Saturday, March 10, 2012

Cooking (chaos) for my Friends

I got new pans for my project. Because I wanted sheet pans just like the Pioneer Woman!
And a new cutting board. She said I would need one of those too. 

My friends are having a dinner party and they asked me to bring a dessert.
I'm making the Red Velvet Sheet Cake that Ree Drummond featured on her blog and Food Network show recently. I love red velvet cake and it looked so easy.

I'm sparing you the detailed photographs of the cake making process.
But I can tell you that I learned a few things.
The most important, was that I will always refer to the Kindle version of the recipe, rather than the printed recipe.
I really need all the visuals and lovely photos that PW provides with her recipes.
My mother recently commented to my husband, I mean, apologized, saying that she realized that she never taught me to cook.
I really didn't buy square pans, they just look like that, they are rectangular.
 My photography is not the greatest either.
So I set out making this cake. I learned that when you open a large bottle of vinegar to measure a teaspoon, it's best to measure it over the sink, rather than the cake batter.
I couldn't taste the extra vinegar.
Colleen, let's keep this to ourselves!
It really wasn't that much more vinegar.

I had cake batter all over my shirt, face and cabinets by the time it was all mixed up.
By the way, I think I would do better if I had a Kitchen Aid stand up mixer, specifically the orange one with the Pioneer Woman flowers on it.

So, at this point, the cake has been baked, and I've overcome all the obstacles.
My husband, the Bear, sat quietly in the living room, and was quit surprised with the outcome. 
He was so supportive, that he washed all these dishes!
Here's the fabulous icing. See what I mean about the mixer?
PW was right about that icing. It is delish!
Heat milk and flour, then add to butter and sugar, and whip the "heck" out of it, she said.


Then I had these fabulous berries from Sam's. Can you believe someone, somewhere, grows berries this nice, that are ripe in March?


 
I hope not to tempt anyone that doesn't have access to these kind of berries where you live.

Have you seen blackberries this big? They must be dew berries. So I iced the cake, ate some raspberries and black berries. Then I placed some raspberries on the cake. It looked just like PW's cake!

TaDa! Here it is! Why does it look so square? I decided to save the blackberries for a cobbler.

And it's just as pretty on the inside! This is what was left after the party.
I'll have to work on my presentation. It would be even prettier on a cute blue plate like PW.
But if I cut another piece to photograph, I might have to eat it!

4 comments:

  1. I measured out salt over my cake batter the other day - bad mistake!
    Your cake looks great!

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    Replies
    1. So I'm not the only one who does those things. You'd think I'd have learned that lesson by now!
      Thank you! The cake tasted good too! The icing was incredible. I would have never imagined making icing with flour!

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  2. Looks beautiful! And apparently it tasted as good as it looked.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! It was pretty! And did taste good! I somehow managed to pull it off! I think I'll make another one 4th of July, and decorate like a flag with raspberries and blueberries.

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