5 posts tagged “baking”

I almost forgot about that cake!

Here is what it looks like in a pan...yeah, I know, it reminded me of something I once saw in a medical text book too.

DrPepperCake

Here is what a slice of it looks like.

DrPepperCake2

2 comments

I was dorking around all recipes when I came across a recipe for a Dr. Pepper cake.
The husband LOVES Dr. Pepper. He has a very funny story about beating up a cousin for drinking his Dr. Pepper. The DP was a hard to find object in London, he had told everyone in the house not to touch the DP, he came home from a long day at a sweltering warehouse full of sneakers - all day he dreamed of the ice cold DP - to find his cousin had opened it and drank it. He lost his mind and attacked.

He is also a fan of Mr. Pibb and Dr. Nut. And he will try any off brand or foreign soda he finds, whether he can read the ingredients or not, including this. It tasted much like the name.

Back to the cake. As I ran through the list of ingredients I knew I would be attempting this as a Valentine Day treat. The cake combines 3 of his favorite foods:
Peanuts/Peanut Butter
Chocolate
Dr. Pepper

Hopefully he would not notice the buttermilk...

So that night when he got home from work I said, "Have you ever heard of Dr. Pepper Cake?"

That got his attention.

"It's a chocolate cake with Dr. Pepper as an ingredient."

"The only thing that could make that perfect would be peanuts."

"Funny you should say that because there's peanut butter in the cake and some kind of peanut glaze topping on -"

"THEN WHY ARE YOU TALKING AND NOT IN THE KITCHEN MAKING ME THAT CAKE, WOMAN!"

"Because I don't have marshmallows."

"Marshmallows too. Good Gawd."

Now that I had brought up the cake, I was locked in to making the cake. I have bakers anxiety, as I have mentioned before. The closer it gets to Valentine's Day, the more I am obsessing this recipe.

MARSHMALLOWS
I'm not much of a marshmallow eater. I don't like those sandy Easter peeps, never much liked any version of Rocky Road, never had a smore. But I LOVE the Rice Krispy treat. I bought a bag of miniatures for the DP cake and have found myself eating a small ramiken of them as a TV snack just about every night. The other evening I was chewing a  miniature when my adorable cat jumped on the back of the couch and tried to get a closer look at what I was eating. I talk to my cat and I told her, "Oh, please...you don't want no marshmallows!" But she was insistant to the point of climbing all over me to get to my ramiken. I finally gave her one, knowing she would not eat it and hopefully it would satisfy her curiousity.
Not eat it??? She couldn't eat it fast enough! There is nothing cuter than a kitty walking around with a miniature marshmallow sticking out of her mouth. And she wanted another! I don't think cats can taste sweet, so I am not sure what it is about the marshmallow she likes other than the cow bones in the gelatin.

I have noticed something about my mother: She can never leave well enough alone.
In reflection, this really is nothing new. Over the last few weeks I seem to be really aggravated by it.

EXAMPLE:

No knead bread recipe.
The same recipe that has been making the rounds on the internet has become a weekly part of my kitchen experience. I figured mom would enjoy this easy recipe as much as I do. Before Christmas and before my sister printed out the recipe and sent it to her, which she has lost already twice, I thought I would go over it with Mom on the phone. Things were going along fine until I got to the cooking part of the recipe.
ME: "Ok, you are going to need a pot that you can use in a 400 degree oven...with the lid on it. You heat the pot-"
MOM: "What if I cooked it in a loaf pan instead?"
ME: "The recipe calls for a pot that you can use in a 400 degree oven...with the lid on it. Ok, so you heat the pot while you are warming up the oven-"
MOM: "What if instead of a lid I used tin foil?"
ME: "The recipe calls for a deep pot with a fitting lid. Ok, so when your pot and oven are ready you throw the dough in the pot, seam side up. Put the lid on-"
MOM: "I think I would rather make it as little rolls than a loaf, do you think that would work?"

By this time I didn't care if she wanted to roll it up like pretzels, cook it on a campfire, then wear them on her ears.
I'm all for being creative and inventive, but why reinvent the wheel? There is nothing wrong with this recipe as is - just make the goddamned bread the way the recipe says for Pete's sake!

I bought her a journal for Christmas. My idea was for her (and dad) to just sit and write when they felt like it. A simple plan. Nothing elaborate.
Her idea included going out and buying a voice recorder so she could first record herself, then transcribe from the recorder to the journal.
To me this sounded like a stall tactic. I told her if she felt all that was necessary, then go ahead...do what you got to do.

I just got off the phone with her. She said she had mixed some sugar, baking chocolate and peanut butter together but wasn't sure what to do with it now. I told her she could make some of those no bake drop cookies by adding oatmeal to the mixture.
ME: "Just drop by the spoonful on wax paper or a plate and let them cool."
MOM: "What if I spread it out on sheet and cut them like bars instead?"

At this point all I could say was, "What if you did?"

Wowwy wow wow!
One of my beliefs is if you expect the worst, you won't be disappointed. I have a history of failed baking adventures and each one was started with optimism and hope. This lead to great and memorable disappointment. One of my other beliefs is that disappointment builds character. My life has filled me with character. One thing I don't need is more character.

THE BIRTHDAY CAKE:
I decided to make Shaun a birthday cake. Shaun was my boyfriend at the time and I really wanted to impress him with some baking. When the baking was done - half of the cake stuck to the bundt pan. I had to dig it out with a spatula. I decided that half a cake was better than no cake so I cut the offensive torn edges nice and smooth, wrapped it in plastic and took it to school with me to give to him after class. I saw him between classes and told him that I had made him something and it was in the front seat of my car. He asked what it was. I said it was a chunk of chocolate cake. I explained the pan problem. He laughed. Then doubled over laughing. Apperently he had walked by my car that morning and looked inside and saw the wrapped up chocolate cake. "I couldn't tell what that thing was. I actually thought it was a sea cucumber."

BREAD:
It was a holiday of some sort or another and I decided that I was going to make a loaf of bread. I followed the directions to the letter because I know that in baking, it's more like a science than an art. I did the measuring and the kneading and the rising and the punching and everything was looking fine in the dough state. I plop it in the loaf pan and wait.
It was still in the oven when the husband walked in the door.
"What's that smell?"
"I'm making bread from scratch", I announced.
He was very impressed until he looked through the oven window. "Is it supposed to look like that?"
I was looking now too. My bread was the same size as when I put it in the pan. The top was dry and still as pale as the dough and, for some reason, forming ridges.
I took it out of the oven and it was brick heavy and brick hard. Again, the man in my life starts laughing at my baked goods. "IT LOOKS LIKE WORF'S HEAD! It's WORF'S HEAD BREAD!!!"

nerd.

But he was right, it did look like a Klingon's forehead.

So, anyway, those two stories sum it up for me. I have more tales of failure that involve pie crust, biscuits (southern girl who can't make biscuits might as well move to Canada), roll out cookies, drop cookies, dumplings...I can cook, there is no doubt about my kitchen skills when it comes to cooking. Baking is another matter all together.

So, with not much hope I tried that NO KNEAD bread recipe everyone is blah blahing about and look at this