I seriously love making my own cake for my birthday, and it’s only because I just really love making cake. I swear it’s not a control thing- it’s not! I swear! But it IS a love of cake thing. Recently, I celebrated my 30^th birthday, and it got me to thinking of all of my years on this earth so far.

I have these memories of when I was little – of the happy sort, that are almost all infused with warm sun rays coming in through a window and soft lighting (even though one of theses particular memories is from indoors during the evening) – of being at my favourite restaurant (yes, I had one of those even when I was a little girl) that just happened to be owned by family friends. I loved it there. It was called the Grotto and I still get sad when I realize that it’s gone.

My entire family used to eat at The Grotto on every Christmas Eve, and then head to our friends for a jazz jam – it was the best. The grotto was also the first place that I ever tried sushi, and they had some of the best curry, that I can actually almost taste now just thinking back on it…well, anyways – back to this particular memory.

They knew me pretty well there.

I often ordered the stir-fry, maybe had a delicious Shirley Temple to drink, (they always came with little plastic mermaids and monkeys skewered through the cherries – which i saved) and my brother often had a dessert called Mud Pie – which seemed like some kind of crazy grown up dessert to me when I was little because a) it was huge and b) it had coffee in it. COFFEE.

For me, however – because I was obviously super awesome – I enjoyed a special dessert that wasn’t even on the menu. A giant – GIANT – chocolate covered strawberry.

In my mind and memory – those strawberries were bigger than my whole hand – (maybe at that time they WERE) and the chocolate was just this insanely decadent treat. (…though I didn’t think that at the time, because I didn’t know the word “decadent’ yet) It was my absolute favourite.

The other memory I have, also including strawberries, is of my Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Ficket  (who I absolutely adored) and the “Strawberry Tea” that she used to hold at our elementary school. Kids and parents would attend the Strawberry Tea, and would be served tea and Strawberry Shortcake (who was one of my favourite dolls, as well hehe) – and it was so delicious. I looked forward to it every year, even as I got older.

At any rate, for my 30^th birthday this year, I thought back on some of these old memories and of foods come and gone ( I think about food a lot ) – and these two stuck out – so, what I made was some sort of crazy super dessert.

 Chocolate Covered Strawberry Shortcake.

Essentially I made vanilla bean cake (4 layers for 2 cakes), placed sliced strawberries soaked in sugar and chocolate ganache in the middle, and then I covered the whole thing in a vanilla frosting – to be topped with giant chocolate covered strawberries.

First, I made the vegan vanilla bean cake – click here for the recipe – which is from the amazing Isa Moskowitz at the Post Punk Kitchen (seriously, check her out – she’s my favourite) and let that cool and do its thing for a bit.

While all of that was happening, I made the ganache, also from Isa – for which there is a link here. (the ganache recipe is within!)

As those were cooling, I chopped up the strawberries to be soaked in sugar – honestly I didn’t measure here at all.. for two cakes it was roughly 2 pints of strawberries minus the 10 that I covered in chocolate – and the sugar I had left.. haha.

Next up were the chocolate covered strawberries. SUPER easy. All I did was microwave some chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet ghirardhelli for everything in this recipe) at about 30 second intervals, stirring each time I checked on it until it was all melty and delicious – then dipped them in using a lot of swirling motion and getting my hands all chocolately, and then let them set on a silpat. (which is new to me, and which I now have and which I love – but parchment paper also works!)

Next – the frosting, also vegan, also from the internet! Click here for the recipe. This made a super fluffly light frosting – perfect for this cake! I changed it up slightly and used rice milk instead of soy milk because I prefer the taste. I think almond milk would also be good.

And so, last but not least, was the assembly. I made two two layer cakes (not tutu, I was never good at ballet) , filled the center first with ganache and then lay half the strawberry slices over the ganach, put on the top, and then let that cool a couple hours.

After that was all good and firm, I did a crumb coat of frosting, let that chill a bit, and then did the final coat – and arranged the strawberries on top!

I hope that if you try this you enjoy it  and then serve it to all of your friends ASAP – I loved it and had the best birthday filled with lovely people – and it was also like both of those childhood memories wrapped in to one sort of super-meta-memory!

Until next time, take care,

Alley

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I love my birthday. I love the
month of November, and I love the number 16 – I even love the year 1981 –
all in a wildly narcissistic fashion. So should you! (for your day,
respectively – or, hey, mine if you want to) I will have a blast, and there
will be cake. It’s 30 that I’m not so sure about.

I distinctly recall how old I used to think that 30 was when I was younger –
there’s even a line in an old Deana Carter song ‘Strawberry Wine’ about
remembering when 30 was old. (also, her biggest fear was September, when he
had to go – I digress.) (That I just said “an old Deana Carter song” and
meant it also is a bit disturbing.)

Personally, I don’t feel a day over 16 – and when I was 16 I felt old and
sad a lot of the time. I did a lot of wishing I could just fast-forward
beyond my crazy youth to become instantly old and wise and look back on the
things that were happening then with humour and a fount of knowledge instead
of fear and confusion.

Truthfully, I’m glad that didn’t happen, (the non-event of time travel not
withstanding), and that I experienced everything in between then and now
that I have – because it’s been a hell of a ride – and I didn’t really have
to wait that long, in the grand scheme of things, to be able to look back on
things the way I can now.

Personally and career-wise, (which are so interlocked it’s sometimes hard to
define the lines between them), I’ve gone through what I needed to go
through to be who I am right now. I needed those times. I needed to learn
what I didn’t want, what I wouldn’t go through again, and to learn to
communicate all of those things through music, writing, conversation, and
expression – and with other people.

Know who I am now? Me neither. Not completely. I’m learning that doesn’t
matter so long as you’re true to yourself. The rest follows. It does. I
promise.

I’ve put myself through enough trials at this point, and I’ve spent so much
time locked up in my own head, that quite frankly, I want to do put all I
have in to everything in life and just enjoy it. I want to learn everything.
I want to see everything. I want to love everyone.

Now, I’ve heard a lot that 30 is the new 20 – and I have no idea what that
means. In fact, I don’t even WANT that to be the case. To me, 30 is still
30, and, scary as that is to me, I’m glad to not be 20 anymore. I was so
constantly confused and heartbroken and filled with self-hatred when I was
20 – that it’s a great place to be beyond.

I am excited to be on the other side of all that now, and I am looking
forward to new adventures and appreciating all of the previous ones. I’m
even excited to look back on this in 30 years and realize how naïve I was
turning 30.

I’ve shed some old fears, and have occasionally developed new ones – but I
feel younger, more open-minded and more battle-ready than ever. I can
finally lift that sword out of that stone – now I just have to figure out
what to do with it. First, I’ll cut the cake. =

ps. I took this pic in Cow Head, NL when I was there this summer -

I was in love with this mug.

]]> http://7thumbsup.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/30-well-okay-i-guess/feed/ 12 7thumbsup candles IMG_0957 IMG_1929 IMG_2106 http://7thumbsup.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/fall-bread/ http://7thumbsup.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/fall-bread/#comments Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:45:43 +0000 7thumbsup http://7thumbsup.wordpress.com/?p=475 Continue reading →]]> I love autumn. It’s my favourite time of year. My birthday falls in the fall. I slip and fall less in the fall because it’s not quite as cold as the winter, not as careless as the summer, not as wet as the spring, and.. oh that’s all of the seasons. Right. Anyways, I took that picture in the summer, so I guess it’s kind of unrelated – but I just love what these look like when the wind hits them.

Anyways, for some reason, whenever I think of the Fall, I think of bread. I also think of bread when I think of summer, winter, spring, or giraffes. Bread is delicious. If I love it so much why don’t I just marry it? I’m not sure – probably because I ate all of it before it got the chance to pop the question.

While not a loaf of bread per se, I made this pizza dough the other day, and it was amazing, and doubled as a delicious foccacia: http://www.thejoykitchen.com/recipe.lasso?recipe=1116. I used a cup of whole wheat flour and just a bit less flour over all, and about a pack and a half of yeast in mine, so just kind of feel it out. For the record, when I’ve used too much whole wheat before, it hasn’t risen as well – haven’t figured that one out yet! I don’t have a picture because I was too busy eating it… It rose beautifully and was deliciously crusty. I am starting to think that I posted this recipe before. I am pretty sure that I did – and with good reason.

Another fun thing I am doing this fall is a show in Ladysmith, on Vancouver Island on Sept 23rd. If you’re around there, I’d love to see you! It will be the anniversary of a lovely local couple there, as well as my company’s 10th anniversary celebration. Who knew?!

At any rate, while there are no pictures of food on this post on this food blog (oops), here’s a poem about bread, and autumn, and night time, and baths, and pyjamas (how do you SPELL that word?!), and tea, and stuff.

-

I gave up on the sun long ago,

choosing the moon’s soft assurance to bring me down

the sun’s wide eyed smile

nowhere near the beauty of the moon’s soft frown

less bold, quieter, a safer place

to cough these devils from my throat

cool, dry comfort in borrowed blankets

wild eyed lovers given way to sleepy faced companions

everyones egos dropped

for shakin heads and shrugged shoulders

tension releasing as dawns day lets go to the nights dusk

and settles in

kettles boiling, steeped herbs steaming the air

sweet perfumed comfort – a deep breath – first in, then out

as frost lands first delicate on blades of grass

yeast within tepid water

honey to feed it, time to watch it grow

flour sprinkled somewhat indelicately

learning this dance a bit better with each batch

dough kneading in and out and around

when with cloth settled,

filling its bowl with puffy clouded girth

punched down, breathing a sigh of relief

it wakes again to become the sweet heady scent of home

crust flaking, inside a yield

warm and melting the days ration

in to a golden sun of passion

every bit tasted on its way to filling bellies

soaking bones and skin in cozy water

flowers and extracts, salts and oils

wringing hair clean and new

dried with fluffy towels enrobed in clean cotton

drifting off to sound and precious sleep.

-

Happy autumn, everyone!

take care,

Allison :)

This entry is going to be long – and contains links to three recipes for three very different occasions, from three different excellent foodblogs – I do so love the internet. Read on!

I know it’s been a while, so long in fact that I have completely new hair from the last time I posted. This is not a rare happening, but a happening all the same – and it shows at the very least a day has passed – in this case, quite a few days!

Today is a very special day. Today is the 2nd birthday of this guy:

Happy birthday Linkers!!

In honor of his birthday, I’ve baked him up some wiener dog shaped cookies – and you can find the recipe HERE! (I added the word “dog”here at the start, even though I normally wouldn’t, to make it clear that these aren’t cookies for a bachelorette party – from this point on I shall say wiener, and wiener alone.)

This particular wiener is my best friend – no joke. In the summer he’s the perfect companion for swims and walks, and in the winter or if I’m not feeling well, he makes the perfect hot-wiener bottle to warm my feet.

He’s a good guy. Solid, dependable, and incredibly long.

So for you today, on this day of your wienerness, I bake you these cookies. That look like you. I hope that isn’t a form of cannibalism. (cookie cutters – Bulk Barn – 89 cents – woot!)

Next up, churros.

My manfriend Adam has been back at school this year, getting his education degree – and that means a lot of being away, but a lot of going away treats – I’ve made these twice for these types of times. I’m no photographer, but I couldn’t pass up taking pictures of these – the chocolate sauce was ridiculous – creamy and dark chocolatey with a hint of cinnamon and orange steeped in to the cream. The churros themselves crispy and sweet on the outside and soft and yielding on the inside, perfectly light and airy to counterbalance their fried heavy madness.

Think mini-donuts, fresh out of a truck at the fair – best eaten straight out of the oil. These are not a health food.

I found the process for these fascinating, cooking the dough on the stovetop, piping it out with a piping bag in to the hot oil – super fun. One tip, and this is probably a no-brainer for people who work with piping bags often, hahaha, but seriously, don’t overfill the bag or else you’ll have a crazy mess squeeze out the top of it. It happened to me twice. That and make sure your frosting tip is securely in the piping bag – or else. Just trust me. That happened to me twice too.

CLICK HERE for the recipes! (the first time I made these I used bakers chocolate in the dip, the second time we splurged and got a giant Ghirardhelli dark chocolate bar – both were delicious, but seriously, splurge on the bigger bar – I mean if you are going to have deep fried dough with sugar on it, you may as well go all the way with it. And please, DO steep the cinnamon sticks and orange zest in the cream, it is SO worth it.)

Speaking of health food, my last little note here is, during a fun but too-brief visit with my mom last week, we made this savoury cheesecake:

If you are eating a bit lighter, but want a treat – something creamy and cheesy and decadent within reason – a slice of this is delicious! Think the flavours of quiche but instead of egg, a whole lotta creamy cheesy deliciousness. This was a huge hit with us! We served it with a simple bunch of arugala. Again, it’s cheese – but all lighter types!. ;) You can find the recipe here: Savoury Cheesecake (I totally copied the arugala garnish from that site, too! hehe)

Anyways, happy birthday Linkers, all the best to Adam on his homestretch of school, and safe travels to my mom! (she’s already been back home a week now but, you know, it can’t hurt!) ;)

Take care, and love your friends.

Cheers,

Alley :)

ps.On a musical note, (har har), I came across this video yesterday of Oscar Peterson playing in Denmark – if you want to feel music hit straight to your heart, and see crazy complex piano lines made to look as simple as taking a breath – check this out. This remains one of my favourite songs in the world. Also, Youtube is so awesome.

First off – I couldn’t help myself – so let’s just get the apologies out of the way to start with, and then on to the cheese-making! (I could put a few more bad jokes RIGHT THERE but I will control myself.) Anyways, sorry.

Secondly, many of the photos here were taken by my boyfriend Adam – just so you know! I found it very difficult to make cheese and be a photo taker at the same time so he stepped in valiantly. Timing is everything.

All that said – I would like to share with you a recipe for the simplest most delicious homemade cheese I’ve ever had. (Mind you, it’s the ONLY homemade cheese I’ve ever had – I haven’t experiment with rennets and things and made cheddar and the like… I hope to – but I digress…)

First a little backstory.

Every time I head home to Nanaimo, I essentially force my parents (I’m a terrible daughter) to take me for dinner at Amrikko’s Indian Grill. It is, by far, my favourite place for Indian food – it is just so, so freaking good. I always overeat there – (the onion bhaji – so crazy delicious)(navrattan korma)(butter chicken)(everything vindaloo)(and then the dips – THE DIPS – some sort of crazy delicious mint dip and then a sweet delicious one..) – and then, my favourite dish, Palak Paneer. Palak Paneer is essentially a light but firm cheese (paneer – it has a similar texture but totally different taste to something like Haloumi or Feta – and can be grilled) tossed in a deliciously spiced spinach (or palak) sauce.

When I’m not home in Nanaimo, I often find myself dreaming of palak paneer – and finally I have been pushed over the edge, and have decided to make my own.

Paneer, the cheese part of the palak paneer, is actually amazingly simple to make, once you get the hang of it. It has taken me a few times to get said hang of it, but I think i’ve got it down to a rough art now. (…not to be confused with a fine art. – I still screw up sometimes.) If you love cheese as much as I do – AND I REALLY LOVE CHEESE – the spark that the following knowledge to be shared will give you in your heart is nothing short of an emotional epiphany.

YES – you can make your own cheese. It may take a few times to get the hang of it – but get the hang of it you will – and will be forever changed.

I’ve made this a few times for veggie curries and things, this being the first time I’ve ever made full-on palak paneer – and here are the ingredients.

Paneer

• 1 Litre Milk (I use %2, but if you want a richer cheese go for full fat – and apparently you can even use light or skim milk)
• 2 tbls of lemon juice

And that’s it.

Here’s what to do:

Put the milk on to boil – making sure to stir it enough so that it doesn’t burn on the bottom. I’ve had the most success with a large metal pot – large enough to hold boiling milk – and have failed miserably with a porcelain dutch oven type pot. Perhaps someone sciencey can tell me why. Something about reactions and metals and science. Sure, why not.

Anyhow, once the milk comes to a boil (and you will know, it expands like CRAZY so keep a close eye on it – and, once again, make sure your pot is large enough to handle this or else you’ll have a milky mess on your hands – it’s happened to me – and it is not pretty), add your lemon juice to the mix and reduce the heat to medium low while stirring – until large curds are formed and they seperate from an almost clear whey. You will know when this happens – the seperation should be pretty obvious. If it’s not, put it on to boil again and add more lemon juice (or vinegar if you like – or citric acid and water apparently) and try again.

When you are happy with how your curds have separated from the whey, pour the mixture in to a cheese cloth hanging above a bowl. Myself, I don’t have a cheese cloth – so I used a sieve and a piece of paper towel…

When I realized THAT was a horrible mistake, I quickly transferred the almost papery cheese (oops) to an unused pair of silver tights with the legs tied off. Perfect. (I didn’t taste any silver when I ate it…)

Once all of your liquid is drained, depending on how firm you want the cheese, weigh down with a custard dish and small waving happy stone cat and put in the fridge while you make your sauce. (or, you know, whatever you have to weigh it down.)(And yes, that is cat food in the background – we are protecting it from the dog. Gross? Maybe. Necessary? Definitely.)

I find with this cheese, timing is everything. Don’t add the lemon juice before it totally boils like crazy – and make sure to keep on the heat until the curds are separated to your approval.

For the palak part, I simply boiled about 5 or 6 big handfuls of spinach in water for about 5 minutes, drained, and pureed in a blender with 2 chopped tomatoes.

I added that mixture to already toasted and heated vegetable oil, garlic, ginger, onion (you’ll want to chop yours smaller than mine – I was really really hungry and impatient by this point), and spices. I am pretty sure there was cumin, fennel, cardamom, coriander, turmeric, white pepper, salt and chili powder in there, but to be honest, I’m not sure. I have a bunch of unnamed bags from bulk barn. I made sure to not add anything like cinnamon sugar – and that’s all I know.

For a better and more exact recipe, do google palak paneer recipes – there are tons out there. I always find the simplest the best!

While that was happening, I chopped the paneer in to pretty little bite sized pieces (I sprinkled it with sea salt first – to taste) and fried in a touch of oil on both sides til nice and golden brown – tossed it all together, and enjoyed copiously.

I hope that you enjoy this as much as I do. Because I do. A lot.

I’m headed on tour soon, so in my next entry I will add a few tour dates to the recipe.

Take care and talk soon,

still waiting for spring,

Alley :O)

It’s been a while since my last post – and, since then – I’ve acquired a terrifyingly and intimidatingly awesome new camera! I’m still very much in the midst of learning how to use it, and likely will be for the rest of my life, but I thought – why not just dive in? (… for the record, it’s a Canon EOS Rebel XS, if you’re curious!)

So far, I’ve taken pictures of snowstorms, melting snow rivers, my boyfriend, my dog, my cat, trees etc. – and now – cupcakes!

I’ve been eating pretty healthily lately, and I’m all about making healthy foods fun – so I’ve been having a lot of tasty fruit smoothies (my favourite one is a peanut butter banana smoothie – I’ll add the recipe here for a bonus though I don’t have pics! Look for it in the “p.s.” hehe), playing around with quinoa and veggies and different delicious proteins, and I’ve also been experimenting with vegan/gluten-free baking!

I have a couple of people very close to me who are unable to eat gluten – so I am so excited to be able to learn recipes for stuff they can eat – and also I have some vegetarians and vegans in my life! It’s win/win.

The recipe I used for these cupcakes is from Babycakes NYC and the recipe can be seen/found here: Babycakes Vanilla Cupcakes Recipe.

The recipe for the frosting that I used was found on the internet – and had 5 stars – and deserves every single one of them. I’ll include it below!

This is where I found the recipe.

Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup Vegan Cream Cheese (I used Toffuti ‘Better than Cream Cheese’ – if you’re in Corner Brook – I’ve JUST found this at Sobey’s!)

• 1/4 cup Vegan Margarine (I used Becel Vegan)

• 2 Cups Powdered Sugar (I used powdered sugar)(Sorry, that was not necessary – I was just enjoying making side-notes)

• 2 tsp Vanilla (I really love vanilla – you may want to use only 1 tsp – I also use pure vanilla – if you want a brighter frosting, you can use artificial clear – but real vanilla is so worth it)

Directions:

Cream together cream cheese and margerine for a couple minutes – I did this up on high so it got nice and fluffy – but don’t over mix or it will get all liquidy. Slowly add powdered sugar, say 1/4 cup at a time. Add vanilla. Try not to eat it all before you put it on the cupcakes. Cover up screw-ups with sprinkles.

I hope you enjoy these if you decide to give them a try! I personally find them super moist and delicious – and I love the hint of lemon in the cupcakes – and I enjoy that I can make them for my grandma and my friend Kristen when I visit BC! Hooray! Make sure you bake these until they are cooked all the way through – or else they can be a bit TOO moist! Which I guess, really, is just another way of saying “under-cooked”.

This is my dog Link, trying to wink his way in to getting some fries.

As for me, I am going to be scarfing these down in an effort to quell my nervousness about reading poetry this weekend in Corner Brook at the April Rabbit. I’ve done a lot of singing, and I’ve done a lot of writing songs and poetry and the like, but I don’t remember ever having read any poems out loud, excluding perhaps in my school days. TERRIFYING.

If you’re in the Corner Brook area, you should really check it out! I am so excited to hear everyones poetry (so many insanely talented people) and I think it’s going to be a fantastic night of many words. It starts at 8pm this Saturday at King Henry’s Pub in the Glynmill Inn. You can find the facebook event page here: April Rabbit Event Page (I seriously love the poster.) I feel so lucky to be able to be a part of such a fun event! Yay!

Anyhow, that’s it for now. Please enjoy this picture of a tree.

Cheers,

Alley :)

ps (I told you there was going to be one)

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 banana (I prefer mine slightly under ripe)
• 1 cup almond milk
• 2 tbls peanut butter (yeah right – I used closer to 4, if we’re being honest here)
• 2 tbls chia seeds
• 3 – 4 ice cubes
• honey to taste (i like to swirl it on the top after it’s all made!)

Directions:

Blend everything – drink everything!

xoxoxoxoxoxoox

“Is this what adult relationships are like?!?!”, wondered my little brain, as glass crashed, chandeliers were swung from, venom spewed. Terrifying. Later in life, my larger, more experienced (and tired, though I can’t say much more evolved) brain answered, “They shouldn’t be.” – and made a cake instead.

BUT – do you know what isn’t like that?

Friends.

Cake – and friendship.

After everything falls apart in life (relationships AND cake, sometimes), as cliched as it sounds, you can always count on friends to be there to help you put things back together – or when everything is great, you can be sure they’ll be there, and be happy for you. (…and maybe have an extra bucket of icing around to help you smush the cake back together should it fall over, whether from being thrown or from natural causes.)(which totally happened to my best friends amazing wedding cake a couple years back – we watched it slowly.. fall.. off.. the table… but it was put back with such expert speed you’d never know that it happened!)

At any rate, recently, one such friend had a birthday!

I told her I’d make her a cake, as she is usually the one who makes the birthday cakes (seriously, just ask her) – and she said she’d like something vanilla and pretty.

IMMEDIATELY my mind shot to an image that I’d seen a few weeks back on a blog posting on foodgawker – a Rose Cake tutorial. This tutorial was PERFECT! Step by step and with little hints. AND, it said it was easier than it looked. So, I said, I knew just what to make.

Looking back, really, for a first time doing a big piping buttercream type project – it WAS relatively simple! It was no war at all, really, until at the very end when my hands were slippery and my eyes started to bug out of my head because it was 12:30AM and why couldn’t I just be patient and wait til morning?!?!?!!! but NOOOO NO NO!!! gotta get it done NOW or else I won’t sleep. Way to go self, way to go. Deep breath.

Ahhhh... random flower image... breattthhheeee...

All I needed was a good level cake (as level as I can get it with limited tools), a delicious buttercream, a 1m tip and a piping bag. (read: a ziplock bag with the tip attached with packing tape.)(again, being limited in gear is no problem if you use a bit of elbow grease.)(and 6 + sticks of butter.)(did I say that?)(oops, the secrets out.), and to give in to the fact that no matter how many times I washed my hands or had a bath – I was just going to smell like butter now. That was my fate.

It was worth it!

The cake was a hit – especially with my friend – and that’s really all that matters.

The cake itself was a buttermilk cake from Joy of Cooking (actually the same recipe as the red velvet, but with the steps to making it red velvet omitted) with a classic buttercream frosting. Double batch. You’ll need LOTS of frosting for this. LOTS. This is not a health cake.

*One note on this cake – I never actually have buttermilk on hand (as I have no idea what else I would use it for), so I just make my own. I use about 1tbls of lemon juice per cup of milk, and let it sit for a bit before adding it to the recipe – and that seems to work great!

________________

Buttermilk Layer Cake – straight out of ‘Joy of Cooking’

(makes two 8 or 9 inch round layers)(I made double this recipe)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Have all ingredients at room temperature. Grease and flour your cake pans or line bottoms of pans with wax or parchment paper.

Whisk together until thoroughly blended:

• 2 1/3 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

Beat in a large bowl until creamy:

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter

Gradually add and beat on high speed until light and fluffy, 3 – 5 minutes:

• 1 1/3 cups sugar

Whisk together then gradually beat in, taking about 2 mins:

• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla

Beating at a low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with:

• 1 cup buttermilk

in two parts, beating until smooth, scraping the bowl with a spatula as necessary.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean. (I always use a knife) – about 25 – 30 minutes in 9 inch pans, closer to 30 – 35 minutes in 8 inch pans.

Frost with your favourite buttercream recipe. I used the one from Joy of Cooking – but if you have one you like that pipes nicely, use that!

Because of the roses, this cake is a real frosting monger – so I highly suggest doubling your recipe. Seriously. 6 sticks of butter. I could have used more – but I ran out of butter.

Now, give of this cake freely – it is not one that is safe to horde – and life is too short not to love everybody.

Cheers, and until next time (when you will likely STILL smell like butter if you get the frosting all over you, as I did),

peace, and take care of your friends.

Allison :)

Lunch with my demons -

by Allison Crowe – (her being me.)

I sat down for lunch with my demons the other day, just to see them all in the same room at the same time. One set the table, cleaned it, and reset it again. She would do this repeatedly throughout the evening. All seated together for the first time (except for the one, she wouldn’t sit down)(and well, for the other one, who refused to get up – she stayed in bed) conversation was, you might say, interesting.

The first one to arrive was sorry that she was late. She was dressed to the nines.

The last one wasn’t sorry she was late at all, and clearly hadn’t showered.

After the initial introductions had taken place (amid much tension) one of the girls just started screaming, wailing, as if in pain, and then when the anxious one asked what was wrong, she just snapped “NOTHING” and continued wailing, making the anxious one all the more anxious, until she burst in to tears and had to leave the room, causing one of them to just keep laughing and laughing – not that anything was funny – she just didn’t know what else to do.

One of them apologized for all this unreasonable behaviour.

One of them laughed.

In the midst of it all, one tried to make an ill-humored joke and when that fell flat she retreated, rejected, back in to her coat of apathy. What was the point of all this anyways?

One made a brief recant of the others statement. She hadn’t meant it.

One of them laughed.

One had a problem, and told the entire table about it even thought it was completely inappropriate. Another one felt that her problem was worse than hers, so she spoke up and over the other one, and then she felt jilted and unappreciated, but held it in.

One wondered why we had to talk at all.

One laughed.

When one reset the table for the last time, the timer went off and she was distracted for long enough to bring out the meal, intricately prepared, everything made from scratch. She didn’t stick around long enough to hear the compliments as there were dishes to be done, so another one lapped up the glory – after having done nothing at all but her hair.

Before the meal was even finished, she snatched the plates from all the demons, causing one creature, still devouring, to lash out and insult everyone at the table – all the while smashing everything in sight. Then they ALL joined in. Well, most of them.

For my part, I just sat there in awe as the mayhem unfolded in front of me. One of them was in the corner rocking back and forth pretending that none of this was happening – and one of them was in the middle of the room jumping up and down, celebrating this fireball of anarchy.

One was sorry, so so sorry, for this destruction.

One giggled.

Somehow, minutes later, they all took a deep breath and got back to being as normal as possible, even though by now everyone was crying. (except for two – one was still in bed, and the other just stared straight ahead, burning holes in to the wall with her eyes)

Why had I set this up? The meal was delicious and it was all very interesting, if not enlightening, but really, what was I accomplishing by seating my flaws in the great hall for all to see?

I sat in wonder for so long, that I didn’t realize they had gone.

The lights came up and I realized that I was alone. There were broken dishes all around me, my face streaked in tears, and I was bleeding someone’s blood – the beautiful meticulously prepared meal now spoiled and wasted. I just wanted to go back to bed, but was struck with a need to clean this mess up before I even considered it. This was my fault, after all, and I would deal with the consequences.

The next day I couldn’t get out of bed, and I was sorry. So, so sorry.

So sorry in fact that I invited them all back for dinner the next evening to make up for it.

You feed your face, yes, and lord knows I love to feed my face, but, what’s more is that you are feeding your soul and mind, and sort of can recharge through the right kind of group energy. So in a more positive connotation than the original speaker of these words I say, indeed, let them eat cake.

Yes, I am a hippie.

I also love video games.

I also love people that love video games, and one of those people that I love the most just had his birthday – and thus I made him a cake of one of his favourite video game character – Super Meat Boy.

A little bit of back story on myself and my experience with such cakes here:

I am obviously not an expert – I learned how to make marshmallow fondant from teh internetz,(O HAI!) and followed examples and patterns and paths that people had already, much to my delight, forged. I googled XBox 360 cake and found this AMAZING tutorial to get me going.

My first carved fondanty cake was an XBox 360 for my boyfriends brothers b-day (HOORAY ALLITERATION)  as seen here: (it took about 9 hours)

I had such a blast making this cake (which is, admittedly, a box mix – it was my first and I wanted to focus on the construction) that I couldn’t wait to get to my second.

Enter: SUPER MEAT BOY!

Now for those of you who have never heard of this game – I warn you – it’s really really addicting. And really frustrating. I can only try a few times before I cower back to my Sims 3 family and just make an earthquake or firestorm happen to vent all previous Super Meat Boy frustrations. (he is not, btw, an actual wad of meat – he is merely a square boy with no skin)(mmm CAKE!)

SO here’s how the cake came together.

First I google super meatboy cake and found this link. (not sure if that will work)

I started by making a red velvet cake recipe from the Joy of Cooking (I swear to you, this cookbook has NEVER let me down – especially when it comes to baking- you should own it. I have an old one passed down from family members and a new updated one, too!) and iced it with Cream Cheese Frosting from same. (the Red Velvet Cake recipe is actually a buttermilk white cake with cocoa and red food coloring added at different points in the process)

I froze that overnight, all wrapped up in cling wrap – and the next day, got to carving Meat Boy in his shape-to-be. In truth all I did was carve out a little leg hole, and then used what I had just carved out as a fist.

Then it was time to make the fondant.

For this particular cake you will need:

• - Wilton Food Gel (black and red)(I used a whole tub of red – and be warned – this gets messy)
• - 6 cups Marshmallows
• - 6 cups powdered sugar (or as much as it takes to come to the right consistancy – i find it works best when it’s like a stretchy bread dough)
• - roughly 3 tbls of water
• - a lot of grease. (i used vegetable oil)
• 1 – 2 Layer Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting(from Joy of Cooking)
• Freaking sharp big knife (that was for the carving step back a couple of paragraphs there)

Instructions (based on my limited knowledge)

Start by microwaving the marshmallows and water for about 1 minute in a microwave safe greased bowl – and keep heating in subsequent 30 second periods until they get all nice and puffy and gooey. Mix all that goo til it’s nice and smooth with a greased spatula, and move in to grease mixing bowl. At this point, I greased the dough-hook (do you sense a pattern here??) and turned the mixer on to the lowest setting, slowly adding the powdered sugar and letting the dough-hook knead the “dough” until it was the right consistancy. This can take several minutes.

At this point, then, either separate the fondant in to pieces to be coloured, or colour the dough all together. I did this batch in two steps, the biggest amount dyeing red while it was still in the mixer, the other part I left white and dyed a small amount black for the face details. (THIS IS REALLY REALLY MESSY – I still have some dye in my fingernails a few days later so – be forewarned if you care about that sort of thing.)(I don’t.)

Once the fondant is mixed, prepare your surface. I used a wooden table, first greased and then covered in powdered sugar. I am still wiping the sticky surface off days later. Again, be forewarned. (if you are wondering why your dog is licking the floor, that is why)

With a fondant roller (and really, it’s important to have this – it’s silicone or plastic or something like that – you can get them at most stores that have any cake supplies) roll out your dough until it’s thin enough to work with, but not so thin it rips. (that’s what I found works anyways – again – not an expert – also – you are supposed to chill this for a while if you know what you’re doing but I don’t so I used it this way as it made my life easier. Que sera.)

Next, drape the red fondant over the entire cake and smooth with a fondant smoother (also important to get – its like a flat plastic paddle – really cheap), cutting off the excess bits and tucking it in ’til it looks right to you.

I then rolled out the black fondant and carved out the mouth and eye details, and then did the same with the white. If you’re like me – stare at a picture on your boyfriends iPad of supermeatboy and then call him in to the kitchen to hit the button again when the damn thing goes to sleep and you can’t touch it with your sugary sugary hands, and carve freehand until you get something that looks kinda like it’s s’posed to.

Attach the detail pieces with a little bit of water – and then i sort of dusted the icing sugar off with a bit of vegetable oil. Again, that’s probably totally messed up and wrong of me to do – BUT I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING.

And there you have him – SUPER MEAT BOY! :)

Now, make a couple of lasagnas with a sweet potato layer, cheap out and buy salad dressing cause you ran out of time and buy a frozen garlic bread, take out your homemade ice creams (thank you David Lebovitz you ice cream guru you) earlier than I did so people can actually eat it when the time comes, and wait for your friends to show up.

Have a great time.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve updated with any new recipes, but I’ve definitely been doing a lot of cooking and have much to catch up on!

This winter I’ve also been doing a lot of writing – and here’s a short story that kind of fits this post – about a dinner party in my head that went horribly horribly wrong.

Enjoy!

I hope this makes up for lost time. :)

If it doesn’t, here’s my wiener dog in a sweater. If this doesn’t do it for you, then I don’t know what will.

Peace!

Allison :)