Sunday, January 20, 2013

caramel caramel yumyum


I made my very own caramel sauce for the first time ever! And I was especially happy that it worked out on my first try (very unexpected). I used the tutorial at Bakers Royale, which was SO helpful. It has step-by-step carmeling instructions and even a color chart so you know exactly when the caramel is ready. I ended up having to use a bit more cream than the recipe calls for (high altitude funkiness rears its ugly head again?), and I also added several grinds of sea salt to evolve caramel into its hipper, more exciting form: salted caramel. 

I plan to use this delicious magic sugarsauce for my friend's birthday on Tuesday, in a recipe that is currently developing in my head but will most likely be based in a molten chocolate cake. Stay tuned.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Apologies and Strawberry Cake


Hello, all! Yes, it's been a super long time. I'm sorry, ok? Seriously.
So what have I been doing? Going to school mostly, baking and cooking, hanging out with my cat, you know, the usual stuff.

I wanted to share with you all an incredible cake that I made for my little sister's birthday (which was November 2. I get it! It's been a long time!). It's a strawberry cake, because that's her favorite. I searched the internet for a while trying to find the perfect strawberry cake recipe, and ended up choosing this one, by Heather Baird of SprinkleBakes (I love SprinkleBakes)!

I modified it a bit, of course. The recipe calls for strawberry puree, but I just kind of made my own by putting strawberry preserves in the ol' food processor, and adding water a teaspoon at a time until it reached the consistency that I wanted. Since I bake at high altitude where everything is bone dry and crazy it's a little hard for me to suggest modified liquid amounts with any more clarity than just "until you reach a good consistency" or "you'll know when it's the right amount." I fear this is also a habit I've inherited from reading the handwritten Swedish and Finnish recipes translated by my grandmother that say things like "add an appropriate amount of this" or "add as much of this as you think is right" or "keep adding this until it feels like enough." I also left the white chocolate shavings out of the frosting because I really wanted to keep the cake a bit sour, not too sweet. That also explains why I chose this particular cake, the cream cheese frosting, duh!

So Happy Birthday, Mia (several months ago)!