Fabi doesn't bake

[fabrisse]

I have two layers of spice cake cooling. It will be edible. It may even be good. I'll know tomorrow.

But my large bowl? Was too small. My hand beaters didn't work, and I had to use a whisk. I didn't have powdered sugar, so I powdered it myself in my granite mortar and pestle (which I'd already ground the spices in).

The frosting will be the kind where you can taste the crystals of the sugar.

I modified the spice mixes to include allspice, ginger, and long pepper as well as clove, cinnamon, and cardamom.

Baking is a science. I know that. When I couldn't find my baking soda, I took an elevator down four floors to borrow a teaspoon of it from someone in the building who I know bakes.

Cooking is more like alchemy. Maybe if you substitute vanilla for brandy, you'll come up with something mystical and new.

Try that with a cake or cookie and you could end up with something that never sets.

I have a great deal of respect for Lucy, eanja, and gileswench.

Comments

[gileswench.livejournal.com]

Thanks, hon, but I am absolutely an idiot savant when it comes to baking. I can't tell you why it works. I just know it does. I've also been known to substitute with gay abandon and still have it work out for reasons passing my understanding.

I think I just got the baking gene from my great-grandmother. It's the only explanation I have. And there are plenty of things you do that cause me to be utterly composed of fail when I try to do them.

On the upside, you and I can make a meal together and know at the outset that as long as we divide the tasks properly, the meal will be far better than either of us could have produced alone. That's kind of neat.

[snopes-faith.livejournal.com]

You made your own icing sugar? Wow - that must have taken absolutely ages.
Hope your cake turns out nice! I prefer baking to cooking for some reason. Maybe because I am confidant that my cakes will turn out well due to years of practice. Sadly, I never bake these days as I live in such a tiny household which means we end up eating nearly all the cake, despite good intentions. Not very healthy!

[breeamal.livejournal.com]

Have you thought about making a boiled icing (seven minute or other variations) or a buttercream? Both involve cooking down the sugar into a syrup instead of using powdered sugar. Making your own powdered sugar is pretty close to impossible due to the stresses of grinding sugar (most machines make too much heat, most humans give up to fast) and the fact that powdered sugar contains corn starch to keep it from clumping - it also helps hold together the standard butter/sugar frosting.