There haven't been too many new dishes of recent. Baby2, however, has started eating a bit of food - Japanese pumpkin to start. The first time I tried feeding him was 2 weeks ago - he would have none of it (what the hell is this crap you're putting my my mouth Mom!). Quite in contrast to Baby1, who just took to eating solid food immediately. This past week, I tried again, and he was definitely a lot more receptive to the food I was feeding him. Bobbleheading his way to try to aim and get his mouth around the spoon, once he did manage to get his mouth on the spoon he lapped up the pumpkin that was on there. Granted, half of it would end up back on his lip or chin, but hey, he's trying.
Despite lack of experimentation with new dishes, I have been experimenting with my base cake recipe. This, as I thumb my nose at Hubby's statement that baking was a science, something not to be futzed. Last weekend, I baked my go-to cake recipe with a couple of variations:
Replace 3T of the 1c flour with 3T of corn starch (typical replacement ratio for 1c of AP flour to yield cake flour)
Added 1/2t of baking soda to dry mixture
Use of both lemon and vanilla extract
The result was stupendous. The cake texture - it was delicately moist with a fine crumb. I topped with my version of buttercream frosting (about 1/2c whipping cream + 3T melted butter + 1/2t vanilla extract + 1/4c sugar) - the frosting came out lovely and fluffy, and remained so 4 days later under cover. To get more density and shape, I may increase the quantity of butter next time. This frosting formula, however, will be perfect for when I'm going to make some strawberry shortcake.
Another variation was substituting about 1/4cup of the flour with cocoa to make chocolate cake. Again - fairly successful, though the chocolate flavor didn't come through so strongly - I may need to add more cocoa in lieu of the flour next time. I also made another attempt at my chocolate ganache frosting, this time with a formula of 1/2 square of Ghiradelli + 2T butter + 2T cocoa + 1c heavy whipping cream. It looked to curdle at first, but upon beating more, it fluffed up and tasted wonderful. It still doesn't have the subtle chocolate flavor (still fairly smoky from the cocoa) of the cocoa frosting I remember from long ago, but it was still quite tasty. Baby1 ate the entirety of her slice of cake - AND the frosting. Quite a change from when she would eat only the frosting.
Another variation was substituting about 1/4cup of the flour with cocoa to make chocolate cake. Again - fairly successful, though the chocolate flavor didn't come through so strongly - I may need to add more cocoa in lieu of the flour next time. I also made another attempt at my chocolate ganache frosting, this time with a formula of 1/2 square of Ghiradelli + 2T butter + 2T cocoa + 1c heavy whipping cream. It looked to curdle at first, but upon beating more, it fluffed up and tasted wonderful. It still doesn't have the subtle chocolate flavor (still fairly smoky from the cocoa) of the cocoa frosting I remember from long ago, but it was still quite tasty. Baby1 ate the entirety of her slice of cake - AND the frosting. Quite a change from when she would eat only the frosting.
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