Thanksgiving Morning

I am an idiot. Though I'm at death's door, exhausted, and now officially diagnosed with bronchitis, I couldn't bear the thought of pop tarts or donuts for breakfast on Thanksgiving Day. How could I sully this day with a cheap fast breakfast that has about as much culinary intrigue as a bowl of cereal?

So I stayed up late the night before and made a recipe of dough, slightly sweetened, butter as the fat. I always make bread by feel. I maybe followed a recipe the first year or so of my cooking life. Now, I guess it's just one of those things. You know how much toothpaste to put on your brush, and you know how much liquid to add to the flour to make dough. I had it in my head that I would make cinnamon rolls, so I made a mixture of softened butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and apple sauce. After the first rise, I rolled out the dough in a rectangular shape and slathered with the mixture. Roll it up like a jelly roll, slice into 2 inch rolls and arrange in a buttered springform pan. I sat them out on the enclosed back porch overnight on a 30 degree night. They rose only slightly. I brought them into the kitchen to warm up while I preheated the oven to 375 degrees. I have no idea how long they baked, but when I checked on them later, I knew they were perfect.



These rolls rose a bit more in the oven, just beginning to edge over the top of the pan. After allowing them to cool a bit, I opened the springform pan to reveal the golden brown glory beneath. They were breathtakingly gorgeous. Breaking them apart into "servings" (they were enormous) gave me great pleasure because I could see the very light and yet stable crumb. I added a glaze made of powdered sugar and a bit of milk. Michael and I had ours with a cafe latte. And we ate every bit. The kids seemed pleased, but barely made a dent in their rolls. Now, that is a breakfast worthy of Thanksgiving morning.

Olivia's Birthday, phase 2

So, every kid expects to bring in treats to school to share on their birthday. I had about 13 cupcakes left from the party. Yellow cake with pink strawberry frosting. Two short the 15 required for her class. And I had fallen apart pretty much the moment after the last birthday guest left. Exhaustion and a protracted cold had finally taken its toll. What was a self-respecting mom to do? Why, make the Martha Stewart one-bowl chocolate cupcakes, of course.

They called for buttermilk, which was a little unusual, but added a vaguely salty and tart unctuousness to the cakes. That, contrasted with the fluffy vanilla-almond flavored frosting (Mom's recipe again) made for a highly successful batch. There was a certain level of immediate textural pleasure just at the moment of biting into one of these. One of the teachers offered to help me start my own bakery and another has ordered a birthday cake for February. And the only gal who really matters, Olivia, was very pleased with the excitement over her birthday treats.

In the pink

Guess who's five? Well, almost five. Yesterday, we had a rip-roarin' awesomely awesome birthday party for little Miss O. I'm rather pleased with the cake end of things, as I'm the one who stayed awake for nearly 24 hours straight before I got a chance to decorate. I used my mother's frosting recipe this time. I also made Nick Malgieri's chocolate plastic and used a candy mold to create butterflies and flowers. Here is the cake:

And let's not forget the clever formation of pink cupcakes...

At one point while we were decorating, Louis looked around and said "gee, this looks like a breast cancer awareness party!"
Thanks, Lou.

Mom's frosting
1/2 stick butter
1 cup shortening
2 lbs powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp butter flavoring or other preferred flavoring (I substituted strawberry)
gel food coloring in desired color (yep, I used pink!)

Blend butter and shortening in mixer. Alternate addition of powdered sugar and milk--a few spoonfuls of sugar, a few drizzles of milk, until all combined. Add flavorings. Add a few extra drops of milk until at desired consistency. Add food coloring.

This is a great all-purpose frosting. It's never failed my mom for going on 30 years.

Louis Birthday Cake: Final Comments

Well, the cake was a success. Potent with vanilla flavor and creamy rich textures. Still, I think I would have done things a little differently. The cake itself was quite rich and too heavy to absorb the vanilla cream. Much of the cream oozed out the sides of the cake. The effect wasn't without it's appeal. Vanilla cream is good no matter where you find it. I think next time I'll use a Genoise cake. I'm also not 100% sure about the boiled frosting on a birthday cake. It did make an interesting "snowscape" for the Star Wars figures, but it also oozed down the sides of the cake. Once again, it wasn't exactly unattractive. I imagine the boiled frosting would have held it's shape better if I'd whipped it longer. Perhaps next time either another layer of vanilla cream (now we're getting into trifle territory) or frost the whole thing with the more traditional buttercream frosting.

Louis Birthday Cake: Assembly

At this point, I had to stop. I felt it would be unseemly to frost the entire cake at this point. It had a nice un-fussiness about it. Tomorrow, I have to stud the thing with Star Wars figurines, which I'm not too happy about. Still, this is the most grown up cake I've ever made for one of my kids and I think he'll be happy with it. If he isn't, then he isn't human.