26/99: Chocolate Feather Bed

 

I've been looking forward to this cake for quite a long time. The picture in Rose's book looks absolutely divine. 

Note to the taste tester or the interested baker: this cake can give you a heart attack. Oh my goodness. Here's the chocolate that was just in the ganache:

25/99: Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake

Today was a very special day for three reasons.

1. Success: I had a test on Organic Chemistry and did great on it.

2. Celebration: It was the last day of class in one of my classes and though I loved the class and am partially sad to see it go, it means that the end of the semester is near.  And the end of the semester means no more chemistry. ever. again.

24/99: Mud Turtle Cupcakes

 

 

After I read Rose's description of these little cupcakes I was pretty pumped about making them.  Imagine this:

"First you encounter the taste of toasted whole pecans; quickly thereafter, the ganache "mud" mingling with the slightly sticky caramel; finally, your teeth sink into the most tender, full-flavored chocolate cake."

Are you drooling yet? I was.

23/99: Financier - Style Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes

Today was financier round 2. I returned from class this morning feeling defeated so  I opened up Rose's Heavenly cakes and decided to bake something before my next class. Of course I still have a slice or two left of the Genoise Rose so I felt bad baking a super fancy cake or one that deserved to be enjoyed at a party, etc.  Plus I had a time limit.  I went for the financier style vanilla bean pound cakes since they seemed quick enough and little!

22/99: Génoise Rose

I woke up this morning before my alarm. I stirred in bed, thinking that I was so glad that I did not have to get up yet. Ah, sleep. It feels so good.

Wait, it actually feels too good. I shouldn’t feel this good at 6:30 am in June. I grabbed my phone and looked at the time. 8:19. Ah.

21/99: Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cake

 

The Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cake was not in the plan for the day, but as I have a test tomorrow and had only a short time to prepare a cake, the chocolate streusel coffee cake it was.  I think it turned out to be a great choice too.  Easy to prep, easy to make, common ingredients, and a breakfast style cake that makes everyone feel at home.  At least I did.

20/99: Red fruit cake

I was incredibly excited to get invited  to a friend's house this weekend to make dinner and dessert.  I discovered the Oxford farmer's market this week (a tip from another friend) and could not pass up the opportunity to make a cake with fresh fruit! I was sad that this didn't have cherries in it because it is cherry season!

"Nothing says lovin' like somethin' from the oven"- pillsbury doughboy

This seems to be a very common issue in my life: I'm in the middle of baking, I've mixed my dry ingredients together, and then it's time to mix the liquid ones together. I pour some of the oil or extract or whatever it may be into a measure and alas, I'm short.  I mutter a few things under my breath and either hop in the car to run to the grocery store or get on google to see what I can do instead. Oh the joy of baking substitutions.

Now I have a similar problem, but on a different level. This might get cheesy so just bear with me, guys.  I can't bake. My broken oven stares me down every time I go in the kitchen. I'm taking lots of school right now so I stress out really easily and generally my solution to this stress is a beautiful cake.  So essentially I need a substitute for my baking (cheesy I know) until the darn thing gets fixed.

Solution: books. But not any kind of books-culinary literature!! I've already gone through a couple of them so far (The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz to name one) but now I've gone more from sociology of food to the psychology of food to the history of food and thus the history of cake.

19/99: Deep Chocolate Rosebuds... or in my case... Deep Chocolate mini-bundts

Well guys, it's been awhile.

Update on the oven: I called last week. I called again. and again. and again. I called this Monday and i finally got a call back. The oven repair man was scheduled to come yesterday at 4. I stopped by the grocery store on the way back from class to pick up a few extra ingredients to celebrate the day my oven gets fixed by baking a cake!

I got home around 3:30, measured out my ingredients by 3:45, and still had 15 minutes to spare. I started putting the cake together, careful to do anything that needed to be done on the stove first so that I would not be in his way in case he came early to fix it!

4:00 rolls around and he's still not here. 4:15. then 4:30.  I call. I call again. and again. No answer. By 5 my cake batter and filling is completely done, sitting by the still broken oven, looking very sad.

18/99 No-Bake Whipped Cream Cheesecake

This is the perfect solution for the oven-less baker!!

My sister's twin's first birthday is today so I drove back to Jackson to celebrate with the family.  But a girl who is making 2 cakes every week for the heck of it really cannot show up at her nephew's birthday party without a cake. Someone was making cupcakes for the boys so it didn't need to be cutesy but it needed to be something.

17/99 Peanut Butter Ingots

I was honestly pretty excited about making these. I love peanut butter. I love cake. And I even ordered my silicone financier mold from amazon. As soon as it came in, I set my ingredients out and got ready.

I made these for the first time about 2 weeks ago. They smelled wonderful but as soon as they came out, we tried them and were not impressed.  I had quite a few people try them and they all politely put them back on their plates.  I was at my parents house and as I pulled out of the driveway, I saw my mom walk outside and feed the rest of them to the dogs. Ouch.

bad news

Dear faithful readers,

My oven is broken. It is a very sad day.  The man was supposed to be out yesterday to fix it but until then I cannot keep up! I'll be back on the ball as soon as I can because I really would love to bake right now.

Don't leave me yet!

Jane