The Real Deal

One thing I definitely know is that either you recognize the superiority of cooking from scratch, or you don't.

I will never forget the first time I had homemade chocolate cake. I was working as a massage therapist and a client brought a cake in for another therapist's birthday. It was AMAZING. I learned in that moment that scratch would trump processed EVERY time.

I could give up store bought or boxed cake every day for the rest of my life. This from scratch cake is so divinely perfect, it's crazy and not giveupable. It is literally the best cake I have ever tasted. And I admit, I have tasted a few. What's your point?

I did NOT make the frosting included in this recipe, which I'm sure is also divine, but instead tried another fabulous recipe found on the same site. It's called "That's the Best Frosting I've Ever Had." And it is. Try it. You'll thank me.

The American palate has to be trained or it's innate to a foodie, but either you recognize the real thing as amazing or... you think Big Macs are amazing. Real cake does not have that sugary sweet, easy on the palate taste that we're used to. It's LESS sweet but more divine. It's heavier but..lighter. It's...complicated. It's REAL.

Did you know they train bank tellers to recognize counterfeit money not by ever showing them counterfeit bills? Instead, they have them make a deep study of the REAL thing so that they automatically recognize the junk bills. Anyone with a real taste for real food can tell what's real and what's not. You won't be able to fool them. Get yourself used to eating REAL, HOMEMADE food and your tastes will change and you will learn quickly to not only recognize, but appreciate, and then absolutely adore and demand the real deal. Try this chocolate cake and taste upon genuine goodness.

Sconed-Out

Ok, this is the last you'll hear of my scones people. Here is the recipe...I think it is a great basic recipe. From the past you know I have varied it with adding blueberries, apple, cinn&raisin, and lastly garlic and cheese. ANd in defense of the garlic and cheese, they were really great I think....needed a bit more cheese (about a cup) but really is good with soup (substitute cup of sugar with tbls sugar) But, I hope to see some pics of your scones soon on your blog. Forget waiting til' after Christmas...the recipe is all yours! I am moving on to Focacia!!!

INGREDIENTS
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar (I like raw in mine)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional!)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1 egg

DIRECTIONS
In a small bowl, blend the sour cream and baking soda, and set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt. Cut in the butter. Stir the sour cream mixture and egg into the flour mixture until just moistened. Mix in anything extra...Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead briefly. Roll or pat dough into a 3/4 inch thick round. Cut into 12 wedges, and place them 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown on the bottom

Chocolate Cake Recipe

Well I meant to publish the recipe so here it is! It is SO easy!

Delish Chocolate Cake

Mix together 2 c sugar, 2 c flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt.

Melt together 1 c butter, 4 tblsp cocoa, 1 cup water. Add to dry ingredients

Mix 1/2 cup buttermilk, 2 eggs and 1 tsp vanilla. Add to rest of ingredients!

Top with fresh whipped cream. (2 cups heavy whipping cream, 1/4 cup sugar- probably less, (I guess, I just did it to taste) and 1/2 to 1 tsp vanilla. Mix cream first with mixer until peaks form then add sugar and v. (chill bowl and attachments)

That's it! This makes a sheet cake or THREE thin layer cakes. Supposed to be thin. Which I now am realizing may be the reason mine was fluffy instead of dense. Her layers may have been thinner. I used a regular rectangular lasagna pan and the cake was a good 1 1/2" thick... I didn't have three equal size pans to make 3 layers. Hmm, I bet that was it. I didn't use a mixer to mix it just gently blended it with a spatula. I did however fall in LOVE with my new Hamilton Beach hand mixer with different attachments and a case so nothing gets lost for a mere 19 bucks at Stuff Mart! Used for my whipped cream which is SO fun to make.

Also, I thought it would only take 20 or so minutes at 350 but when I checked it and thought it only needed 5 more minutes, I forgot about it! 15 minutes or so later, YIKES! THE CAKE!
And it was perfectly done. So if you do a sheet cake it may take as long as 35 minutes. There was no instruction on this part so just keep an eye on it.

I think making two thin sheet cakes would be ok and stack them to get that dense trait. I am going to try that next. I am in for another chocolate cake today as I have this buttermilk and heavy cream I don't know what to do with. If I can make it to church tomorrow, they will be the recipients.
Is buttermilk supposed to smell sour?

German Dark Rye (better than Outback?)

I've gone Bread Baking CrAzY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today's specialty is German Dark Rye: a new recipe so DON'T laugh if and when I can post a pic. Just as soon as I can access my 2007 pics again. AARRHGG!

3 cups Bread Flour
2 cups water
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup honey
2 pkgs active dry yeast
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp. caraway seeds
3 & 1/2 cups Rye Flour
2 tsp. salt
8 tsp. Wheat Gluten

Place white flour, cocoa, yeast, c. seeds, gluten and salt in large bowl. Stir to mix. Place water, honey and butter in a saucepan and heat until butter just melts. Add it to dry ingredients and mix until moistened. Then beat very hard for three minutes. (see Mike Pearl for further instruction on this, haha JUST KIDDING M!!) Stir in rye flour, enough to make soft dough. Knead 8-10 minutes. Roll out and shape into two loafs. Brush tops with oil and let rise in undeated oven over a an of hot water for one hour until doubled. Punch down and let rise again until almost doubled. Take out of oven and preheat oven to 400. Bake 25 minutes. Remove immediately from pans and cool on wire racks.