The Science of Cake

Tags

cupcake, food

…here, in the Juliaverse… energy was never lost, merely converted from one form to another. Here, I took butter and cream and meat and eggs and I made delicious sustenance.
– Julie Powell, Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen

Cake (and the obsession with cake), has been around long before Betty Crocker became a household name and Super Moist cake mixes were distributed in brown cardboard boxes.

In his article, the science of cake, Dr. Andy, Connelly, a cookery writer and researcher in glass science at the University of Sheffield, explains just how butter, cream and eggs become the pillowy dessert we all love at birthday parties, tea parties…or just forget the party. I mean…it’s cake! And it pairs perfectly with a hot cup of tea!

Cake is for life…not just birthdays!

Betty Crocker mixes are easy…mix and bake,. But I believe for a really rich, moist cake, cakes from scratch is best! There are a number of important principles at work.

The texture of cake comes from gas bubbles added in by creaming or mixing fat and sugar. Air is carried on the rough surface of sugar crystals. The smaller the crystals, the more air. As the fat coats the bubbles, it creates an airy foam. Sugar also helps the crust to colour at a lower temperature. And it keeps the cake moist and yummy for days.

Fat also coats the starch and protein of flour, which reduces gluten, to make a short crumb, not an elastic bread. Sugar also helps tenderize flour protein. Factory cake mixes are the result of scientific experimentation to get the same results. Dr. Connelly used the adjective “plastic” and “globules”. Doesn’t that make make Betty more attractive?

With enough butter, anything tastes good. – Julia Child

Eggs are beaten eggs to maintain the fat/sugar foam. As the cake bakes, the eggs forms a protective barrier around the bubbles to protect the delicate texture from collapse.

Thanks goodness for baking powder. Baking powder is a dried acid and an alkali blend which reacts with each other when water (or heat) is added. It produces carbon dioxide, which creates air bubbles. Before raising agents like baking powder came along, eggs were beaten for a long time to lighten the “biscuit”. What a work-out!

This makes it easier too! Credit my Dad for this amazing yard sale find!

Flour builds the structure by stiffening the egg foam and forming gluten, which in turn, supports the weight of the fat and sugar. It’s important to gently fold in the flour to avoid breaking the bubbles and developing the gluten too much. No one wants to eat a cake brick.

Baking itself involves three stages: expanding, setting and browning. Gases in the bubbles expand and stretch the gluten. The leavening agents release carbon dioxide, further swelling the batter. The cake’s shape sets around 80C into the porous texture of cake. And finally, it develops a rich brown colour and slightly crisp crust. (Is your mouth watering too?)

The cake is ready when it starts to pull away from the sides and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Cool it! Ice it! Perfection! (someone else created these delicacies)!

A party without a cake is just a meeting. – Julia Child

Happy Monday!

Baking with English Breakfast Tea

Tags

birthday, chocolate, cupcake, food, humour, tea

Last Monday I celebrated my birthday, and what better way than to bake a cake, with tea!!

There are tons of recipes on the internet that use tea, loose leaf or steeped, as an ingredient. But since chocolate is a family favourite, I picked a recipe from lifeisbetterwithtea.com. This cake called for 1 cup of strong steeped English Breakfast tea, which if you tuned in last week, you will recall that Assam tea is predominant in the blend of tea leaves, so it’s bold. I used 2 tea bags in my 1 cup of boiling water, and it was decadently dark!

This cake was simple to make and absolutely delish! I can’t say that using tea instead of water, milk, or cream had any influence on its texture or flavour, but it was certainly moist and very chocolatey…which is everything you want in a chocolate cake.  It didn’t last long!

My decorations were severely lacking, and candles, non-existent…but there would have been too many of them even if I had remembered to purchase some. Besides, what good is it to buy candles when the cost of the candles is more than the cake?

Baking with tea may be little more than a novelty, but who cares! If it means combining two great loves, I’m all for it!

Let’s face it, a good creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people.
– Audrey Hepburn

Here’s the link to the recipe! |Tried any great recipes lately – please dish below.

Bon appetit!

Thank you, Enablers!

Tags

birthday, cupcake, family, humour, sweets

“An enabler is a person who by their actions make it easier for an addict to continue their self-destructive behavior by criticizing or rescuing.” – Darlene Albury

Last week, many of my friends and family member were “enablers”…they enabled me to sample and savour many different types of birthday cake. And they were all good!

On Tuesday, my friend delivered a red velvet “tear-away” cake (with fluffy white icing) to one of my bosses, who stored it in the other boss’ office until they could “surprise me”. I shared the bounty.

On Tuesday night, I baked Betty Crocker Reese® cupcakes to celebrate my birthday. Ask my Dad – in his family, chocolate cake is a synonymous with “party”! They were really time-consuming, bur worth consuming!

On Thursday night, Hubby and I went on an impromptu “girls’ night” and I smacked down a supple slice of white chocolate triple-berry cake. I didn’t share…

My parents visited this weekend and we had a family orgy. They brought Henry (O Henry!) in cake-form. Alas! I fear that while I love my husband, my steamy affair with Henry (O Henry) is destined to continue!

And finally, on Sunday afternoon, Hubby brought home a decadent chocolate mousse cake, which resulted in a number of suggestive sounds emanating from my frosting-covered lips.

Add that up! That’s 6 cakes in 5 days.

Thank you to my family and friends for enabling me to enjoy my birthday with such memorable treats!

This Monday morning, I’m taking my car to the mechanic to get the snow tires removed, and I’m walking home…in the hopes of enabling my body to fit into my new jeans by the weekend!

Let’s call it rehab.

Happy Star Wars Day!

A Litany of Cake

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birds, birthday, cupcake, family, food, humour, sweets

Home made birthday cakes…and nearly every one a disaster! This year was no exception.

When Little Guy was one, his best friend was a little blue beanie baby named Blueberry! He slept with it every night, and when Little Guy had surgery at 8 months, BlueBerry went everywhere with him in the hospital! So I made a round cake with cupcake ears and a candy face, to look like Blueberry’s face. It looked home made!

For Little Guy’s second birthday, I rented a fire truck cake pan, because Little Guy wanted a fire truck like Papa’s. The cake stuck to the shaped pan, and I had to “glue” it together with icing…The fire truck was comprised of a million little stars…and the truck was kind of…pink. Do you have any idea how hard it is to make red icing?

Hubby requested that I buy an ice cream cake for Little Guy’s third birthday (probably so he wouldn’t have to put up with my tears…) But I was back to making cakes for birthday #4 – a square cake with a hand-drawn (in icing) yellow dump truck with peppermint patty wheels and a chocolate rosebud driver. My art skills need work…a lot of work, but Little Guy was happy.

Birthday #5 – back to the rented shaped cakes…Lightning McQueen…pink…

Birthday #6 – I skipped the shaped pan and made a regular rectangle cake. How can I mess that up? The cake stuck to the pan – I don’t know why – and I had to bake a second cake (while eating the first one. I was depressed….) Little Guy wanted a Hot Wheels car…so I once again put my drawing skills to the test! What do you think?

So this year, I decided to keep it simple…I baked another rectangle (I needed to be sure this cake was nut-free so I had to bake it). Now before you ask me what went wrong…I will tell you. I never noticed before that our stove isn’t level…

…so the Angry Birds distracted the kids and they never noticed.

It’s been a litany (a veritable tedious recital or repetitive series) of cake disasters, and I don’t have high hopes for #8!

Secret Pal

Tags

cupcake, faith, family, friends, sweets

I will be happy if I don’t see another cupcake for a few weeks! Despite the heat, I baked 5 dozen rainbow chip cupcakes Saturday night.  Sunday morning, I had the daunting task of transporting all 5 dozen cupcakes to the church, taking care that the sticky tops didn’t stick to the top of the assorted containers and plastic wraps. But it was worth it!

Yesterday was the Secret Pal lunch at church – the great “reveal”! It’s a wonderful program where members of the senior group are paired with the Sunday School kids in Junior Kindergarten to Grade 3. The “secret pals” (the seniors) pray for their kid, as well as share little cards and gifts with them through the school year…but the kids have no idea who their secret pal is until the luncheon in June.

The Sunday School teachers set up tables with beautiful decorations and bright napkins. Each kid decorated a glass vase and filled them with daisies – a gift for their pal. Most parents were asked something to contribute to the lunch – pickles, cheese, juice, veggies & dip, fruit trays, and sandwiches – egg salad, chicken salad, cream cheese and salmon, ham & cheese spinach wraps – so good! In my case, 5 dozen cupcakes!

Unfortunately Little Guy’s secret pal was sick, but his wife (who was the secret pal to someone else) was able to pass on his regrets, and we will get a picture of the two of them another day. One of the Dad’s helped us with the games we played before the big finale – decorate your own cupcakes!

The icing was runny so Little Guy came up with an inventive way to eat his cupcake and keep his fingers from getting sticky – he mushed his face into his cupcake and ate without his hands. You can just imagine how well his face fared. I had to wash icing out of his eyebrows! I made a pig cupcake like the green pigs in the Angry Birds game. So much for my creativity yesterday!

Little Guy was a big help in the kitchen before his class with preparing some of the food: he counted as I set up the trays of cupcakes, he helped distribute the candies (smarties, jelly beans, gummies and licorice whips) in the bowls, and he decorated a sample cupcake to display. He was also a great help after lunch, picking up dishes to take to the kitchen, and playing quietly while I helped wash up the dirty dishes.

On the plus side, I was able to send home most of the leftover cupcakes with other families…I don’t want to see them and I don’t want to eat them! I’ve had enough sugar to last me the rest of the week….famous last words!

Cupcakes

Tags

cupcake, food, frosting, happy, humour, pink, sweets

Fluffy, swirled, sweet creations in a pleated paper cup – both pleasing to the eye and pleasing to the palate. With or without sprinkles, just the thought of a cupcake, any size or flavour, makes me want to close my eyes and lick my lips. I can just picture it in my mind, peeling back the paper like a personal gift, and image biting into it, pink icing frosting my lips…Mmmm…What is it about cupcakes that charm us to nibble and savour, regardless of age, race, gender or size?

Originally I was going to write about my recent cooking disasters: Greek Crock-pot Stew with an overwhelming tomato flavour…or the Chicken-Feta Sauce that looked like baby vomit, and had no taste…but who wants to focus on the ‘yuck’ when one can focus on the ‘yum’?

After Morning Break registration yesterday, I called and picked up a friend to go out for a bite of lunch…on the way, we passed a new cupcake store in town. I didn’t even know we had a new cupcake store in town, and since I very rarely travel down main street, I could have been missing out on its delightful creations for far too long. It was closed…but after lunch and a quick emergency run to a grocery store, we cruised down main street again and the cupcake store’s neon sign said “OPEN”! Hang a right, swing around the block, park, and walk quickly and directly to said store! How could we pass up such an amazing opportunity to indulge? We had, after all, just consumed a relatively nutritious lunch and it was time for dessert.

It is a very small store painted in pink (is there any other colour when you’re selling cupcakes??), but she offered 8 different flavours, each one with a swirled dollop of icing on top! It was hard to choose between Key Lime, Double Chocolate, Black Forest, Lemon Delight, Super Fudge…I finally chose Coconut Crème…and it was divine!

The first commercial cupcake was made in the early 1900’s, and since 2004, cupcake sales have been trending higher every year. Is it that cupcakes are just for us – a little bit of sweetness and colour, and a return to childhood when we were happy and carefree? Is it the size – small enough to eat without overwhelming guilt while still satisfying our craving for something sweet? I may not understand the psychology behind our love for cupcakes, so whatever the flavour (in my new favourite place), I’m just going to indulge from time to time, and savour every bite when I do.

St. Patrick’s Day

Tags

babies, blessing, cupcake

St. Patrick’s Day – a day when everyone says “Kiss me – I’m Irish” – even if they are not! I have Irish in my lineage, but certainly a few generations ago! It irritates Hubby when people call themselves Irish (like me) because he is Irish. He immigrated with his family on a boat, when he was 6, but sadly, he’s lost his Irish brogue. Grr….

As a kid, St. Patrick’s Day was all about wearing green, drinking green milk (food colouring) or consuming Shamrock Shakes from McDonald’s. I can even remember eating chocolate cupcakes filled with green whipped cream (thanks, Mom)! It was always fun to celebrate!

In 2005, I had an exceptional reason to celebrate on St. Patrick’s Day. I was wearing a green velvet jacket and my green plaid kilt. And it was the day I found out I was pregnant with Little Guy. One of these days I’ll tell you about waiting for Little Guy maybe even this week, if I don’t “chicken” out), but just know for now that it was a long wait and an incredible faith journey. I took the pregnancy test at work, assuming it would just be another disappointment, in a long line of monthly disappointments, but when that “plus” sign appeared, I was in shock…then came the jumping, dancing and stifled screaming. Do you know how hard it is to dance in a small bathroom cubicle? That was a Thursday night. Friday morning, I tore over to the Dr’s office to confirm by blood test – and it was positive too! Hubby was home with the sniffles, so Big Guy and I threw our stuff in the car and headed to my parents’ to share the good news! I can’t believe that was 7 years ago! Little Guy is not the result of any “luck of the Irish” (a phrase not coined in Ireland since the Irish, historically, have never had ‘good luck’), but the grace of God.

Always remember to forget
The troubles that passed away.
But never forget to remember
The blessings that come each day.

Strike!

Tags

cupcake, family, food, pink

It finally snowed on Saturday, and it was mild enough to go out and make a snowman. So I dropped everything and out we went! It would have been even better if I could have found my new snow pants. I haven’t owned snow pants in over 20 years, so I bought some in October so I could play in the snow…and so far we’ve had a pretty snowless winter! Now I have a small snowman winking at me from the front lawn…and I will have to hunt for my craft buttons in the Spring once he’s melted!

3 loads of laundry later, and a few other assorted jobs, I started to bake brownies for Saturday night’s event. I did get more flour in the brownies than on me…honest! I’m not sure what happened, but these brownies took more than twice the amount of time to bake, and they rose like cake. I had to crank the oven temperature and check on them every 3 minutes because it was almost time to head out. That meant all the time I’d left to fix my hair and get dressed was spent running up and down the stairs between my bedroom and my kitchen. I lost count of the number of tops I tried on and I’m hoping what I ended up with, worked. My hair, on the other hand, went straight from the shower into a ponytail (I didn’t even take time to brush it). The brownies went straight from the oven on to a couple of trivets in the trunk of the car, the pan wrapped in newspaper. I out icing on at the church. At least one thing is predictable in my life…I have the gift of messing up baking!

I can finally say I did something new…Ok, I have bowled before, but that was many, many years ago. The Weekend Edition Group (20-60ish) at our church organized a bowling event for kids and adults. The kids played 5 pin and the adults played 10 pin. Wives and husbands could not be on the same team. When it wasn’t my turn, I got to hold a 7 month old baby boy with the biggest blue eyes. It’s been hard to relinquish my dream of more kids, so playing with little people really comforts that part of my heart.

Now, while I was not the top scorer (by any stretch of the imagination), I was amazed at how well I did! Ok, I got a lot of gutter balls (I seemed to send it down the middle and it would curve at the last minute…or it would ride the edge along the gutter half way down the lane before falling in) – I’m very talented! I even knocked them all down once…and of course, no one was looking. So I’m jumping up and down, and screaming…until I turned around and realized I was dancing on my own. Oops…that was embarrassing! But best of all, I had a hot pink bowling ball!

After bowling, we all went back to the church to gorge on pizza and lots of dessert. I may be walking funny for a few days, especially heading up and down stairs. By home time Saturday night, my left knee and right wrist were hurting, and my back was aching a little (although I really expected I’d be in traction after the first throw). Yesterday, my worst spot was not one I had anticipated…my rear end! I guess the lunging with the ball stretched my gluteus maximus! I had a really good time, but what a ‘pain in the butt’ – literally!

The Weekend

Tags

cupcake, family

I hope you had a good weekend…I did, but I’m tired out now. My parents made it to our place despite the snow, but we delayed our departure to big guy’s house until Saturday morning. Of course, it was still snowing then too, but we went any way!

My parents were privy to the phone call I got from big guy after school on Friday…he’d had his first car accident. It was more of a fender-bender and no one was injured; he wasn’t even at fault. The most upsetting part was that he realized after the accident that his insurance slip was expired…a few phone calls got that sorted out. He’s covered but the insurance co. forgot to mail a new slip! The next step was to find a reporting collision centre – that was pretty easy! Then the phone call to make sure he had all the documentation he needed, and a terrifying moment when he thought his license plates were expired (keep in mind, this is the day after his birthday when they would have been due). I suggested he check the number on the sticker on the plate…and it’s not due until next year. I’ve made a note on my calendar to check these things with big guy after the summer! My heart got an aerobic workout.

I’ve teased big guy that my grand-hamster lives in a cleaner environment than he does. It took us all a few hours to get his house in order – mostly empty cartons and water bottles, and dirty dishes strewn between the kitchen and living room. We also did 3 loads of laundry (he has at least 3 yet to go!) and made a quick trip to the Dollar Store (I love the dollar store) for some containers to help him stay organized. I won’t mention the bathroom! Little guy and I stayed overnight, so big guy and I got to watch a movie and snack, just like old times!

We visited my brother and his family Saturday afternoon and my nephew took little guy tobogganing. They came back just as the wind whipped up, creating white-out conditions. But that’s not why they came back early…my nephew got a reminder why you should wear a helmet when snow boarding. We didn’t know he had taken his snowboard, especially since he has an injured elbow too. He fell off the snowboard hitting his head, before getting hit on the other side by the snowboard. Ouch! He was very quiet during dinner at Boston Pizza to celebrate big guy’s birthday. I’m going to have to walk for a week…but it was SO good! And I did make sure our waitress knew it was a birthday party, so big guy was serenaded and given a lovely dessert (which he shared)!

On Sunday I met “the girlfriend” – sounds ominous but it was really okay. She’s a lovely girl. I have worn many “hats” in my life, and I’m not sure I’m quite ready for “mother-in-law”, but the decision isn’t up to me. I’ve always told big guy that “forever is a very long time, especially if you’re with the wrong person”, so I’m not going to worry about it…for now! We celebrated the birthday again with cupcakes I had baked and little guy had helped decorate with Smarties, and an assortment of flavoured chocolate chips. Yummy!

I went to bed last night with good intentions for Monday morning…isn’t there an expression, “good intentions make good bed fellows”? That doesn’t sound right… The point is my good intentions went back to bed with me after I took little guy to school. It’s almost time to get him from school, and my biggest accomplishments today are getting dressed and getting him to school in the first place. I will have to aim much higher tomorrow! Happy Monday!