Merrily Mending

Baking Day

In honor of my 4th of July Pushing Daisies marathon, I baked Ned's Georgia Peach Cobbler early this morning. I also had too many slightly overripe peaches. It is lovely and rich and sort of jam-like. I did not try it warm, but suspect it would have been even better warm with ice cream. It was quick and easy.

While it was in the oven I started Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls. I failed to read quite how many it made, so shortly will have five pans of cinnamon rolls in the oven. They look quite yummy though. I do think I'll half the recipe next time, as that would be more than enough for a couple of days at my house.

Well Baked

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

I haven't pulled photos yet for this, but I used a standard shortbread crust with a Victoria sponge. The jam for my Bakewell tart was a locally canned strawberry rhubarb. The whole thing was quite tasty. Photos forthcoming soon!

Daring Baker's Challenge for May

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.


I didn't have apples in the house, but had hit the deadline and wanted to participate. The strudel dough was made according to the recipe, with no changes, however, i only managed a 27x27 inch square. More time would have helped. I filled it with a mixture of strawberries and warmed nutella, rolled and baked.

Ysolde's Coraline is finally finished

According to my ravelry account, I started this on 8/31/08. Eight months??? I did knit two other sweaters and a slew of random small items during that time, but still. This is not impressive productivity, especially since it sat nearly done for two to three of those months. I decided to push through and finish the knitting last night and the last bits of assembly and blocking today. Better photos to come that do not involve my dirty kitchen floor and blocking sweater.

A Long List

Things to do, learn and accomplish while single:
Actually learn to take a decent photo
Hike and build up enough endurance to go on at least a 3 to 4 hour hike
Knit a shawl
Sew well fitting clothes for myself
Draft a pattern
Keep a garden alive
Make a quilted table runner
Sew aprons
Gain new clients and actually publish
Make macaroons
Learn to decorate a cupcake well
Paint the inside of the house
Make curtains
Find that forgotten love for cooking
Make puff pastry
Take a pottery class
Visit Lisa
Catch up on all the books and movies I've missed
Finish Girasole
Network the damn computers already!
Hang some freaking shelves to store random cute things
Actually go thrifting and antiquing
Improve photoshop skills
Clean out the shed and hang drywall to create a usable & pleasant workspace
Make that potato and sage pizza from years ago again...Field of Greens
Make tamales
Start working on handmade holiday ornament
Learn to knit continental
Finish Coraline

A new beginning

So, one breakup down a week ago today. I have my time back to myself and I'm working very hard at believing that is a good thing.

Made this week: the New York Times chocolate chip cookie recipe (the dough is still   chilling), a simple Kraft foods peanut butter chocolate cake dough cookie, and the Brioche from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

I made Katie a new schoolbag and have the top of a king size duvet cover pieced for myself. I'll back it once the down comforter arrives. I haven't been knitting. I need to change that.

The kids and I hiked at Busiek this morning. It was beautiful, still only starting to come back to life with the beginnings of spring.

A chocolate dare

I was not in any mood to bake tonight. I'm hormonal and crabby and mopey. Moreover, S & I are both still battling a touch of a stomach bug, so I don't know how much of this will get eaten. That said, the cake went together beautifully and easily.

Ice cream isn't an oddity at our house, so I tweaked the provided recipe to match our usual tastes. Unfortunately, that does mean our ice cream comes with a salmonella risk. I mixed two eggs into the mixture before tossing it into the ice cream maker.

The cake was exactly per the recipe. I used what I had on hand...a bag of semisweet ghirardelli, a large bar of dove milk and a handful of dark chocolate chips (hershey's special maybe?).  I'm coming back to finish this, but will have to pull pictures here in a bit. This cake is definitely a keeper and will be made again and again at our house.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Gluten free homemade oreos

I'm battling a low grade crummy bug. I can't get coffee down so have a miserable headache. That said, I did bake gluten free oreos last night. On the upside, they taste wonderful, even to me and I'm not a fan of gf baking really. They did not, however, turn out pretty. I think parchment would have helped, as well as much smaller dough scoops. We'll be doing these again, as the whole household enjoyed them. I also think that the cookies would work well with some of the recipes in Hello Cupcake that call for oreos for decoration.

Red Velvet

Lucien's 6th birthday request was red velvet cake. I made the gluten free cake from http://www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/archives/gluten-free-red-velvet-cake/ and used commercial Duncan Hines white chocolate almond frosting. It met the gluten and dairy free criteria and it was good. I'm horribly picky about the texture of gluten free baked goods and this was moist, had a good crumb and held together in the slice.
I also made a batch of Paula Deen's red velvet cupcakes for the rest of us.

Cake Buffet Cakes

So, we'll likely need in the range of a dozen cakes for the wedding buffet. I'll be baking them, with my maid of honor helping.

One, at least, must be gluten and dairy free, and likely not have strawberry or citrus. I expect to use the gluten free red velvet cake I've made successfully. I'm also planning standard red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing. I don't love them, but they'll look pretty. I'm going to try the cherry limeade cupcakes as well. They seem so very 50's.

I think our cutting cake--likely a tiny 6" layer cake--will be a tahitian vanilla bean. I've never made marshmallow fondant...I actively dislike standard fondant, so I'm curious. I assume we'll do a bigger vanilla bean as well.

There's a tiny brownie bite recipe in Greenspan's Baking Book...those are a must have.

S is banana obsessed, so I think that maybe a banana caramel cake. There's one here that might be good.

We'll have to have at least one chocolate and maybe a lemon cake?