Food Librarian

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Good intentions don't quite mix with a sick two-year old.

Let me back up. My cutest-can-be nephew had the stomach flu...and I hung out with him on Friday night. Guess what happened to Auntie Food Librarian on Saturday night? Ugh.

But what happened in-between?!?!

Well, I volunteered at KCRW's pledge drive and then came home to finish a white cake with butter frosting for my friend Racheal. It was her birthday recently and I promised her a baked good.

I used the Classic White Layer Cake with Butter Frosting and Raspberry-Almond Frosting (sans the Almond) recipe from Baking Illustrated (page 352). Draft #1 (you know there will be Draft #2, don't you?!) followed the recipe exactly. It had 2 teaspoons of almond extract and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. When it went into the oven, it smelled like almond extract. All Almond. All the time.

It came out with a very nice crumb! I loved it......until I tasted it. The almond extract was so overpowering that it left a weird aftertaste in my mouth. I used a new bottle of McCormick's pure almond extract (not the imitation stuff)...so I don't know what went wrong.

Draft #2: Left out the almond extract and put in two teaspooons of vanilla instead. Yum.

Filled the center with seedless raspberry jam. Next time I'll place a buffer of frosting around the edges so the jam doesn't bleed out.

Decorated the cake with Butter Frosting. I tried to crumb coat it and then put a thin layer on top. I should have made more frosting...but it turned out okay. I don't know how to decorate so I turned to a old-time favorite...the dot.

After I dropped off the cake and a batch of peanut butter brownies at Racheal's house, I returned home and promptly got sick. I called Racheal and asked her to toss everything...I didn't want to get them sick!

However, I find out today that they didn't!!! Luckily, there are okay.

P.S. Sorry the cake photos are a bit yellow. I had to lighten them with photoshop because they were too dark...but they didn't capture how white colored the frosting was...