Not having the gumption to do a double layer chocolate cake this past weekend, I decided to do a recipe I had lurking in my 3-ring recipe collection for many years. Credit for the recipe: 101 cookbooks website, who credit the July 1974 issue of Gourmet Magazine who in turn credit reader Patricia Michaelson. Credit given where credit is due! Read More »
During a break in the remodeling action last weekend, I had enough time to bake my next cake. I was giddy! I followed my brand new, thoroughly thought out and researched instructions. When I creamed the butter with the lard, it looked and felt different. So far so good. I danced confidently around the kitchen as I followed my new instructions thinking to myself “You got this!” Read More »
After reading Shirley O. Corriher’s book, CookWise, to find out what went wrong and how to fix it, I had a renewed sense of joy for baking.
I would use lard, which has more air bubbles. Modern day ‘vegetable shortening’ is not something I trust at all. Too much worry about GMO besides other factors. I would cream the lard and sugar together for a minimum of five minutes to incorporate more air. Use less Baking Powder so the cake would not Read More »
After my first cake which had fallen in the center (both 8 inch rounds of cake), and was tough, I had to find out what went wrong. My mother had sent me a book that could help me find, understand, and fix my errors. Baking, after all, is a fine art of careful step-by-step instruction with precision. I’m the shoot-from-the-hip person and I have to learn to slow down and be more precise and careful. It can be done. I will bake 100 cakes if I needed to Read More »
In our family we love to cook, and Harold McGee is a hero of ours. He’s the Mr. Science of cooking. His book, On Food and Cooking: The science and lore of the kitchen, is one of the few books I have kept over the years. I used to have over 100 cookbooks and recently paired it down Read More »
I dream of baking a white, pristine, fluffy cake with lighter than air whipped frosting. I wanted all of my cakes to be homemade, from scratch. No boxed cake mix, and certainly no frosting from a can! Oh no. Watching the Great British Baking Show with everyday folks baking marvelous things told me I could do it.
My first cake with my new KitchenAid mixer was a total Read More »
PattyCakes 