Thoughts on the Lady Baltimore Cake

When I was an infant, the cookbook most frequently consulted in our house was an old edition of the Betty Crocker Cookbook. It was full of exotic delights. For example, the recipe for Spanish Rice was accompanied by a stylized drawing of a senorita in a mantilla. One of the recipes that caught my imagination was the Lady Baltimore Cake. I can't remember why I was so captivated. Was there a photo? Was there a blurb that made it sound especially enticing? Was it because it was a *gasp* three layer cake? That would have rocked my eight-year-old world because all the cakes I knew only had two layers. (Little did I know at the time that the rest of America had already moved on to cake mixes. Frosting came in mixes too back then, but shortly evolved into tubs of ready-made frosting when the concept of adding your own water became too much for the American cook of the 1970s).

BBP: 2007 is done

When we last examined the Bunny Baking Project, she had two last recipes to try.  The first was a Lemon Tart.  I've made a bunch of lemon tarts.  This one was delish, but did not stand out from the others and in fact, the crust was unnecessarily fussy when an ordinary pate brisee would do.  I give it two stars:  a do-over, but not a stand-out.

And that brings me to the Mother of All 2007 recipes:  The Black Forest Cake.  And here is what I learned:  If you cannot find really really good tart cherries, then don't bother.  I was only able to find mediocre cherries.  They would have been fine in a pie doctored up with sugar and cornstarch, but not so much when they stand alone (aside from a soak in kirsch).

Bunny Baking Project

Those Nut Crescent Cookies are also good with their powdered sugar coating:

I really don't see why I ever need to try another recipe for these.  The hardest part was chopping the pecans.  (You can't use the food processor because pecans are relatively oily and the food processor will start turning them into pecan butter before all of the pieces are as small as they're supposed to be.)

Footie, Food, and Fiber

Footie

The World Cup is over, we have a winner, a loser or two,  a great number of national sides who deserve to be proud of themselves, and a handful of national sides who tolerate bad behavior from assholes but otherwise deserve to be proud of themselves.  There were--what?--33 matches?  32?  Dirtbunny watched them all.  All of them.  She has made a handful of new FC Dirtbunny call-ups based on what she saw. 

First, welcome Diego Benaglio, Swiss goalkeeper.  He's a monster.  grrrr.  Also, from the German national team, Arne Friedrich (an underappreciated defender), and--gulp--Bastian Schweinsteiger, warrior midfielder.  I know, I was really down on Schweini a few years ago, but he has won me over with his consistently good play and newly-mature attitude.  Also, he reformed the hair.

Second, welcome to the Uruguayan Diegos:  El capitano defender Diego Lugano, striker Diego Forlan, midfielder Diego Perez, and defender Diego Fucile.  The last one gets in because if I'm going to call up a bunch of Uruguayan Diegos, why not all of them?  It's fun to be arbitrary.  Oh, and welcome Xavi.  Your call-up is way overdue.

Birthday wrap-up, plus Dirtbunny Rags on the Bianconeri

Mr. D's birthday





Honestly? I was going to finish my four-part series but now it's been so long ago I've forgotten what happened. I know there was rigatoni and meatballs, I remember a birthday cake, there are still some blueberry pancakes leftover, he got his present geez three weeks ago now, and oh yeah, I made some god-awful pina coladas with leftover coconut cream from the coconut birthday cake. And he got to do what he loves more than anything in the world: sit on his ass and do nothing.



The Zebras: They suck


The Bianconeri put a bullet through the head of the 2009-2010 season and put us all out of our misery. They finished seventh, managing to squeak into a Europa League qualifier spot through the operation of some obscure rule I don't understand. It was apparently the worst season ever, depending on how you analyze the statistics. Let's see. The evil suits sacked Ciro (sob) and his replacement was a bona fide idiot who did no better, and who had so little authority that he allowed his captain (you know who that is) to have a big public righteous temper tantrum about a moronic substitution right there on the pitch, which means it was on international TV for everyone to see. Replacement Coach has only two things going for him: (1) ADP was right, and coach changed his mind about the substitution just before Claudio was stretchered off, meaning that Juve actually got to finish the match with 11 men players instead of the ten there would have been if the sub had gone through; and (2) he's gone now. Juve has a new coach now. Also: new suits. Now if only they had better players.....

The Man's Spectacular Birthday Weekend, Chapter One: "Saturday"

Dirtbunny does a lot of things very well, but most of her skills are unappreciated and/or obscure.  In particular, I've learned that if someone gets used to being fed very very well, they will at some point start to have expectations or even make demands.  I almost always make The Man a birthday cake, for example.  In past years, I've asked him what type he wants and he either pretends he hasn't heard me or shrugs and says Idunno.  One year he requested a lemon cake that he grew up with so I did that.  The ingredients featured two boxes of lemon yellow Jello and a box of cake mix and I'm pretty sure the recipe I obtained was, umm, inexact, because baking it in a springform cake pan led to a woefully undercooked and runny center.  I'm almost certain this thing was supposed to be baked in a Bundt pan. Anyway, it turned out pretty gross and he has lost his enthusiasm for cakes whose major ingredients come prefab from a box.