Let moi eat cake

[susandennis]

The first try is supposed to have issues, right? Well, let us count the issues with my first little white cake!

1. The sifter I bought from Amazon was cheap but still NOT worth the price. That thing couldn't sift anything. It gets returned I don't care if it has flour in it!

2. The recipe called for one 6" pan. Apparently either my definition of one or of 6" differs from the author's cause Yikes. Kinda messy.



3. BUT, the end result wasn't horrible, actually. It did not come out of the pan completely nicely but...



4. Note the line around the edge? How dangerous is it to eat Sharpey?? ha! I used one to trace around the pan to cut the parchment paper. Apparently my line transferred to the cake!

5. I wanted a white cake and this cake is not white. After some Googling I realize my error, Google thinks vanilla, yellow and white cakes are all the same thing. They are not. I had googled white cake and got a recipe for vanilla cake which turns out to be yellow. NOT what I wanted. I'm smarter now and have two white cake recipes to try.

6. I set the icing out to get to room temperature. I think I didn't wait long enough. So then I put it into the mixer and added a little cream. Too much, actually, ha! A little runny. But still fabulous tasting icing.





Not horrible tasting. But not good enough to waste the calories on more. I'll make a white cake next time.

And cookies. I want iced cookies and I think I found a good recipe for them. Not today but soon.

Meanwhile, before the Seahawkians took over the neighborhood, I made yet another trip to Goodwill. I got a nice, top quality sifter for $4. And some canisters for my dry goods and some cookie cutters!

This morning, I did go up to the little Red Apple Market on Beacon Hill and turns out their baking inventory is Superior!! They have all manner of different flours and a bunch of other goodies to bake with. And they had about 6 different kinds and sizes of buttermilk, plus powdered buttermilk! So now I know where to get my stuff.

But now I think I'll clean up the kitchen and focus on this ballgame which we have not lost yet.

Comments

[terri gordon (from livejournal.com)]

Too funny! Literally laughed out loud when I read the Sharpie comment! I saw that and was wondering what that dark ring was! Note to self: don’t use Sharpie on parchment paper. But boy, does that cake look good! Now I’ll be jonesing through the cabinets for something sweet.

[carriea31.livejournal.com]

I've never even heard of powdered buttermilk! I will investigate because it seems I rarely use the whole container before it can go bad.

[theonlyrachel.livejournal.com]

I love buttermilk powder, but while it doesn't go bad as quickly as buttermilk, it can get hard and unusable after a while. It doesn't keep forever either.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Yay cake!
That's way too many different kinds of buttermilk and flour. Yikes!

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

I'm loving your baking journey! In my opinion, the worst home baking still tastes better than anything made commercially.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, not that I meant yours was the worst! It looks super yummy. Lol!

[mairi-dubh.livejournal.com]

One way to avoid Sharpie transference is to trace---lightly---around the pan on the parchment paper with the tip of a sharp knife, the back of the blade down. You just want a faint score mark. Then cut along that line, or just in side it by your estimate of the pan's thickness.
Or, put the parchment paper onto several thicknesses of newspaper (if it wasn't opened before this, it's perfectly clean and safe), and use an ordinary table knife to make a "trace," pressing the parchment a bit and making a slight ditch.
Then cut out the round of parchment.

One more method, this one from Martha Stewart, is to take a square of parchment, of the correct size, and fold it in half; then fold across the first fold, than make a "fan" working in as many folds as possible, and keeping the center point as true as possible; then you cut off the surplus angle and you don't get a perfect round but you will have something which will work.

I adore white cake! Yours looks scrummy!

Oh, that reminds me: you can buy perfectly clear vanilla extract. Anyone who makes wedding cakes or who decorates cakes needs that stuff.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=clear+vanilla+extract+for+baking+pure&i=grocery&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

The label should specify "extract" and should not use the word "flavoring," and I personally like to see what I'm buying so no opaque containers or packaging. That bake shop up at the top of the hill should have what you need. And pure clear or "white" vanilla extract isn't the place to skimp. Mexican clear vanilla extract is said to be worth every cent you pay for it.

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

vanilla, yellow and white cakes are all the same thing

I'm glad you mentioned this because I would have assumed they were all the same thing too.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Your icing is definitely a festive color.

[theonlyrachel.livejournal.com]

You know what's worse than not knowing the difference between yellow and white cake? Not knowing the difference between yellow and lemon cake. I remember wanting to bake chocolate frosted cupcakes as a kid. I wasn't up to baking from scratch yet, so I wanted some cake mix and chocolate frosting. I told my grandmother, who wasn't much of a cook, to get me some yellow cake mix. She kept asking if I wanted lemon cake. I kept telling her I wanted YELLOW cake. She came back with lemon cake and a can of chocolate frosting. Did she really think those things would go together?

[sherlock999.livejournal.com]

Your cooking adventures look like mine!!!

[christalin80.livejournal.com]

I would eat that in a nanosecond!