We got a kinect the other day, and have been dancing until we are near the point of collapse. For anyone who likes to dance, it is so much fun!! It is a bit misleading to sit and watch because it looks so much easier than what it really is, and it is surprising how quickly your heart rate escalates! Whew! We also have been enjoying the Fruit Ninja game. Tommy feels pretty fierce when he proclaims his Fruit Ninja Status; and I must say, it *is* impressive! '
We spent our New Year's Eve watching movies. We watched "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and then, afterward, flipped over to watch "Jaws" on TV. Jaws is just one of those movies you shouldn't watch before going into a body of water. Great classic movie, though! To quote Robert Shaw, "Here's to swimming with bowlegged women!" Ok... that really has nothing to do with my baking today, so let's get started!
I'm going to begin with the prettiest picture and will explain more down below, but this is the final product of my Vanilla Bean Bundt cake with Vanilla Bean Glaze:
I was asked to do a cake of my choice for the January birthdays at my work, and because one of the January birthday folks is a good friend of mine, I decided to make his favorite cake, a Chocolate Dobash cake. Oh, what a mess I ended up with. Things seemed to be chugging along just fine, and then, the horrific moment of my cake sinking occurred while they were seemingly peacefully cooling. I now wish I had taken a picture of it to share, but in my discouragement, I went into recovery mode and didn't think about picking up my camera.
Even my homemade frosting turned out a little on the lumpy side.
Hmphf!
So, the recipe starts with whipping egg whites and a little sugar that you fold into the chocolate cake batter. It's really pretty, actually.
Dobash is a Hawaiian cake that is supposed to be light, but full of moist flavor. The frosting is a creamy chocolate that has a pudding like texture that sets up nicely.
Ideally, you make two 8" round cakes, and cut each of them in half so that you have a 4-layer cake with frosting in between each layer as well as on top and along the sides of the cake. Since my cakes fell, not only am I stuck with just two layers, but I'm stuck with two flat, somewhat dense layers. Not at all like it was intended.
Here is the final product. I am so frustratedly disappointed - and will definitely have to try this recipe again so that I will feel comfortable sharing it, assuming I'll have success.
Just looking at it again in this picture makes me grumble.
Moving on...
Considering the major failure with the dobash, I decided I should make something else to take to the office tomorrow as well. I recently purchased some vanilla bean paste that I have been dying to try out, so I'm making a Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake with Vanilla Bean Glaze. The original recipe comes from Sweetapolita.com and if you look at her results, you'll see that her frosting is more of a pure white because she used vanilla bean instead of the paste. Finding real vanilla beans is a challenge, so this is my first effort at using the paste. Here's what it looks like, for those that are interested:
While the cake was baking, I put some paste into a few tablespoons of milk and put it in the fridge to let it all infuse - it will be used to make the vanilla glaze.
The cake turned out beautifully! Here is the pre-glazed snapshot. So much prettier than that ridiculous dobash! And you've already seen the glazed finale! Thank goodness it turned out so I don't have to come up with yet another thing to make.
While I've been doing all this baking and picture taking, Mr. Bender has taken to stealing things and disassembling them in the back yard (as opposed to his usual location of under the bed). He keeps me so busy sometimes. Here you can see all his back yard treasures, which include to the far left, a page of a recipe that I had written on a piece of paper, a pot holder, a demolished flip flop and a piece of a toy he got for Christmas, along with his newest baby under his paw, and in the foreground, an entire stack of light green sticky notes that are now in a kazillion pieces. I took this picture about 10 minutes ago. Bender froze to look at me to see if I was going to try to take any of his things back into the house.
Over and out for now. I have messes to clean up, some my own, some not. I will give the dobash another try soon, and when I do, I'll share the recipe I use. I refuse to let it beat me!
I hope you have had and continue to have a very Happy and Safe New Year's!
Enjoy!
"With the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible."- Julia Child
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