We only wish we had a weekday to go back...

AIM convo of the day

Me: the [machine] WON'T LOAD [SOFTWARE]
Kat: wtf??
Me: hahahahahahaha
Me: i called service
Me: KNOWN ISSUE
Kat: HAHAHA
Kat: IT IS NOT KNOWN TO ME

Birthday Cakes (in the lab of course!)

Last year, a few days before my wedding, I offered to make a birthday cake for a friend at work. "Pick whatever cake you want - anything!" He chose the Lemon Macadamia-Nut Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT), and I chose to adapt it to a layer cake. I frosted it with vegan lemon "butter"-cream frosting, lightly sprinkled it with chopped toasted macadamia nuts, and somehow got it safely to work the next morning, no thanks to the MBTA. I work in a room where I can't keep food, the cake needed to get to room temperature, and I wanted him to see it when he got in, so I put it in the lunchroom with a napkin on top saying "Name's Cake."

During my morning appointment (which mind you I can't just up and leave the room in the middle of my appointments!) he popped online. "You should go see what's waiting for you in the lunchroom!" "Yaay! But I'm going to the dentist - my appointment is at 11, but I'll be in around 1." "Alright, see you then! Happy Birthday!"

I figured the cake was still safe, right? A cake with a name on it? Sure, no worries. He'll be here in less'n an hour, I said. My lunchtime (12ish) arrives. I finish my stuff and go into the lunchroom. Where there are three people. Eating his cake.

"HEY! That's NAME's CAKE!!! WHY ARE YOU EATING IT???"

"Oh well he came by and saw the cake and said we could eat it."

I looked the guy who lied to me in the eye and said, "He did not come by. He is at the dentist. You are lying to me. Don't lie to me about eating his cake." They gave stupid excuses. I stormed off, told them they get no more cake, they should be ashamed, and went off to my wedding. The end.

I tried to figure out who to make this month's daring bakers challenge for and kept coming up with fails. My parents and the boy's parents are all dieting and stuff, so their visit wasn't a good time. We had a wedding to go to the weekend after that. I was running out of ideas. But then I logged into Facebook (alright - I never log OUT, but I at least refreshed the page) and saw someone's birthday was coming up! Hurrah! I immediately checked the schedule and saw he'd scheduled a sort appointment... on his birthday. Whoohoo - Success!
I emailed him: "Do you like raspberries? and lemon?"
And he responded: "haha. I know what you gonna do :) I love both!"

I made the cake and frosting on a Tuesday night. I was completely paranoid about the cake recipe - people on the blogroll posted so many problems! The cake didn't rise. It was pale and soggy. I made certain I had the right flour (Swan's Down for the win - exactly what Dorie recommended!) and measured it by weight, not volume (which I'm starting to do more and more. Weighing flour is the way to go. Seriously - go to Linens and Things RIGHT NOW and buy a scale. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT.). I followed the directions WORD FOR WORD. And I came out with the most beautiful, tight-crumb, light-gold, perfectly-cooked (except for the bits of chunk sugar which the kitchenaid didn't beat up, bad laura) cake EVAR.

The frosting wasn't that hard either - I threw it together and set it in the fridge. "I'll just frost the cake tomorrow night when I get home, no problem!" Except it didn't soften after I'd left it out of the fridge for an hour. "I'll just beat it up again in the KitchenAid - it'll be nice and fluffy, right?"

Three minutes later I have a pound of lemon-meringue-scented butter and NO MORE LEMONS.

"Sweetie?" I called into the living room.
"What do you need?" he replied. (I love my boy. :)
"Could you please run to the store and buy me two lemons? Pleeeeeeeeeeease???"
::Grumble grumble::
Ten minutes later he returns home with four of the most beautiful lemons ever. I AM SO SPOILED.

I made the second batch, frosted the cake (and the few cupcakes I made with extra batter!) and had it ready for work the next day!

Here's the birthday boy with his cake! Huzzah for Sorapop! Happy Birthday!

Recipe Customizations:
* I obviously made the frosting 2x, and can tell you lemon meringue butter scented scones are 'ait
* The cake was made in 8" pans, not 9", because I don't own 9". I had enough batter for about six cupcakes.
* The preserves were organic low-sugar raspbperry preserves from trader joe's.
* The frosting and jam didn't stay very separate when I frosted between the layers, but it tasted amazing even with the two blended together.
* I didn't have any sweetened coconut, so I instead covered it with unsweetened. The general consensus of everyone who tasted the cake was it was better unsweetened - sweetened would have been probably TOO sweet.

I had someone hide the cake near their desk all day, and only brought it out when the birthday boy came. The vultures saw the cake after and came begging. "Please? Can we have some? You're not letting (names of people who ate Jeff's cake) have any of it - is that why it was hiding?" "Yes, that's why it was hiding," I said. "And no, they get nothing. NOTHING. They have LOST ALL CAKE PRIVILEGES. FOREVER."

Don't mess with the flow-lab, or you will lose cake privileges. The end.

Thanks to Morven (http://foodartandrandomthoughts.blogspot.com/) for her Daring Bakers' Challenge - Dorie's Perfect Party Cake. This cake recipe will definitely stick around! YUM! I also feel like I should look more into Dorie Greenspan (the original author of the cake recipe.) I love cake. :)

February 2008 Daring Bakers - Julia Child's French Bread

My Jared and I were talking.
"So, what's this month's challenge?"
"Oh - Julia Child's 18 page french bread recipe from 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume 2'."
"EIGHTEEN PAGES?!? What the hell is she doing? How can you write 18 pages about bread?!?"

Easy - she spelled out every step so even I could figure out what was going on. :)

I made the recipe twice. Each time took nine hours of my life, even with the help of my trusty kitchen-aid mixer. It was so worth it. The flavor, the crumb, the smell that filled the house...

The first time the loaves weren't so pretty. I had the space heater keeping the dough at 70º, or as close as I could get. I baked three batards - one on the pizza stone, two on the pan, and didn't steam but simply brushed with water - my pizza stone came with specific "DO NOT STEAM" instructions! They came out pale, but still amazingly delicious - crisp and chewy. I gave one away to a friend over visiting during the entire baking. The rest VANISHED before I could remember where I put my camera! Boom! Into bellies!

The second time I used a pan for baking, an old cast iron for steam, and lego-shaped ice cubes. Once again they VANISHED before I could take pictures. Wow! The smell made me dizzy with hunger and a craving for soup.

I gave one loaf to a friend (we traded arugula for bread) and she couldn't wait to get home and eat it, so she took out several bites. "Oh crap! I need to take pictures!" so she put it on the table and I grabbed my camera. So this is all the pictures y'all get, because the recipe was so amazing, so delicious, that the bread never made it to the camera stage.

Now to adapt things for whole wheat - the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book has an entire chapter on whole wheat french bread, though it's definitely less than 18 pages. I will admit I had it open as well during the entire baking procedure. Its pictures on shaping and slicing were invaluable.

Lessons learned and things to try:
* Get a real razor for slicing. My kitchen knives just aren't good enough.
* Steaming is INVALUABLE. (I'll try this "no-knead" style - baking in my corningware to help trap the steam in! It makes a beautiful crispy crust.)
* Keep the camera nearby.
* Turn the recipe to something whole wheat... it will be worth it. :)

Breachick, i love you and your challenge. Thank you for pushing my breadmaking further!

db feb 08 is coming!

i have the pictures on the camera - will post this weekend! this has been the week from hell. 46 emails in one day - and that was just Wednesday!

LMP*2 (and why I waited to post this)

Just to clarify the FAIL piecrust picture - the boy saw it and said "Did laura submit her piecrust to 'I Can Has Cheesburger?'" and then looked and saw it was my blog. ^_^ Visit them for hours of stupid LOL cat pictures.

"Yesterday" became "One week" very rapidly due to the following:

• Work
• Stress
• Carrying pies to work cuz the boy was on another trip
• Going out Friday, all day Saturday, and Sunday for MY BIRTHDAY! YAAY!
  

Both my families are so thoughtful - my parents took us shopping and gave me a beautiful pair of silpada earrings; his mother took me shopping and gave me muffin-top pans (which would have been Perfect for tartlettes >_<) a puzzle (nearly done!) and a Very Nice Leather Jacket. My inner vegetarian cried, but it fits so well... and she found it on an incredible discount... (It's a several hundred dollar jacket... found at Marshalls for $30. WOW. she is a BARGAIN HUNTER.)

But anyways. Back to lemon meringue pies.

I made the first pie with my own piecrust recipe - an old standby with shortening, vinegar, and an egg. I knew it wouldn't fail and could be prepped in no time, and it saved the day on the first pie. I gave it to someone for his birthday and he seemed to like it - weeping meringue and wet curd and all (it sat around for several hours while we went out and watched the game, then all went back to his place and watched the drunks eat pie and play beer pong. Don't ask.) Despite the EPIC FAIL crust it got rav reviews. One girl said it looked exactly like her mother's; a boy said it was better than his GF's. I forgot to take pictures beforehand, but here is one taken with my crappy blackberry-cam.

Pie #2 I vowed to follow the recipe and make tartelettes. I had a Williams-Sonoma gift card and bought some tart pans. I bought fresh ingredients, juiced lemons, made crust, formed tartelettes in a muffin tin and the tartelette pans, and had plenty left over for an 8" piecrust. I made sure to divide the crust into three parts as I worked it - kept two in the fridge, worked the first and cut out parts, shaped it back into a ball and put it back in the fridge, took out the next chilled piece, and continued.

Baking piecrust just isn't my thing, I suppose - I need more practice! This time they sank a bit in the muffin tins and tart pans. The large piecrust did alright - only a bit fell off the end. I'm wondering if I still just didn't keep things cold enough.

I should have made extra meringue, and wasn't able to make pretty peaks for the "leftover" pie. The tartlettes had theirs piped on with a large star tip and baked up nicely.

Boy and I culled off some of the mini tarts - they just sank too much, or were too brown, or too big... He doesn't like the curd since it is so sour, but in chibi-tart form there's enough meringue and pie crust to counter it.

I then packed everyone up for work the following day. SOMEHOW I fit everyone into my backpack! The pie's meringue (which was leftover from the tartelettes, and therefore wasn't pretty nor swirled) was mooshed a bit, but the tartelettes survived and were devoured. The researchers swarmed when they heard there was lemon meringue pie and begged for more baked goods (I used to bake test wedding cupcakes and bring them in. I think they miss those days.)

I know they greatly appreciated the pie because someone actually washed the pan.

Recipe "modification": Since I was bringing these to work I had to make sure they wouldn't kill anybody. I tested the meringue and baked it a little longer (at ~325ºF) until my thermometer said it was at 160ºF.

I doubt I'll make this piecrust again, nor will I make this meringue recipe again (it was too weepy, and difficult to ensure it gets hot enough to pasteurize. I will find a recipe that uses a stovetop-stabilized meringue). I will need to work on my blind piecrust baking as well. However I now have a love of lemon meringue pie - I don't think I'd ever eaten it before! Huzzah! So thank you for this month's challenge, Jen (of The Canadian Baker)! It was a challenge, that's for certain... Now to prep for February's....

Daring Bakers Challenge January 2008 - Lemon Meringue Pie

Look ma - it's LOLBakers.

I had to make this 2x - I had the most horrible time with the piecrust.

More to come - I brought pie x2 to work, and will take pictures today and post it tonight. But here's at least evidence that I did TRY, and FAIL, and therefore had to TRY AGAIN.