Wordless Tuesday - Getting ready for pie!

Sugar rush

All work/baking and no play makes Di a dull girl.  So this weekend, we had some fun. =)  B&G have been bugging me to go to the movies, so that's what we did yesterday morning.  Wreck-It Ralph was quite entertaining.  And I managed to get a good candid picture of my girls afterwards, which is rare.  Gillian and I also had a fun day today.  We went out to run a few errands, and were gone for over three hours.  A lot of that was because we stopped into Williams-Sonoma shortly after they opened, and stumbled upon a demonstration on baking pies.  Gillian was pretty impressed that we already knew how to do the stuff being presented.  She was also happy to sample the end products.  I think I'll have a helper when it comes to making dessert for Thanksgiving.

Fifteen?!

Something a little unexpected happened at work today.  This coming Monday will be my 15th anniversary of working for my company.  I knew that in the back of my head, but I wasn't expecting anything related to that today.  But since we have the day off on Monday, my boss brought it up this morning.  I got a nice certificate and a lovely paperweight-ish item to commemorate the occasion.  But much better was the gift from the people I work with, pictured above.  Do they know me, or what? =)  Okay, not well enough to know that I don't really like white chocolate, lol.  But the thought is definitely what counts, and it certainly won't go to waste, since everyone else here likes it, and I can find fun ways to use it for decorating stuff.  I love the cupcake stencils, mainly because they're something I wouldn't have thought to buy for myself.  I think I need to bake some cupcakes this weekend now...  Something that my coworkers were surely hoping for.  =)

I like big bundts, again

Happy National Bundt Day!  I'm excited once again to be celebrating the day with Mary the Food Librarian.  This is her third year of I Like Big Bundts, where she's baked 30 Bundts in 30 days, leading up to National Bundt Day on November 15th.  I missed the first year, but last year I joined in with an Espresso Gingerbread Bundt.  I've been on the lookout for a good recipe for this year, and finally settled on one.

I went shopping on my day off last week, heading down to the outlet malls in San Marcos.  We have outlets closer to home, but not the specific stores that I was looking for--Crate and Barrel and Williams-Sonoma.  WS in particular ended up being quite dangerous.  I've been wanting a cake stand for a while, and finally bought myself one.  It seemed perfect for showing off my bundt.  You can also see my makeshift cake dome, which is the bowl from my salad spinner.  It's the perfect size! =)  The cake recipe that I used comes from one of the other acquisitions from my shopping trip--a copy of Sarabeth's Bakery: From My Hands to Yours.  At 50% off, I just couldn't pass it up.  There are several yummy looking bundts, so it was just a matter of picking one.

I decided to make the Ruby Cake, so called because it has a raspberry filling hidden inside, along with some bittersweet chocolate.  I love those flavors together, so this was definitely my first choice to make.  The batter itself is a rich one, loaded with butter and sour cream, though lighter on the eggs (only 3) than some I've made.  The batter is made by the creaming method, and came together with minimal effort in my stand mixer.  The recipe calls for using two piping bags to put the batter and filling in the pan, but I didn't follow the instructions for that.  I just spooned half the batter into the pan, made a trough for the filling, added the jam and chocolate very carefully so they weren't near the edges of the pan, and topped them with the remaining batter.  It worked fine.  I really wanted to use my Heritage Bundt pan for this cake.  The recipe calls for a 10-12 cup pan, so I thought I'd be okay.  I baked my cake for just under an hour.

The verdict?  Well, I wish I'd left the cake in the oven a bit longer. Or used a different pan. Or just put less batter in the pan I used.  The cake rose about an inch about the top of the pan, but didn't overflow at all.  It seemed to test done, but the middle (near the raspberry part) was definitely a little under-done.  While it might not have been exactly to my taste, the texture didn't stop my coworkers from devouring it. =)  My friend Nancy pointed out that lots of people like under-done cake.  Better that than too dry, I guess.  And as I'm writing this on Monday night, I'm now laughing, since Brianna's opinion of the cake is that it could be a little more moist. =)  She also thinks that it needs more chocolate.  G pronounced it pretty good.  My only critique of the flavor is that it needs a bit more salt to balance out the sweetness.  (I'll probably use a full teaspoon next time, instead of half.)

I did like the cake enough that I'm sure there will be another attempt at it.  If you'd like to try it for yourself, you can find the recipe here.  You can also find it in Sarabeth's book, of course.   Don't forget to head over to Mary's blog for her post today, which includes the list of all the bundts she's baked this year.  She'll also have a round-up with lots of fabulous bundts from other bakers later this month.

Wordless Wednesday - Shopping!