I'm back!!

Wow, what a truly eventful year! So many changes, and the first one was changing jobs since my last post. I changed two jobs, actually - the first from the alternative school to the junior high school.

I'm not meant to teach junior high school students. I thought I was safe from this happening when I got my teaching certificate in physics, but alas, I sealed my fate when I politely declined the offer to go back to the regular high school after a year of teaching alternative. When the board cut the alternative budget in half, the opportunity to go back to the regular high school was long gone, so there I was in junior high school.

I left that school after a month, and the last week was spent with the replacement teacher I found for them. Did they really need to keep me for that last week?? It was a long, drawn-out goodbye, made more difficult from the instant attachments that junior high school students make. Those delightful students gave me a send off, including a goodbye card:

Yes, I cried. I also brought baked goods. I've baked for all of my students, and I wasn't going to ruin those stats just because I only had them for a month.

With my penance served, I was off to the new school. What a transition! I'm not sure I've ever had to change so much in so little time. It's not like moving from one job to the next. Truly, an accounting department runs pretty much the same everywhere, for example. Teaching has so many unspoken details, from whether the students need passes to go to the bathroom, to how to handle things as they go wrong, my default button was set to the previous school system. Adjustment after adjustment was made, and I hope I don't have to do this again. The district feels like home to me now, and next year should be significantly easier.

But this is a baking blog! So I'll get to what I came here for...

The first true adventure of the past year was in making a Milk Bar Cake. If you're not familiar with the Milk Bar, here's the link: http://milkbarstore.com/main/party-cakes/

Fun stuff! Well, Veronica asked me if I wanted to try making it for a friend's birthday, and I was all for it. The cake itself is loaded with sprinkles, and it features a crumb topping that also has sprinkles, as well as about 10 pounds of buttercream frosting. Just looking at the cake can release insulin:

Where's the cake, right?? This heavy thing made it all the way back to Brooklyn via train and subway, and was still a little frozen when it arrived. It was everything it was supposed to be, and it was super fun to make.

Other adventures included macarons. Pearlized pink edible glitter was added to the top of these cookies, and it was really quite satisfying to make them:

By this time in the school year, I had adjusted to living alone on top of other adjustments. My son had moved out, and my dog passed away. This past year had it's cruel moments, mixed in with little successes along the way.

As for the summer, it's officially started and I expect it will be filled with many baking adventures, paired with multiple sewing adventures. I have lots of crafts to do, but for now, I'm due some serious lollygagging time.

Anyway, it's good to be back :)

It's bananas!

As promised, I'm sending you love in the form of banana cake. It hasn't even come out of the oven, and I can guarantee you that it won't be here by this time tomorrow. Delicious *and* healthful, this cake is loaded with protein and potassium, and made with zero fat. You couldn't ask for a more ideal breakfast cake.

Here's the recipe:

Covered in crud, this most beloved cookbook is so incredibly practical, like showing you what to do when you have nasty bananas like these:

Nasty, fermenting, lost all constitution - not that bananas are known for being tough and chewy, but eating these kinds of bananas would be a punishment for sure. (I should note that I rarely buy anything organic, but Wegman's sells them so cheap that it's just dumb to pay for the pesticides.)

These are the kinds of bananas you need for this cake. If your bananas don't make you question if they are trying to turn to alcohol, you need to either wait a day or so, or slice them up and quick freeze them for future banana smoothies.

Next step is to mash them up. At this point, you may be wondering how mashed you have to get your bananas, so I took a pic of them all mashed up:

It's a little chunky and very mushy. No need for perfection, as the lumps will melt into the batter as it's being cooked. To the mashed up bananas, I immediately added the buttermilk.

I make my own buttermilk at this point, and it's just so simple that there's no reason that you can't, either. There's really nothing like it for baking purposes (I don't drink this stuff), as it adds moisture and a dimension of culture that adds umph to the taste. Making your own pizza dough? Adding buttermilk instead of water, or even just substituting half of the water for buttermilk will feed the yeast and make for a very happy dough.

To make your own buttermilk: Buy a jug of it first. When almost done, save about a cup of it and add whatever milk you usually drink to fill up the container. Leave it on your counter for at least 24 hours, and maybe even more. Smell it when it's cultured enough - it should smell slightly sour but not overwhelmingly so. The jug itself might have expanded because the bacterial culture that you're growing in the buttermilk breathes out, just like you and me. The more it grows, the more gas there will be in the container. Put it back into the refrigerator (I store mine in the back where it's coldest and where no one will mistake it for something to use or throw out), and shake it before using. It should pour out like a thin and runny yogurt that's grossly frothy.

Next, I add my two eggs and only 1 1/3 cups of sugar. I'll dump in some vanilla because I can't help myself, and let it sit while I get the rest of the dry ingredients ready.

I measure out the 2 1/2 cups of flour into a measuring cup, and add the teaspoon of salt, and 1 1/4 teaspoons of baking soda and baking powder. Before adding to the liquid, I'll use my mini whisk to make sure there aren't any salt pockets in the finished product. This is where I'm often astounded about how much flour will compact itself as it sits around in the bag. This time around, my 2 1/2 cups of flour turned into 3 cups - something that could dry out the most well-intentioned cake. Leaving out the fat could also potentially dry out this cake.

This is why I always use 5 bananas instead of the 3 that the recipe calls for. Mind you, some people like their baked goods dry.

Dry = Flavorless 

Hey, some people like it that way, and I'm not here to judge. It's just that I think that you should at least know the science behind it. 

Dry means that your taste buds aren't going to react as much to the food, and in the case of baking, the cake won't taste as sweet. Dry also means that more of the fat that is normally used in the baking will dry up, too, leaving less taste. Again, some people like this - I'm just not one of them. It should also be noted that while it tastes less sweet and/or fatty, the full amount of sugar and fat is still in there. 

Anyway, here's what it looks like before baking:

This should give you an idea of how dense this batter is, as the walnuts don't just sink into the batter. Expect it to be about 2x as thick as a regular box cake batter.  

And here it is after baking at 350 F:

That's a sexy little piece of cake right there! Cut while it was hot, this little puppy is already devoured. As the cake cools down, it gets a little more dense and the top gets gooey. There's no real reason for frosting, but if there's no stopping you, it really should be a cream cheese frosting. 

Good luck! :)

When it all began...

I just did things when I was kid. There wasn't any inner monologue telling me that I shouldn't be relaxing right about now, and that there was stuff waiting to get done that only me could do. No ying or yang about what I wanted vs what I needed. I just did. 

I miss that mental liberation, although it wasn't liberating at the time. Back then, I felt constrained by my inability to choose what was going to happen in a day, and I wanted the world. I settled for making banana cake or applesauce cake in the kitchen (the first thing I'll make for you).

The story starts with a magical book: 

This is the actual book, and under that retro "MINE" label is a hand-written "MINE" that was surreptitiously written by the 10-year-old version of me who found something glorious and felt compelled to mark it as my territory. It is, indeed, still glorious.

This book was a gateway to a dream. I can't even imagine what drove me to open it up that first time, but once opened, it offered a view of the Betty Crocker Test Kitchen Lab:

 

I would stare at these pictures and sigh, as I still do. There are a few things to note about these pictures: they're almost empty of people; they elevate cooking from drudgery to sophisticated lab work with gay polka dots; this was a place for women. Throughout the whole book, it's underlined how this is a Woman's World. 

I already lived in a Woman's World. With four sisters and an admirably bold and artistic mother, I was surrounded by femininity. A Woman's World is full of the power of choices, and domains to rule over. Here's the domain that I currently rule over as I'm writing this blog:

Trust, I enjoy my peace and crafts. Feathers, geodes, cattails, silks, pottery, herringbone, leather, mahogany, books, stained glass, dried roses. Is there a reason to leave this palace? It's more than the comforts of home; it's the comforts of mind.

Still, there are things I don't have. A double wall oven, for example. My kingdom for a double wall oven! Heck, I'd settle for using someone else's while wearing a 50's style dress, apron, heels and pearls. Maybe someday... *sigh!* For now, back to my childhood dream. 

Reading on in the book, there are images of men being tempted by cakes and donuts:

And if that wasn't enough to make you think that baking could help you land a man, then there's the direct hit in the cookie and brownie section:

See the man with hearts in his eyes? That's one powerful cookie! 

"So *this* is how it's done..." thinks the 10-year-old, who wants to be worldly and mindful of how to catch a man. I was lying on the couch in the living room, surrounded by wallpaper that featured patriotic eagles on one side of me, and real wood paneling on the other. The Center of Power was just down the hall and around the bend from the dining room, waiting for me to make banana cake. I could fill the house with the smell of baked goods and bake happiness.

It was my first taste of Power, and I've been ruling my kitchen ever since. 

So welcome to my blog! I'll be sharing recipes, crafts, and all sorts of good stuff. :)