I’m reading up on the creaming method vs. two-stage method of cake mixing. I’m starting with CookWise and will then move on to more baking books.

It’s easy enough to find excellent recipes for chocolate or vanilla cakes, but I’d like to be able to create my own [tasty] cake recipes for fruit flavors and other non-mainstream ingredients.

Comments Off

These are the cupcakes from the last entry’s recipe — maraschino cherry cupcake injected with lime jello and frosted with lime buttercream. They taste even better frosted.

Brought these along to today’s Craftland meeting for a snack between inventory mailings and website updates.

Comments(1)

I adapted this maraschino cake recipe from my 1947 edition of the BH&G Cookbook. That recipe called for shortening — I did an even substitute with 1/2 cup of butter and left out the nuts. I filled them with lime jello and they will spend the evening chilling. Tomorrow I frost.

Of course I tasted a cupcake fresh out of the oven and was happily surprised at how tender these cakes turned out. I was a bit worried as it’s a one-bowl recipe and the flour mixture spent a total of 4 minutes in the mixing bowl. With only egg whites it’s slightly dry, but the jello should take care of that.

Frosted pictures tomorrow.

Comments(2)

I was first introduced to the crunchy, caramel-filled Lion Bar while spending a semester in the Netherlands back in 1994. I had been living on fries with mayo, filled almond cookies and pounds of hazelnut chocolate. It was by accident that tasted my first Lion Bar. The cafeteria was out of Nutella so I couldn’t prepare my usual dessert of chocolate spread slathered on fresh bread. In desperation I purchased a Lion Bar in order to get my chocolate fix that evening. It was an affair that continues to this day.

Luckily you can find this candy at most larger grocery chains in the import aisle. Earlier this year there were reports that Nestle would stop making Lion bar due to poor sales, though there haven’t been any updates to that story…looks like the Lion Bar lives on.

Comments Off

It’s that time of year when eggplant is bountiful and cheap. I’ve been throwing the purple, white and graffiti variety into everything from pasta dishes to salads. I haven’t made any Baba ganoush yet, perhaps this weekend.

Here’s a list of some of dishes that look tasty:
Eggplant Croques Monsieurs
Eggplant Fritters
Red Thai Curry with Eggplant
Thai-style Pork with Eggplant

Comments Off