verbicide | huh, done already (Reply)

So, that was a productive morning. The cakes are baked and are now cooling on the rack. The pastry cream's made. I have to say I so prefer

str8ontilmornin's recipe to the one from Tartine. It's less complicated and much tastier. I will never stray again. Also, I must not eat the entire bowl.

I've turned the ovens off, and what I might do is make the second batch of cakes later on tonight. It would be so nice to have that part done. This Cook's Illustrated master recipe for white cake is Jeff's favorite. It's also sort of weird. Though, I don't know how weird since I don't really make white cake often. You mix the flour, sugar, baking soda together with the butter to make moist crumbs, and then you add the milk/egg white/extract mixture in stages --beating at 1.5 minutes, 30 seconds, and then 20 seconds. It's weird, but not particularly difficult.

My remaining enormous complaint with the Cook's Illustrated baking recipes is that they don't give dry ingredients by weight. It makes life so much easier. I know not everyone has a kitchen scale, but I wish they would provide both.

Oh! I just had a sort of exciting thought. One of my other problems with this recipe is that it only makes two layers, and the Jeff insists on three. (I know, pushy isn't he?). So I'm always left with this third cake layer that I have nothing to do with. I think what I might do this time, is after I've poured the batter in the first pan, I can pour the remaining batter into two mini springform pans and make some totally other cake. It'll be great to have something to practice decorating on without having to make cake again! Woo! Hmmm, what other frosting would go great with white cake?

The kitchen is a bit of a mess right now, but I need a break from it. I think I"m going to snuggle with Brutus for a little bit, visit with Henry and Bailey, and then here's a list of household tasks I'd like to tackle this weekend (in itsy bitsy steps so I have lots of things to check off):

- Tidy dining room and arrange the new bouquet of flowers on the table
- Laundry
- Get rid of box of books on bedroom floor
- Clean up sewing table
- Tackle dresser/desk drawers
- Organize all the crap on top of the desk, so Jeff has more room
- Move sewing table into closet
- Flannel sheets on bed, and comforter cover change so I can wash the current set
- Drop off box of things to Goodwill
- Pick up dry cleaning
- Organize recipe book thing and get rid of excess magazines

We've unexpectedly been given Monday (Columbus Day) off, so that's sort of beyond exciting, too! Lots of time to get things done!