Ummm...

So I was going through my earlier photo albums on iPhoto and lo and behold! An album of my earliest red velvet cake!


At first I was taken aback. I thought, "who made this shitty cake?" And then it hit me; in my family of five, there are only three people that bake; my mother, who's creations are beautiful, my sister, who does it out of a box, and me.

Can we please look at this again?


How ugly is that?

Not to fear though, the time stamp reads October 29th, 2008. Which means I have three years under my belt and I will prove to you in a timely manner that I'm capable of baking cakes that doesn't look like someone vommed all over giant round steaks.


Here is the recipe, courtesy of the Food Network, and my shining light, Paula Deen:

Red Velvet Cake
Ingredients:
Red Velvet Cake:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cocoa
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups canola oil
1 tsp vinegar
1 (1 ounce) bottle red food coloring
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

Cream Cheese frosting:
1/2 cup margarine ( I know...since when does Paula use margarine?)
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
1 box confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped lightly toasted pecans

Directions:
For the Cake:
Pre heat oven to 350F. Grease and flour 3 (9-inch) round layer cake pans.

Sift flour, baking soda and cocoa together. Beat sugar and eggs together in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl mix together oil, vinegar, food coloring, and vanilla. Add to the bowl of eggs and sugar and beat until combined.

Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk to the wet mixture by alternating the buttermilk and dry ingredients. Always start with the flour and end with the flour.

Pour batter into pans. Tap them on the table to level out the batter and release air bubbles. Bake for 2 minutes or until a cake tester inserted near the middle comes out clean. Be careful not to over bake though, or you'll end up with a dry cake!

Let the layers cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before turning out of the pan. Cool completely before frosting. (This is VERY important).

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
Let margarine and cream cheese soften to room temperature. Cream well. Add sugar and beat until mixed but not so much that the frosting becomes "loose". Add vanilla and nuts. Spread between layers and on top and sides of cake.

NOTE: The above recipe is from the Food Network, but there are a couple things I would like to add; frosting always tastes better when made with butter. I've had frosting made with margarine or crisco, and I'm just not a fan. Furthermore, before frosting the cake, it's important (or helpful) to do a "dirty frosting". It's also known as a "crumb coat"; apply a thin layer of icing to the top and sides of the cake, and put it in the fridge for about 10 minutes. Take it out, and frost the cake. "Dirty frosting" makes it easier to frost the cake without worrying about the crumbs.

Hope you have fun!
Steph

Restaurants (a heads up for juniors choosing internships)

For the past few weeks I've been waitressing (lunch service) and bussing (dinner service) at a French Bistro in the South End for my Senior Internship.
It's been really fun and I love the people I get to work with; easy-going, multi-lingual sweet and sarcastic beings.
Another really great thing about interning at this bistro is they feed me really well.
Just, not that well.
And I was interested in learning more about the restaurant business.
I came out appalled.

I was disappointed (and disgusted) to find that they recycle their bread baskets (after cutting off the "touched" ends) to make bread pudding, and asparagus butts (in addition to regular asparagus) to make "special of the day" cream of asparagus soups.

And don't even get me started on their "clarified" butter.

paradise cakes

Paradise cakes are banana chocolate chip pancakes with coconut shavings sprinkled on top.

Good, but not euphoric.

just bored ya know?

So I made spaghetti.

Breakfast Sandwiches

At some point during the school year, the WHS caf has decided to make the transition from sausage patties that have the same diameter as the english muffins to sausage patties with diameters that are significantly smaller than the english muffins.

I was a bit saddened by this discovery, as I am one that enjoys a 1:1 bread to meat ratio with my sandwiches and burgers.



How do you feel about them?

BuRg3rZ

Edom nomming on a burger from Flat Patties (33 Brattle St, Cambridge).

So yum.

I met the owner sometime in December; it went something like this.

My friend and I walked in on our way home to pick up some napkins for her to blow her nose.
The owner walked up to us and goes, "You guys think you can just use the napkins without buying anything?"
Of course we were caught off guard and profusely apologized. Good thing he was kidding.
He described the process of making the burgers (local beef, home-made buns, etc.) and gave us frozen custard samples (madagascar vanilla-to die for).

You should go there.

I really like it because the burgers aren't too big; they're not a challenge to finish for the average hungry hippo.
Also, they toast their buns. (That's the way I like 'em.)

Love you all,
Steph

So today

I went to the gym.
And then I went to In A Pickle in Waltham (655 Main Street).
It was kind of funny because it was right next to The Elephant Walk (663 Main Street).
The Elephant Walk has little elephants walking together on their window.
But that's not why it was funny.
It was funny because I went to The Elephant Walk for lunch after my many ortho appointments in the past year and a half (yes, after I got those braces tightened), and I never noticed the breakfast joint.

Are you laughing?

I'm not. It stopped being funny when I typed it out.

So at In a Pickle I had the Mexican Omelette, Margo had the Western, and Kristi had a chocolate chip and banana pancake with oatmeal.

I enjoyed their homefries slightly more than the one's at Mel's 310 Commonwealth Road. In retrospect, I enjoyed them much more than the ones at Mel's, because Mel's replaced their regular homefries with some thinly cut potatoes that makes me sad. But their banana crumble makes up for it.

You know what made us upset though? There were six people that came after us that got seated before our group of 3.

Like, we were hungry.
You know that feeling you get when you have 3rd lunch, but you usually have 1st lunch, so your body thinks it'll get food in at 10:14, but you actually don't get any until 11:28?
Yeah. That.

But that fact was ameliorated by the fact they gave us legit butter, not the single serving kind in tiny plastic thingys.
I love butter.

Also, props to Margo and Kristi for whipping me into shape (literally at the gym, and having me update the GG blog).