I'll gain more than a pound from this cake..

Here goes a super late Happy Birthday shout to my big bad dad. Yup so pop's is another year older, a little bit crankier and thanks to the cake I made him, I'm a little bit fatter..lol ok, so he's not a little bit crankier - thank goodness!! but I swear I couldn't help but be a little bit fatter, after indulging in all those sinfully delicious calories.. It doesn't matter how many different types of cakes I bake, no matter what flavors or fancy new recipes I find, my dad always says.."why can't you just bake something normal, like a pound cake?" Normal?? Yup, I guess growing up a southern boy, pound cake was normal..Pound cake is definitely a traditional dessert in the south, a culinary staple even. But yanno what? Pound cakes aren't the easiest thing to make. Yes the recipes are pretty straight-forward, there aren't alot of complicated steps or special ingredients, but the outcome is what's tricky. It's not uncommon for a pound cake to sort of colapse in the middle, resulting in what my grandfather always called a "sad streak", ironically in our family, those sad streaks were usually our favorite part of the cake. It certainly doesn't ruin the taste of the cake, it just doesn't look very pretty. Luckily there were no sad streaks to be found in my big bad dad's birthday pound cake. For me, a pound cake should be moist with a dense crumb. This cake came close, but wasn't quite as dense as I think a pound cake should be. The batter was pretty thick, so I actually expected the cake to be dry, but much to my surprise it wasn't. Would I make this cake again?? Definitely! I'm still on the look out for a lemon pound cake with lemon glaze like my grandma used to make. So if anyone has a recipe you recommend let me know! The Bag Lady's Favorite Chocolate Pound Cake 3 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 5 tablespoons cocoa 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened 1/2 cup vegetable shortening 3 cups sugar 5 eggs 1 cup buttermilk 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract 1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan. 2. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa and set aside. 3. Using an electric mixer, cream together butter, shortening, and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Add flour and buttermilk alternately to butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla and mix well. 4. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 1 3/4 hours, or until cake is done. Remove from oven and allow cake to cool in pan for 10 minutes. Invert onto cake plate and serve. Chocolate Ganache 4 oz bittersweet chocolate 4 oz semisweet chocolate 1 cup heavy cream 2 tsp vanilla extract 1. Break chocolate into small pieces and put in a medium sized bowl, set aside. 2. In small saucepan, heat heavy cream over medium-high heat, bringing just to a boil. 3. Remove cream from heat, and pour over chocolate. Allow to sit until chocolate has melted completely. 4. Add vanilla extract and stir using a whisk until completely combined. Pour over cake.

Par-Tee Time

I present to you my latest creation!! I worked long & hard to come up with what I felt was just the PERFECT idea for this cake. First let me set the scenario for you... My neighbor knows about my interest & efforts to start my own homebased bakery as she is often my guinea pig when I make breakfast muffins. Well, she was hosting a golf tournament over the weekend & asked if I would do a cake because one of the players was celebrating his 60th birthday - as you can see. So of course I jumped at the chance, as it's a great opportunity to get my name out to other people & a chance to pad my portofolio just a little bit more..lol Of course it doesn't hurt that it gave me a pretty good bit of decorating practice right? After much work & standing over the cake for probably a good hour just staring, trying to decide if it was actually done or not..I was beaming from ear to ear with pride. As I always am when trying out a new recipe, which carelessly this was I was a bit nervous that maybe it didn't turn out right or that it just wouldn't suit the taste of my customer. Unfortunately this time I had reason to be nervous - come to find out the cake was very DRY!! I was crushed..absolutely crushed. I definitely should have tried the recipe before hand..but I made a cupcake out of the batter & sampled it. The flavor was pretty good, but yes it was a bit dry..but I figured once I iced the cake it would be fine. I finished the cake up about 24 hours before the party, so I figured it would be fine..shouldn't dry out too much before then right?? Well I guess with this cake that wasn't the case..Either that or maybe the cake dried out more than the cupcake. Regardless I'm terribly disappointed & will NEVER use the Barefoot Contessa recipe she featured on her show for the "birthday cake with pink frosting". The recipe was called exactly that..well something close. The cake was really cute when she made it on the show & normally I really like her recipes so I felt pretty confident the cake would be atleast satisfactory, but in this case I was wrong. Maybe she just doesn't do good birthday cakes? lol Anyway I'm pretty bummed about that. I don't expect all my recipes to be great..you just have to test & toss sometimes..lol But the fact that I made something for someone else..especially because they were using it for a party & they were going to pay me for it..that makes it bother me even more. Bleh..maybe I'll be able to write a much more redeeming blog SOON!! lol