Hiatus is on the horizon...

Our latest effort seen here is the Chocolate Domingo. It is a simple one layer chocolate cake adorned with a dusting of powdered sugar. It is definitely dinner party -worthy, even though it is so simple.

Some of the other chocolate cakes have had a very dark, shiny interior, with uniform tiny bubbles (aside from the tunnels from occasional over mixing), what we have described as being similar to a box cake. We mean nothing negative about that, btw. I think many of the cake mixes out there have totally nailed Devil's food cake. The Domingo however, has a brown, maybe even reddish interior. It's crumb is fine, even though RLB says there will be no crumb.?? It's flavor is complex and pleasing.

We tried a new cocoa this time. I wonder how much of the color and texture change is due to the recipe versus the cocoa. We had been using Hershey's Dutch processed cocoa. This week we used a higher fat alkalized cocoa from Bergenfield. What comes to mind, I'm sure is no surprise: do a side by side comparison! Perhaps I will try that this week on my own.

Robb and I will be taking a breather from baking together for the next two weeks, due to work obligations and guests visiting. For those of you following along in the Bible, we are almost done with the butter cake section. Only a few more weeks, Yippee! We are very excited to get into the next sections. Coming first are the fruit and vegetable cakes. We plan to do a massive test day and try lots of different carrot cake recipes, so please send us yours! Or, if you don't have a recipe per se, you might write and describe the best carrot cake you've had. With pecans? With walnuts? No nuts? Crushed pineapple? No pineapple? Shredded carrot? Pureed carrot? Applesauce? Very spiced? Mildly spiced? Molasses? Coconut? Sheet cake? 3 layers? 2 layers? Cupcakes? etc. etc. etc.

Before we get to that section and testing all kinds of carrot cakes, we will attempt one of the "show case cakes" in our next session. It is the White Lilac Nostalgia cake, p. 167. I'm sure we will be raring to go after our two weeks off.

Until then...
Janet