.... And then there was cake.
Oh cake. The holy grail of desserts. There are few things that can tempt me more than a piece of red velvet cake slathered with cream cheese icing. But so many people are just butchering the idea of cake and dessert in general... yeah, I'm talking to you Betty Crocker.
Dessert is something fairly new to me. We never really did the whole dessert thing while I was growing up and so I have taken it upon myself to make sure that we make up for lost time.
I'm hoping to cover a lot of ground in the next few months... especially with the holidays coming up. PRIME BAKING TIME. I have a few goals in mind.
One, I wish to further my knowledge of culinary arts in general. I eventually want to be able to make a variety of things without having my eyes glued to a cookbook for desperately needed guidance. From my understanding, each ingredient that goes into something has a standard effect on your product. Flour thickens, butter enriches... that sort of thing. I learned a lot about this trying (and ultimately failing) to recreate a certain cookie of unknown composition.
Two, I want to work on my presentation. There have been very few things I have baked that haven't come out of the oven tasting wonderful. You can never go wrong with two pounds of butter. However, they are lacking the finesse of more practiced hands. Hopefully as I progress though this blog I will acquire more skill (and tools) to allow me to improve the quality and beauty of my creations.
Three, to develop patience. This is mostly influenced by my inability to wait until cake is completely cooled to frost it (See: Goal Two).
As this blog progresses and expands I hope to exemplify by my failures (as well as successes) the precise art that baking entails. And who knows? Maybe through this blog I can convince people to chuck that nasty box of cake mix and create something real, fresh, and delicious for themselves.
Hey Annie,
ReplyDeleteI love your idea on teh baking blog, I am going to culinary arts school this fall and I think you have a great idea!! Have fun baking!!
Paige!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! I'm very excited to start doing this, and I'm definitely looking forward to having a culinary student here to critique my work :) Viva la butter!
I am a devoted follower of your quest and would gladly and thankfully abandon the cake mix; expanding my mind and tastes buds to a level of discernment that would bring me to that culinary pinnacle of living the higher law of the true cake. And, ahh, presentation... presentation is everything...after 2 pounds of butter...everybody knows this.
ReplyDeleteForward, with fervor, undaunted by the Better Crockettes of the world...we, the Betty Counter-Crockettes are counting on you!!
Aunt Gail. I do apologize for the delayed response. My computer is going in tonight to get examined and surgified. Poor Mackerbell. I am also a firm believer in the higher law of baking.... (From scratch people, FROM SCRATCH!!) and I'm so pleased to have you on board this journey with me.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see your comments in later entries, and I am hoping you get to be my guinea pig on at least one occasion. You are the butter of my blog... in the sense that you make it RICH :)