You are currently browsing the daily archive for July 22nd, 2008.
For those of you that have visited before and are wondering….yes I do cook things other than cake!!! Seems I have been on a cake binge as of late, but really I haven’t made anything worthy of a post till this one!
This particular recipe came my way through my browser’s reader and immediately I knew I was gonna give it a shot. Not because it was terribly different, terribly hard or any such madness but because it sounded terribly up my alley as far as taste goes!!!
Now I love lobster, filet and all the culinary stars but my favorite meal of all time, ALL TIME I say is…
The Hamburger!
No turkey burgers or veggie burger for me, I absolutely adore the good old fashioned 100% beef hamburger!! So are you aware yet that I love hamburgers?? Well if not….hamburger, hamburger, hamburger, beef, beef, beef, YUM, YUM, YUM!!!
Now I am not gonna bore ya with the recipe details, as I said it is terribly simple, so check it out here!
What I did do differently this time was bake my own hamburger buns. I am learning my way around yeast and I wanted to give it a go. I sent out a request to my baking buddies and was rewarded with not one but 5 easy yet tasty recipes for breads that could easily show off a good burger. I decided upon Bread Chick Mary’s ” No Fail Farmer’s Bread“. I did an eeney, meeney, miney, moe kinda thing to choose which recipe to use but I was pleased I landed on this one. The reason being it said no fail, well, I am not yet steady on my feet with yeast, so I figured this would be a test. If I screwed this one up, then maybe I should stay away from the yeast. Well, it is truly no fail and now I am working my way through the other for recipes I received.
That being said, I am just gonna go for the quick menu, a picture or two and a skedaddle out the door here….
- Cheddar burgers with balsamic onions and chipotle ketchup
- Watermelon Salad with Balsamic, basil and red onions
- Busch’s Baked beans (concession to Ray)
- No Fail Farmer’s bread
Buns awaiting a rise!!!
Done Buns!!!!!!!
Now that's a burger!!
Ciao for now…..or would that be CHOW!!!!
No, I am not late this time!!!!
Katherine at 89!!!
Katherine is a dear woman, whose daughter works in the mall where our store is located. She comes to visit and always has an opinion to give!!! She is a bit frail but sharp as a tack and I would never want to cross her, ever!!! Altho, in truth she is pretty much a pussy cat!!
This year marks her 89th birthday and as always we have a little party for her at work. Unfortunately she was on vacation visiting her sister when the day came, so we had to delay her celebration till her return.
As is typical, the best laid plans always encounter a snag. On the day of her party, we had intentions of presenting her with cake and ice cream and a chorus of Happy Birthday around 6ish. Well one person was busy so it got delayed, then another was busy and again more delay…this trend continued till closing. But through each attempt, she sat and watched, noting the flurry of activity, then the downfall of it. Finally after closing, we all gathered and she was brought to our cafe tables. She sat there lookin’ as non plussed as she could but if a closer look were taken, she was watching us as if saying….
“You fools, if I were in charge of this I would have no idea what you are up to!” The dear that she is, she gave us our surprise.
Happy Birthday Katherine!!!!
Variation of DB Opera Cake for Katherine
The cake is a variation of the DB Opera cake for May. The filling is a raspberry buttercream, the mousse on top is blueberry and the cake is sponge, as nuts aren’t good for Katherine.
-Uh, what ruckus? -I was just in my office and I heard a ruckus. -Could you describe the ruckus, sir? -Watch your tongue, young man. …”
Bakeanistas
No, really I am not talking about the Breakfast Club today but the Bakeanista Club, not really a club but it fits with the prose!!! I am however going to refer to a ruckus! And guess who it was that caused said ruckus?? You got it, Moi!!!!!
The Bakeanistas are just a group of folks that get together once every month or perhaps two to chat online and bake. This month we had a a guest visiting with us, just to see what we were about and how this chatty bakey thing worked…Halley it was such an honor to have you want to join in. Now I am not going to explain why Halley wanted to sit in but if things work out I am sure there will be much interest in the future.
So back to this ruckus. We had a few choices of what we were going to bake, we voted and we ended up with Cassata alia Sicilia. Apparently, there are two versions of this cake, one hails from Napoli, the other Sicily. The one from Napoli has a whipped cream frosting while the one from Sicily is typically much more elaborate with Fondant, candied fruit and marzipan fruit decoration. Well it seems I was the only one headed to Sicily on this one, I mentioned fondant in one of the emails back and forth and the ruckus rolled!!!
Cassata in the Garden
“Fondant? This cake has fondant?” “I hate fondant!” “Oh no, fondant!” and on it went. Well, in defense of fondant I have found a recipe that is tasty, that is easy and that more often than not is eaten as opposed to being peeled off the cake and discarded. Try it, you are gonna like it!!!!!
For me baking day was a little hectic, as I had guests coming that evening and I had a ton of work to do. I didn’t get to spend the time with the Bakeanistas that I would have liked….I missed a ton of fun, I am sure!!! But I was back and forth and caught snippets of the typical Bakeanista behavior!!!!
So let me give ya a quick low down on this cake…. it consists of
- Pan di Spagna-an italian sponge cake
- Ricotta filling-think cannoli
- Whipped cream frosting or a powdered sugar glaze on top
- Decoration of Fondant (Sicily) or nuts and fruit (Napoli)
Ricotta, candied orange peel, pistachio and chocolate, Oh My!
This is not an overly sweet and decadent tasting cake but a very satisfying old world style concoction. For me it brought back many memories of days gone by and I am very pleased to have had the opportunity to make it (it will be made again). It is not a cake to eat huge slabs of and it will serve quite a few people (12-16) easily.
6 people served so far!!! Dats alotta cake!!!
Unlike the in school detention of the Breakfast Club, this was a much more fun and enjoyable time. Although, like in the movie after all was said and done we all walked off into the afternoon sun to our own different worlds. Now I won’t go through and name the brain, the nerd, the jock and so on, like in the movie but because of my ruckus causing tendencies I think I may be labeled the Rebel. But for your viewing pleasure here are the Bakeanistas who baked
Now that isn’t the entire posse, some for various reasons weren’t able to bake or join in on the chat but check them out nonetheless, there are some very talented folks in this bunch!!!
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