This Past Weekend's Bake Off

I'm really getting this baking thing down. Sunday I made my signature white chocolate cookie bars for dinner with my boyfriend and his grandparents and yesterday for Labor Day made a chocolate sheet cake with milk chocolate frosting. This was probably the richest most chocolatey cake I've ever made. Thanks to the Cooks Illustrated Cookbook for the recipes for the cake and frosting. The thing that amazed me the most is that Dutch-processed cocoa definitely makes a difference in how chocolate cake turns out. If you use just plain unsweetened cocoa powder (such as Hershey's) then your cake won't come out as rich nor will it be as dark. Regular cocoa powders cause the characteristic reddish hue in cakes while my cake using Dutch-processed cocoa looked like it had been made with dark chocolate.

The downside to this cake is that it was a bit time-consuming and made for quite a few dirty dishes in the sink. While your cake is mixed using your trusty stand mixer, the frosting requires that you use a food processor. Thankfully, my boyfriend and I have one but what if we didn't? There's no alternate method of constructing the frosting without it. Mind you, I COULD just mix it by hand but I imagine it would take even longer and the results might not be the same. That's my only complaint about this Cooks Illustrated recipe. Normally, they'll give you a range of methods to do a recipe if the primary method is unavailable to you. My recommendation for those trying this recipe that don't have a food processor is to melt down the chocolate in a double boiler and add the hot cream mixture to the chocolate to help in the melting process. Afterwards, stir in the butter one tablespoon at a time OFF the heat and follow the instructions from there about cooling at room temperature and stirring frequently.

Despite all the trials I went through the cake was a hit at my sister-in-law's family BBQ. Even my food snob brothers loved it. Definitely will make this again in the near future.

Cooking as a hobby

Cooking has become my new hobby. I find myself getting excited at trying new recipes to test out on friends and family. Today I ventured into pie-making territory. I'm not just talking about buying the frozen crusts or the box mixes then adding canned pie filling to them. I actually made my own crust from scratch utilizing a food processor. The result? Delicious, flaky, buttery goodness. I don't know why I was afraid for so many years to make crust from scratch nor do I understand why my mother refuses to do it for her pies. Ok, yes, rolling the dough out is time-consuming and messy but it's so freaking easy. Making that crust was easier than the scones I made last week. It's also easier than any Creole dish I've ever made. My mother does gumbo from scratch which is an all-day process yet she finds pie crust far too daunting?! Trust me, it's not that hard to do and the reward makes it all worth it. I was so proud of how the crust turned out with the pie that I'm finding the courage to tackle croissants and puff pastry. Now THAT fills me with fear and dread the likes of which my inner Betty Crocker has never seen!