currently, on the family front - Liam is getting more chunky everyday and Evie more fussy. Terrible twos are well terrible. In fact, as I am typing this she is screaming her head off that she wants bubbles - after we have told her "no" four times. Her new thing is poking people (in a rude way) when she is mad and stomping her feet. Please let this pass soon! As far as Ted and I go, we are on a diet - ( I am trying to loose my last 10 lbs gained from baby Liam, and Ted is trying to loose the weight he gained when I was preggers too!. So making a cake a week is really hard! We tried to make this week's cake with less fat (so you will certainly notice the difference in the color) we added less flour, less butter, and more orange juice.  Besides all of those ingredients the cake called for almonds, sugar, vanilla, baking powder, and oranges.

Quick pictures and then off to silence my still screaming daughter!

My fat free version:

The book's cake:

Evie is ... uh calling to put it politely!

Cake #84 Apple and Blackberry Sponge Cake

A special congratulation must go out to my sister-in-law Katie’s boyfriend Ron on successfully moving down to Baltimore from Philadelphia and starting his new job today. In the almost eleven years that I have known Katie, I do not know if I can remember a time when she was as happy as she is now, and that happiness is directly attributed to Ron. He is such a wonderful guy, especially with Evie, who idolizes him, and I am so glad that he now has moved closer to be an even greater part of her life. This week’s cake is for him.

This week I made an Apple and Blackberry sponge cake, a novel cake simply for that fact that I had never eaten blackberries before. Something about their general shape (think grape that spent one day too many in a leper colony or sunburned raspberry) that makes me uneasy.  Just the same though, I made the cake, tried the berries, and was happy on both accounts. This cake called for Flour, Baking Powder, Butter, Eggs, Sugar, Apple Juice, and Apple Chunk, and the topping (which coincidentally went on the bottom of the pan as this was an upside down type cake) was made of diced apples, blackberries, and Raw Brown Sugar.  A cake filled with warmth and happiness … two traits I will always associate with Ron.

My cake:

The Book's Cake (with a nice rip on the page courtesy of Evie):

Check back next week to see what delectable desert I have in store … only a few more recipes to go before I reach the goal of 100 cakes in 100weeks. Until then, happy baking!