Running out of Yeast

I ran out of yeast today.  This was somewhat alarming to me, as I usually buy up huge quantities of yeast when it's on sale and then fret about it possibly losing its potency, but never about it running out.  It was slightly more alarming because, although I'm capable of making nice bread without yeast, I was halfway through combining the ingredients for a batch of baguettes, which require quite a lot of yeast.  I decided to plow forward (mostly because I wasn't feeling creative enough to plow backward) with my bread, and let it rise for longer periods to compensate for using only about a third the amount of yeast that I usually use.  I started making the baguettes at around 6:30 this evening, and at 10:30 I am watching the clock and waiting for them to finish rising so I can pop them in the oven for a bit and then go to bed.  If nothing else, this is a yeast experiment, and I love a good experiment.

UPDATE: 

The bread turned out fairly fluffy, since I let it rise multiple times, and very soft inside.  I learned that I don't need a huge amount of yeast if I'm patient enough to let the dough rise for a long time.

Not Baking

It's nearly summer, the weather's beautiful, and for once I don't really feel like filling my apartment with hot baking fumes.  I stopped by the Pioneer Square farmers market on my lunch break today and picked up some early green beans and some lovely, bright green arugula.  When I got home this evening, I made a cold salad from quinoa, green beans, arugula, garlic, and lemon juice.  I steamed some quinoa, then popped it in the fridge to cool.  Then I chopped the green beans about one inch long and roasted them in a tinfoil envelop in the oven with a little bit of olive oil, some chopped garlic, salt, and pepper.  After everything was cool, I tossed it with lemon juice, fresh chopped garlic, salt, and pepper.  Last, I mixed in the arugula and added more lemon juice to taste.  This dish tends to make me smell like garlic for days, but it is completely worth it for flavor alone.  Plus, I have satisfied my intense craving for healthy, green, spring food.

Bachelor(ette) Cake

Have you ever decided to do something really over the top and silly because you love your friends, like doing crazy things, and want to show your friends how much you value them by doing something crazy?  This seems to happen to me a lot.  This time, I decided to make a cake for my friends Lindsey and John's joint bachelor/bachelorette party.  But I couldn't decide what flavor to make, and I couldn't decide whether or not it should be over the top, and we were going camping all weekend.  The last factor was a tough one, because, on the one hand, one might need more than the average amount of cake while camping, but, on the other hand, one might not want to go all out and make a really fancy cake to take camping.  In the end, my love of big, intense, statement cakes won out, and I spent a few hilarious days making a three layer cake and a few more amazing days hanging out with my friends and occasionally eating cake.

I decided to make a three layer cake in which the bottom layer was chocolate cake with buttercream frosting, the middle layer was yellow cake with chocolate frosting, and the top layer was spice cake with buttercream frosting.  I decided to dye the buttercream frosting in my friends' wedding colors.  I also enlisted my friend Jeff (of Inappropriate Games fame) to draw John and Lindsey-specific cake toppers.  Basically, the idea was to make a mock wedding cake that, unlike some real wedding cakes, would be simple and tasty, have a little something for everyone, and, most importantly, reflect the John-and-Lindsey-ness of my friends, if it is at all possible to do that in cake form.

Remembering everything I have ever read on Treacy's blog, I started baking on Tuesday night and bought extra cake mix in case of accident.  I found that the hardest parts were: baking in a new-ish pan that I thought would make my life easier, but didn't because I wasn't used to it, leveling the cakes, and frosting the smallest cake, which had lost some of its structural integrity.  I only broke one cake, and only one cake was harmed in the trimming process (and I used it anyway, because nobody minds a slightly off-kilter cake after three beers.)
 

Trimming the middle cake wasn't too hard - although after trimming it I realized that it might not be completely cooked in the center, because of the new pan!  I popped it back in the oven after the trimming for another ten minutes.  This is probably a big cake no-no, but I'm kind of a cake novice, so it didn't really bother me!

It took a while to match the frosting to my friends' wedding colors, and I spent a lot of time holding their invitation in one hand and the beaters in the other, comparing shades.  I eventually decided to go with a lighter version of the blue on their invitation, because too much food coloring in icing kind of freaks me out.  I worry that it can't be good for me, even though it's non-toxic.  I used skewers to anchor the cakes together, since we'd be driving with this cake along a dirt road in Gifford Pinchot (it did not disappoint, after all the bumps I was really glad I had secured the layers.)

Finally, after sort of cracking the top layer of cake while trimming it, I anchored it to the skewers and decided that it looked fine.  I put a layer of frosting on, and nearly broke the top layer in half.  I was using room temperature frosting on a cake that had been sitting in the fridge for a few hours in the hopes of making it extra solid, but I was still having a lot of trouble.  Eventually, I just slapped a really thick layer of frosting on and popped the whole cake back in the fridge.  When I took it out about an hour later, I smoothed a thin layer of frosting over the uneven, thick frosting, to give it a smooth look, even though it was a bit of a mess.  Later, when we were eating the cake, I felt like there was was too much frosting on the top layer - I'm against really thick frosting anyway, because a little goes a long way.  Next time, I think I'll just break down a buy a small cake pan, rather than trying to carve a small cake out of a larger one.  The center just wasn't as structurally sound as the whole cake.

Finally, I was ready to write on the cake.  I had a tense moment while making the yellow frosting.  It was last of my frosting and I was out of powdered sugar, so if I messed up the color, I just had to live with it.  The color I was going for was a very soft butter yellow, with just a hint of warmth to it that made it less glaringly yellow.  I added the tiniest amount of red food coloring, and all of a sudden the frosting was peach colored.  Luckily, another tiny bit of yellow frosting corrected it without making it too bright!  I ended up just writing "Lindsey + John" on the top, then writing "Bachelor(ette) Camping Weekend" around the edge of the middle layer.

It's definitely not as smooth and beautiful as the gorgeous cakes I've seen on Treacy's blog and elsewhere, and I didn't spend a lot of time trying to make it look neat, but it turned out really cute and fun, and I think everyone enjoyed eating it.  It had kind of a harrowing trip through Gifford Pinchot, but once we got to the campsite and added the cake toppers, it was pretty fantastic.  Plus, we got to eat cake all weekend!

So Much Leftover Cake

I'm looking for a recipe that uses leftover cake, as I have a whole bunch of yellow cake and spice cake in my freezer.  I'm thinking some kind of bread pudding that's actually a cake pudding?  I bet Darina Allen would know.

UPDATE:  Found a great recipe for Summer Pudding that uses leftover yellow cake, strawberries, and currants.  It sounds kind of like what would happen if strawberry shortcake died and went to heaven.  My only concern is finding a local currant supplier . . .

#1 Favorite Thing About Ciabatta

My number one favorite things about making ciabatta is that the recipe tells me to make an "eagle claw" with my hand!  My second favorite things about making ciabatta is eating it warm, drizzled with olive oil, with fresh mozzarella and roasted vegetables on top.

Vegan Soda Bread

I was in the mood for soda bread tonight, but I don't usually keep dairy products in the house.  I was looking through all my recipes for a quick bread that didn't rely on milk for flavor or texture, but I was having trouble finding one.  That's when I remembered that I had a bunch of cartons of almond milk.  I've had vegan friends tell me that they simply substitute soy or other non-dairy products for milk in recipes, and that it "tastes just the same," but I've always had trouble believing it.  Nonetheless, I decided to go for it with the almond milk.

I sort of invented the following recipe (loosely basing it on the River Cottage soda bread recipe):

• 4 cups flour (2 whole wheat, 2 white)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• about 2-3 teaspoons sugar
• about 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• about 3/4 cup of muesli (minus the corn flakes)
• about 1 1/2 cups of almond milk

I baked it at 400 for about 30 minutes.  The bread didn't rise as much as soda bread sometimes does, but it tasted just as delicious as any soda bread I've made in the past.  A quick note on muesli:  It's the best breakfast cereal in the world, usually consisting of oats, dried fruit, chopped nuts, and some sort of corn or bran flakes.  I find that it makes a great addition to any sweet baked good.  I always add it to chocolate chip cookies, which gives them a more substantial texture.  And I usually add it to coffee cake and my awesome pumpkin muffins.  It is a total miracle food, and it's healthy!

Map Your Garden

I just learned a valuable lesson - I should make a little map after I plant my garden.  It only takes a few minutes, and can save you a major headache down the road.  I've tried labeling the different sections of my garden in the past, but the labels always seemed to migrate through feline intervention and end up buried in a completely different section of the garden.  When I'm out weeding, it would really help to know what I planted where, so that I can more easily pick out the keepers from the weeds.

Earlier this spring, I had the creative idea of planting beets and chard next to each other in the same plot.  Some visual part of my brain was sure that all the red-veined leaves would look glorious growing together.  Except that now I can't remember where I planted which, and the leaves look much more similar than I expected them to!  I'm waiting for the chard to mature a little, when it should have a more rippled appearance, but until them I'm kind of at a loss.  I'm going to have to start thinning the beets soon, and I don't know where to begin!