Teacups and Toasters

We had our church Easter Egg hunt today and usually I just purchase extra treats to eat after the egg hunting is over, but this time I wanted to bring something that  I made myself too. I served the usual extra lot of candy along with peeps and some bagels and cream cheese, but I also made a cake. I made a cake that I had never made before and that was a rather stupid thing to do. (Only because I had one shot at getting it right for it to be ready on time for a crew that I didn’t want to disappoint!)

Fortunately, it turned out well! This one is definitely going into the archives. I have no idea what kind of cake you would technically call it because I’m not a cake connoisseur, but I can tell you that it had lots of butter. So much butter in fact, that I ended up cutting out the middle. The butter made the middle too dense and so even though it was done, it sort of had the texture of not being done (but only in the middle).  So, I cut it out and filled in the middle with sliced strawberries!  The texture is buttery and smooth and yet still light, which is what I was going for. Score!

Here’s the recipe;

You will need:

2 1/2 cups of butter (I used Smart Balance Light, as usual for dairy free results)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 cups of flour

1 cup soymilk (preferably plain, not flavored)

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

Approx: 12 strawberries

Here’s What You Do:

Beat together the butter and sugar

Add the egg and mix well

Add the milk and flour and mix well

Add the baking powder and the vanilla and mix well

Pour into a 9 inch round pan that has been greased and floured

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

Let cool in the pan until the edges seperate from the pan. This is a very moist cake and you may see it splitting in the middle. That’s okay because you’re going to remove it anyhow.  When the edges seperate from the pan – very carefully remove the cake from the pan and contiue letting it cool on a wire rack, or perhaps a plate. Since the cake is so moist the wire rack will leave indentions in the bottom of your cake, which really isn’t a big deal. Who looks at the bottom of a cake?  Once cool to the touch you may cut out a circle in the center. Only cut out the dense part.

Slice up the strawberries and fill in the hole in the center of the cake. Stack them up so that they stand above the cake. You could use any kind of fruit if you don’t want strawberries.  (If you use apples, or bananas be sure to squeeze some lemon juice over them so that they don’t turn brown.)

Refrigerate over night and then let thaw for about thirty minutes before serving. The texture has time to evolve this way. It’s worth the wait.

Now, the cake is good without icing, but I tried my hand at making an icing too.

In a sauce pan on medium heat combine 4 tsp of flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of milk, 1 tsp of cream of tartar.

Let cool.  Add 1/2 cup butter and a pinch of salt. Add desired color of food coloring.  Refrigerate until you take the cake out to thaw before serving. Apply as you wish…drizzle?   Enjoy your finished piece!

This past weekend I made Tye Dye Cupcakes inspired by Rainbow Cake that was suggested by my friends Kelly and Heather. Heather is posting soon on her blog, Dinner Cakes, about her Rainbow Cake making process and here’s a link to Kelly’s nifty pictures of her Rainbow Cake.

I didn’t have a lot of time this past weekend to make a cake from scratch, but after seeing Kelly’s flickr pics I sure was craving some cake. I took out an ever trusty box of Duncan Hines Lemon Cake and whipped up the batter, seperated it out into bowls and added some colors. I didn’t make a whole rainbow of colors, thus mine are only tye dye. After I had my colors ready via some help from Partycake (my daughter) we poured them layer by swirly layer into a muffin cup and baked them up. Once done and cooled we added some lemon frosting with Partycake’s favorite – star sprinkles!

Now, I like frosting. I do. Sometimes, though, it’s just a little too sweet for me. One bite with a dollop of frosting topped with sprinkles is tasty, but I can’t eat a whole piece covered in frosting.  Really, I think this holds true to just about everything that is sweet. For example: I was recently on a flight home from Orlando and looking out the window during take – off I could see the fireworks that were coming up over the Magic Kingdom. We were too far away to see the castle, but we could see these fireworks so seeming silent and so seemingly small and they were just so darn pretty. It was a sweet moment because;

A. I don’t like to fly.

B. I knew I had a lot of work to do when I got home.

C. Well, a lot of things in the near future were uncertain.

Yet, these fireworks caught me and made me feel so appreciative to be sitting where I was on that plane, at that moment.  Now, if I had that experience every single night, I’d probably get over it really fast and focus more on all the bumps and sounds of take off. The sweet moment would quickly fade into a moment wherein my stomach is churning and I’ve worn the fabric off the armrest from gripping it so tight. What I’m getting at is that we should take the cake. Frosting is sweet and looks pretty and definitely should be appreciated. However, the cake can be just as satisfying. My cake is being with my family every night going through our loose routine of dinner, play time, and baths. Cake is sweet in it’s own right. It’s much more satisfying at the end of a meal than the frosting by itself.

After the fireworks had faded from sight, I turned and looked at my daughter’s face and the way she was holding her daddy’s hand. It was a beautiful piece of cake.