I Baked My Mom a Cake

The following took place about 3 weeks ago for my mom's birthday.

My mom has a favorite cake and that is a spice cake. There is nothing "spectacular" about a spice cake -- not that there's anything wrong with that, but this wasn't to be an ordinary cake. Oh no, this was a birthday cake and I knew I had to turn it into a tricked out spice cake. Pimp my cake? Something to that effect.

I'm not going to tell you how I did that until a bit later.

And those are the pictures of the cake-making progress. I beat the Smart Balance shortening with sugar, then added the egg yolks and vanilla. The batter was a bit dense but airy. Then I whipped the egg whites until stiff and glossy peaks formed and took the picture while holding the bowl up in the air a bit, after which I folded them into the batter, drastically lightening it up. I divided between two prepped cake pans, baked, cooled slightly, then took the cake disks out of the pans to cool.

And this is where I tell you how exactly I pimped the cake out:

I decided to top the cake with caramelized mini-pears. Was that not the BEST idea ever? (You better say that it was... or else...)

Knowing this cake ends up a tad on the dry side, I wanted a very fluffy frosting. I chose a 7-minute frosting because it would be thick and marshmallow-y without being marshmallow-y. That makes sense to me.

So you see here the frosted and decorated whole cake and an individual slice. Overall, the cake was tasty and the smoothness of the pears melded wonderfully with the cake, added another dimension. The downsides were that the once smooth frosting ended up getting grainy (the website says not to let the top pan touch the boiling water or else grainy frosting would ensue. Mine didn't but it ended up being grainy anyway.) and the cake was really dry (perhaps because it was shortening-based and had no butter?) and I didn't put enough frosting in the middle to offset that. I'm going to look for another spice cake next time that is more moist than this was.

But everyone enjoyed the pretty cake and it did taste great. Happy Birthday again, Mom!

In Which I Say Goodbye to Cat

My cat Cat, who has been with my family since I was 3 years old, died two days after Thanksgiving. I've compiled a few of her pictures to remember her by and a poem that I feel does her kitty-ness justice.

The Cat of Cats

I am the cat of cats. I am
The everlasting cat!
Cunning, and old, and sleek as jam,
The everlasting cat!
I hunt the vermin in the night --
The everlasting cat!
For I see best without the light --
The everlasting cat!

-- William Brighty Rands


My everlasting cat, Cat.


Cat and Merry, with whom she never got along very well, but occasionally would tolerate.


Where we buried Cat. The little dot is one of her hairballs.


The day we were to bury Cat, we received this unexpected card from the vet we took her to the day she died. A very kind gesture from them.

**ETA: I forgot to say that she bit a piece of my ear off one day when I rolled on top of her while I was sleeping, thus earning her the nickname of Cat Tyson!

Sugar Cookies: The Fall Files

The following took place during Halloween and the first week of November.

The Birds! Take cover!

Soooo... I decided that sugar cookies shaped in the theme of fall should be made. My recipe of choice is Once Upon a Tart's recipe for Crispy Sugar Cookies. The texture is between crispy and chewy, which to me is just right.

I assembled the ingredients, started beating the butter and sugar, which produced a fluffy and somewhat grainy texture, then I beat in the eggs and vanilla.

The resulting texture was somewhat smoother, but still quite fluffy.

After that, I added the flour mixture in four additions. By the third addition, I had to switch from a sturdy-ish plastic spatula to a wooden spoon.

By the fourth addition, it required a bit of upper body strength to stir and it had the potential to be a little panic-inducing, as the mixture resembles that of the sand near the water at the beach with large curd-like pieces. Will it ever come together to look like a cookie dough?

Worry not, my dear readers. I'm living proof that, yes, it does come together. The texture of the dough thus far is actually very soft but not sticky and quite firm.

To refrigerate, I separated the dough into three squares (I can't remember if I weighed each portion out or not, but I'm thinking I didn't because it wasn't really necessary). Why three instead of two? Ease of rolling out and it requires less time to roll to the proper size, meaning it won't totally lose it's chill. (** Losing it's chill: 1. Subject has lost the coolness factor it once possessed. Can be used either temperature-wise or as in trendy, hip, something/someone who was "popular". **) Even if it gets too warm, slip the dough (I rolled it between two sheets of plastic wrap, wax paper can be used as well, for ease of clean-up) on a baking sheet and pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes or so, the freezer for about 5-10 minutes.

The day that turned into bake-the-cookies day, I made the royal icing and separated portions into different bowls to color. This time, I used liquid colorings and at first the colors weren't very strong, but after sitting a bit the colors intensified. Keep the bowls covered so it won't dry out.

From a flat sheet of dough to...

A cooling rack full of sugar cookie cut-outs!

The top photo says, "Look, I haven't been out in the sun much and I'm all washed out.", while the bottom photo says, "I have been kissed by the sun!" (**There is NOTHING wrong with being pale. In fact, I am quite pale myself**) If the bottom is pale, stick it back in for 2-3 minutes or until it's just golden underneath and the edges on top are barely golden. Too much (read: the bottom and/or top is completely golden-brown) and it gets very hard, as these will crisp up while cooling.

On another note, the still-warm cookies are very greasy.

So I outlined the large pumpkin shape with some of the orange frosting that I thickened (a little too much), then I filled it in with the thinner orange frosting (a tad too thick), dusted with orange-colored sugar, then spread a dab of brown frosting for the stem. The frosting is very glossy when not set, but when it firms up it turns sparkly. And that's not because of the colored sugar. It looks like a mound of fresh snow sparkling under the sunshine.

This is Emo Billy and his popular sister Kitty Carry-All.

I should elaborate: Ever since I explained to my parents what it means to be Emo (I'm not, by the way) it's been a bit of a joke to say, "That's so Emo of you!" One of our cats has been dubbed "Emo". So I made Emo cookies.

So ends a fascinating session of sugar cookie-ing. I hope you enjoyed!