I Am Not a Factory

I used to say that all the time. Just because I make a quilt, or a cake, or a painting, don't expect me to make one for you. I am not a factory. Well, in the last 24 hours I've felt like a bit of a factory. Last night I made two batches of cupcakes (almost 4 dozen) for Ross's company picnic and I frosted them this morning. I made one batch of red velvet with butter roux frosting, and one batch of yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I didn't use my usual chocolate frosting recipe. I used a much simpler one, and it turned out all right. One of our errands last night was to get some piping bags and tips. The piping bags worked out well, and I ended up using a couple of tips that I already had. I am not a decorator at all, but now I can at least play and practice.

Austin Indulgences

We went to Austin on Thursday and drove back late last night. On Thursday night I made yellow cake cupcakes and (dark) chocolate frosting. The cupcakes turned out all right, but I was a little disappointed in the frosting. I used 70% cacao chocolate instead of semisweet chocolate and didn't even think about adding extra sugar. Anyway, the frosting wasn't great, but it didn't keep any of us from eating the cupcakes.

On Friday morning Ross went mountain biking with Joey and I went to the gym for a weights class and some cardio. My abs were (still are) very sore from the medicine ball work out I did on Thursday before yoga.

Of course we had Amy's ice cream yesterday. I'm not sure how we managed to eat it after stuffing ourselves full of Indian food. I had Frangelico, Ross had sweet cream with cookie dough on top, and Joey had dark chocolate. We ate so much for lunch that we only had boba and popcorn chicken for dinner. Well, actually, we only had milk tea, no boba.

Joey was nice enough to drive me back to Atomic after we had our milk tea. Justin said the piercing looks good and took a few photos. He said that he will post them on the website soon. I'll check periodically and post a link if I see them. He showed me some bling that I can buy. I was tempted to buy it right away, but I just need to concentrate more on taking care of what I have. I haven't soaked the piercing in a couple of days.

Yellow Cake, Take 2

I searched for another yellow cake recipe to try, even though the last blunder was my doing, and didn't have much to do with the recipe. This time the cake has a more refined texture and is more like a store bought pound cake (but not quite as heavy.) The batter was tasty, pretty rich, with all those eggs. I think next time I will add a little more milk. Maybe it would be better if I used whole milk, but I always have skim in the house...

Yellow Cake Second Take

1 c butter, cut into pieces
1 1/2 c. sugar
9 egg yolks
3/4 c. milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. cake flour, sifted
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Grease and flour two cake pans. (I also put parchment paper in the bottom, but I don't think it's really necessary.)
3. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt.
4. In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
5. Beat in yolks one at a time.
6. Mix in vanilla.
7. Add the milk and flour mixture alternatively in thirds, beating after each addtion. (Here I sifted in the flour, to get an extra sift in.)
8. Mix until just incorporated.
9. Pour batter into pans.
10. Cook for 25-30 mins. (I'm not sure how long I cooked it, the timer went off and I didn't hear it.)

I put some cream cheese frosting in between the layers, just to have something to separate them. I think this is a good recipe. I think I'll just be tweaking it from now on...I'll try adding more milk first. My dad said that yellow cakes can be colored with saffron tea, but this cake is yellow enough I think.

(non)Joy of Cooking Yellow Cake

I had a little mishap yesterday trying to cook the yellow cake. I was upset, in a hurry, and distracted. When I read the recipe I decided to change the order that the ingredients are mixed together. Unfortunately I added flour first instead of sugar, and so I couldn't really cream the butter and sugar. The batter was lumpy, so I beat it for a long time. The result was a cake that is both a little sticky and crumbly. I had two layers of plain yellow cake, and wasn't planning on making frosting. I decided to make some whipped cream and put it between the two layers. A little sugar, a lot of brandy, and a lot of whipping later I had a filler. It's a little strong. I'm going to attempt the cake again. Maybe I should follow the recipe. I'll definitely pay more attention to flour vs. sugar. At least I got the right amounts in, even if I did add them in the wrong order.