Busy, busy!

So today I woke up (late), went to class (late), went to the grocery store, and then came home and started baking. I decided to put some sliced strawberries inbetween the layers of the cake I'm making today. Alton Brown says that it is nearly impossible to bake a cake from scratch that is as good as one from a box, so I still use a boxed mix. I have an altered recipe for boxed cake that uses 1 cup of buttermilk instead of water, and 4 eggs instead of however many the box says. It usually turns out being pretty delicious. However, something weird happened today that has never happened to me before. I checked the cakes (2 8-in rounds) about 6 minutes before the timer went off, and they looked browned, so I did the toothpick test and it came out clean. So I take them out and cool them in the pan for 10 minutes as usual. Then, when I went to turn them out of the pans, the strangest thing happened. One of them turned out alright, and the other one split in have and uncooked-cake-batter-goo came out all over me (it was quite hot still). It was really strange. Luckily, I had another cake mix on hand and tried again using the box-prescribed method. I'm about to go turn them out of the pans, so let me go do that and I'll get back to you.


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Beautiful! Moist, browned, spongy, and they smell delicious.

I did a dumb thing last night. I was trying to make Pomegranate Sorbet in Sam's ice cream maker, and I guess I should really leave the frozen desserts to him. The first time I tried it, I made a simple syrup (made by boiling sugar water), and then added some Minute Maid Pomegranate Lemonade. I took the ice cream maker out of the freezer, poured the mix in, put the lid on, and turned it on. I come back about 20-ish minutes later and nothing has happened. Thinking it was the watered-down Minute Maid, I dump that out, clean the ice cream maker, and stick it back in the freezer. I then made some more mix with real pomegranate juice (Pom Wonderful) and lemon juice, according to a recipe I found online. I stuck that in the fridge overnight.

So today when I go back and try again, the ice cream thing is only about 90% frozen, but I figured I'd try it anyway. So I put the mix in and turn it on. I sit down to glance at the instruction manual and realized I had forgotten something: the agitator. Duh. I have seen that thing and cleaned it a million times before (I cleaned it last night!) but forgot to put it in. So I figured after all my failures thus far, I should probably just wait until the thing (I should find out the real name for it) is completely frozen. So when I get back from the gym (Hip-Hop Aerobics today!) I might give it a shot. I don't know if the sorbet is going to happen for girls' night tonight, but it will turn out eventually! Maybe I should just wait until Sam gets back from San Francisco so he can do it. He is the expert, after all.

I also decided to make some chocolate-covered strawberries with the leftover strawberries from the cake...yum. And I think Melissa is bringing ice cream, so all in all I think we will have: pizza, chips, salsa, queso, cake, chocolate-covered strawberries, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate milk and other various beverages, ice cream, and possibly some pomegranate sorbet. For 5 girls. Looks like I won't be able to afford missing any workouts next week...

I haven't started on the cookies yet. I'll probably just make them during girls' night rather than before. That way they'll be warm. Plus after the gym I have to put the cake together and frost it, maybe make the sorbet, and get stuff together for the evening.

Oh! I started reading Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food last night. It's his book on baking. I'll be the first to tell you that science isn't my forte or anything, but I find his book really interesting. He is really focused on making his readers/viewers better bakers/cooks overall, not just good at making a few recipes. I really appreciate that. He's my favorite. :) Er...second favorite. Whoops. ;)

Pictures will be up eventually!