Week Ten: A Cake to Close the Year

If you've followed along for a few weeks or from the beginning (God bless you), you've watched me burn out on baking (pun intended). I've gone from giddy excitement to busy curiosity to near dread for baking, eating and writing about cake.

J asked me earlier this week "So, what will your last cake be?" I actually flung my head back and groaned out loud, not unlike our 18 month-old. And I had no answer. I'd done no pre-planning and no Pinterest research, much less cracking an actual cookbook.

However, January's Our State magazine (a wonderful periodical about all things North Carolina) included a peanut butter cake recipe. I haven't made a peanut butter cake yet, I had almost all the ingredients already, it required no fancy equipment or talents, and it could be made in a casserole dish without decoration. Sold.

But reading the recipe caption really sealed my choice and is what makes it the perfect way to end both this challenge and the year.

Photo courtesy of Our State magazine

Their beautiful photo is captioned "In grade school, recipe writer developer Lynn Wells always looked forward to peanut butter cake day in the cafeteria. Now, she shares her recipe (for School Days Peanut Butter Cake)." 

I had to do some research. I asked my parents if they remembered eating peanut butter cake at school. My mom was wide-eyed and excited, gushing over her school cakes; then crushed that I hadn't brought her a slice. I also remember hearing both of them talk about amazing cafeteria brownies. Then, because the universe's timing is hilarious, my friends' mother shared a similar recipe ("Lunch Lady Cookie Bars") on facebook and mentioned how much she loved eating this at school as a little girl.

This baffles me. I can't recall anything resembling dessert being served at school (beyond fruit cocktail or the "good" snacks which cost extra) and I was in school pre-Obama lunch rules (seriously, thanks Michelle Obama. I love you.). And I don't remember a single thing that stood out to me as homemade; it all seemed so processed and pre-packaged. 

The majority of my cafeteria memories from elementary school revolved around the tyrannical cafeteria manager, Mrs. Burns. 

Unfortunately, I never encountered her much again after 8th grade and don't know anything about her personal life. But as a kid, she was terrifying. The seemingly ancient lady frequently yelled at us waving a menacing wooden spoon, and gave every appearance of hating her job, and probably us, too.

She was always dressed professionally in crisp white scrubs, there were never major snafus in the lunch line, everyone had enough to eat, and her staff were excellent (good cop/bad cop?). Yet, she was a nightmare.

However, now I'm an adult and a mom and I kinda get it. In hindsight, she was probably approaching retirement age. Mrs. Burns' cafeteria ran like a well-oiled machine because she'd had a lot of practice. She knew what worked and what didn't. But she was probably OVER.IT.

I only have one child and even microwaving a crappy meal usually ends in yelling and/or tears from at least one person. I can't imagine spending a day catering to hundreds of loud, messy, and generally awful picky eaters.

And given what I know now about professional life, being a lunch lady probably provided her little perks. Like being a janitor or secretary, food service can be a really thankless career - especially when you're feeding seemingly ungrateful kids. Despite being one of the most regulated positions in a school, there is little respect from coworkers, the Board of Ed, or State Office of Human Resources (read: K-12 teachers are gods compared to other state employees).

She might have started her career happy, excited to see sweet babies grow up under her care. But by 1993, Mrs. Burns was probably tired, overworked, underpaid, and suffering from a non-stop tension headache following years of lunchroom chatter.

And we've all been there - in our jobs, our relationships, our parenting, or even in our hobbies. The things we loved, that we actually wanted to spend time doing, which we're good at, become burdensome, boring or exhausting. We end up spending more time dreading going to work or yelling at our kids than we do celebrating our accomplishments or making good memories. 

But here we are, approaching a new year where we can re-prioritize our life!

This challenge - to bake a cake every week for ten weeks - has allowed me to see how I need to better manage my time to improve my life. I'm the worst to take on too much and stress. I think I'm so busy, that I never have any time. And sometimes, it's tight. We go and go on the weekends, trying to cram as many chores, trips, and family activities into 2.5 days. Sometimes I push too hard and turn fun into obligation ("WE WILL DO XYZ. IT WILL BE MAGICAL AND WE WILL LOVE IT, DAMNIT.") 

Using Goodreads.com's annual Reading Challenge widget

But then I look back at this year. I've struggled a lot as a new mom to find my groove between getting things done and enjoying myself. But then I see that I did find the time for things that really mattered or made me the happiest. 

Somehow, I managed to bake 10 cakes during the busiest time of year and I wrote about each cake, too! Magically, I was able to read 25 books this year (my long-shot goal was to read 15)! We went to DC for a few days; we took two weeks of  Baby Swim Class; I threw J a great 30th birthday party, the list goes on and on. Because we made time for it; even when it wasn't easy to do so. 

So I encourage you, to take some time to reconnect with the sweetness of life - your kids, your interests, delicious homemade recipes - and savor it. 2018 is sure to have its hardships - every year does - but don't allow yourself to be bogged down in the mire. Seek the passion you had early in your career or marriage, remind yourself of your talents, and make your joy a priority. 

Hopefully, Mrs. Burns was able to find peace and relaxation after my tenure in K-8; but I beg you to not wait that long. 

P.S. Don't take this to mean I'll keep baking a cake every week. Screw that. We are officially out of butter and I quit. 

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I'M FINISHED! Hallelujah! I did it. 

To recap: 

Week 1: Coconut Cream Poke Cake 

Week 2: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting 

Week 3: Orange Chiffon Cake with Candied Zest 

Week 4: Upside Down Banana Toffee Cake 

Week 5: Maple Bundt Cake 

Week 6: Little French Fudge Cakes 

Week 7: Tomato Soup Cake 

Week 8: Sufganiyot 

Week 9: Chocolate Yule Log 

Week 10: School Days Peanut Butter Cake from Our State 

I chose this week's recipe on a whim and praise the Lord it turned out to be incredibly easy and wonderfully delicious! I would highly recommend this recipe for any get together and especially for events where you're in a pinch for time and/or money, but need to feed a crowd quickly. This might become my go-to potluck/Church dinner cake. 

The technique is certainly easy and fast, but it is a bit bizarre. For the cake, you melt butter into a saucepan of water and boil. Then you add peanut butter, oil, buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. I'm familiar with the wet into dry ingredient method, but I don't exactly understand the science of the boiling... but whatever, it's pure wizardry. It makes for a very wet, loose batter, but it cooks into a perfect, airy spongey cake. 

Only a few things are worth waking up early:
Cake and WNC sunrises top the list

In my very limited research (ahem just comparing this recipe to the similar 12 Recipes version), I've found a difference in including crunchy peanut butter or sticking only to creamy. I haven't tried creamy-only, but I LOVE the texture the few small peanut bits adds to the cake. I'd expected the crunchy to be used in the frosting, but it's great in the cake itself. 

The frosting also involves a bit of boiling, but it's a breeze to make. Pouring the hot frosting onto the warm cake allows a bit to seep in deeper into the sponge. But as it cools it hardens only a bit - not quite like those amazing fudge icings Southern grandmas can make in their sleep. It's silky and sweet (you could probably cut back on the powdered sugar by 1/2 - 1 c, actually) and is just the right thickness across the cake. 

And I love to be the bearer of wonderful news: this cake is even better the next day. We put ours in the fridge - again, more food science I don't understand: what desserts should/shouldn't go back in the ice box? - and it was terrific the next morning. The frosting got a little crispier and I swear the flavors deepened overnight. 

#NoFilter #Flawless #Awkward

Allegedly this makes 24 pieces of cake; they had to make it go far in a cafeteria (and not pump all the kiddos with sugar and butter midday). But you absolutely have my permission to cut it into 12 pieces...or 6... or sit down with the dish on your lap and a binge-worthy show (oh, these accidental puns). 

Seriously, file this one away, y'all. I think it's in my top three for this challenge. 

Here we are. At the end. My butter, sugar and AP flour stockpiles have been depleted and my energy is spent. I'm relieved and ready to relax for awhile. As this cake cooled, I put on my fleece onesie (stretchy clothes are a must for now), slippers and a carbonated clay face mask (copious amounts of butter = a desperate pore situation) to fully come off of my baking high. 

Thanks for sticking with me for the last ten weeks. I'm proud I got through it and glad you joined me. More to come in 2018! But not cake...or not much. 

Week Two: Heavyweight Carrot Cake

I realize I was just whining about our culture's overzealous focus on nutrition, calories and general fun-sucking from delicious food. But, I have to at least provide a warning about my second cake: it's not for the faint of heart or atrophied arm muscles. Actual nutrition facts aside (a tiny bit of extrapolation will tell you how healthy it is) this cake is downright HEAVY. Not dense, but physically heavy. 

Take a peek at a couple of the ingredients:

• 1 pound carrots, shredded
• 1 pound cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/4 pounds butter, softened
• 2 pounds powdered sugar, sifted

We're already weighing in at 5.25 pounds without even including flour or eggs. Carrying this cake in to work today on my glass cake stand (which already weighs a metric ton) was a sheer feat of endurance. I'd like to add One-Handed Cake Carrying to the Olympics or at the very least, the Highland Games. 

So prepare yourself if you intend to bake this cake or tote your grocery bags in from the car. I recommend starting with some bench press reps today. 

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Welcome to Week Two - we are officially one-fifth of the way through my challenge to bake a cake a week through the end of the year. 

To recap: 

Week 1: Coconut Cream Poke Cake

Week 2: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting from Martha Stewart's Martha's American Food

This week, I opted to make my boss' birthday cake. I moved into this position at work a year ago and one of my first observations about my new department was that these folks love birthdays and especially, birthday cake. My meticulous predecessor kept a birthday spreadsheet with each person's primary and secondary cake and icing preference. Y'all - if your office, friend circle, or other crowd of people who love each other and love eating, doesn't do this, you're missing out. 

My second observation about this crew was that 25% of them listed carrot cake as their favorite birthday cake. That's unheard of. Carrot cake is wonderful, and my go-to Easter dessert, but no one really requests it for their birthday, right? But I forgot to mention that my predecessor also apparently makes the world's best carrot cake. Excel skills and great recipes - no pressure, right?

So let it be said that I'm in no way trying to replicate her recipe or replace her - and Kathleen, if you're reading this, I miss you and will never be able to fill your shoes - but carrot cake is Boss' favorite, and it fits the bill for my challenge. 

Carrot cake is a classic, American comfort food and I'm hoping to use this challenge to find a couple of traditional, mainstay recipes for those occasions where I feel very June Cleaver. An interesting thing about carrot cake is that recipes vary so much from the incredibly simple to over-the-top ingredients like pineapple, raisins, and crystallized ginger. However, no matter how many add-ins you use, it is always a humble, warm and comforting spice cake with creamiest icing. And there's a 90% chance there'll at least one tacky piped carrot on top; this cake is in the class 10% minority. 

Available HERE on Amazon. This is a great cookbook with un-fussy recipes of the foods we love in the US. It's sorted by geographic area, so you'll likely be really familiar with your section (hello, peach cobbler and pimento cheese) and iconic dishes (think: NY cheesecake, Philly cheese steak or New England clam chowder), but will likely be surprised by other less famous recipes. Highly recommend!  

Also, J and I have been doing an extensive study of this particular cookbook and are determined to have made every recipe in it next year. 

Part of our effort to cook through this cookbook includes the attention to writing in the book, on the recipes as we cook and eat. We've both grown tired of sacred cookbooks that are for looking, not using. We are now committed to making notes in all our cookbooks. I want mine covered in crumbs and stains (the best recipes are always on the stickiest, crunchiest pages) and have notes all over them. How else will you remember things like "not four American portions, maybe 10 European, but not US #merika" or "sauce reduces quickly" or more importantly, things like "YAAAAS. THE BEST!" or "VOID THIS RECIPE. DO NOT MAKE AGAIN." 

Please note: this challenge has NOTHING to do with cake decorating skills. #fail

Here's what I intend to write on page 66 of American Food:

• Subtle spice; maybe add more ground ginger/cinnamon/nutmeg
• Cake has great texture
• Frosting is A+++
• Make frosting ahead! But leave out well in advance to be warm/pliable 
• Don't skimp on pecan garnish

All in all, this was a pretty good cake and the crowd at work seemed pleased. I'm not certain this is the best carrot cake in the land, but I LOVE the frosting. I will refer back to this recipe to frost other cakes and since it makes almost 5 cups of frosting (thank you, 2 lbs of sugar and 1 lb of cream cheese) it will make enough for a whole pile of cupcakes.