Baking Blunders

Has it really been SIX MONTHS since I last blogged?!?! I know that someone out there has just been dying with suspense for another good read. And that person is most likely my mother. Anywho, the subject of my blog post today is about baking. Now you may think, "Gee, Jamie lots of people put their recipes on the blog and post great pictorial how-to's - why should we read yours?" Well, in the hopes that there is some flustered mom out there like me who makes stuff that never looks quite right or turns out quite right, I am going to detail my latest baking blunder from this morning.

I set out to make a strawberry yogurt cake for a neighbor of mine. Simple enough - hop on Pinterest, print the recipe and follow the directions. Therein lies my problem. I am really bad about following directions when it comes to baking. I read the recipe, think to myself, "yeah, yeah, that's easy, you got this." Then, I somehow manage to seriously botch it up. See, I simply can't be bothered to do things like fold in, sift, alternately add, or the latest baking directive to stump me - make a well and put the wet stuff inside. Seriously?! I have two children nipping at my heels. That junk is just going in there all together American style - like a melting pot. I am sure Betty Crocker would not approve.

Today, the recipe called for 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of powdered sugar. The directions said to cream together the butter and sugar. I scoured the recipe to see if there was any other mention of powdered sugar, but I saw none, so I mixed all the sugars in. I SWEAR there was no other mention of powdered sugar. Whoopsie - I was wrong. The cup of powdered sugar was to be used to make the glaze. You know what that means - an extra cup of sugary goodness that was (1) likely give everyone who ate it diabetes, and (2) not going to meet Michelle Obama's plan for childhood healthy eating. Yikes, not only was my cake done wrong, but it was also going to contribute to the obesity epidemic of our nation and our rising healthcare costs. I just couldn't handle that kind of pressure. So I just improvised a bit, changed the recipe to involve blueberries (so I could save my strawberries for another cake for my neighbor) and came up with the following. It is adapted from the strawberry yogurt cake recipe:

BLUEBERRY BLUNDER CAKE

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
3 eggs
2 tbsp. lemon juice
zest of one lemon
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
10.5 oz plain Greek yogurt
1 pint of fresh blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a bundt pan. Tell your kids that mommy needs just a few minutes.

2. Sift (oh, who am I kidding - just mix) together the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in the lemon zest. Change out a load of laundry and make sure the kids haven't destroyed the house.

3. With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and BOTH sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the lemon juice.

4. Mix in the yogurt. Add a little of the flour mixture at a time, mixing together as you go. Tell the kids that you are not put on this earth to entertain them day and night.

5. Mix the blueberries gently into the batter until well incorporated. Tell your kids that if they don't stop fighting with each other, they'll be licking the beaters with the mixer still running. If you have preschoolers who take everything literally, make sure they know mommy is joking.

6. Pour in the pan and bake for 60-65 minutes. When toothpick comes out clean, pull out of the oven and completely cool, then invert pan on to a plate.


Are you ready for a pretty picture? Not happening, folks. The directions said to let the cake cool 20 minutes in the pan, but I just had to go ahead and pull that thing out about 13 minutes too early. Again, I simply can't be bothered with directions. So, of course if fell apart, and here it is!!!


But I will tell you one thing - it tastes AWESOME! And I know my husband and kids will eat it up this evening for dessert. I can just hear the hubby now -"That is fine!" He often describes food as being "fine" they way we used to say in 8th grade, "that boy is fine!" which used to kind of creep me out, but after 6 years of marriage I'm over it.

So, it ain't Pinterest pretty, and it was a complete work in progress, but it is still good. So good, in fact, that I momentarily contemplated giving it to my neighbor in that condition, but decided I didn't need one more person in this world thinking I am a little wacky.

For those of you who need a good summer recipe, try this one out (I would probably try with strawberries first) and know that unless you are more direction averse than me, it will definitely turn out prettier than the picture, and really, how often does that happen?

Comments

  1. Thanks for my daily dose of laughter! No need to wonder whose kid Deacon is :)

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  2. I enjoyed this post very much. It reminds me of the time you called me when you were at FSU and asked me for Kathie Garnett's Enchilada Casserole recipe. You had people coming for dinner at 6:30 and you were on your way to the store to get the ingredients for dinner. If I remember correctly it was about 5:30 then and you thought you could have it cooked shortly after your guests got there. You are a wonderful cook you just do not have any patience when it comes to cooking!

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  3. Oh Jamie I can't begin to tell you how many mess ups I've had in my cooking life. You just have to make the best of what it turns out to be. I remember a fish recipe I tried out and it was so bad that we threw it away and went to dairy Queen for banana splits!

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  4. At least you persevered through it and made something awesome! Love your directions.

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