Life in the Cheese Drawer

my sister liz is the cake person. i am the cookie person. but, when she has a birthday, i guess i become the cake person by default! she requested this cake because it was the best recipe she’d found for white cake (and she’s been through a lot). 
so, not being a cake person, i had to be told that the weird thing about this cake is that you don’t stiffen your egg whites. i didn’t know that stiffening them was the norm. instead, you beat your egg whites with milk until they’re mixed, then add it to the batter later on. the weird thing, in my opinion, was that after mixing your dry ingredients, you added chunks of butter and blended it like you would a pie crust (those i know!).
i even went all out and bought actual cake flour. 
the EPIPHANY OF THE YEAR: greasing and flouring your cake pans, then lining the bottom with parchment rounds.
OMG i will never make a round cake again without doing this. taking the cake out of the pan has never, ever been easier.

regardless of the parchment thing, which is awesome, this is pretty darn good white cake. it didn’t really rise in the middle – in fact, it kind of sank – and it was dense, but not too dense. plus it was delicious; i could have eaten the entire bowl of batter and been ok with it.
i made a chocolate ganache for the frosting (i cup heavy cream + 10 oz. chocolate chips + vanilla), and because i was pressed for time, it was a little messy. if i’d made this earlier, it would’ve been more frostingesque.
point: ATK
 
 
 
 
 

i offered to make my mom tiramisu for her birthday since we won’t be making any trips to ciatti’s anytime soon 🙁
turns out, tiramisu is relatively easy. the hardest part was finding mascarpone and ladyfingers. 
first you make some coffee and stir in some rum to soak the ladyfingers in before laying them nice and neat in a 9×13 pan. then mix up egg yolks, sugar and salt, then add in the 1-1/2 lbs of mascarpone cheese (it’s like cream cheese)

whip up some heavy cream and add it to the sugary mascarpone mix. then time to layer!
i ran out of ladyfingers 🙁
i may have made a vital mistake while i went to find ladyfingers: i should have put everything in the fridge, but i didn’t think i was going to be that long. the mascarpone breaks down if it gets too warm, and when i came back the remaining mix was a little chunky. 🙁 my lack of foresight on the ladyfinger front may have been my undoing. 

either way, it’s got to taste good, right? we’ll find out tomorrow when we eat it for birthday dessert.
NOW CHECK OUT THIS AWESOMENESS!!!
[yumprint-recipe id=’1′] 
 

nate says my old recipe is better. i don’t think so.

what’s weird about this recipe? well, it calls for optional espresso and boiling water. it has a lot of ingredients, which is something i don’t like to see in something that replaces box mixes. but oh well, because this is DELICIOUS.
now, nate was a little liberal with the directions. he just tossed in chocolate without weighing it and replaced the vegetable oil with coconut oil (which he EYEBALLED – baking is a science! omg, i nearly had a heart attack).
but these turned out awesome. i highly recommend replacing the vegetable oil with coconut (if you like coconut) because it was like eating a little piece of heaven. i had a bowl of brownie bits, raspberries, and cream today, and it was like summer in my mouth. i took some to work and got nothing but raves about it. gave some to my mom and i haven’ heard from her since – she may have died from chocolate overload.
point ATK.

i gave the america’s test kitchen brownies a go, since my sister liz asked for all the recipes they had on the matter (she’s on a brownie kick, i think). weirdly enough, the brownies are at the end of the cookie section, so we’ll say this is a part of the original cookie test.
the recipe had no weird things, i’m happy to say. it did call for two kinds of chocolate, but i was ok with that. the only adjustment i made was it called for 1-1/4 cups of sugar, but i stopped at 1 cup because i used semi-sweet chocolate instead of bittersweet (the recipe called for either).
ATK has three kinds of brownies (ok, 4, but the fourth is a low-fat version, and who wants that??): classic, chewy, and fudgy. i made the fudgy. they turned out dense and delicious, but i’m going to try the chewy version next in hopes that it will be even better.
ok, ATK did call for one weird thing. you made the brownies in an 8″ square pan, but you got SIXTY-FOUR brownies out of it???? come on, ATK. no way on earth people are cutting up 1″ brownies. i had a difficult time getting 16 brownies out of the pan.
point: up in the air. it was good, but i think the recipe i had previously was a little better. however, mine are more chewy. i’ve got to compare apples to apples i think.

i ordered an ice cream maker.
why?
for father’s day, i made homemade vanilla ice cream. once again, i followed america’s test kitchen’s recipe, and boy did they deliver (i know i’m deviating from the cookie script, but you’ll have to deal with it). that might’ve been the tastiest ice cream i’ve ever had.
the weird thing in this? a couple. first, it calls for DEVIL’S SYRUP. ugh. not impressed, ATK. so i replaced it with lyle’s golden syrup, which i found at hy-vee! then, after you cook your cream, sugar, and eggs all up, you freeze one cup of the mixture and just put the rest in the fridge, which apparently helps with keeping the ice cream smooth.
this morning i woke up and churned the ice cream. what a drag. i grabbed my parents’ ice cream churner, which i think they used once. concocted a bit on the drill to churn it for me, but it still took forever. plus, i used up all my ice and half a box of salt.
(that alone would get me to buy an ice cream maker.)
BUT the result was FANTASTIC. five stars – would make again. point ATK!
next i’m going to try chocolate ice cream, and i’m hoping to make some less calorie-laden desserts, like maybe some sorbet, sherbert, or ice milk?? not sure. we’ll have to see.
but, considering that the grocery in town only carries two little pints of ben and jerry’s for its devil’s-syrup-free ice cream, i’d say an ice cream maker might be an investment.
in other news, i’m going to have to start running more often.