Adventures in baking

I used to bake a fair amount in university. The year I was living with Courtly et al, I used to make cakes on a fairly regular basis. I remember making one for Austin (my main memory of whom was watching Legend of the Overfiend with him, and him reacting - loudly - to the scene where the boy makes it possible to attach the demon member to himself).

Like many things, baking was something I didn't do for a number of years after that year. Funny how that works.

Recently, though, I've been experiencing a yen to do some baking. The other night I tried to make a silver and gold cake. (The idea behind this is that half of the batter is made with egg yolks, and the other half is made with egg whites and vanilla, yielding something more like a gold and beige cake.)

It didn't work out so well. The "gold" cake had too much flour, and ended up being basically a pound cake. Tasted yummy but didn't look like much. The "silver" looked good -- light, fluffy.. and tasted like crap.

So right now, I have a champagne cake in the oven. I'm drinking some of the leftover champagne as I type. Hopefully it'll work out well.

Of course, I enjoyed myself thoroughly both the other night and tonight, and that makes me happier than whatever results I get.

Smells like success (aka dancing the happy cake dance)

It could be better. I think the quality of the champagne I used didn't exactly enhance the cake.

However, it's light, fluffy, and tastes fairly good. It's not too sweet, so I'm going to use a flavourful icing, and I think they'll balance fairly well.

I'm a happy little baker.