Hello ladies and gents! Homeboys and homegirls! Mostly just the underdogs and the outcasts though because those are my peeps. I am trying to revive this blog because I recently realized how much I enjoyed this side project. I have always been an avid reader which lead to a life long love of stories. Somehow (I'm sure there are some studies out there that prove it.) I was able to improve my writing and storytelling through this habit. I'm out of practice so I'm trying to get my reps up thus this post. 

Despite not writing about my food adventures, I have been cooking this entire extended break. There's been a lot of changes in my life so I need to adjust my practice. I don't bake as much but I do love a dinner party. Here's some of the food gatherings you missed knowing about because I didn't share in real time.

Mother's Day family brunch:

Another year... another birthday for my gramps. This year he turned the big 90!!! Almost a century old. My PaPa started from the bottom and is now livin' on top. It amazes me to think he's seen so many changes, from indoor plumbing to Skype! It is because of him I have the Lotto app on my phone! He might not like being on the computer (what he said about using Skype) but he does love it's convenience. Initially he was adamant about not having a party. But, when you turn 90 decades young people gonna turn up and do it big. In the end it was just family but, my family is BIG...the final headcount was 57 people!

As usual I was in charge of baking the cake. I started looking up recipes and decided to do a tea flavored cake. My gramps loves a cuppa tea- specifically Black tea with citrus. So I did some research (thanks Google) and found out the BEST way to infuse tea flavor is to steep it into the butter. But, if you use a recipe with milk you can also steep the tea in milk. BUT, the catch is to make it concentrated. So double up on those tea bags buddy! As the plan for this non-party changed and more people from both sides of the Mason Dixie line RSVPed we figure one double decker 9 inch cake couldn't cut it. So I put that cake batter into muffin tins and made cupcakes instead. Then I called Sam's an order a full sheet cake.

I also made my two favorite non-alcoholic summertime drinks: vanilla lemonade and ginger limeade. A simple syrup is this crafty mofos best friend! How do I make it? Simple a 1:1 ratio of sugar and water. Add flavor (ginger slices, lemon/lime rind, vanilla bean, etc.) and set it on the stove at medium low heat. Let that sucker simmer for about 20 minutes. Boom! Flavored sugar water LITERALLY!!!

But we cannot live on baked goods and citrus drinks alone. This meant it was time for tapas/appetizers/horsedevous. As you may no I never ever do anything nice and easy... I like to do it nice and complex! So I took some in season ingredients and some old flavor favorites of my PaPa and but a twist on them.

• corn and zucchini fritters with jalepeno infused cream dip
• black eyed pea dip
• baked ravioli squares with marinara dipping sauce

My apologies folks... I didn't do this spread justice with photojournalism. I was too busy having a not-party party to take a bunch of foodie pictures. There was so much family and a lot of gossiping catching up to do!

You know... I try to act like I'm "grown" and I know a thing or two about making cakes (among other types of information). However, even with all my learnin' about bakin' sometimes I still make mistakes. Sometimes I get tired, or rushed, and I can't do the "right" thing even though I know it's right. Sometimes you're working on a deadline and you've got to frost a cake despite the fact that you've also been cooking in a small kitchen. And you know the butter you took out to soften before the pasta bake went into the over is waaaaay too soft now. And that all kitchen science you've read in "Cook's Illustrated" and Alton Brown (the food nerd on high) tells you that too soft butter will not lead to pretty butter cream... You take a beater to that butter anyway and try to "cream" it. Yes, dear friends, I committed a foodie foul. But it still tasted good!

It was my PaPa's birthday a few weeks ago and I wasn't able to celebrate it with him on time. I was at his house a week later though so I brought a cake to celebrate belatedly. My gramps had mentioned making zucchini bread the previous time we hung out. He's not into a lot of prep work in the kitchen. So I offered to shred the zucchini for him... but he still wasn't 100% sure he was ready for such an endeavor. Me being the awesome granddaughter that I am ::brushes shoulders off:: decided to treat him to some zucchini bread flavor in the form of a cake. I used a trusted source and found this recipe.

I'll admit. I've made prettier cakes... and this frosting would not set even when I stuck it in the freezer post crumb-coat. I still licked my fingers after slicing. And my PaPa had 2 slices! So all in all... I'd still put this in the "plus" column.

I'm a HUGE fan of chocolate. I love chocolate just about any way I can get it. Proof in the pudding? I recently bought some chocolate scented soap! It's kinda gross b/c it turns my wash cloth muddy brown but it smells delicious! Why am I going on and on about chocolate? Because a friend of my brother's recently hired me to make her birthday cake. The only request was that it included chocolate somehow. So what's a kitschy baker to do? I made a devil's food cake with chocolate ganache. How do you make a chocolate cake even better? You add a bit of mayo to make sure it stays moist. I also got to use a new tip I read about slicing cake layers. So this kitchen session was fun all around!

Once I had my wet mix and dry mix in separate bowls it was time to put it all together. I alternatively added the dry ingredients and the buttermilk in 3 separate batches.




A few weeks ago I was reading through some of my favorite baking blogs so see if anything sparked my interest. While I didn't find a recipe I wanted to try out I did get a neat new trick for cutting layers into cakes. Embroidery hoops!  I have tried cutting layers both free hand AND with one of those special layering tools you can buy. This trick by far gave me the most level layers and it was super simple! You just buy a hoop about the size of the cake pan you're using, set the cake in the middle, align your serrated knife along the top edge of the hoop and saw away! Tah-dah! So incredibly easy!

My grandpa turned 88 this weekend. The family had a surprise and slightly impromptu birthday party for him. It was great to get multiple generations together. Looking through pictures of my Papa in his many different ages and stages also gave us a chance to do comparisons. A younger picture of my Papa looked a lot like a picture of my brother when he was a kid. Another pictured looked like my uncle and my nephew. The genes are strong in my family and a glance through a photo album is hard core proof.

As with any celebration there HAD to be cake.... The week before I began racking my brain trying to think of flavor a combination he might like. I originally settled on a pear cake with caramel glaze. However, my mom didn't think that combo sounded too tasty.* She attempted to get me to make a caramel cake but I vetoed that idea right away as my grandma was famous for her caramel cakes... I was not about to try and out do a culinary legend and legacy like hers. So after some additional searching I came across a recipe for a strawberry cake. A lot of the recipes I found initially were make with strawberry Jello. I know my Papa isn't into artificial flavors so I tracked down a vanilla cake w/ strawberry puree recipe over on Smitten Kitchen (I love that blog!). So I pulled out my biggest mixing bowl for this 3 layer cake recipe and crossed my fingers. I even bought a new 9" cake pan b/c I only had 2.