Monday, April 20, 2009

When I'm 64....

It's my birthday, so thought I should post something.........Made myself a cake, which got much more complicated than I had expected. My favorite recipe uses baking soda, and I didn't have any when I had assembled ingredients part way last night, and Rilda didn't have any either, so I put what I had already prepared in the fridge. Figured I would restart today. Turned out that baking soda is so popular that stores were sold out, or is so little used, compared to baking powder, that they don't keep it in stock. I eventually found a small box.
At any rate, I took the stuff out of the fridge to bring it back to room temp (85 +/-degrees) before going to work this morning. Got home for lunch, put it together and bake it - came out a bit flat, and don't know if that was because of the heat, the fact that I had held some overnight, or ? The recipe called sweet butter, which isn't available here. In fact, the only butter you can get comes from New Zealand and is packed in cans, and includes water as an ingedient, which I didn't account for. That may be why the buttercream icing turned out a bit runny as well. Will have to work on the recipe for these conditions and see if I can make it better.....

5 comments:

Bahamabarb said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bahamabarb said...

Uncle Carl-
Happy Birthday! My baker friend told me that your cake probably went flat due to altitude. She said to take that into account when baking next time. She also said that your icing problem is due to the type of better you used and she recommends using a different type of icing for your cakes. I hope this helps for your next cake and that you had an enjoyable birthday.

Judith Wood said...

Happy Birthday, Brother. And it certainly is a "rebirth". Such an apt comment, "When I'm 64" I seem to remember your wishing to be living in such a climate change about the time of Sara's wedding, nine years ago. I have been busy celebrating our birthday also. Took Evan Lauder, almost 4 now, to Knott's Berry Farm Amusement Park in Buena Hills on Friday. Spent most of our time in the preschool section,"Camp Snoopy" but in honor of the upcoming 67th birthday, I joined Sara on the "Silver Bullet" rollercoaster and was not disappointed!!!!! Back home to Visalia on Saturday to attend a minor league baseball game with our Rawhide team, which won its 11the game, now at 11-0. (Since then, it suffered its first loss) Then on the 20th, Gray took me out to a great restaurant in Visalia.
Carl, if you are missing some ingredients, or whatever, that can be mailed down there without harm, please let us know and we'll see if we can't do that for you through UPS. I love reading your blog. Thank you for keeping it up, and including pictures of your new home and way of life.

The Eclectic Cleric said...

Happy Birthday indeed! Pity about the cake, but I hope the day itself turned out perfectly.

Tim

floydmonet said...

Happy birthday!)%^$#@%^*(*%@@@^ and lots of love- Just returned from Lawrenceville School drop off of 36 ptgs. On my way over to see my mom. More later.... Floydm