Popovers

I have been spending a lot of time in the kitchen recently, making various cakes. To help me pass the time, I like to listen to books on tape. My book on tape obsession dates back to middle school when I first discovered the section at the library and thought "genius, you can read a book without actually having to read". I picked up the habit again last summer as I made the 6 hour one way trek to visit EC while he lived in a different time zone completing a summer internship.

Recently I have been listening to a series about a cookie baker who solves murders. This poor baker keeps finding dead bodies. One would think that would be bad for business, but not in her fiction world. In the books, there are also recipes. I got brave and decided to try one, mostly because I was testing it to see if it would work for my brother's wedding. I don't think it will. But, the popovers were pretty good. Not like I expect them, I expected bread. These are more like a single serving German Pancake.

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Popovers

From a book on tape

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4 eggs

2 cups milk

2 cups unsifted flour

1 teaspoon salt

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Heat oven to 450. Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with Pam. Whisk eggs by hand until light and uniform, approximately one minute. Whisk in milk, then dump in flour and salt all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon until flour is moistened and incorporated - mixture will be lumpy. Pour into cups and bake for 30 minutes. Don't open the oven while they are baking or the Popovers will fall. Bake until browned. When you take them out of the oven, pierce the tops with a knife to release the steam and let stand for 1-2 minutes before serving.

Showering a Baby

I have this friend, who is pregnant. She was nice enough to invite me to her baby shower, so I offered to make her a cake (since I am a nice person too). The theme was jungle and the baby's room is decorated in all sorts of jungle paraphernalia (it's pretty dang cute or pretty photogenic, at least, since I have only seen pictures). It is decorated in Target's NoJo Jungle Babies stuff, and, since the baby shower theme was a jungle theme, I had the genius idea of making a jungle themed cake. Yes, I know, I don't know how these wonderful cake themes come to me either, I am just brilliant :P
Anyway, the cake took FOREVER to make, but was totally worth it, even though I didn't get to have any because at the shower they didn't want to cut into it and I had to leave early to pick EC up from church. I am sure it tasted great though, since I used a recipe that Addie has raved about, and she has yet to lead me astray. I also used a Raspberry Icing recipe for the filling of one cake and for the cupcakes. B said she liked it, so it may be what I use for the upcoming wedding cake.

Raspberry Icing

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick butter, at room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar (sift if lumpy)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam (or more to taste - I added more, I also couldn't find seedless, so mine was seedy - hee hee)
1-2 drops red food coloring if desired (I did not so desire)

Mix ingredients together first on low speed, then beat on high until frosting is fluffy.

Out of this World Cake

For the past while I have been working on a birthday cake for my boss's son. He is turning three this year and the theme is "Celebrate His Third Orbit Around The Sun" - so my boss requested a solar system themed cake. She left the majority of the design up to me, she told me she wanted it to be a white cake with a strawberry filling - something simple for the little kids - and rectangle. Other than that I had complete creative control. The problem with giving me creative control is that I'm not very creative, as before mentioned. So, one night while EC and I were out dining at the local Tucci's (which wasn't amazing), we were talking about the cake, and he started sketching ideas for me on the paper tablecloth (which was amazing).

Armed with my tabletop drawing, I set out to work. Everything on the cake is edible, a positive since most kids I know like to stick everything in their mouths. I made stars, sculpted planets, UFOs, and little green aliens. EC got into the spirit of things and sculpted the tentacle alien.

My boss also requested cupcakes for the adults. Each cupcake was topped with a space topper and lots and lots of frosting. The vanilla cupcakes are probably the best cupcakes I have ever had in my entire life. Period. The chocolate cupcakes were ok, but not nearly as good. The actual cake, as requested, was a simple white cake. I couldn't resist adding a few sprinkles to the cake batter though, creating a "Funfetti" look.

(This was my alien, that I was super proud of)

Classic White Layer Cake

From Cooks Illustrated

Nonstick cooking spray2

2 ¼ cups cake flour (9 ounces), plus more for dusting the pans

1 cup whole milk, at room temperature

6 large egg whites (¾ cup), at room temperature

2 teaspoons almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract1

¾ cups granulated sugar (12¼ ounces)

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon table salt

12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1½ sticks), softened but still cool

1. For the Cake: Set oven rack in middle position. (If oven is too small to cook both layers on a single rack, set racks in upper-middle and lower-middle positions.) Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans (I used a 9x13) with nonstick cooking spray; line the bottoms with parchment or waxed paper rounds. Spray the paper rounds, dust the pans with flour, and invert pans and rap sharply to remove excess flour.
2. Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts into 2-cup glass measure, and mix with fork until blended.
3. Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter; continue beating at slow speed until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no powdery streaks remaining.
4. Add all but ½ cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed (or high speed if using handheld mixer) for 1½ minutes. Add remaining ½ cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium (or high) speed and beat 20 seconds longer.

*To make cake Funfetti - add two tablespoons Jimmies. Gently stir until incorporated.5. Divide batter evenly between two prepared cake pans (or in my case, one 9x13 pan); using rubber spatula, spread batter to pan walls and smooth tops. Arrange pans at least 3 inches from the oven walls and 3 inches apart. (If oven is small, place pans on separate racks in staggered fashion to allow for air circulation.) Bake until thin skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 23 to 25 minutes.
6. Let cakes rest in pans for 3 minutes. Loosen from sides of pans with a knife, if necessary, and invert onto wire racks. Reinvert onto additional wire racks. Let cool completely, about 1½ hours.