Certifiable

I opened the mailbox this morning to find a much anticipated document from my friends at Ivy Tech. 

Now I get to buy a frame and hang it...um...somewhere.

I'll have to work on getting the wall in a real bakery to hang it on.  But this sucker is good for five years, so I have a little time I suppose.  In the meantime, you can be assured that I know how NOT to introduce food borne diseases into anything I make:). 

Yay:).

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations to Christy Knapp of Linton, IN!

You are now the proud owner of a 10" square tube pan from Fat Daddio! 

Thanks to a really useful site, random.org, I was able to pull a number out of a virtual hat and Christy is the lucky one today!

Don't worry though!  In a week or so, you might be the lucky winner of that awesome hemi muffin pan!

You don't want to miss it, so stay tuned!

Give Away #1: 10" Square Tube Pan

My apologies for anyone left waiting while I bake. 

I had a small disaster that delayed this post by a day or two.  You see, my initial post was supposed to be about angel food cake.  But thankfully, the total disaster that ensued after my egg whites fell and turned my awesome cake into a goey, gross glob - well, that gave me an opportunity to test the dishwasher-worthiness of the pan as well.  (Just so you know, it did just great in the dishwasher.)

I don't blame the pan.  I blame Irene.  I'm sure the pressure systems that girl is spewing out are affecting Indiana.  I'm CERTAIN.  But Irene couldn't touch my amazing apple cake. 

Oh.  My.  Goodness.

First of all, this recipe is to die for.  It's one I found not long ago and altered a bit to make it my own.  I also used the apples that are literally falling off the tree in my back yard, so in addition to being delicious, this cake was also frugal.  Gotta love that! 

Here's the recipe, with my own attempts at photography in between...

6-8 apples (mine were super tart green ones)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar

2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup melted butter
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup apple juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1/4 brown sugar
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter, line with parchment and flour your tube pan. Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

If you're thinking that's a lot of apples.  You're right.  Stay tuned for a series of
posts on apple pies, apple gumbo, apple dumplings, apple sauce and finally,
apples in the garbage disposal cuz we CANNOT eat any more apples!

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or large mixing bowl. In another bowl, combine butter, apple juice, sugar and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix just until moistened, then add eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl to make sure it's all mixed up.  Do not overmix!

Sprinkle brown sugar in bottom of pan, half of the apples and half the walnuts if desired. 

Scoop and spread half the batter, add the rest of the apples and walnuts, cover with remaining batter - this might take a little maneuvering as the batter is on the thick side. 

Bake for about an hour and ten minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

And when you turn it out of the pan...oooooo, look at all that carmelized goodness!

See what that brown sugar does?  Oh, heaven:).

And what a wonderful pan I had to bake it in!  Want one of your own????

Just remember DA RULES!  Post your name and say something nice - or send an email to bakelore@gmail.com, subject line "I love Fat Daddio!!!!" And please, if you don't mind, tell me where you are!!

Good Luck!

Bake Lore has been hijacked!

Wait?! What is this?! I'm not Amy! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Hello everyone! Many of you don’t know me except by reputation. I am the infamous Lennon Lore, husband to the Baker Lore herself, and sometimes cake delivery boy. Let me start off with saying that posting on blogs about cake and bread and sugar and pastry are not normally within my purview.  I have a gun blog (that  I never post on) and I’m much more apt  to speak about firearms at length than anything else. That and Star Wars, even though my sad devotion to that ancient religion hasn’t conjured up the stolen data tapes, OR given me clairvoyance enough to find the hidden rebel base. But I digest…

At the current time of writing this, my wife doesn’t know I’m doing it. She didn’t ask me to post this and she may in fact turn it down, too embarrassed to post it on her blog. We shall see.

You see friends; I’ve been there since the beginning. I was there when Bake Lore was nothing but the unnamed, undefined twinkle in the eye of a woman who was living in a matchbox house in Kentucky who had the Food Network playing incessantly while her husband trained to kill terrorists a few miles away at Fort Campbell all day. I like to imagine the beginning of Bake Lore was a particular incident about four years ago when I witnessed my Galway Girl gleefully making a sculpture out of butter cream icing, cheezits, pretzels, and whatever else she could get her hands on one night when we were staying with her parents for the weekend. Really all her cake making is just this; a deep rooted desire to play with her food. Only now she does it like a boss, making pretty/delicious things, thankfully the cheezit quantity in her cakes have taken a sharp decline in the last few years.

Now I am her husband so of course I’m biased, but that doesn’t mean this stuff ain’t good. I get a firsthand look at what exactly goes into these creations, ingredients and labor-wise, and let me tell you, it can be pretty intense. These cakes take HOURS of labor to make just one. There have been a couple of weeks where a night or two I am forced to make like my hunter gatherer ancestors did and order a pizza because the kitchen is full of CAKE and there is simply no room to cook anything else. As for ingredients, Amy is insistent, especially for her bread, to only use the very finest, ALL natural ingredients. She soaks her wheat before she uses it, because a good hot bath is the best stress reliever there is, and trust me, you don’t want stressed wheat in your bread. Stressed wheat makes bread that doesn’t think clearly, gets poor sleep and makes decisions poorly. It also releases nutrients that are super healthy that you’re not going to find in your Bunny Bread. There’s also something about phytates that , honestly, I’ve had explained to me like four times and even read an article about it, but I still can’t remember what they are and what they do, I just know they are bad for you. They mess up your digestion, or something. And make you impotent. And they are racist. And they killed Jimmy Hoffa.

Really the thing is, Amy has a whole philosophy about her food, and how it should be prepared, and like all philosophies deeply held, this permeates down to the way she prepares all her food. I may jest with her about it sometimes (Many a ribald of Larry Groce’s “Junkfood Junkie” is heard in my house), but in reality, I admire and support my wife 100%. Sure, there are things I would have done different, she shot down my idea to name the store The DGC Bakery (that’s Damn Good Cakes), although, it would have been awesome (I find that girls are rarely concerned with awesomeness as much as they should be).

So really, I’m very proud of my wife and all that she has done with this passion of hers. It’s really impressive to see the whole thing, where it’s came from to what it is now and where it’s headed. I’m very proud of you, honey.

Announcing: Give Away Rules!

I just recieved a huge box from Fat Daddio, with my name on it.

Oh the baking-geek joy that fills my heart! 

Inside, I found two for me and two for you, as promised!  I will be doing two separate give aways since the items are very different. 

First and foremost - - here's the LOOT!

The 10" square tube pan in the picture below is the first item. 

Our premium angel food pans are built to last! Each pan is constructed of 14 gauge anodized aluminum and features an even wall thickness. The anodized aluminum allows the cakes to climb well and release effortlessly. There is not a finer tube pan!

Next up, we have another unique item for your bakeware collection, the Fat Daddio, something they call a Hemisphere Muffin/Multi pan.

Fat Daddios muffin pan series are built from 18 gauge anodized aluminum and feature a rigid rolled rim that creates a very durable pan. The anodized finish promotes even baking and easy release and cleanup. With 8 styles, we offer everything from the standard muffin pans to our best selling square muffin pan.

You must be dying to know how to get your oven mits on these bad boys.  Here's how it's gonna work:

DA RULES:
1.  I will use my set of bake ware, and blog about my experience and the recipe I used.

2.  You will obsessively compulsively check Bake Lore to see when I post about my experience and tell all your friends and relatives to do the same.

3.  When I publish the post about each item, you have two ways to enter the give away:

• First, post a comment and say something nice.  (Snide comments will render your entry void...*raspberries*.) 
• Second, you can have an additional entry by sending me an email at bakelore@gmail.com and using the subject line: I LOVE Fat Daddio!!  Also, say something nice.  I'm 30 now, and I need compliments more than I used to.
• So, for each give away, you can enter a total of TWO ENTRIES - or more if you use another email address I suppose.
• USE YOUR FULL NAME so I can make sure the correct person gets the loot!!  No name, no loot!!!!!!

4.  After THREE DAYS - with the option to extend if I feel like it:) - during which you will continue to check the blog and like the facebook page (see #2)! - I will announce a winner, chosen at random.

5.  THIS IS IMPORTANT:  The winner is entitled to one piece of bakeware - and free delivery or pickup.  The big point of this promo for me is to build up my LOCAL base, so  - -This give away is limited to those who are within a one-hour driving distance from Linton. 

This includes the Linton, Bloomfield, Jasonville, Dugger, Terre Haute, Bloomington, Sullivan, Washington, Vincennes and all points in and around beautiful rural Indiana - - this is your time to WIN!

I'm so sorry, but I just can't afford to ship to my fans in Latvia, though I love you dearly! (Es Tevi Milu! - - That's "I love you" in Latvian, for reals.) 

Sooooo, if you are one of the lucky winners (which you will know instantly because, again, see #2), that will bring me to your door with your Fat Daddio Pan - or you can pick it up in person.  And...by the way... If you decide you want me to throw in some bread or cookies, you totally have to pay for that:).

That's all for now!  Keep checking BAKE LORE!

And if you have questions, email me at bakelore@gmail.com, subject line: Fat Daddio Giveaway.

STAY TUNED!!!!

It's My Party...

Today, is my 30th birthday.

I left my 20's behind in an exhausted heap and I'm moving on and moving up.

During the course of this milestone birthday, I heard, possibly over nine million times - - "You didn't have to bake your own birthday cake, did you??"  As if that would somehow be a fate worse than turning 30;).

I love to bake!  What better way to celebrate than to really let loose in the kitchen and create something for myself that truly celebrates the occasion with flavors that I, me and myself really love? 

So I give you, Amy's 30th Birthday "Cake"

Lemon Almond Tiramisu
Tasty enough to make you forget your real age!

Real, fresh lady fingers, gorgeous, golden lemon curd, almond syrup and layer after layer of all of it.  No one stuck a candle in it for me...however, I did get my own version of "Happy Birthday" direct from my brother, who is in Israel.  It was in Hebrew, but I caught on:). 

Yes, that is a tea candle. 

I had to put up with a lot of complaining from those who believe cake is the ONLY acceptable way to fete one's natal day, but I blow raspberries in their general direction.

It's my birthday, and I'll eat lemons if I want to!  So there!

Thank the Maker for lemons!  They are one of my delights here on earth:). 

Happy Big 3-0 to me!



Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

C is for Cookie and that's good enough for me: A guestblog

Another guest post tonight brought to you by the other Lore sister. Only this time, we're talking cookies. If you haven't checked out her normal writing routine yet, head over to Enduring, Caitlin's blog. She's slowly, but surely, starting to chronicle her baking adventures.

Ok. I'm just going to lay this out there for all your readers. If you read my first guest post back in June, you'll see that I've experimented with a little cake decorating in my day.
And in my day, I mean once.

Here's the deal: both of us Lore sisters love to bake and are all about healthy foods and whole grains.
But Amy--she's the fabulous cake lady. Me? I'm just the cookie monster.

Now, I wasn't one of those kids who was rewarded with a cookie every time I did something good. My mother was all about moderation. But I remember Christmas after Christmas, she would spend hours and days in the kitchen baking up mounds of cookies and candies. I was always right there, attached to her leg trying to steal the beaters when she was finished with a dough or swiping my finger in the icing bowl. Mother wore the blue checkered apron, and I wrapped the matching pink one around me several times just to tie it tight. I always knew a flour war would ensue.

I always felt like each one of those cookies had been made especially for me. It was the individual-ness, the specialness that made me fall in love with a cookie.

When I got married last year, my cookie recipe box was pretty full with family favorites, most homemade and simple and always, always delicious. Now as I nurture the foundation of those family recipes, I'm starting to add some more complicated and even some new healthy favorites that my own little family enjoys.
Most bakers I know are not big fans of cookies, mainly because there's often more than one pan involved. Bakers have to reload cookie sheets, reset timers, and bake in rounds, but I think the repetition is what I enjoy so much about baking cookies. I fall into a rhythm, and I often soothe myself by learning to feel when the cookies are done. And when I'm baking family recipes, feeling in my soul when the cookie is perfect, I know I'm in the right place at the right time.
I feel joy.

This short prologue brings me to my quest: I am ever so slowly questing towards finding and creating perfect, bakery style cookies. This quest involves the ever favorite chocolate chip cookie because we all know that's the staple of any bakery (and every child's favorite.) However, my quest also involves taking some of those famous packaged cookies that we love and turning them into delicious homemade creations. Such as those super soft sugar cookies with the melt-in-your-mouth icing mounded on top. And those black-and-white sandwich cookies with the creamy middle that are always better dipped in a big glass of milk.

So that's where I was this weekend. Up to my ears in crumbly, fudgey, chocolaty cookies and delicious cream cheese icing.
What can I say? I prefer my homemade oreos to have more than one bite.

This is only one version of my homemade oreos, though. Some people, such as my husband, like to call these ones Whoopie Pies; however, a cookie connoisseur like myself knows that Whoopie Pie cookies are more cake-like in cookie consistency and not so crispy and fudgey like this oreo version.

I guess you can call these an in-between cookie: not quite whoopie but not quite your average, crunchy oreo.

But let me tell you, you'll still want the big glass of milk and you'll definitely say whoopie! after you eat one.

Because as always, these are homemade.

Sweet, with more love than you can taste.

Scones and Cameras

Every time I post a picture here at Bake Lore, I can hear the person who gave me this gorgeous camera smacking themselves in the forehead.

Seriously. 

I think I just assumed that this thing would magically create food-art worthy pictures after only a cursory perusal of the how-to manual.  Well, after a series of disasterously out of focus pictures of some really beautiful scones - - of which the following, sadly, is the best:

Cran-Orange Scones mmmmmmmm

... I once again realized my photography skills are pathetic and I need to do some work. 
So today, I resolve never to have another bad picture with a good camera.  I WILL stop guessing and really figure that machine out.  It's really the least I can do for the sweet people who gave it to me.

And if you're reading, and you are one of that generous party, please be patient with me.  You have my solemn oath to work at it and post something really pretty...eventually. 

In the meantime, I priced the scones and posted them in the price list.  So if you're ever in the mood, you know what to do!  bakelore@gmail.com I'd love to hear from you!

Time for a Cake Tasting!

In the wee hours of Saturday morning - - which for people like me, is any time before 9, thanks very much - - I packed my car up with a delivery of fresh bread and cake pops and one mouth-watering platter of cake.

I'm kind of like an old timey doctor.  I make house calls.  And today, the cake tasting came to the bride-to-be.  Wanna see what she sampled?

Eight flavor combinations!

Here's a handy-dandy guide to the gorggeous flavor up there:

Lemon Cake Vanilla Butter Cream	Almond Cake Chocolate Butter Cream	Chocolate Cake Vanilla Butter Cream	Buttery Yellow Cake Raspberry Butter Cream
Lemon Cake Raspberry Butter Cream	Almond Cake Almond Butter Cream	Chocolate Cake Peanut Butter Cream	Buttery Yellow Cake Strawberry Butter Cream

Fingers crossed that I get a call soon with an order for another big, beautiful bridal cake! 

"Saturdays:" A Work in Progress

I'm not going to lie to you and tell you I'm a master at every decorating technique in the world.  The fact is that I'm 100% self-taught, and I usually put myself on a steep learning curve.

There are some skills I have down and could do in my sleep, and others are a work in progress.  I have a bad habit of reinventing the wheel when I'm in the kitchen.  I'm so curious to learn how things work I often forget to look to others who've been there and done that. 

Well, let me tell you, you can get some pretty delicious concoctions with that method - but they're not always beautiful.  Although, I'd definitely call them cute. 

Go Patriots!  Cake Pops - or Saturdays as we call 'em at Bake Lore -
to honor Terre Haute North High School, ye olde alma mater.

Why is it that I disliked high school, but harbor such strong feelings of school pride?

These are the latest greatest cake pops - every time I make these, I try a new coating.  This one is not a keeper.  Tasty though it may be, it never got thin enough to make things smooth and lovely. 

My next batch will be covered in Chocoley chocolate.  It may bump the price up a bit, but it will be worth it for a smooth finish and a reliable flavor. 

In addition - that "candy coating" in the bake isle at the grocery does NOT like food coloring.  I tried to make red and blue out of that mess and it it turned into something I thought might eat ME.  Not cool. 

So, the cake pops - or as we call them "Saturdays", cuz when you eat one, it feels like a Saturday! - are a work in progress.  That's how I have learned all my tricks so far...this one will be perfected soon.  I love the process...I love the learning curve. 

A Better Picture

Thank goodness!  My friend, Summer, of Summer Lee Quilts, sent me a picture of the Zambia cake, sans smudge. 

Ahhhh!  Much better:).

Fat Daddio - Give Away!

Hello Bake Lore fans!

Have I got some great news for you!  I just received an email yesterday from my wonderful contact at Fat Daddio - makers of the world's best bake ware - and a box is in the mail, coming to yours truly.  What's inside???

Well...one for me...and one for YOU!

That's right - this amazing company has agreed to work with me to do a give away promotion.  I will have not one, but TWO opportunities for readers to win some of the finest bake ware in the world. 

I will be baking in one, blogging about it and giving away the other.  I hope this will turn you on to Fat Daddio and get you on the path to using them exclusively in your kitchen as well.   

And, let's be honest - I want to get the word out about Bake Lore to more and more people.  If I can do that with a company like Fat Daddio - then all I can say is WOOHOO! 

Tell your friends!  I'll be finalizing the details of the give away soon!!

And you bet I'm grateful for this opportunity! 
Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Zambia, A Country in Cake

Well, for those who read my post a week or so ago, you know I've been working on a HUGE cake for a church group sending a family on a year of mission work in Africa.  Specifically, this stalwart team is heading to Zambia.

To celebrate, they commissioned me to make it out of cake.  And let me tell you - what fun, and what WORK!  The baking alone was a momentus undertaking, then the icing the filling the carving the crumbcoating and the decorating and delivering...I earned every penny!

Here it is in all it's glory!  "Cake for 100, Alex..."
"Made out of yellow and chocolate cake, his African country can feed a huge crowd". 
"What is...

ZAMBIA!"

My Patterns

West Zambia...in buttery yellow cake

East Zambia...in chocolate cake...with the colors of the flag almost complete

The finished product!

My apologies...I'm sure you see the smudge...

It wasn't until I was home reviewing my poor photography skills that I learned there had been a small smudge of green butter cream on the camera lense.  I'm hoping someone will take pity on me and send me another, icing-free picture, but until then...these will do!  Enjoy!

And Then There Were Cookies...

In addition to the cake I posted yesterday, I also supplied four dozen decorated sugar cookies to the baby shower this weekend.  I took to heart the Royal Lesson I learned back in December of last year, and produced some cookies that look as good as they taste!

I have been meeting myself coming and going this weekend delivering and baking - - so once I find my sense of humor under the film of buttercream that has settled over my brain, I will have to fill you in on the crazy schedule that has been the past two days.

And while you're anxiously awaiting that post, enjoy these super cute onesie cookies!  Fun, fun, fun!

Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

The spread of eats!

My beautiful friend, Katie, ready to be showered with loot!

Babies!

It's been a full and wonderful day!  My good friend Katie won my facebook promo, and got her shower cake for 50% off...speaking of facebook - have you liked Bake Lore on facebook yet??  Go on...do it...I'll be here when you get back...

Here's the cake...and tomorrow I'll show you the adorable cookies that went with it!

6" tier: chocolate with vanilla butter cream
8" tier lemon with vanilla butter cream
fonant and gum paste details

Lessons in Baking

Sourdough is a mysterious thing. 

It nourishes.  And it teaches.

I don't need to share with you my common tale of woe.  Who really cares but me and my God?  But there has been real heartbreak in my life this week - hard lessons, dearly learned. 

I've cried till my head aches. 

And I have spent hours in the kitchen, kneeding bread - cooking, baking - thanking God for something to keep my mind occupied, my hands busy.

Part of my life is feeding my sourdough starter twice a day.

It's a ritual, like having a pet in a jar.  I love it, and I care for it.  But today...today was the first time I wept over it.

Nothing I can do myself will ever change a bowl of flour and water into something so complexly nourishing that my entire body benefits from it.


I can add flavor, provide optimium conditions, kneed it with tender care and strong hands, but without life, it will always just be a bowl of flour and water.


Life I can't see is swimming in the air around me. I add warm water to a handful of ground up grain and it becomes a sponge that can literally suck up life and feed it.


What goodness! What providence is this?

I can't make a sourdough starter.  All I can do is feed what someone else brought to life.  And as I contemplated the sorry state of my dashed hopes, I saw myself in that jar of bubbly, living goo.

I realized I am as lifeless and hard as a handful of flour. 

photo credit

Everything I need is hovering around me, but I can't get at it on my own.  Not without hot rain, drenching every dry, locked up, stingy corner of me.  Then I have the power to pull in that which will break down my hard places and make me soft and lovely.

What kind of lesson did your breakfast teach you this morning? 

It Shoooore Was Good!

There are so many reasons why I need a real bakery - and this week the list has grown...a lot.

I have so much baking to do, I'm up soaking bread at midnight and turning the oven on before my coffee is done in the morning.  It's a good thing - my oven might tell you differently.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw it glaring at me when I put the fourth batch of sourdough in the other night.  But I digress. 

My oven's growing resentment is none of our concern!  Today, I have another review to share with you - from my friend who now has her MBA...and the student loans to go with it!  (The cake she ordered and the ensuing sugar high is definitely helping her cope though, I'm sure of it.)

Here's what she had to say about her cake:

Amy made a lemon cake with buttercream icing to help us celebrate me completing grad school.  I told her to decorate it however she wanted, and she came up with a design she knew I'd love and in my favorite colors (pink).  My husband and I couldn't decide which part of the cake we liked best.  He preferred the buttercream icing, whereas I loved the rich lemon flavor in the cake.  Amy did a great job with this cake order, and I'm so glad she was able to play a role in our celebration.

And she also ordered a loaf of my whole wheat bread!  Here's what she had to say about that:

My husband and I aren't huge bread people.  A loaf of bread goes bad well before we can start to make a dent in it, actually.  But, after hearing Amy talk about her bread and baking methods, I was curious enough to buy.  It was wonderful.  I think I liked it more than the cake Amy made for me...which, who likes bread more than cake?!  What I appreciated most was that the bread was moist, even after it had been toasted.  Our loaf is actually almost gone -- after just a few days -- so I'll definitely be needing more again soon.

Top: Whole Wheat (soaked of course!)
Middle: Whole Wheat Sourdough Loaf
Bottom: Whole Wheat Sourdough Baguettes

Wish you could have smelled it!!!

Thank you for Calling Bake Lore...Please Hold...

Dang!

Things is busy, kids!

I frankly...cannot believe it. 

The past two weeks have been nothing but calls and emails and orders and appointments.  I have been so busy baking, I haven't had a spare moment to update the old blog - apologies - but, if you are one of the many people who have recently called me to bake something, I totally blame you:).  Thank you.

My current projects are - many and varied - but the one that is really challenging me right now is this one:

Recognize that? 

No? 

Well, you may need to brush up on your African geography.  THAT, my friends, is Zambia!  It's a whole African country, and bunch of Hoosiers are heading there in the not so distant future for a mission trip.  Cool!

To celebrate that, they have commissioned yours truly to make this beast of a gerrymander out of cake.  We're doing West Zambia in yellow cake - - yellow cake always makes me snicker a little, cuz I'm a nerd - - and West Zambia in chocolate, and covering the whole thing in delicious Bake Lore buttercream.  So, the above shape, with the below color/decoration:

That, of course, is the flag - and, hey, does anyone know the Zambian national anthem?  It would really get me in the spirit of things I think.

Keep checking in to see my progress.  It's gonna be great!

***Post Posting Post***

I found the national anthem!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvB1aNJn53M

Ladyfingers

I've discovered something profoundly wonderful...the springy, lightness that is the ladyfinger.

Man oh man...I'm in love. 

No wonder so many recipes call for them - they are the cakey part of tiramisu and a million other confections we all know and love.

I tried my hand at these today, and let me tell you, they are now a staple.  Price is to be determined - but there's no question you'll love them.  Mmmmmmelt in your mouth goodness.

Now...where's my can of nutella????

Fresh and light!  Ladyfingers...I have NO idea what happened to the two
that are missing on the second tray...really...no idea...*whistling*

Someone needs to give the photographer a lesson...gee whiz.

It's Training Season...So They Tell Me...

I'm in the middle of a number of cake projects - and even one enormous cookie project!  And I can't wait to share those with you. 

But until I am finished, I wanted to show you a Bake Lore archive cake - in the spirit of all the pro football training camps going on across the country.

I am no football fan, but I do make a darn good football cake.  If you are a Colts fan, my apologies, or Bears or Green Bay or whatever - - this is a cake I made for a Steelers fan.  I hope you enjoy!

Logo is in gum paste with piped royal icing

Oh yes...that's the Terrible Towel...in gum paste, of course!

This one was made up of:
10" tier: Chocolate cake, vanilla butter cream
6" tier: White cake, vanilla butter cream
Fondant icing, royal icing piping and gumpaste cut outs

Whole Grains: How to Love Them, Big Finish

It's Tuesday - the day I try to write about things I'm grateful for.  And today, I'm going to combine my gratitude with my final installment of my series on Whole Grains: How to Love Them.

The more I learn about real food and whole grains, the more grateful I am to the Maker for supplying us with such rich and nourishing food.  The more I learn about how to unlock it and really USE it in my own diet, that gratitude just grows.  I am so thankful for bread - especially for sourdough - but I am a lover of breads of all kinds. 

So here's to whole grains and creating the most nourishing bread we can...

This is my short, sweet, totally non-exhaustive list of reasons why the soaking method of preparing whole grains is so, so good for us.

1.  It makes whole grains taste better.  That's right, soaking whole grains in an acid medium - be it lemon juice, vinegar, whey or buttermilk - breaks down not only phytates that can be harmful, it also makes whole wheat flour a lot more tender and delicious.  Sometimes we shy away from whole grains because they taste too...healthy.  But I've found the soaking process can create baked goods that make you forget you're eating so well.  I'm fooling a toddler regularly - and that should speak VOLUMES to the great results of this process.

2.  Nutrition - yes, yes...maybe this is a repeat of something I said in past posts, but it bears repeating.  Soaking whole grains, whether for cookies or cake or waffles, breaks down those harmful phytates and allows our bodies to access all the good things in whole grains.  If you want to know more about phytates and how they can block vitamins and minerals in our bodies, just go catch up on the first few posts in this series...here, here, here and...here.

3. Digestion - the soaking process makes it so much easier on your gut!  I'm not saying this method will suddenly end your fight with chronic bowel problems, but I'm here to tell you, when I'm eating only soaked or sprouted grains, I FEEL better.  And I have a sensitive system - nuff said.  The phytic content of whole grains makes your gut work really, really hard, producing enzymes it shouldn't have to to break down something it can't.  It's a lot of work - and no, it's not a good thing.  It's not about burning more calories in digestion.  It's about keeping your gut in balance and not feeding your body things it can't process. 

4.  Disease prevention - I've said before, a little phytic acid is a good thing!  But it goes a long way.  It blocks mineral absorbtion, and so the nutrition you think you're getting - to prevent cancer or nine million other ugly modern diseases - is just not getting through.  Soaking (and sprouting) ups your absorbtion of iron, niacin, zinc...a TON.  And those are the tools your body uses to keep you healthy and prevent disease.

Those are the big four reasons in my book.  I'm sure there are more...I know there are more...but for me, this little list keeps me coming back to my kitchen to soak, rise and bake. 

I hope maybe you'll try some Bake Lore bread sometime!  There are so many reasons to love it!



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