And now for something completely different...

[potentiality_26]

I’ve been struggling to post something this week.  I was going to write about episode one of the Les Miserables miniseries now that PBS is airing it, but “is this less good than other adaptations of its kind or am I just bitchy about Les Miz?” isn’t much of an update. 

So anyway.  Here's a post about baking instead. 

I really think bakers make people scared of baking.  Yes, you do have to have a pretty good understanding of how ingredients come together before you can experiment much, but this insistence that unless you follow recipes exactly and measure perfectly it will All Go Wrong is just... a terrible way to get people interested in baking. 

Case in point: I made a chocolate bundt cake the other day and did basically everything wrong. 

The recipe called for creaming butter and sugar, which means room temperature butter.  The cake was an impulse decision, so not only did I not have room temperature butter, I had frozen butter.  No problem, toss it in the microwave.  This part actually went fine; I’m good at getting softened butter without melting it even in the microwave.  But then I got carried away and used all the nice softened butter I had come up with.  That was about four tablespoons more (half a stick) more than the recipe called. 

But I kept going, figuring that since the recipe called for sour cream later I could take the amount out of the sour cream and not destabilize the recipe too much.  The dry ingredients I mixed together and didn’t really fuss with.  But then I had too little brown sugar.  I figured I’d make up the amount in white sugar, added some of that, started to add the rest, decided it was too much sugar, and stopped.  I was supposed to add a full tablespoon of vanilla, but vanilla is expensive now so I used just a teaspoon, and then a full tablespoon of Kahlua because I felt like it.  I had the wrong kind of cocoa, and the wrong kind of chocolate, but I used both anyway.  I used brewed coffee instead of hot water and espresso powder, and yogurt instead of sour cream.  The recipe called for five eggs and at this point I’d gone mad with power so I only added three. 

And my bundt pan was too small, so I filled it about a third of the way (not knowing how much this monstrosity would grow) and then put the rest in a loaf pan.  The batter was quite thick when it was all mixed together- think soft serve ice cream- and I expected the cake to be dry, so after baking I put a ganache glaze on instead of powdered sugar.

But you know what?  That cake was great.  It wasn't dry at all- it was moist and super soft.  The yogurt brought out a fruitiness in the chocolate that was lovely.  It was a really good cake, is my point.  I shared the bundt cake with people and put the loaf cake in the freezer for another time.  I think I’ll try that with a caramel sauce instead of ganache at some point- the flavor of the cake really reminded me of the dark chocolate-salted caramel combo you find in some candy bars and I think it would work. 

I’m planning to make this cake again on purpose next time to see if I can streamline it more, but as it is I'm pretty proud of myself.    

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

The recipe called for five eggs and at this point I’d gone mad with power so I only added three.

LOL! Such power would set you up above the gods...

And, yes, it's fun to play around a bit, although you do need to know which ingredients can be switched with each other. Others end less well, as I know!

[potentiality_26]

Yeah, you do need a general idea of what substitutions can work- and you also have to be comfortable with knowing it might not end well regardless (I mean, I've followed recipes to the letter and had it go wrong). It's fun to let loose a bit, though.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Hurray for a great cake! I have to make a cake tomorrow. I hope I have your luck.

[potentiality_26]

Fingers crossed for you :)

[littlelostcat]

Over the last few years I've really gotten into baking, but like you said it can be really intimidating. And I think people who can go into a kitchen, look around for ten minutes and say, "Ah yes, I'm going to make a four tiered cake! There's no recipe but I can manage" are awesome and incredible but also super intimidating.

My style of cooking (sweet or savory) is with a recipe, clutched tightly in hand, that I can either follow directly or make little tweaks. But I think as we bake more, we begin to feel more confident to do those changes. Sour cream and yogurt? Basically the same, right? They have to do similar things. 3 eggs instead of 5, why not?

Congrats on the awesome cake!!! :)

[potentiality_26]

I'm pretty envious of the four tiered cake people too, lol!

I was that way starting out with baking too (less so cooking, since if you're making a spaghetti sauce or something it's much easier to course correct than it is with a cake), but it's very cool to turn around and find you're confident enough to play around a little.

Thank you <3

[telemicus]

I think this whole philosophy of having to be an expert is bogus and applies beyond baking - art, sports, singing, dancing, writing, playing music--WHY have we set it up so only the top 0.1% of highest performers continue with it past grade school? What about doing these things just for the joy of it, and all the other mental and physical benefits of art and exercise, even if you're not that good at it?!

So yay for you and your scrumptious cake!

[potentiality_26]

You're so right. There really shouldn't be this attitude that if you're not going to be absolutely great at something you shouldn't bother. It's really not good for people.

Thank you <3

[leahclaire]

Hahah, that is next-level pantser baking!! I've done it long enough to know that if you get the moisture/dry ingredients ratio roughly right, it will probably be edible. And I'm a lazy baker, so I just throw everything into a bowl most of the time. But I have never dared fuck with the eggs.

Your ganache glaze has made me hungry!!

[potentiality_26]

Heh, yeah that's usually the way I do it too. I was guess I was feeling extraordinarily bold to use less eggs lol. If I make it again I'll probably trim down the flour to accommodate my unwillingness to use that many eggs.

:)