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.

Comments

New Kid on the Block

So here's a picture of the new kid on the block. Ain't she a beauty? It's a Blomberg . They are fairly new to the US. They have been around in Europe for quite a while. I really liked the design. I've been dying to have a freezer on the bottom. With the old refrigerator I would constantly lose brain cells by hitting my head on the freezer will poking around in the refrigerator. It really makes sense to have the refrigerator on top - that is where you spend most of your time. When we bought the old one, it was an emergency situation. The prior one was leaking on the floor and was no longer cooling. Fifteen years ago the freezer on the bottom was just starting to get popular but we were in no situation to wait for delivery. We had to take what they had on hand. Now the freezer on the bottom is by no means unique. What is - is this freezer's design. There are 3 compartments in the freezer. I used to have a chest freezer in the basement and everything would get los...

Mensa Member?

I think Mickey is a member of Mensa. We heard him last night but could not determine where he was in the kitchen (or should I say the Sous Chef could not locate him - I certainly was not looking). He had been lurking in the toaster cabinet the night before and averted the glue trap. This is absolute torture. Still no cooking going on.

Nothing in the Larder

Well there's nothing left in the freezer except some peeps from Easter. Shockingly they are good until 2016 - that's reassuring huh? This raises a few questions: Why do I keep peeps in the freezer? Well they are delicious frozen. I don't know why I havent eaten them yet??? Why is the freezer empty? because we are getting a new refrigerator. This one is 15 years old and quite frankly it owes us nothing. Every once it a while it lets out a big sigh. We figured we better replace it before it lets out one last final sigh. Why am I calling it the larder? Well I think of that Simpson's episodes where Moe calls Homer fancy for calling the garage a garage and not a car hole. I know it's not the same but it just makes me laugh and gives me an excuse to find that clip on youtube. So the delivery is set for the end of the week. We moved everything from the freezer to the downstairs freezer. The only thing that got thrown ou...

Chocolate-It's What's for Dinner

Search This Blog