Posts
well, so far, so good. this blogging thing is indeed turning out to be enjoyable, albeit this is only post #2, and in the same night as post #1!
so, i'm not sure if i'm committing a "blogging" crime by not choosing a specific topic to blog about. hopefully, it'll work itself out. but for now, i intend to just share my thoughts and experiences as they come.
for example, tonight's post will be about the birthday cake i am attempting to make for my daughter's soon-to-be 4th birthday.
i was inspired by a friend of mine, bailey. she's the girl that can do everything. she's a witty and intelligent, busy dermatology resident and mom, in MN. she's a great athlete, fashion-forward, level-headed...and add to her repertoire of accomplishments, a martha stewart-like cake-baker. (well, at least the recipe was martha's!). she recounted to all us girls, when we met out in mammoth, CA for brittany's wedding a couple weeks ago, how she slaved over this, lion cake. it took her a day and a half to make and she used a cupcake for it's snout and varying shades of orange and brown to create the mane, and, well, long story short, it turned out to be a really yummy, chocolate-y, moist and delicious cake!
after i heard this courageous and daring tale, i set out to try it myself. and believe me, it has nothing to do at all with the fact that, if a doctor in her most trying years of residency, who hails from a family of like 500, who is constantly requested her presence at birthdays and weddings, and to top it all off has a 1 yr old little boy who's learning to walk and must chase after him at all times can do it, it would make me a bad mother if i didn't at least try, seeing as though most recently, i spend my days leisurely caring for the most self-sufficient and independent 4 yr old you'd ever meet! (deep breath in, collect some oxygen, long breath out. whoo, that was a long one. as i mentioned in post #1, i have a penchant for unusually long strings of words that supposedly form a really long, really grammatically illegal sentence. you'll grow to interpret them correctly. you see, you just have to read them in your head like one of those car commercials whose orator speaks oddly fast at the end of the ad - - and make sure to gradually increase voice level and pretend to run out of breath by the end. go ahead, try it again this time. you'll see what I mean.)
so, to summarize, my mother's guilt has me puttin' on an apron and mixin' up some flour in attempt to bake my way into my daughter's heart.
the fun part is that my husband, dario, is super into this kind of stuff. he used to be a baker in uruguay, actually (among dozens of other interesting trades), and oftentimes will bust out his inner panadero (baker) and whip up scrumpchess treats for us. he is also uber-competitive, so, you know, well...it's turned into an all-out competition. normally, it's futile to attempt to compete with dario because he's just so damned good at everything (it's so annoying!) but this time, i think i've got a good chance at the prize.
after spending $55 on cakes for the last 3 years, i was kinda fed up with having to buy birthday cakes. that, coupled with bailey's motivational baking experience, dario and i, on a whim, unofficially embarked on the competition a couple nights ago. i scoured the internet for a recipe. i was looking for a reliable yello butter cake that was moist, sponge-like in visual appearance (hole-y) yet not sponge-y and light, medium density, and of course, delicious. dario was following a recipe for a traditional biscochuelo. start your ovens, the bake-off had begun. basically, the victory was a landslide. my cake: decent taste, nice overall appearance. dario's: dry, crumbly, flat. conclusion: the war must go on!
that was all the inspiration he needed to continue down his path towards recovering his orgullo machista (macho pride). the next event, i sat out (due to the lack of unsalted butter sticks) and continued my internet search for the perfect recipe, as he pressed on. this evening, he had an audience. deisy and javier were visiting. javier pintos, or "el negro pintos" is a childhood friend of dario's. they grew up together, were inseparable as teens, and are fortunate to continue their friendship and experiences here in the u.s. deisy is originally from mexico. we met when we worked together at the caribbean-inspired restaurant, bahama breeze. it was actually coincidence that we became friends through javier and dario. anyways, deisy, having experience on the restaurant production line, is a great cook. she observed dario as he conjured up a second round of torta (cake). this time, when all was said and done, the cake had good flavor, but was undercooked and resembled more than anything, "mochi" (a popular and traditional japanese, gummy, rice-flour based treat i grew fond of in hawaii. it is most often made for the japanese celebration of girls' day, march 3...mmm! one of my all-time favorites!). this would mark the second loss for dario's tally.
round 3: tonight, i've armed myself with all the goods required to make the perfect birthday cake...unsalted butter, salted butter, sour cream, vanilla extract, heavy cream, cake flour. i found a couple more recipes, and i can feel, i've got a winner on my hands.
unfortunately, i've been blogging for hours now so it's a little late. it is saturday however, and due to the sporadic, unscheduled nature of the uruguayan lifestyle, 11pm would not be an unnatural time at all to start baking a cake. therefore, i will leave you for now, in suspense mode, until i reveal my results in a search for - - "the world's best yellow cake recipe (out of the 4 or so i am attempting) according to erica!"
so, i'm not sure if i'm committing a "blogging" crime by not choosing a specific topic to blog about. hopefully, it'll work itself out. but for now, i intend to just share my thoughts and experiences as they come.
for example, tonight's post will be about the birthday cake i am attempting to make for my daughter's soon-to-be 4th birthday.
i was inspired by a friend of mine, bailey. she's the girl that can do everything. she's a witty and intelligent, busy dermatology resident and mom, in MN. she's a great athlete, fashion-forward, level-headed...and add to her repertoire of accomplishments, a martha stewart-like cake-baker. (well, at least the recipe was martha's!). she recounted to all us girls, when we met out in mammoth, CA for brittany's wedding a couple weeks ago, how she slaved over this, lion cake. it took her a day and a half to make and she used a cupcake for it's snout and varying shades of orange and brown to create the mane, and, well, long story short, it turned out to be a really yummy, chocolate-y, moist and delicious cake!
after i heard this courageous and daring tale, i set out to try it myself. and believe me, it has nothing to do at all with the fact that, if a doctor in her most trying years of residency, who hails from a family of like 500, who is constantly requested her presence at birthdays and weddings, and to top it all off has a 1 yr old little boy who's learning to walk and must chase after him at all times can do it, it would make me a bad mother if i didn't at least try, seeing as though most recently, i spend my days leisurely caring for the most self-sufficient and independent 4 yr old you'd ever meet! (deep breath in, collect some oxygen, long breath out. whoo, that was a long one. as i mentioned in post #1, i have a penchant for unusually long strings of words that supposedly form a really long, really grammatically illegal sentence. you'll grow to interpret them correctly. you see, you just have to read them in your head like one of those car commercials whose orator speaks oddly fast at the end of the ad - - and make sure to gradually increase voice level and pretend to run out of breath by the end. go ahead, try it again this time. you'll see what I mean.)
so, to summarize, my mother's guilt has me puttin' on an apron and mixin' up some flour in attempt to bake my way into my daughter's heart.
the fun part is that my husband, dario, is super into this kind of stuff. he used to be a baker in uruguay, actually (among dozens of other interesting trades), and oftentimes will bust out his inner panadero (baker) and whip up scrumpchess treats for us. he is also uber-competitive, so, you know, well...it's turned into an all-out competition. normally, it's futile to attempt to compete with dario because he's just so damned good at everything (it's so annoying!) but this time, i think i've got a good chance at the prize.
after spending $55 on cakes for the last 3 years, i was kinda fed up with having to buy birthday cakes. that, coupled with bailey's motivational baking experience, dario and i, on a whim, unofficially embarked on the competition a couple nights ago. i scoured the internet for a recipe. i was looking for a reliable yello butter cake that was moist, sponge-like in visual appearance (hole-y) yet not sponge-y and light, medium density, and of course, delicious. dario was following a recipe for a traditional biscochuelo. start your ovens, the bake-off had begun. basically, the victory was a landslide. my cake: decent taste, nice overall appearance. dario's: dry, crumbly, flat. conclusion: the war must go on!
that was all the inspiration he needed to continue down his path towards recovering his orgullo machista (macho pride). the next event, i sat out (due to the lack of unsalted butter sticks) and continued my internet search for the perfect recipe, as he pressed on. this evening, he had an audience. deisy and javier were visiting. javier pintos, or "el negro pintos" is a childhood friend of dario's. they grew up together, were inseparable as teens, and are fortunate to continue their friendship and experiences here in the u.s. deisy is originally from mexico. we met when we worked together at the caribbean-inspired restaurant, bahama breeze. it was actually coincidence that we became friends through javier and dario. anyways, deisy, having experience on the restaurant production line, is a great cook. she observed dario as he conjured up a second round of torta (cake). this time, when all was said and done, the cake had good flavor, but was undercooked and resembled more than anything, "mochi" (a popular and traditional japanese, gummy, rice-flour based treat i grew fond of in hawaii. it is most often made for the japanese celebration of girls' day, march 3...mmm! one of my all-time favorites!). this would mark the second loss for dario's tally.
round 3: tonight, i've armed myself with all the goods required to make the perfect birthday cake...unsalted butter, salted butter, sour cream, vanilla extract, heavy cream, cake flour. i found a couple more recipes, and i can feel, i've got a winner on my hands.
unfortunately, i've been blogging for hours now so it's a little late. it is saturday however, and due to the sporadic, unscheduled nature of the uruguayan lifestyle, 11pm would not be an unnatural time at all to start baking a cake. therefore, i will leave you for now, in suspense mode, until i reveal my results in a search for - - "the world's best yellow cake recipe (out of the 4 or so i am attempting) according to erica!"
1 comment:
Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging. I am still waiting to hear the end of the cake baking saga...don't give up on me now Leilani!
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