Most of my cooking does not involve baking, particularly when it comes to desserts. I’ve baked some cookies with pretty good success. But I’ve tried cakes once or twice with pretty mediocre to disastrous results. I’ve always followed the directions given on the mix, and for some reason things didn’t seem to turn out very well. I’m also not a big fan of cakes. I find the frostings and decorations rather distasteful – too sticky and too sweet, and just maddeningly sickening for the most part.
The April 2009 issue of Bon Appetit had an article on cakes that actually made cakes look and sound good. All of them are from-scratch recipes. Today just happened to be the birthday for one of our church members, and Elise just happened to work last night and tonight, rendering her somewhat unavailable for baking cakes (she usually bakes the cakes).
Flipping through the different cakes, I found one, Lemon Cornmeal Cake with Lemon Glaze and Crushed-Blueberry Sauce, that appealed in multiple ways: fairly simple (no layers, no elaborate frosting), a simple sugar glaze, and flavored with lemon (a favorite of our birthday girl) and blueberries.
I followed the recipe meticulously, and in the end everything turned out flawlessly. It wasn’t overly sweet, it had a nice blend of fruitiness, and the presentation was quite attractive.
I suppose I should practice some more cake making with some of the other recipes in the same article. There’s one that uses candied ginger… That sounds pretty good.
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