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!

Cake #26: Maple Almond Cupcakes

Whew! So Busy!

For those of you who didn't read this last week, Laura is currently on a southwest Jet headed for the beautiful locale of Lake Tahoe, California. She will be attending an four day conference on teaching IB English. While this is awesome for her, that meant I was left to bake the cake this week: a set of Maple Almond Cupcakes.

I intentionally chose this recipe for the ease it would afford me in an otherwise busy weekend, becuase if you have not done it yourself, watching a toddler  is rough work. The fussing, the temper tantrums, the hissy fits when things don't go as planned... and that's just me! All kidding aside, Evie is a lively child and I wouldn't want it any other way, but it does make things interesting.

The cupcakes this week called for flour, baking powder, butter, light brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, chopped almonds, and Elf's favorite food.... maple sugar. After the batter was mixed and poured, and topping of flour, melted butter, light brown sugar, and chopped almonds were then put on top. The cupcakes proved to be a smashing success (as decided my myself and Evie!) This is normally the part where Laura shows a picture from the book and a picture of her creation, but our camera is currently in her carry-on bag somewhere over Utah, so you will just have to use your imagination.

I haven't a clue what is on the docket for next week, as we have been baking out of order for some weeks now! Guess you will just have to read up next week to find out. Have a great week!

Cake # 25 Meringue-Topped Coffee Liqueur Cake

          Finally! I have completed the dreaded Meringue Coffee Liqueur Cake and I have also completed 1/4 of of the cakes in this book - six months in, a year and six months left to go. It is no surprise that one of harder cakes in the book would happen at this time, because it is in waning days of the school year that we find ourselves the busiest. Yesterday was the last day of school for students, I gave out my last final, and at 2pm was ready to go... but not before finding out if I made department head or not. For those who did not know, the old department head at my school resigned a few weeks ago, and I applied and interviewed in order to see if I could get the job. When my principal walked into my room today, I knew she had made her decision; I did not get the job. Now, I will not pretend like that did not deflate me a bit, as I really wanted the job and feel that I could bring valuable skills and energy to the department, but overall our new department head already has experience doing the job elsewhere, is a really wonderful person, and will be a fantastic leader for us in the future, so in the end I am happy.
        After school, Ted and I picked up the baby and went to an end-of-the-year party for Ted's Social Studies department. It was fun, but having Evie made conversation and eating difficult and after an hour we decided to take her home. Evie and I played for a bit and right at bed-time she barfed everything that she ate at the Social Studies party in my face and down my shirt. Awesomesauce. Ted however decided to return to the party in order to be with his friends, returning later in the night (two hours after he promised to return and with a few more beers than necessary). I quickly pointed out that considering my day, this was not the wisest course of action for a husband, and after a considerable amount of talking, Ted quickly admitted that he was an idiotic husband, and the rest of the evening passed in a depressed hush.
       It was with this background that this morning I awoke to start the cake. The cake itself called for flour, baking powder, butter, brown sugar, eggs, coffee extract, milk, an coffee liqueur. We didn't have any real coffee liqueur so instead we substituted Van Gogh Espresso Vodka. The meringue topping was the harder part of the recipe, calling for 3 egg whites, sugar, and coffee extract, and requiring the gentlest touch in order to get the meringue fluffly without falling.

Here is the book's cake:

And here is mine:

To brown the topping, I broiled it in the oven, but a blowtorch would have been so much more fun ...hmm Christmas present in the future?

Next week, I will be in on the sunny shores of Lake Tahoe attending an IB conference, so Ted will be making the cake (Maple Pecan Cupcakes to be exact) and writing the blog, and for that, you should be excited; Ted's sense of humor will be a nice change of pace to my more matter-of-fact tone.  So until two weeks from now, goodbye!