carrot cake

Last but not least of the muffin method was carrot cake.  I was eager to try this because it is a cake that I don't make very often but I have a recipe that I created of my own.  It is my brother's favorite cake and I made it for his birthday last year.  At that time I didn't have any recipe and after much research and a lot of ones that I didn't like I mish-matched recipes until I came up with what I liked.  I have had many compliments on it and I was curious to see how the recipe in the book compared.  It also worked great as a lure to bring my brother out to my house for the computer repairs that I needed :)

It was a great tip to add the shredded carrots to the dry ingredients before mixing them with the wet because it helps keep the carrots evenly mixed throughout the finished cake. 

While I did like the texture of this cake, I still feel the one I came up with is a bit better.  I use more spice (nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon vs. just cinnamon) and I use crushed pineapple as well as shredded carrots.  But like most cakes, I believe the frosting also makes or breaks it.  I don't use a standard cream cheese - I use one that blends mascarpone and whipping cream with the cream cheese and it is heavenly!

Whew! I'm finally able to post!

It is amazing how connected to a computer my life is!  Everything came to a screeching halt when my fan went out and I couldn't keep my computer on.  I ordered the parts and then had to have the entire laptop disassembled (and I mean every part of it) in order to replace it.  Thank God for my brother and YouTube in order to know how to do it all. 

And of course it all happened right before my youngest daughter's high school graduation!  After a whirlwind of activity and borrowing of computers, I'm finally feeling like I'm getting back on track.  Through it all I did keep baking, though.  I didn't want to get behind in following my plan to get through Alton Brown's book and I'm relieved to finally get the pictures up!

Banana bread was the next thing on the list and it seems like I can never get bananas to last around my house long enough to brown up for baking. Everyone loves them so much they get eaten as fast as I can buy them.  I had to hide a few in a brown paper bag in order to let them brown up and stay around a while. 

The results were well worth it! 

For Mother's Day at Ronald McDonald House

Is a chocolate chip cookie just a cookie?

According to "I'm just here for the food" chocolate chip cookies fall under the muffin method.  I don't think there has been a more anticipated week of baking in my kitchen from my family.  It is actually the humble chocolate chip cookie that began my baking journey.  Well, perhaps I should say it is my husband Craig's addiction to the chocolate chip cookie that made it all begin!  Several years ago I began having joint trouble and it continued to get worse until the fateful day that I could no longer stir the dough by hand.  I had made mention several times that a Kitchen Aid mixer would be a great help to me and as soon as the prospect of a life without those chocolate morsels came to be - a mixer showed up for me.  The story of why any kitchen appliance is not a great gift - even when it is wanted - can wait for another day :)

The Muffin Method in action

I did it!  I made real muffins!  Not cupcakes - but muffins; and I understand what the difference is!  I studied all the reasons that make all the ingredients do what they do in a recipe and then dived on in to the first baking section on "The Muffin Method".  It is so satisfying to "get it" and then see it take shape in reality.  In fact I was so enamoured by it all that I ended up making three different varieties just to see if it would really turn out right every time, and it did! 

The 2 things that I learned outside of the ingredients and the wet/dry method

Coconut Flour and Prom Week

Recently I was asked if I had ever worked with coconut flour.  I hadn't, but knowing that it is something I wanted to learn I decided to go for it this week.  I had a get together where the lady that asked me was going to attend so I thought it would be a good thing to make some cookies to take along.  After doing some research and stopping at several places looking for coconut flour - I live among the poor folks without a Whole Foods store nearby, I finally came up with trying Coconut Almond cookies.  It also happened to be prom week for my daughter.  It was her last one and

The student is ready - Let's do this!

I practically jumped up and down like a 6 year old at Christmas when I saw the delivery driver arrive at my house.  I knew he was bringing me the next step in my baking journey.  I mentioned when I started baking on a weekly basis that one of my goals was to go through a cookbook "Julie & Julia" style.  But the more I went through my recipe box and made a list of things I wanted to bake, the more I realized that I want to know why everything is actually in the recipes.  I've found several from when I was young and copying out of my mom's box that I didn't write out correctly and I don't know how to fix it.  If I know the technical aspects of baking, then I can make up my own, I can fix others, I can give advice when friends ask me (because they do and I can't always help them) and basically I can be free to really create.  I even went so far as to check in with the only pastry "school" in my area which is at the community college.  I found out they don't even teach the why - they only teach the students to follow a recipe.  Sure, they make almost anything you would find in a bakery or on a restaurant menu, but they don't know why either.  They can't whip up something from scratch because they don't know the formula, or ratio, or whatever it is that makes the great bakers great.  I want to know that.  So I did what I normally do - and have done with pretty much every craft I've ever wanted to learn - I started looking at the books that could teach me.  I found many and I'm sure that I will go through several of them, but it was Alton Brown that drew me in.  I am a geek at heart and no Star Trek or Star Wars reference slips unnoticed by any member of my family, so he seems to fit my needs.  I have already started reading it and chuckled at myself for getting so immersed in the "molecular pantry" that I couldn't put it down :)  This is no "cookbook" for sure.  It is a textbook.  I hope to do his teaching proud as I learn the techniques to all the different mixing methods and begin to be able to put my own spin on the desserts I want to make. 

I also mentioned that as a whole I am an advocate of healthy eating.  I've seen the results first hand of how helpful ridding our bodies of all the chemicals the big manufacturers put into foods can be.  I've watched my youngest daughter become "cured" of ADHD and have the ability to focus and concentrate so much better in class that she is an honor student now, despite the fact that she is also dyslexic.  I hope that by learning to know why recipes are made the way they are I can find ways to make the desserts I love just as tasty but in a much healthier way.  But that is still down the road a ways.  For now - it is into the classroom so to speak!