When Baby2 came along, we were confronted with an "all hands on deck" kind of situation. Whereas before, Hubby and I could juggle Baby1 between the two of us so that one or the other could do something independently (i.e., cook dinner), or we were able to entertain Baby1 sufficiently without having to hold her the whole time - we were suddenly faced with the reality that one of us would typically have to hold Baby2, and the other was left to entertain Baby1 and sometimes have to help juggle with Baby2. And with Baby1 entering the heart of the T2's - needless to say, we were definitely stretched to the ends of our ability and patience.
Enter the TV. We shunned putting the TV on for her up until Baby2 came along. And suddenly we found that we had an instant babysitter when we needed a free set of hands. But after about 8 months of allowing her to watch TV for about an hour in the morning and at night (and more often than I'd like to admit, even more on the weekends), I started hitting the note of skepticism about exactly how helpful the TV was. The short-term versus long-term benefits really pushed the button of guilt in my daily dose of hindsight. Would the amount of TV she was allowed to watch (so that we could get a little peace and quiet) springboard back at us like a boomerang in the all-too-near future? Would the amount of TV stump her own curiosity for the little joys of life in favor of the instant-gratification world that we're accepting all too readily? Would the present-day babysitter TV become the microwave for a future couch potato?
All in all, these questions boiled in my mind, enough that I decided that we'd shun using the TV as a babysitter with such convenient frequency. Hubby and I brought her and Baby2 together more, and surprisingly, found that we were going back more to the life we knew before Baby2 came along than one that metamorphosed after he came along. And a month later, natural timing or not, Baby2's natural curiosity and adoration of his big sister pushed him to be able to crawl at long last. It's a process of finding balance, not outrighted abandonment of any one thing or another, so that we allow these little pipsqueaks to know about all that's out there, not only about the doors that we choose to open for them.
And in the cooking arena, my experimentation with cake continues. I've been reading up (finally!) and found that the high-protein flour (King Arthur) was altogether not appropriate for cake building. I got lower-protein flour (Gold Medal), did my 3T corn starch/1c flour dance to get cake flour, and built a pretty good crumb for Baby1's 3rd birthday cake from Cook's Illustrated's Best Recipes cookbook. And to my chagrin, reading instructions really did pay off (where's the room for my creative gene?!) when it came to making buttercream frosting.
Cake:
1 3/4c low-protein flour (remove 4T flour and substitute with 4T corn starch), sifted well
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 1/2 c sugar
2 sticks butter, cut each into 8 pieces
4 eggs
1/4c milk
2t vanilla extract (optional)
1. Butter/powder/parchment line 2 9" round cake pans. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Sift the dry ingredients together twice into a large mixing bowl (I use the standing mixer bowl).
3. Set the bowl into the mixer, and start up the mixer on low (unless you want to look like powdered donut).
4. Cut in the butter, 1 piece at a time, allowing the mixer to mix it well into the flour after each addition. Keep mixing until the mixture looks like a fine pie-crust crumb (pea- and sand-sized pieces, flour adequately covered by butter).
5. In the mean time, mix the wet ingredients together in a measuring cup.
6. With the butter/flour mixture stirring in the mixer, slowly pour about 1c of the wet ingredients into the dry. Blend ingredients until smooth, then turn mixer to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy. Add remainder of wet ingredients in a slow steady stream (and preferably along the edge of your bowl, unless you want to look like an uncooked powdered donut). Mix on med-high until thoroughly combined.
7. Divide batter into the two prepared pans.
8. Bake 20-25 minutes, and let cool on a wire rack at least 10 minutes before running a thin knife along the edge to extract the cake.
Buttercream Frosting
4 large eggs
pinch of salt
1c sugar
1 pound butter (yes, that's right - 4 sticks), with each stick cut into 8 pieces
1. Start up a double boiler (a pot of water boiling water under a bowl large enough (I used a standing mixer bowl) to be able to cover fully the opening of the water pot).
2. Combine all ingredients with the exception of the butter in the top of the double boiler. Make sure the top bowl doesn't touch the water.
3. Whisk gently but constantly, and beat the mixture until foamy and registers 160 degrees.
4. Beat the egg mixture at medium-high in the standing mixer until light and airy, and cooled to room temperature.
5. Reduce the speed to medium, and add the butter one piece at a time into the mix, mixing well after each addition.
6. Once all the butter is added, increase the speed of the mixer to high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.
We used beet-juice food coloring to make the frosting pink. This recipe of frosting was enough to cover 24 mini cupcakes (same as recipe above) as well as frost and fill a 2-layer cake (the recipe above). And, both recipes yielded a quite-happy Baby1 in the hour when she turned 3.
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