Delays

For those following closely, I apologize, baking has been put on hold for a few days, while life intrudes....please bear with me, and this cake will get baked!

They think I've lost my Marbles....

Well, it's been a bit of time since I last had a successful cake.  The last one was a flop really.  It didn't get finished.  But, as they say, when you fall off the horse, you get back on.  So, we drew another prospective cake tonight...and it's Marble Cake on page 138 from the book Close Up on Cakes.

The first thing I did was read through the recipe, and make sure I had the correct pan to use; and I do.

That said, let's move into the recipe, shall we.  Once again, text from the book will be in italics and my snarky comments will be in regular face type.

Cake batter:
3/4 Cup (6 oz/185g) butter 
1 1/2 Cups (12 oz/375g) sugar
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract (side note here, with all the baking going on, I ran out of Vanilla Extract.  You see, I prefer to make my own.  It's quite simple; Bottle of Vodka, and a whole mess 'o Vanilla beans (10 actually) of the best you can afford.  Split the beans, and feed them into the Vodka.  Close it up, and let sit for 6 weeks in a cool dark spot.  Shake every week or so.  So, I have some made up, the problem, it won't be ready for 6 weeks...so I broke down and bought some; darn!
3 eggs
2 Cups (8 oz/250g) self-rising flour See previous posts on how to make your own self-rising flour.
Pinch of salt
3/4 Cup (6floz/185ml) milk
1 drop Red food coloring
1 drop Red + 1 drop  Blue food coloring, combined
1 drop Green food coloring
1 drop Red + 1 drop Yellow food coloring, combined

Okay, that screeching sound was my brakes.  Sure this comes from the Fantasy section, but the only way I am using food coloring is in some delusional fantasy:  Some quick and dirty research tells us Food Dyes, or Colorings aren't really that good for us, and may, note my use of the word May be dangerous for us. Some may have heard that Red #40 as it is known in some industries is pretty bad, but the one that caught my attention was Green (my favorite color) food coloring has been banned in most European Countries.  If you have read my earlier posts, I try to stay as true to the recipe as possible.  In my Coconut cake, Red food coloring was called for, to color the coconut a pinkish color for topping.  I opted out of that with no real effects.

The quandary I'm in, is that this cake is supposed to be different colors.  The colorings, don't impart any real flavors to the cake, they are just visual.  So do I opt out, or try for natural colorings.  Red (Beets or Strawberry (don't be so quick to judge now, almost assuredly, the sugar used in this recipe came and comes from beets, not cane)); Blue (Blueberry), Yellow (Turmeric) and Green (spinach or chlorophyll)

This sounds like  a challenge....due to the visual nature of this cake (the marbling comes from the different colors, otherwise it would just be a play vanilla cake.  Decision made, I'm going to use the Natural methods of coloring. Now back to the recipe:

Icing:
1/2 Cup (4oz/125g) Butter
2 1/2 Cups (14oz/440g) confectioners sugar
Ribbon for Decorating

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180C/Gas 4.)  Butter a 9x5 inch (23x12cm) loaf pan.
Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy (about 2 - 3 minutes.)
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Fold in the flour and salt in 3 batches alternately with the milk, starting and finishing with the flour.  I think they mean to combine the salt and flour, then alternate that mixture with the milk...at least that's the way I'll approach it.
Divide the batter into 5 equal portions.  Leaving 1 portion uncolored, tint the remaining 4 portions ping, mauve, pale green and apricot.
Drop alternating spoonfuls of each portion in the prepared pan until all the mixture is used.  Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.  Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Icing: Beat the butter until smooth, about 2 - 3 minutes.  Add the sugar 1/3 C (3oz/90g) at a time, mixing until smooth.  If the icing is too soft to use, refrigerate until firm, about 10 - 15 minutes.  When cake is cool, cover with the icing and tie decoratively with the ribbon.

Okay, I don't think I'll be tying any ribbon on my cake unless it's a Fondant ribbon. I like to keep my cakes edible, and it appears that the ribbon is not part of the flavor profile, so I feel justified in removing it.

So, after the last fiasco, I have read over this recipe 3 - 4 times, trying to find holes, and it looks pretty straight forward.  Lift will come from the self rising flour, and the batter will be sufficiently dry to allow for a nice moist texture.  We shall see, as the proof is in the baking.

Now, this might take some time, so I plan to work on this for two days. Tomorrow I will work on the natural food colorings, and will definitely report on that.   And Tuesday bake and ice the cake.

What, I almost went and published this without my music selection! Oh the horrors!

So going with the whole antithesis of stuff the government allows, but really isn't good for you; I'm choosing a group that many felt were a danger to a young persons morals, but in turn, put out ton's of great music.  Queen.  In 1978, We Are the Champions came out on 45, and the flip side Or B-Side was We Will Rock you, which for my money was the far better song.  I will probably be able to bake away both days, listening to nothing but Freddie Mercury and Queen.

Life should have it's fun moments, let baking be one of those for you.

Happy Baking all.
Adam

Lemon Layer Cake; and the verdict is...

A test kitchen is just that.  A place to test recipes until they are just right.  This blog, and my kitchen are not test kitchens.

I have to get that through my own head, own it.  Not all the cakes in this book are going to work out, not at least as they are presented.  On this Lemon Layer cake Pg 58 in the book Up Close on Cakes really doesn't work as portrayed.

Let me back up a bit here.  In my last post, I took blame for not using the proper pans, and not following the recipe to the letter.  I still own that error.  Now, the taste testers have weighed in.  The cake is dense, lemony, and the whip cream doesn't lend itself to layering. In fact, two of the taste testers suggested the cake reminded them of sponge cake a little. As I did some research the recipe for this Lemon Layer cake is very similar to some Bouche de Noel or Swiss Roll cake recipes.

Now this cake was a bit stiff for that, but the recipe itself I feel is doomed to be a layer cake at it's very core.

Wet ingredients in baking are:
Eggs
Butter
Lemon Juice
Sugar
This recipe calls for approximately 1 cup of wet ingredients.
Now the dry ingredients in this recipe are 1 Cup All Purpose Flour.  So we have approximately equal parts Wet and Dry, with only the Eggs as leavening agents.  This cake will not poof up at all.  There won't be the internal crumb structure for a layer cake such as I and most people I know of are used to.

Deep down I really didn't expect every cake to be a home run.  So it shouldn't come as a surprise that this cake struck out.

Across the board, the taste testers' agreed, this cake while tasty, and lemony, just didn't work.

While the recipe may have other applications in different forms, I can safely say I will not re-make this cake (yes, in my earlier post I stated I would try, and follow the recipe with regard to pan size, I simply at this point don't feel that will make a difference large enough to overcome what I see as flaws in the recipe.)

The new plan, is to draw a new cake in a few days and move on from the dust and ashes.

Happy Baking all!
Adam

Into every life little booboo's will occur...

So, in going through out cake pans, I couldn't find a 9" round pie pan, and to be honest I didn't want to use the springform pan, and cut it in half like the recipe said.  So I grabbed two 10" pans, and made a double batch....needless to say, it really didn't work out like I planned.

Oh don't get me wrong, it's tasty, just not what I thought it would look like.

Well here are the photos.

 Here is what the cake was supposed to look like...

Here is my double batch of batter, and the two 10" pans all buttered up.....

Notice how they don't fill up the pans...

Well, they didn't puff up much....well they didn't puff up at all.

Okay, so I went through the motions on this, though I must say the whip cream rocked!

At least it tastes good....

Tell you something here, I broke a cardinal rule I have.  Follow the recipe to the letter the first time you make it.  I didn't and this one's on me.

So I will be re-baking in the next day or so, following the recipe to the letter.  It also means, I will be going out and finding baking pans!  I figure I will need (2) 9" round pans, and (1) 8" round pan, that should allow me to make all the cakes in the book.  Perhaps it's the woodworker in me, but the right tools make the job easier.

No excuses, though: Remember to always follow the recipe.

I will update in a day or two when I follow the recipe :(

Keep baking all!

Easter Sugar high has worn off....finally

We survived.  Chocolate eggs, Pies, and cookies; not to mention the deviled eggs, and pirogi (something I only make on Easter, and Christmas Eve.)  So it's back to Cake.

And what a fitting cake we drew today!  Today being National Siblings Day, and I only have one Sibling, my little brother Richard absolutely adores Lemon.  And the cake we drew was from page 58 of the book Close Up on Cakes: Lemon Layer Cake.

This cake starts off the section Quick and Easy; and with only 7 ingredients it certainly lives up to it's name.  So let's lay this out:

4 eggs (thankfully, the chickens have been helpful in that regard)
1/2 cup (4oz/125g) Sugar
1 cup (4oz/125g) Flour, All Purpose, sifted; hmm another head scratcher when it comes to measurements.  Not quite sure how 4oz can be 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 cup of AP Flour....Looks like I'll be going with standard measurements again this time.
4 Tbsp (2oz/60g) Butter, melted
1 Tbsp Lemon zest 
1 - 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
Whipped Cream to serve

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C/Gas 4.) Grease and line a 9-inch (23cm) round cake pan.
Beat together the eggs and sugar until thick and pale and the mixture forms a ribbon.  Fold in the sifted flour in 3 batches, adding the combined butter, lemon zest and lemon juice with the last batch. This is what I call installments.  By adding the flour in 3 batches or installments, it allows all the flour in the mix to become incorporated before the next installment is added; this makes for a softer interior (or crumb) to the cake.
Pour into the prepared pan.  Bake for 25- 30 minus or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. This time seems reasonable, though I will still set my timer for 20 minutes and check, simply because my oven runs a bit hot.
Let the caked cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Cut the cake in half to form 2 semicircles.  Spread one half with whipped cream and top with the other.  Cut into wedges to serve. So, this will only make a half a cake then.  Confusing a bit....there is no photo of the whole cake in the book, just slices.  Though that does make a bit of sense, as by cutting the cake in half, we won't have a whole cake for a photo....

All in all, easy peasy. Now, sticking with the Sibling thing.  My brother was a huge fan of a few different groups while we were growing up, REM and Depeche Mode.  While REM had some great songs, I really didn't get into their b-sides much...while Depeche Mode had a cover of Route 66 that was clearly superior to the A-side "behind the wheel" (I think they were trying to be cute.) So, the baking music will be a mix of REM, and Depeche Mode...not my personal fav's, but at least this cake will bake quickly!

Happy baking all!
Adam

No Cake this week...

For all of you looking forward to a new cake being drawn this week, I hate to disappoint.  This week there will be no new cake drawn.  What with Easter Sunday occurring yesterday, and the household becoming inundated with Chocolate, pies, and various assorted goodies (such as a rare showing of Pierogi) I can not in good conscience bake a cake.

I will be holding off, until next Sunday for the drawing.  It is my sincere hope that we can make it through what we have here on hand, and be ready for something new.

Until then.

Happy Baking!

Cake # 2 - Coconut Cake

So yesterday was baking day.  And what a day it was!  Not only was I busy most of the day, and had to find some time to fit in the baking....the weather was wild!  Sunny, then grey, light rain, then hail, Sunshine visited again, followed by Thunderstorms and lightning, and then a soft pitter patter of rain. A mixed bag so to speak.

Thankfully, the baking of this cake was not a mixed bag.  It was pretty simple.

I gathered my place mise en place (fancy cook/french term for get the ingredients ready and in place.) I find this helpful; to know yes, I have everything, and it's all measured out for me.

Nothing fancy, just the cake ingredients.

So, because I was working with Coconut, I had the Caribbean flair going.  Bob Marley was playing in the background, the weather was the weather (thankfully I was inside) and the Coconut smelled heavenly!

I started just as the book suggested, creaming the butter and sugar together.  One catch here; I forgot to put the butter out to come to room temp :( 

Just as 3 Little Birds began to play, telling me "don't worry, every little 'ting, gonna be alright" I remembered a trick with frozen butter and baking.

With frozen butter, use a cheese grater, and grate the butter into the bowl, this warms it and brings it to room temp in minutes, not hours!

So, I creamed the butter now room temp, and began to add my eggs.  Let me take a moment here to talk about ingredients.  You want the freshest best ingredients you can lay your hands on.  I'm not talking about throwing money away, buying the most expensive thing.  Just go for the best you can afford.  Your cake and taste buds will thank you.  

As for eggs, I prefer eggs that come from a known source.  I dislike the term Organic, or Free Range, as they are legal speak for bureaucracies.  I keep Chickens, for the eggs, as they are far superior to anything I can buy in the stores around here.

Of particular note, the yolk of an egg should be Orange, not yellow.  Yellow is the sign of grain fed only chickens.  Chickens that get greens, have Orange yolks.  Better nutrition so I am told, and better tasting (yep, my blog, my opinion.)

There are my girls.  

Ooh look, eggs!

Okay, off my soapbox.  Back to the cake.  So mixed in the eggs one at a time. Then came the strange part of the recipe.  Normally I bake cakes using the "Muffin Method."  This recipe held some of the wet back (Sour Cream, and Heavy Cream) and asked that the dry (Coconut and Self-Rising flour (see the first cake baking blog for how to make Self-Rising flour)) be put into the mix slowly (or over 2 -3 installments.

So in the photo, this is the last installment of Self-Rising flour (Left) Sour Cream (top), Coconut (bottom) and Heavy Cream (Right)

I wondered why do it this way.  My thought is that by adding the ingredients into the mix and thoroughly mixing each together before adding the next, makes for a softer cake.  How so? Well, if the flour gets liquid and fat and each flour particle is coated thus, they won't clump.  This allows for a moister, lighter, softer crumb (the interior of the cake.)  A note here, I didn't use a mixer at this point, you can just see the hand mixer in the background of the photo, that was used in the Butter, Sugar creaming.  Once I started the dry mix, I folded in the ingredients using a wide spatula. Folding is a technique where you slice through the middle of the mass with the spatula, then scoop and fold the half back over.  Turn the bowl, and repeat until all the ingredients are incorporated.  This is more time consuming, but doesn't beat the flour so much that gluten strands are formed.  This in turn also leads to a softer cake.

Oops, I forgot to mention I had pre-heated my oven to 350 degrees F and set the rack to the middle position of the oven.

As I stated a few days back, I have a 9" Springform pan.  So I used that.  Where I deviated from the recipe, was I didn't use any parchment on the bottom.  I just buttered it up as the recipe suggested, and scooped the batter into the pan.  Now a word on the batter.  This batter was thick.  I scooped it out, and smoothed it with a spatula.  Into the oven it went.

Now, the recipe says to bake for 1 hour.  After the first cake was done sooner rather than later; I set my timer for 30 minutes.  Did I expect it to be done; Nope.  It's just good practice to set your timer early and check on the cakes progress.  Why? Well, every oven is different.  It could be my oven runs hot.  It could be their test kitchen ovens ran cold.  No way to know.  I do know that a dirty oven runs cold.  So it takes longer to bake.  I do not want to insinuate that the test kitchen ovens were dirty, please don't read into that.  I just say this so anyone wanting to play along with this, and try making cakes from scratch... clean your ovens!

So the timer went off at 30 minutes, and top had just started to harden up, obviously not ready.  I set another 10 minutes on the timer.

Beep...Beep...Beep the timer sang; 40 minutes in.

Starting to see browning around the edges (and yep, that's a drip pan underneath, I like to keep the oven clean, so if it spilled out or over, the drip tray catches it.

Still not ready, so put another 5 minutes on the timer.  At this stage, I wanted to toothpick test every 5 minutes or so.

50 minutes.  Toothpicks inserted come out clean.  The first test at 45 minutes had some soft spots, that still needed baking.  50 minutes, 5 test sites all clean.  Pulled the cake for resting.

Allowed the cake to rest for 10 minutes before removing the sides of the springform pan.  The moment of truth:

Bingo! We have a winner!  sides came out Golden Brown and Delicious (here after known as GBD!)

So I set the timer for 2 hours.  To allow this cake to cool.  By this time, Bob Marley had faded away, and I was into some chill-axing Jimmy Cliff. Now this is an instance where the record labels got it right.  Many Rivers To Cross is a killer song, and it's the A-side.  The b-side to this was Food for Thought while not the song the A-side was, it is an intriguing title.

I have expounded some on food here.  If you have seen any of my other blogs; you will note that I take food seriously (I grow and raise much of what I eat.) This blog was my wife's challenge to me, to get back into writing.  Move out of my comfort zone, and try something new.  It's something we should all do.  And food is the easiest way to do it.  Think about what you like, then think about how you can make it yourself!  Plants want to grow, and don't need much.  If you like tomatoes, get some seed, put it in a pot with dirt, and give it sunlight and water.  It will do the rest.  Have patience, and sometime in July or August, you will have the tastiest tomato you have ever eaten.  

Now in my case, the food for thought comes from Coconut.  While my daughter doesn't like the smell, taste or texture.  I can take it or leave it.  This cake is all about the Coconut.

So in the frosting, I mixed the egg whites with the Coconut and then slowly added the confectioners (powdered) sugar into the mix.  I spread about 1/2 of the mixture onto the top of the cake, and spread it on with a spatula.  Then using my hands (yes I washed) I crumbled the remaining half the icing onto the top of the cake to give it depth.

Ah, isn't that pretty!

So Here is what we were shooting for:

Page 79 in the book Up Close on Cakes

My version:

As I stated in the pre-bake blog.  I don't use food coloring or dyes.  I don't like to add chemicals unnecessarily and as it was optional just to make pink coconut; I opted out.  I think the white coconut is more natural and still quite stunning.

So as for the taste testing.  This cake is moist and soft. It isn't crumbly, and holds it shape very well.  And as for taste, the name says it all; Coconut.  The icing isn't overly sweet, and you really get the taste of coconut throughout.  The cake by itself, also has the taste of coconut, and and the texture has a nice tooth-i-ness (or chewiness if you prefer) from the coconut in the cake.  Everyone greatly enjoyed it.  Well, my 8 year old nephew had some, more than one bite, as he experienced new tastes and textures.  His take on the cake "it could use a bit less coconut, but it's still really good)

His piece just before his report....gotta love the unvarnished truth you get from kids.

Two of the other taste testers said it was fantastic, and definitely a desert cake, and one they would've loved for Easter!  Not for this year, but I will keep it in mind for an Easter down the road.

All in all, this would rate as a keeper.  Easy to make. Wonderful coconut flavor.  Not overly sweet.  Something nice on a spring day.

Even I a bumbling rustic throw it together cook, can create something that resembles a photo from the book. No I can't stage around it.  My food is meant to be eaten nay devoured! While we toast each other (in this case with tea, but to each their own) and laugh.  That's what drives my world.

I urge each of you, step out of your comfort zone. Try something new, and you will see, much like the tomato plant, you too will grow.  Seek out new challenges, and try the b-side.  You never know, you just may like it.  That is my Food For Thought (thank you Jimmy Cliff.)

Happy Baking all.

New cake drawn....baking commences tomorrow!

It's Monday, and we are out of sweets! The last of the Peanut Butter Cookies were eaten, so I don't feel bad about drawing our 2nd cake recipe out.

My daughter ate the last of the cookies, so she got the honor? of picking the next cake recipe for this blog.  When she pulled it, to be honest, she wanted to put it back.  You see she really doesn't like coconut, and yes folks, our next cake comes direct to us from page 74 in our book Up Close on Cakes: Coconut Cake.

This cake says it serves 10 - 12 and uses a 9 inch springform pan (good, that's the size I have).

The Cake recipe is:
1/2 Cup (4 oz/125g) Butter
1 Cup (8 oz/250g) Sugar
2 Eggs
2/3 C (1 oz/30g) flaked (desiccated) coconut
1 1/2 Cups (6 oz/185g) self-rising flour (sifted)
1 Cup (8floz/250ml) sour cream
1/2 Cup (3 floz/90ml) cream

For the icing:
2 Cups (3 1/2 oz/ 100g) shredded coconut
2 Egg Whites
1/2 Cup (3 oz/90g) Confectioner's (Icing) sugar, sifted
1 drop red food coloring (optional)

Okay...so now come my thoughts about these ingredients; First and foremost everything is better with butter.  That said, and moving forward I see 2 different types of coconut here.  I have the shreded coconut, and will likely just use that instead of flaked.  As for the Cream, I will use heavy cream, just because I have it.

As for the icing, everything looks good to go, with one exception.  The red food coloring.  Yes I know that it's optional.  And I am opting out of using it.  Red food coloring, for that matter any type of food coloring has no place in any kitchen I cook in.  Too many of the chemicals that are used that are purportedly safe for human consumption just aren't; safe that is.  The literature is out there, I won't beat you over the head with it.  I started this, to show cakes don't have to come from box mixes.    That we can make things for ourselves, and make them better.  No, there will be no Red Food Coloring, though I may use some beet juice which I know to be edible, and will color anything, including my jeans red.  Don't ask.  It was an unfortunate canning mishap.

So all in all, a straight forward cake.  I do like the Sour Cream addition as this cake should be moister than the last one.

So here is the rest of the recipe, as per usual, the Book bring is in Italics and my comments aren't.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C/Gas 4) Butter up the 9 inch springform pan and line the base with parchment or wax paper Okay, if I butter it all up, why the parchment.  I think I may be living on the edge here, but I'm gonna skip that part (the parchment) simply because I'm out. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time; beating well after each addition.  Stir in the Coconut, flour, Sour Cream and Cream in installments or a little at a time.  Basically, you want this to incorporate into the batter.  So a little bit of each, then repeat until it's all gone. Mix until the batter is smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour our until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. 1 hour....man after the last cake, I will set my timer for 20 minutes and start checking.  I know that sounds demanding, but the last cake read bake for 50 minutes, and was done at  about 35 in my oven.  Better safe than eating a brick I always say. Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely.

For the icing, combine the Coconut and Jeff Whites in a bowl mixing well.  Add the sugar in batches, stirring well after each addition. If desired, red food coloring may be added to the icing. So, they want pink coconut....hmm not me, I'll keep mine white, just the way Mother Nature made it. Nope I won't even use beet juice!  Keeping it real and pure here. Cover the to of the cake with icing and serve.

So tomorrow we bake.  Music choice...Coconut, come on man...something from the islands.  And when we talk about islands and music, it must be Bob Marley!  The crazy thing about Marley, not many of his songs were release on 45 rpm.  And those that were released were done so long after the full album had gone gold or platinum (so they knew what the hits were.)  Now that isn't the crazy part.  The song Could You Be Loved, is a good tune, but the b-side; well none other than No Woman No Cry.  One of the greatest Marley tunes ever.  Not sure how they blew that one, but safe to say, I will be listening to Mr. Marley, with probable Jimmy Buffett thrown in for good measure.

Heres to baking!
Night all

No new cake today...just a question

So, I know this blog was supposed to be about cakes.  Specifically about cakes from the book Close up on Cakes.  but seriously, who just wants to bake cakes.  I mean I Have been baking bread for years. And Yes, I still listen to music, mostly picked due to B-sides when I bake bread.

But now, my wife and daughter have gotten me into Pinterest.  Or as I call it, Crack for Crafty folk.

Now don't get me wrong.  It has been a great source of inspiration for me in other parts of my life, Like the woodworking I do.  Great inspiration.  but lately, my daughter has been posting Macaroons...Lemon, Raspberry, Irish Cream....oh, did I mention I love Macaroons?

A little share here.  On vacation one year, we went to St. Martins, and traveled to the French side of the island.  We passed by, and eventually stopped at this bakery.  Well, we did the typical one of everything, and two of the things we like.  What we ended up with was way too many macaroons!  And we were eating them for the rest of the trip!

Now, I am questioning, should I limit this blog to just the cakes, or should I branch out some.

As I write this out, I am coming to a conclusion. I can still bake the bread, and branch out into macaroons, I just won't write about them on this blog.  At least until I finish with the cakes.

BTW, Monday I will draw for the next Cake!

Happy Baking all!

Baking Day, the first of many to come

To set the tone:

This is a photo of the Date Cake from the Book, page 39 (the cake recipe is on page 38.)  So, this is what we were shooting for.

Now I have to admit; when we were going through the book the first time, I wasn't thrilled with this recipe.  Sort of like, it would never cross my mind to make something like this.  But as I was getting ready to bake, I found myself getting anxious, kind of like being a little kid at Christmas.  Not sure if it was for the cake, the blog, or fear of falling flat on my face.

I realized right after my first two cups of coffee, that I needed to accomplish a few things before baking.  First was clean the oven, something had spilled over and I didn't need a burnt smoke flavor to this cake!  Second, was to clean up the kitchen and do the dishes. Another admission, I absolutely abhor cooking or baking in a dirty kitchen.  

Once the dishes were done, kitchen clean, I realized that the oven still had a couple of hours on the self clean cycle.  So to kill time, and my pent up energy, I went to the gym and got in a decent workout, and seriously, only thought about cake about a zillion times.

By the time I got home, the oven was done, and I was able to start the baking process.

This is the chopped dates, walnuts and brown sugar.  Tip with chopping dates, keep washing the knife off with hot tap water, this removes the sugars from the knife and makes for easier chopping!

So with David Bowie playing in the background...and no, Panic in Detroit didn't Start us off; it was Changes from 1972 (Andy Warhol was the b-side and no that wasn't one of my favorites....) I chopped the dates, then the walnuts, packed and dumped the brown sugar, melted and poured in the butter, then the eggs and milk.  I then made up the self rising flour.  It was 1 1/2 cup flour total (3/4 C AP, and 3/4 Cup Whole Wheat Pastry flour) so I added 2 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt.  Stir to combine.  Prior to this, I had buttered my 8 inch pan, and cut a circle of parchment paper for the bottom.

Prepped pan, and batter ready to go in.  This was a dense batter, and needed some coaxing out of the bowl.  Once it was all in, I shook and knocked on the pan to distribute the batter.

Now the oven had been pre-heated to 350F, with the rack in the center of the oven.  The recipe called for baking for 50 minutes.  Out of habit, I set a timer for 30 minutes just to see where it was (as every oven is different!)  At 30 minutes, the toothpick was still wet.  I set the time for another 10 minutes. 

10 minutes later, the toothpick came out clean.  I tried two more spots, all clean so the cake came out of the oven at 40 minutes.  So let this be a lesson for anyone playing along.

Yep, the top cracked some.  This could be cleared up with a water bath on the rack below, but as this cake is to be frosted, the cracks won't matter.

I ran a knife around the sides, with no sticking.  Waited 10 minutes (as this pan doesn't hold heat at all) and put a cooling rack on top and flipped the cake.  Another cooling rack was employed on the bottom and again flipped, now the cake was resting on a cooling rack right side up.  It came out perfectly.

The cake came out, not to David Bowie nor any of his alter egos...but rather Credence Clearwater Revival, and a classic B-Side Born on the Bayou (I think Cajun food is in order this week) which was the flip side to Proud Mary in 1969!

While the cake cooled, and I chilled to CCR I started in on the frosting, Pretty easy, Cream cheese, Powdered Sugar and butter.  It was a bit stiff at first, but persistent mixing got it to spreadable.  Now the recipe makes more icing than I like.  I have never been a frosting or icing fan, so I didn't use it all.  In the end, I used about 2/3 of it.  Topped the cake off with Walnut halves.  So shoot back to the first picture from the book, then come back to see what I made:

Basic technique here, dump a bunch of icing on with the spatula, then use the offset spatula to spread it and remove any excess.  The Lazy Susan below aids in frosting a cake, as it spins!

Temptation did not get the best of me.  We had dinner, then made some tea and cut a slice to try....

Not sure if you can zoom in, but the nuts, and dates are clearly visible, and the structure is tight.  The cake is dense, though to be fair, in looking at the book, their slice appears dense as well.

Taste wise, it's on the dry side.  That could be due to inconsistent cooking times, using the middle rack, or it could be that this is dense, slightly dry cake.  My wife loved it 5 stars she said, as she had a second slice.  To be fair, she likes dry cakes.  I too had a second small slice, as the flavor is subtle.  The Dates and Walnuts really shine in this cake.  It isn't too sweet, and the dates lend a moisture to the cake in places.  My Father and Aunt tried this cake as well, and all agreed, though a bit dry, a wonderful cake, pleasing to the palate, and one to keep to make again.  When I have other taste testers, I will update this if anything else comes up.

Now the cake is 8 inches and about 1 1/2 inches high.  It cuts 8 nice healthy slices, 16 if you are watching your waistline like me :) So how will it keep?  Not sure, if it lasts that long, I will update that info, when next we draw a cake for baking.  But the way this one tastes, I'm not betting on it being around long enough to test longevity and freshness.

All in all, an easy cake to back, and decorate.  Tasteful, but possibly dry just by nature.  Now I made this to the recipe.  My normal inclination is to play with the ingredients, like cutting sugar, or substituting fats, this recipe after making it verbatim the first time (another good tip) and I wouldn't change a thing.  Well except to do the first watch at 30, and second at 35 (at least on my oven!)

Anyone playing along, now or the future, Please feel free to comment any of your own findings, I'd love to hear from you!

Parting shot:

Longevity Update:  So the cake only lasted until today.  The last of the Taste Testers have checked in.  The consensus; The texture is like a scone, and the dates and frosting lend to a moistness the cake lacks.  It was very subtle in taste, but all liked it enough to want to bake it again.

The next cake will be drawn next week.

Drumroll Please.....

And the winner is.....wait for it....Date Cake!

So my darling wife got home from work, and it was time to draw from the box of cake names; to refresh the memory see the photo below

The slips of paper were all mixed up, and she drew out the name Date Cake (on page 38) for those of you who may have the book and want to play along with me.  If you want to play, but don't have the book, the night before I make the cake, I will give the recipe here which will be in italics my own commentary will not be in italics.

So without further ado, here is the subject of our conversation here.

Cake Batter
1 Cup (5 oz/155g) Chopped Dates
1/3 Cup (1 1/2 oz/45g) Chopped Walnuts
1/2 Cup (3 oz/90g) Brown Sugar (packed firm)
2 Eggs, beaten
1/2 Cup (4 oz/125g) Butter, melted
2 tsp. Light Corn Syrup
3/4 Cup (3 oz/90g) Self-rising Flour
3/4 Cup (3 1/2 oz/100g) Whole Wheat Self-rising Flour
1/4 Cup (2 fluid oz / 60ml) milk

Icing
4oz (125g) Cream Cheese
6 tsp. (1 oz/30g) Butter
1 Cup (6 oz/185g) Confectioners (powdered) Sugar
Walnut halves for decoration

First of all, before I get into the actual preparation of the cake here....I know some of you like myself may be scratching their heads about the measurements presented from the book.  Cups is standard US measurements, ounces is weight, and grams is metric conversion used all over the world except for the US, Burma and Liberia....and I know from cooking, that 1 Cup is equal to 8 oz.  And 8 oz is equal to 226.8g.  So why the discrepancies?

According to some professional bakers I know of, one should always use metric when measuring for baking.  It's the most accurate. But in this recipe, take for example the Brown Sugar (packed) it calls for 1/2 cup (3oz/90g) which doesn't make sense.  1/2 Cup of packed brown sugar weighs 1.5 oz or 45g according to allrecipes.com.  Now this is easy to test, and I did.  I took a 1/2 Cup measuring cup, firmly packed brown sugar into it to the rim, leveled it off, and weighed it.  Using a bowl on my scale, I hit the tare function which discounted the weight of the bowl.  So the sugar weighed 110g or 3 1/2 oz.

What's the old saying, don't believe everything you read....especially on the internet!

Perhaps this recipe isn't that far off.  A bit here and there in grams, but if I follow the Cups or Grams,  it should come out fine.

Now, I looked through my pantry, and see I have everything here except for the Self-Rising Flours!  Hating to buy anything I can make myself, a quick search of the aforementioned internet shows 1 Cup All Purpose Flour + 1 1/4 tsp Baking Powder and 1/4 tsp Salt.  Seems straight forward enough.  Though I did see that when making your own Whole Wheat Self-rising Flour, use Whole Wheat Pastry Flour instead of All-Purpose.  Luckily, I have all that here at home.  No trip to the grocery store for this cake!

Okay, now for the directions on how to make this cake:

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C/Gas 4) close enough, I remember from math classes, that 350 F is 176.7 C, but 180 is more likely to show up on an oven so 180C it is.

Butter up an 8 inch (20 cm) springform cake pan and line with parchment or waxed paper.  
Houston, we have a problem....I don't have an 8 inch spring form pan!  Mine is 9 inches, and yes, size does matter here.  Using a 9 inch pan will make for a thinner or flatter cake and could impact cooking times as it will be less dense.  I also don't want to try changing up the recipe to add ingredients to make up for the larger spring form pan.  So I will use an 8 inch cake pan, not spring form seeing as how I'm going to parchment the bottom anyways, I'll just add a parchment ring around the edge.
Back to the action then....
In a large bowl, combine all the cake ingredients and mix until combined.  Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center mass comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes before removing the sides of the pan. Whoops!  Not using a spring form pan here (if you are; follow the instructions) as I'm not, I will cool the cake on a wire rack for 30 - 45 minutes before trying to remove from the pan.
For the icing: Combine all icing ingredients and mix until smooth.  Spread over the top of the cooled cake (I'm guessing here, but I'm going to let this cool completely.  Not just the 10 or 30 minutes for removal of the sides, what we're talking about here is like 2 - 3 hours for it to cool completely) and then decorate with the walnuts.

All in all, a pretty straight forward cake, just sorting out the details makes it go smoother in the end.  So now that I have a game plan, know I have all the ingredients...tomorrow I bake!  As for the music.  Hmmm with dates, I'm thinking David Bowie /Aladdin Sane.  The song Panic in Detroit (a favorite of mine) was the B-side to Knock on Wood in 1974....tell me truthfully, who remembers that song?

So until tomorrow, when I will bake the cake, taste test the cake, and report on the whole process.

Night all.

What I'm about here....

So where to start....well at the beginning of course.

Me, I'm a cook; well former chef.  And I have long maintained that cooking is art.  Baking is Science.  I really couldn't get into strict measurements, and if you've ever used too much or not enough of say flour in your cookies, you may have noticed they don't come out as planned.  Whereas, this really isn't that much of an issue in cooking.  I could attribute this to being sloppy, lazy, or as anyone who knew me early on, will attest; Science is not my strong suit....hence why I don't work for NASA, but worked in kitchens.

Now, I just cook at home.  But my daughter has a passion for baking.and is really good at it.  So when we go on the hunt for lost treasures (at our local thrift stores) we are always on the search for pans, baking utensils and baking reference books.  Her Current passion is Cupcakes. So while searching the bookshelf for finds, I found nothing on cupcakes.  My wife on the other hand, asked if I had seen the book on cakes?  Silly me, if you have a recipe of a cake, you can make cupcakes just as easily from the same recipe, just bake it in different pans!  When we opened the book my wife was holding, our eyes were drawn to the wonderful photos of cakes inside, each more tempting the next.  By the 4th or 5th photo, I was ready to eat the book itself!

So as we left the store, book in hand, my wife inquired, "would you make me some of these" To which I replied, "perhaps it would be better if our daughter did."   To which, she responded, "did you ever see Julie and Julia?" Of course said I, "but what does that have to do with cake?"  Much more than I imagined then.  The rest of the conversation in a nutshell centered on stepping outside our normal bounds, trying new things, growth.  I have a few other blogs, where I talk about some of my passions.  Growing Veg, raising chickens, getting healthier etc.  So she challenged me to write a blog about this book, the cakes we bake from it, how they taste, how easy or hard they are to make etc.  Now she didn't say "I double dog dare you" or anything like it, but I am almost always up for a challenge.  But I would do this my way, or no way.

The ground rules:

One cake every two to three weeks (as we can't eat that much that fast.  Some times we will do more than others, but I will do  two cakes a month (or this would take forever!)

I will bake the cakes just as described, no letting my penchant for fiddling with recipes take over.

I will post honest reviews of the recipes.  I have seen some of the recipes from the book on other websites, but have not checked them out. So I will not have any particular bias towards a cake in question.

Today, that's it for the rules, that isn't to say that I won't add more, it's my blog, so I get to say.

As for the title of this blog.  When I was a youngster, I bough 45's and usually ended up liking the B sides better than the song I bought the 45 for!  The B-sides were always another song, not really played on the radio much, so in a way it allowed you to see if you liked the artist, more than just the song.  I am a cook, that's my A-side.  Baking that's my B-side.  And yes, I have baked a bit, and find that I always listen to music when I bake.  Hence this blog is B-sides while baking.

Now the book in question; Close Up on Cakes edited by Suzie Smith.

Now there are over 80 recipes in here, and I wanted a way to make baking them random. My wife wanted me to do them in order (like in Julie and Julia) but I felt, and feel, I don't want to make 5 Chocolate Cakes in a row ugh.... so to randomize this process.  I cut up small pieces of paper, and wrote down the name of the cakes and the page number.  folded up the little pieces of paper and threw them in an old cigar box.  We will draw one slip of paper, and whatever cake comes up, will bake it.

Now, just to eat up the Carrot Cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese frosting my daughter made up for a birthday party on Friday....

I must say, in writing out all those little slips, a few recipes really caught my eye, and made me want to scrap this whole idea and get to baking....but temptation is fueling to anticipation which is better than any sauce or syrup you can apply.  So I will have to wait, until the fickle finger of fate prompts me to draw out that recipe from the box.

I plan to bake the first of these cakes sometime mid week, and will update this blog when each is baked, and the first slice eaten.