Boston Creme Pie - Cake Wreck

I've been eying this recipe for a few months now. The picture in the book looks absolutely mouthwatering, and while my treats never seem to turn out pretty enough, I thought I could at least come close on this one.

Baking in my new kitchen is now such a treat for me. I have plenty of counter space to work on and cabinets to store the ridiculous amounts of supplies I accumulate. My oven even works how it's supposed to and doesn't burn the edge of everything to a crisp while leaving the center completely raw. With all of these kitchen advantages, I still managed to completely ruin this recipe.

Instead of waiting for the creme patissiere to cool completely, I assembled the finished product to transport it to my parents' for dinner. I carefully braced the plate in a cake carrier, which I also braced in the trunk (to compensate for my erratic driving). When I got there, the plate and the carrier hadn't moved - but the cake slid off the top and all of the filling had oozed out. Shocking, right?

We ended up just standing around the cake wreck and eating it. The flavors were great, but this recipe is obviously not meant to travel! I'll share the recipe next time I actually manage to make a proper Boston Creme Pie.

Blueberry Boy Bait - A Cake Wreck

Thinking I was being cute and clever, I wanted to whip up dessert for a date. He was making dinner, and I was going to bring the baked goods. All was going according to plan: the batter was poured into the pan, pan safely in the oven, and me cleaning up the kitchen. I sat down to finish up watching American Idol, when my mom noticed the smell of scorching sugar wafting in from the kitchen. I was horrified to find that I had accidentally bumped the oven up to 500 degrees while I was cleaning, a stark difference from the 325 degrees it is supposed to bake at.

Once I scraped/cut off all the burnt parts, it tasted like normal, but I'm not going to post the recipe until I can successfully make these again.

Love Stinks.

Valentine's Day is approaching so I decided to be cutesy and make some Red Velvet Whoopie Pies. Who wouldn't like a delightfully red heart-shaped treat? Working my way through the simple recipe I sampled the red batter that I managed to splatter all over including my face, the counter tops, my white shirt, and on the fridge (i'm not quite sure how it made its way over there?). I wasn't thrilled with the taste but I hoped it would improve after baking. Eh... not so much. Although the idea is absolutely adorable these whoopie pies were a sad disappointment. My night of baking left me with nothing but red hands and a garbage full of broken hearts.

One last thing, I'd like to say a huge THANK YOU to Nick our wonderful cousin; thanks to him we are now www.cookieconfessions.com !!

How NOT to Be a Domestic Goddess

Every time I bake, it makes me feel differently. Sometimes I bake when I’m angry, and it helps to calm me down. Sometimes I bake when I have a special occasion coming up, and I feel a sense of accomplishment when I’m finished. There are those select times, however, that baking leaves me with a sense of utter frustration and failure – much like what I experienced last week.

This was a cake wreck by all accounts. I carefully read the recipe (or so I thought) before heading to the store to pick up the ingredients I was lacking. I was attempting to make Night and Day Cupcakes from what is quickly becoming my favorite cookbook, “How to Be a Domestic Goddess.” It seemed simple enough: a chocolate cupcake with cream cheese-ish frosting. Well, that’s where I was wrong. Not only did I manage to leave out an ingredient altogether (I’m blaming this on my sous chef, who clearly wasn’t paying attention), but I also didn’t read the recipe carefully enough. It called for SELF-RISING cake flour, and I just had the all-purpose variety on hand. In order to counteract the lack of leavener, I added about a teaspoon of baking powder. There wasn’t even enough batter to pour into a whole cupcake sheet.

When I took them out of the oven, the cupcakes had risen only slightly, and that’s when I also realized that we had left out the vanilla. I tried to cover up my mistake by making some delicious frosting, but it was too late; the cupcakes were already a disaster. I find myself to be a complete failure after this debacle, but I’m going to put that behind me and bake something even better this week (because quite frankly, I can only go up from here)! No pictures this time around - they just weren't worth it.

Night and Day Cupcakes

Courtesy of Nigella Lawson - How to Be a Domestic Goddess

Cupcakes:

2 tablespoons cocoa powder (scant)0

2 tablespoons boiling water

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup dark brown sugar (scant)

3/4 cup self-rising cake flour

2 large eggs

1/2 cup very soft unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon milk

12-cup muffin pan with paper baking cups

Frosting:

1 1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

4 ounces cream cheese

Juice of ½ lime or tablespoon of lemon juice

Baking the cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix the cocoa to a paste with the boiling water and set aside while you make the cupcake mixture.

This couldn’t be easier (that’s a little encouragement from Nigella, not me): Just put the sugars, flour, eggs, butter and vanilla in a food processor and blitz to combine smoothly. Scrape the mixture from the sides and then pulse while you add the cocoa past and milk down the funnel. You should have a batter with a soft dropping consistency. If not, add a little more milk.

Dollop into the paper baking cups in the pan (about 1/2 to 3/4 full) and bake for 20 minutes, until an inserted cake tester comes out clean. Leave in the pan for five minutes, then remove, in the paper baking cups to a wire rack.

Making the frosting:

When the cupcakes are cool, make the frosting by beating together the sifted confectioners’ sugar and cream cheese until soft. Add lime or lemon juice to taste and then spread roughly over the waiting cupcakes. Stud each one with a chocolate-coated coffee bean or shave over some bittersweet chocolate.

Georgia Peach Tart... a beautiful disaster

I spent this past weekend in Atlanta with Nikki and we decided we would bake something together to post. We emailed ideas like Boston cream pie, a thirteen layer cake or possibly an apple pie. I arrived Friday morning and we had breakfast at a restaurant called The Flying Biscuit where we ate the BEST homemade southern biscuits, grits and pancakes with peach compote. The peach pancakes were amazing and gave us the idea to make something using the delicious Georgia peach.

After breakfast we ventured to a store called Cake Art which turned out to be a mecca for baking and decorating supplies. It was overwhelmingly wonderful, Nikki and I perused every aisle and bought things we needed (tart pans and cookie cutters) and things we definitely didn't need (rolled fondant).

With our newly purchased tart pans we decided to make a Peach tart. To make a long story short... we bought peaches, peeled and sliced them, made the tart, baked the tart and... woops it came out horrible. It was not set in the middle, burnt to a crisp on the outside and the peaches turned a very strange purple color. Sadly our joint baking effort was a disaster! Although, I think in its early stages it looked pretty good..

Oh well. You can't win them all.

Nikki- please upload a picture of the final disaster if you have it!