Wow it has taken me forever to get to writing this. I started writing this three days ago, today being August 19th, 2011. Down to business as I have some free time today.
Lets start with the fairy cakes. Those have been spectacular! I set the oven to the prescribed temperature on the box and then just before I put the cakes in the oven I turn it down approx. 10 degrees. I say approx. because I do not have a digital oven and can not be that precise without a thermometer, and working with a twist dial. I ran out of strawberry frosting sadly and used a pink buttercream frosting that I had made (will be discussed in the next bit of information). I've stuck with the standard decoration of pastel multi-colored stars on half and then red sugar crystals on the other half. They have been adorable, and delicious and I think will be a staple of cupcakes in my future. Since I have already talked about the cakes I will leave it with I was wrong in my previous calculations and it only made 6 dozen cakes not 8 dozen as I had thought.
Next up. Bumpy Cake. This was an intense cake to say the very least. I made it from this recipe at www.food.com. The cake turned out to be tasty, however the seven hours it took me to make was a bit frustrating. That is more due to my inexperience at making such a cake and the bad timing for a heat wave than the actual making of the cake. The recipe, should you not want to visit the website was divided into three parts, and thus I shall discuss each section of the cake making the same way.
For Cake
- 1/2 cup hot black coffee or 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups flour
Not sure why there is a back color, terribly sorry I will go back and edit to remove that. Everything with this cake was wonderfully easy at this point. Coffee and cocoa powder go together and blend for thirty seconds (keeping in mind that I had to blend by hand because in a previous cookie excursion I may have killed out hand mixer.) I used coffee because it was listed first and I was guessing that was the original ingredient but not everyone likes it. My boyfriend didn't know so I went with the coffee to start, next time - no coffee. Each ingredient there after is added one by one (well both eggs were added at the same time but you get what I mean right?) and blended for thirty seconds, except for the flour which got five minutes of blending. I was so amused when it was bubbly, and it turns out that was how the cake batter is supposed to be. Now I did not have access to a metal 9X13 pan for this cake so I used a pyrex glass dish and it turned out pretty ok. I baked using the instructions listed on the website and ran into a problem. The edges were starting to get a bit to crisp, I attribute this to the different properties in glass and metal. The center of the cake was done but the cake had split, I thought alright that should be cooked better because it's exposed. I did not want to cook it much longer because I was afraid of burning the cake and I already had a lot invested. So out it comes and I check the crack, it's gooey. Like super gooey. I panic and decided after a frantic call to my mother that it's been in the oven long enough that the eggs will have been cooked and everything should be ok. I let that set up and then once it was cool enough to touch I flipped it and set it back in the pan and down into the freezer it went. I waited a while so the glass could cool I was afraid of that cracking going from the oven to the freezer. While the cake froze I made up the buttercream frosting (See I told you I would get to it!)
For BUTTERCREAM ICING
- 2 cups butter
- 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
- 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
- 2 large egg whites
- 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
This was probably the most fun I've had in a while making frosting. I had forgotten to remove the butter from the fridge to get it softening, partially because it just says butter and partially because I'm a ditz sometimes. So I cut it up as best I could and then added the sugar as it directs. This was the longest process EVER. I almost left the house and went to Meijer to get a blender to speed the process up. However just as I was convinced I couldn't do it by hand the butter finally hit the point of ease and I was able to blend properly. I continued on down the ingredients and found that it looked a bit to soft to make the icing bumps on the cake so I added more powdered sugar to try and stiffen it. The problem was the sugar content but the heat in the kitchen. Temperatures outside were near 90 degrees and it was rather humid. We don't have central air so the kitchen was still overheated from the oven as well. Needless to say I wasn't able to "roll out" logs of buttercream frosting. I piped them onto the cake after taking it from the freezer. Back to the freezer it went. The frosting is similar to that of my moms recipe just a few extra things. It's rather delicious but when you reheat it, the thing becomes a soupy mess due to the amount of butter.
For POURABLE FUDGE FROSTING
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup dark corn syrup
- 1/3 cup cocoa
- 1 dash salt
- 1/2 lb butter, divided
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
The final stage!
This was the most stressful for me because I had put it off until the night before I went home, AND I've never made candy like this before. I've done rock candy but that doesn't require cooking or specifics like temp and everything. Needless to say when I do this again I need a better way to hold the candy thermometer. I can also make it with a friend because this was rather hard for me. Getting everything done wasn't bad but I was almost a complete dunderhead! I got it cooking and was holding the thermometer to watch the temp I've been told not let it touch the bottom of the pan because that will alter the temperature which was difficult because the heat coming out from the bottom of the pan was hurting my fingers and I accidentally dropped the thermometer. I went to grab it and realized, OH HEY this is nearly 200 or 300 (whatever the temp for soft ball candy is) and stopped myself from grabbing it. Found some tongs and pulled it out. Because of that time some of the candy burned on the bottom sadly. So I removed it from the heat and the actual burner spot too. Mixed in the powdered sugar and vanilla and let it set for a little while I pulled the cake out, did some cleaning, just to let it cool off a bit because I knew it was hot. Also wanted the liquid to penetrate the sugar. After it was all mixed I started to pour it on the cake, and it was melting the buttercream icing. I was so upset. I had tried to make it red but it ended up pink. So my boyfriends cake was brown with hints of pink coming through. He says it tasted fine, a bit strong with the coffee but otherwise it was good. His grandma took half of the cake home.
Let us see, what is next? Ah yes, the ice cream.
I had originally wanted to make him Cookie dough ice cream but sadly my timing was off. So I had made vanilla ice cream, with brown sugar instead of white. That really did make a flavor different! Then I found this recipe on yoyomax12's page on youtube for cookie dough truffles. It was butter, brown sugar, uhm.... wow this is bad I have a terrible memory, I'll find the link again and make a post dedicated to it because it's really good stuff. There's sweetened condensed milk, and flour as well as chocolate chips involved. I had some issues with the chocolate because we only had white and not semi sweet or milk chocolate in the house but it worked out alright. It comes together really easy but at this time I was back home and was able to use a stand mixer which helped loads! The best part is this isn't meant to be cooked it is meant to be consumed. No raw eggs here which made me feel better about serving it to someone else. I know small doses of raw eggs aren't terrible for you but I'd rather not risk getting friends and family sick because of my failure to serve properly cooked foods! This has kept in the fridge nicely and just let it come to temperature and it's super easy to eat. I think I might try it cold next time because it looked so good solid instead of a semi-liquid state.
My chainmaille. Oh my word is this a fun project. I wanted to make a bracelet for my boyfriends birthday. Yes I know most guys don't like jewelry like girls do but I'm not good at much else with chainmaille right now. The only reason I wanted to is to so that I could give him a hint at his other present which was tickets to the Ren Fest in Michigan! The first one that I did wasn't so good, I used insulated wire and the colors were off so I wasn't really happy with out it turned out. We went to Joanns after I gave him the bracelet and we found color coated copper wire and I've been using that. I am still remaking his bracelet but I've set that aside for the time being so that I can clean my room up before school starts. I've also made two earrings which I find adorable but I need to get better at closing the jump rings because it just breaks to easily. I bought some premade saw cut rings as well and made an anklet and that turned out pretty well but I need a better clasp for it because I'm going to wear out the ring that closes it if I don't. Hopefully my next project I will have a camera so that I can take pictures of everything and then I can make separate posts about everything and have it look BEAUTIFUL!
Stay creative!
~Luna Rae Anselm
