TWD: French Strawberry Cake

Hello again! Apologies for my tardiness in updating the blog. My only excuse is that, as many of you know, I am moving. Again.

My first post back in February was right after we had moved to Brooklyn. The apartment was in shambles and I had kitchen stuff in piles all over the place. It was a mess. It is going to be better and worse this time, because this time the move is to London, England.

For the past month or so, as my job and visa were being finalized, I have had the heartbreaking task of going through all of my belongings and asking “is this worth moving across the ocean?” While we are hiring movers, we can’t take everything (and by that, I mean that pretty much all of my cookbooks and baking supplies are going, the question is only being asked about everything else I own).

And as I was baking this cake today, my last cake (almost) to be baked in this apartment, I found myself really worried about being without my baking utensils for the next 3 months (when everything will arrive in the UK). How can I live without my cake pans? Tart pans? Rolling pin? Scale? Favorite cookbooks? I’m going to end up with socks, underwear, and sheet pans in my checked luggage!

But for right now, baking is helping keep me sane and this cake has helped me this week remember one of the great things about New York – the farmer’s market. While running around the city doing errands and trying to get in as much possible in this last week before I leave, I ended up in Union Square, right in the middle of the farmer’s market. The site of the beautiful strawberries made me so happy that this was the (almost) last cake I will be making before I start a new adventure.

The cake itself was really easy to make. The genoise came together fast and the vanilla in the recipe gives is a sweeter smell than the traditional recipes we used in school.  I used AP flour as I was not going to go buy a box a cake flour when I am leaving for another country in under a week and I don’t think the cake was any less tender for it. Overall, this is a nice staple cake that I can see being paired with a lot of different fillings

To the strawberries, I added a little orange blossom water (just under a ½ tsp, it is powerful stuff!) to give a floral hint to the filling. Then, for the cream, I mixed in lemon curd instead of sour cream in an effort to use up what I have in the fridge. It still provides a nice tartness to compliment the sweetness of the strawberries.

Given that I am doing A LOT of stress baking lately, the last thing my boyfriend I need around the apartment is more sweets (we have three – THREE – flavors of fruit jellies right now. It’s a little ridiculous), I’ll be dropping off the cake with a gentleman that has recently been really nice to my mom and I. He has provided both of us with some exceptionally nice glasses. And come on, who wouldn’t like French Strawberry Cake?

Even though I haven’t posted about the other recipes, I have actually made them all, so I will be catching up and writing about them. However, the next new post will be made in a different kitchen, in a different country, so that should be very interesting indeed.

For the full recipe for the French Strawberry Cake, please head over to Sophia's Sweets and Sleep Love Think Dine. Until next time, wish me luck!!!

TWD: Rugelach

As with any new endeavor, mistakes are a given along the way. There is apparently some weird glitch with word and blogger and internet explorer that, while very long and boring, was why some people were unable to view my blog entry last time. Well, at least, at first. Now you can't view my blog post because I accidentally deleted it trying to figure out the problem and had no back up.

A fitting entry to this week's Baking with Julia post. The recipe was rugelach and, like the blog post before hand - no matter how well prepared you think you are, trying something new always leaves room for a few glitches.

There was a lot that I liked about this recipe. For example, it really appealed to the type A organization freak in me as this was NOT a recipe you can just throw together (like chocolate chip cookies, where my record is under ten minutes). This is a recipe that, while you could take a day and do, lends itself to being set up and prepared over a number of days - making the dough and the fillings one day, filling and chilling the dough on a second day, and finally, on the third day, baking the dough.

That said, even with all the prep time, and the perfect way they looked on the tray, there was still a glitch - instead of staying in the lovely pinwheel shape that they started in, the majority of them exploded, looking more like commas than nice swirly periods.

I can't attest to the taste (they were actually baking as I wrote this post, I wasn't THAT organized), but they smell wonderful. I think with a few parchment paper rolling tricks and a firmer squeeze at the end, the next batch may remain in their traditional shape (and there will be another batch, I only rolled out half the dough). So, as with the mishap with the previous blog post, hopefully I will solve the glitch and come away smarter than I was before.

If you would like to see some very nice rugelach (that don't look like commas), or if you would like the recipe, please head over to My Baking Heart, which is hosting the recipe this week.

I really DO intend to post next week - I recently made a lovely Ginger cake that I would just love to share, so keep your fingers crossed that I get my act together! Otherwise, the next recipe from Baking with Julia is Irish Soda Bread (Happy St. Patty's Day), and you know you can count on me for that one!