Thanksgiving, Part 1

I'm sure you don't need me to tell you how long ago this took place!

Tigger's Pumpkin Pie (from a book about all things 100 Acre Woods). It looks very "rustic" -- that means I didn't get the crust right.

Pumpkin roll

Behold the pretty pie shell!

Apple-pear crumb pie

For breakfast, banana-cranberry bread (top), innards (right), slice with cinnamon-honey butter (left).

The three stages of the rolls... Rising, post-rise (I forgot to take the picture so I opened the oven door...), and baked.

Me haz turkey!

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!