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: White Loaves

I think it is natural that my first blog post is about bread. It is the first thing I remember my mom baking and the first thing she taught me how to bake. I used to bake a loaf every Sunday for my boyfriend to have during the week.

Then lots of things happened - culinary school, crazy PR job hours, restaurant internships, and I haven't baked bread in a while.

But, now, in a new apartment, in a new borough (Brooklyn!) a new kitchen, and an opportunity to become part of the awesome baking blogger circle Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia, it was time to take a Sunday afternoon and make bread.

First, though, I have to share with you the conditions I am baking in. As I mentioned, I have just moved, which is tough enough, BUT my new kitchen is about a quarter of the size of my old one. So, until we get a bit more storage space, here is what our living room:



And dining room:

Look like!

Ok - now you can envision me trying to find loaf pans! So White Loaves was the first recipe in the book Baking with Julia that the Tuesdays with Dorie group decided to make. The key to the group is that we are all going to bake together, each of us posting pics/sharing tips of how the recipe came out for them. If you want the recipe, the best place to go is either Laurie's or Jules' blog. You can look at their lovely loaves and get the recipe. Or go buy the book - which I highly recommend.

So - how did my loaves turn out? Pretty awesome! Apart from worrying whether my poor kitchen aid was going to overheat, it was a very easy dough to mix, and I had no trouble with it rising or baking up. It has a nice crust and a creamy inside. My boyfriend has already made french toast with it, and I had it with some baked eggs for dinner.



The one thing I will say is the the recipe calls for either AP or Bread flour. Now, these flours are pretty different in terms of their protein content, so I made loaves with both AP and Bread to compare. Both were lovely, and the differences are subtle - I felt that the dough came together and rose better with the bread flour. I haven't cut into one of them yet (we now have 3 loaves in the freezer), so can't report on the actual texture, but I CAN say that the loaf made with AP flour is delicious!

The Tuesdays with Dorie group posts every 2 weeks (next time is chocolate truffle tartletts!), but I am hoping to make blogging about my baking adventures at least a weekly event. I have a massive amount of cookbooks, and my boyfriend never complains when I "practice." I also hope to build out the site a bit more with pictures of other items I've baked for different occasions. I hope you will come back and see what is new!