My Birthday Cake

I had gotten into the habit of baking dessert almost every week. With my birthday approaching, I wondered what would be the perfect cake. Chocolate? Carrot? Cheesecake? I couldn't decide so I asked Facebook. The first suggestion was a coconut cake. I thought of it but I wasn't completely wowed. I started browsing Smitten Kitchen's Celebration Cakes. At the same time that I was reading her Tiramisu Cake, my friend also suggested a Tiramisu Cake. It seemed like fate. I needed to make the tiramisu cake. It helped that making a traditional tiramisu has been on my to-do list for very long time. The decision had been made until another friend suggested a Black Forest cake. Meh. I am not usually moved by Black Forest. But then another friend said:

Even better, black forest cherry cheesecake. So you have cherry cheesecake at the bottom with black forest cake on top with thin later of chocolate frosting in the middle. it's covered with cream then Oreo crumbs. On top you have cherry filling with cherry flavoured cream for the rosettes

After I stopped drooling, I knew that I had found the one. This would be the birthday cake. I spent a few days thinking about it and then I made some last minute changes. I would do two layers of chocolate cake with a cheesecake in the middle. I then decided to do a strawberry filling and cheesecake instead of cherry. I am not sure how much I like cherries. And hey, it's my birthday. I wanted to love my cake. So here are the recipes that I used.
 My most favourite chocolate cake recipe - Hershey's Especially Dark Chocolate Cake
 Ingredients
 2 cups sugar
 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa or HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
 2 eggs
 1 cup milk
 1/2 cup vegetable oil
 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
 1 cup boiling water

 Directions
 1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round pans or one 13x9x2-inch baking pan.
 2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of electric mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
 3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes for round pans, 35 to 40 minutes for rectangular pan or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

                                                                    It cracked. Oops!
 Strawberry Cheesecake

 2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
 2/3 cup sugar
 1 tablespoons all-purpose flour
 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
 2 large eggs
1 tin strawberries (you could use frozen or fresh strawberries)
 1 tablespoon cornstarch (diluted with 2 tbsp water)

 Directions
 1. In a blender combine strawberries, half of its syrup and constarch slurry.
 2. Pour into a saucepan and bring to a boil until it thickens a bit.
 3. Cool.
 4. Beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium-high speed until well blended.
 5. Beat in the flour. Add in the vanilla and beat until well incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
 6. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between each addition.
 7. Pour into a greased springform pan. (use parchment paper!)
 8. Swirl in 2/3 of strawberry mixture.
 9. Bake in a waterbath for 45 minutes.
 10.Cool. Refrigerate for 3 hours.

 Cool Whip Frosting

 1/2 cup milk
 1 small package instant pudding mix, (I used vanilla, white chocolate would have also been a great choice for my cake)
 1/4 cup powdered sugar
 8 ounces Cool Whip

 Directions

 1. Pour milk into bowl add pudding mix and sugar.
 2. Beat with wire whisk for 2 minutes. Make sure it's dissolved!
 3. Gently fold in whipped topping.
4. Refrigerate overnight (or for about 3 hours - it will be thicker.)

 Assembly
 One layer of chocolate cake.
 Spread with half of reserved strawberry mixture.
 Add cheesecake layer.
 Spread with half of reserved strawberry mixture.
 Top with second layer of chocolate cake.
 Frost and decorate as you please.

Confused

Confused.

That's the only way to describe how I'm feeling right now. It would be cliché to say that I've never felt this way about anyone before. But that would be the truth. I think. Yes, I've been seriously infatuated. Yes, I've spent weeks in anguish over various men. But this is different.

This is raw physical attraction. Lust? Meh. Let's stop trying to define it so simply. It's the attraction that I've never felt for any of the others. It's what has always been missing. I've tried to manufacture it. I've faked it. But never truly succeeded.

With him, it's different. It was never a flicker - always raging. I've tried to control it. I have to. But a single text message can crumble my resolve. I likened myself to Pavlov's dog last night. I was lost in a novel when he sent the text but in an instant, there it was. The burning desire. The text wasn't even risqué. It was just a "What's up?" but I was immediately... ha. What's the best word or phrase to use here? I could use the one that was used to describe me today but I won't. It'd be apt though. Ha.

Wait. So what am I confused about? I know what I want. Where's the confusion?

Oh. Him. I wish I could remember his JS name. In fact, he was the reason I started writing Summer 2005. Nothing really changes that much, huh? I wish I knew what he wanted. I don't know if I can give it to him. I also don't think he trusts me to give it either. I cannot blame him. We've played this game for years. He is always the loser. No, I did lose once.

And I may be losing again.

Pumpkin Streusel Braid

So soon I was making a recipe from Willow Bird Baking each week. She posted her Pumpkin Pecan Streusel Braid and I was on it! I wasn't even sure if I liked pumpkin. I had only picked at pumpkin pie but I didn't care. I needed to make it. Yes, I was obsessed. What is your point? The dough is really easy so this is a really easy recipe to whip up for breakfast. I made this a few weeks ago and I think that I need to make it again a few days. I really enjoyed it. You can use whatever fillings you fancy. You can check out her other braid recipes.

Sourdough Croissants

Julie challenged her readers to make croissants. I have a sourdough starter so I decided to use her technique but replace the commercial yeast with sourdough yeast. As the croissants baked, I remember telling myself, I don't care how these taste because right now my house smells amazing and the smell alone is so worth it! I messed up the measurements so they came out really small but they were still amazing.

Here is one while it proofed.

I stuck a piece of chocolate in a few.

Here are the yummy mini croissants.

Be sure to check out Willow Bird's Croissant Photo Tutorial.

End of the Year..yaay

It's the end of the year and I think every blogger who is worth his/her salt is writing a recap post and/or a resolutions post. I am definitely not worth my salt but as I sit here waiting on a dish to finish cooking, I figured that I would try to write something.

It's been difficult to write here. As I mentioned in one of my first posts, I started here after Journal Space crashed. I loved JS; I loved the community at JS. I would write almost everyday. Most of it was just ramblings about my day; but at least I would write. Here, it is different. I just can't seem to get into it. It isn't even that I don't have anything to write about. Yes, my days are pretty much the same every day and for the most part, nothing "interesting" ever happens. However, that never stopped me in the past.

I'd love to write about how about how much Christmas sucked this year. Yes, I know I'm blessed but you know what? Sometimes, I just want to whine. And I would love to whine about Christmas. But each time I sit to write about it, I either find myself on the verge of tears again or I just don't feel like dealing with it. I think I am getting sidetracked here. What's the point of this post again? Recap and resolutions?
....

I just got interrupted by a phone call and lost the flow. There goes that. So....

Happy New Year!

Michael Crichton's A Case of Need

 

I took some time off recently to catch up on some reading. I was surprised to discover that there were a few books on my bookshelf that I had not yet read. After reading perhaps the 12th novel last night, I thought I could start a new section on my blog - book reviews. I thought I would start with Michael Crichton's A Case of Need since it's still fresh in my mind.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I read a Michael Crichton. I couldn't even be actually sure that I had  read one. But that couldn't be possible. I had to have. In any event, I was looking forward to this one. After all, Stephen King had even given this one his stamp of approval. I opened the novel, got comfortable and settled in.

I started with a table of contents which indicated that the book spanned one week in October. Quick, I thought and then moved on. The first page showed what I later learned to be the chart for the main patient in the novel. I noted that the book spanned a week in October, yet her chart was dated November 15 (no year given). I assumed that this perhaps happened in November of another year. However, I quickly learned the patient's chart was indeed created the day before the novel started. This irritated me. That is a huge typo. How could anyone let this slide? I later learned that this may have been Michael Crichton's first novel (he used a pseudonym then). However, I am sure this novel was read by editors and when it was reprinted under Crichton's name, why wasn't this checked and changed? There were several other typos in the novel and I think they would have bugged me less were it not for that glaring error in the beginning.

Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable novel. Of course there were a few plot holes but not enough to make the novel less interesting. It is a medical thriller and so there is a lot of medical jargon. There are helpful footnotes if you do not understand them. I appreciated this because I know that I would probably pause to Google some of it. In some cases I definitely did.

Book summary: It's the 1960's and abortions are illegal. After a botched abortion, a young lady hemorrhages and dies. A known abortionist is immediately arrested. His best friend and fellow doctor does not believe  he is guilty and sets out to find the truth.

My Rating: At some point in the future I will come up with a rating system for the books I read. Perhaps I will use glasses? In this case, I would give A Case of Need 3.5 glasses on a 5 glasses scale.

Disclaimer: All links are Amazon Affiliate links.

Red Velvet Cheesecake

I made the Red Velvet Cheesecake in stages over a few days. That made it lost easier. First I made the Red Velvet Cake.

Then I made the Oreo crust.

Next, I attempted the ganache. That did NOT work out well. Reading is fundamental!

Finally, I made the cheesecake. I don't know why I always thought of cheesecakes as complicated. I used a waterbath (Look Ma, no cracks!) but I did leave it in for a little too long.

Then it was assembly time! I am not very good at decorating so I deliberately took the blurriest picture of this ever.

It was great!! I felt so fancy! I loved it!

I highly recommend that you try this.