The Smells in My Kitchen

[Eaquae Legit]

Yeah, I like gnocci, and *I* don't find it a huge bother. It's fun to roll out dough snakes like a kid with play-doh!

[Eaquae Legit]

Please, somebody help me out here. My mom sent me a cake recipe for Nom's birthday cake, and we've made it twice and it is dense like poundcake. No idea what I'm doing wrong, and yes, I know to beat the hell out of it with the electric mixer, and it ain't working. I'm looking for a basic white/vanilla cake mix (lemon will do, just not chocolate) and I really don't want to have to go buy a box mix (can't trust these shifty English boxes...). Same for icing. I want to be able to pipe it on in little rosettes, pointellist style.

Anyone?

[Syphon the Sun]

What's your baking powder to flour ratio?

ETA: If you're looking for another recipe, try this one. It is delicious.

[Young Val]

Please, somebody help me out here. My mom sent me a cake recipe for Nom's birthday cake, and we've made it twice and it is dense like poundcake. No idea what I'm doing wrong, and yes, I know to beat the hell out of it with the electric mixer, and it ain't working. I'm looking for a basic white/vanilla cake mix (lemon will do, just not chocolate) and I really don't want to have to go buy a box mix (can't trust these shifty English boxes...). Same for icing. I want to be able to pipe it on in little rosettes, pointellist style.

Anyone?

The phrase "beat the hell out of it with the electric mixer" made my eyebrows shoot alarmingly (and I'm sure comically) upward. In my experience, it's always, always, ALWAYS better to under mix a batter than to over do it. If the recipe calls for creaming butter and sugar, then you can beat the hell out of that. But once you start adding the flour, don't over mix. Just try to get things incorporated and stop. If there's a few lumps of flour in the batter, don't sweat it. Syphon's tip about baking soda is a wise one, too, and the SK recipe he linked to is my #1 go-to cake recipe SO GOOD. If you want to be able to pipe the icing, I'd go for a standard buttercream.

[KennEnder]

Just decided to make an early-morning "Swedish apple pie," which I discovered online just last night. Extremely simple (no pie crusts to make up), and it smells incredible!

[starlooker]

Not beating the hell out of things is SUCH hard advice for me to follow. As a kid, when I helped Mom bake, I was instructed to "stir until it all looks like one thing." Something about that phrase kicked my inner perfectionist into high gear, and I would spend AGES getting rid of every single little lump.

SO HARD not to do that, even when the recipe specifically SAYS "don't do that" because my brain is screaming, "BUT IT'S ALL SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE ONE THING!!!"

[Eaquae Legit]

See, all my memories of the recipe my mom sent me are of it saying "beat on med-high for 3 to 5 minutes". It doesn't help that she didn't send a scan, just a (very) succinct summary and the ingredients. Could be I'm misremembering. Regardless, I'll give the SK recipe a go before I go buy a box. Thanks!

[Jayelle]

I usually make the Lightning Cake from the Joy of Cooking (I found an online version here) - just without adding the nuts and stuff on top. Works out well.

As for icing in rosettes - as long as you have the right tip and an icing bag, it's not too tricky, just takes practice. All my icing has in it is about a cup of butter, a pinch of salt, a bit of vanilla, about a Tb. of cream and two (or more) cups of icing sugar (what do they call that in the UK? Powdered sugar?). Do they have Wilton brand stuff over there?

ETA: If you plan to do multiple colours of icing, watch this way of changing the icing in your bag, it's awesome.

[Petra456]

Just finished baking up a batch of dark chocolate, pistachio, smoked sea salt cookies. They are amazing! I'm also amazed because the recipe said it would make 24 cookies, and it MADE 24 COOKIES!

[VelvetElvis]

Good. God. I don't know if was a recipe problem or what, but I kneaded it for fifty minutes, had to add two more cups of flour, and then I ate them. They were mediocre at best.

[Young Val]

Oh, Helen, that sucks.

I suppose I have to take the blame, then, don't I?

[powerfulcheese04]

I made chicken fajitas tonight and they were amaaaaaaaaaazing.

Granted, I cheat a little and have a fajita spice mix from the hispanic foods aisle at my favorite grocery store in Texas (this spice mix does not exist in NC...which could be a problem for me.) But I marinate the chicken in spices and a smidge of oil overnight then sear it on the stove. There was a crunch today! It was sooooooooo good.

[VelvetElvis]

I really don't think it was supposed to take 50 minutes of kneading.

[thoughtreader]

So my friends made enchiladas the other day.... they were really yummy so I asked for the recipe and I was surprised because its super simple and isn't what my mexican self would ever really do. Mainly because the base of it is sour cream and cream of chicken soup. My inner mexican cries a little bit when I make them. But they are so yummy....
I made them for dinner tonight and I like to call them my easy enchiladas because the are super fast and I feel like I'm cheating


so here it is easy enchiladas...

3 Large chicken breast cooked and shredded
2 Cups sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 small can chopped green chilies
1 ½ shredded cheese
1 can enchilada sauce red or green (I like green)
10 tortillas

Combine sour cream and cream of chicken soup
Coat the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan with a small amount of the mixture
Put one cup aside for top
Mix the remaining sauce with chicken, ¾ cup cheese, and chilies
Roll mixture into 10 tortillas and put them in the pan.
Cover with reserved soup and enchilada sauce.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 45 min
Them put remaining cheese on top and bake uncovered until melted

[buckshot]

Damn that sounds good ! Can you hear my big belly growling from Deer Park?

[Eaquae Legit]

Smitten Kitchen dinosaur cake appears to be a success. I will know for sure after I've iced and eaten one of the cupcakes I made because there was too much batter.

Fred, too bad about the gnocci! Did you want another recipe to try? I have certainly never kneaded mine so long.

EDIT: Jan: o.O Yeah, I'm SO trying that.

[Petra456]

Ali, i've got 99 problems, but gnocchi ain't one : P

Although I am curious if Helen gave up on her gnocchi quest or tried another recipe also.

So, Deb from Smitten Kitchen is doing a book signing at Powell's in November and I'M GOING!!!

[Eaquae Legit]

*facepalm*

Sorry dude.

[Young Val]

So jealous! The closest she's coming to my neck of the woods is Chicago, and I just can't make it out there. I want to tell her about the time I saw her at the farmers market and was too awkward to say hello!

[thoughtreader]

Damn that sounds good ! Can you hear my big belly growling from Deer Park?

you're only 6 hours an 45 min away... I have an extra tray in the freezer

[Eaquae Legit]

Well, I was convinced SOMEthing was going to go wrong, but I didn't smudge it or drop it or give anyone food poisoning (that I know of). It turned out almost exactly how I wanted it, and if I'd do the edges differently next time, no one else seemed to notice or care.

[wizzard]

Holy crap, Ali, that's awesome! I wish I had a dinosaur cake for my birthday.

[thoughtreader]

Wow that is AWESOME!! You have one lucky baby. though I guess she is less of a baby now if she just turned 1.

[Jayelle]

Amazing!! You did a fantastic job.

[starlooker]

So, so freaking cool.

[Mich]

It's so awesome that you summoned Wizzard!

[thoughtreader]

tonight we splurged (A LOT) and bought 2 pounds of king salmon!! we are just cooking it simple, butter and lemon in the oven. White rice and salad with tomatoes fresh from the deck and avocados in a balsamic dressing on the side. I'm super excited!

[jotabe]

Amazing, Ali!

[Eaquae Legit]

I SWEAR I resized those photos before I posted them. I'll fix that.

Thanks, guys. It was a great little party and it felt good to thank everyone who's helped us out in the past year. Everyone loved the cake, too.

[steph]

Great job, Ali!

[Young Val]

Ali it looks awesome!

I would never have had the patience to pipe the entire cake like that!

[VelvetElvis]

Ali, i've got 99 problems, but gnocchi ain't one : P

Although I am curious if Helen gave up on her gnocchi quest or tried another recipe also.

So, Deb from Smitten Kitchen is doing a book signing at Powell's in November and I'M GOING!!!

Well, I did make the gnocchi, and they just weren't that tasty. I'll stick with noodles.

[Syphon the Sun]

Ali it looks awesome!

I would never have had the patience to pipe the entire cake like that!

This.

I piped an entire giant R2D2 birthday cake once. Never again.

[Eaquae Legit]

Thanks again, guys. It took a couple hours but it could have gone worse. Getting the colour gradient on the icing was the most time-consuming bit - the red I had was super strong, and the green was weaksauce (his belly was as dark as I ever managed to get it), so it took a lot of trial and error. I really hope Nom has something to look back on and say "that was pretty cool!" when she's older, like I do.

Oh, and probably any other method of icing would have been fraught with smears and errors, so really it was time-efficient in the end.

[VelvetElvis]

I mean, I'm pretty bummed that I have no dino cake.