Taking the Plunge

So I've decided to take the plunge. I've been told by a few people that I should blog about my cooking adventures but never really gave it a serious thought. But since I seem to be in between gigs for a bit now and have a little free time on my hands - I decided to give it a go.

However, I'm not really starting off with a success story. I saw this cake a while ago and wanted to try it. I'm not real sure who Aunt Sassy is, but she makes a pretty good cake. There is a local bakery that does a really excellent Pistachio Cake and thought this might be comparable.

Here is how it came out. Darn butter cream curdled! I've made butter cream before (and I'm not talking the confectioner's sugar super sweet stuff - the real deal stuff) and not had a problem. I went on the webby web afterwards and discovered all I needed to do was grab a hot towel and place it around the bowl and beat the living daylights out of it with the mixer. Butter cream is really an emulsification just like mayonnaise or vinaigrette. I definitely think the butter was a little too cold. Oh well lesson learned - it still tasted great. The texture was a little off but still not enough to deter us from eating it! I would definitely try making it again. The cake is real light and yes there was a lot of washing up of dishes going on (beating the egg whites bowl, saucepan for the butter cream, food processor for the pistachios) and then there was those extra pesky egg yolks left, but on a whole it was well worth it. Plus I've figured out what to do with those egg yolks tomorrow.

P.S. I'll get better about taking pictures - these were just taken with my phone.

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