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.

Cake Creation 101: A Guestblog

Tonight's guestblog brought to you by Caitlin--another baker, another writer, and another Lore. Not as adept in her cake decorating or baking as her sister-in-law, Amy, Caitlin is working on it, one delicious product at a time. She even took a real baking class to see if she has what it takes. However, when she isn't baking, Caitlin can often be found writing at her blog Enduring. Soon she may post recipes.

I grew up with a mother who made birthday cakes. And not just any birthday cakes but decorated cakes. Wilton Startip #17 decorated cakes. I remember Cookie Monster and Birt and Ernie. Carousel horses, teddy bears, cars, and trucks. The Little Mermaid, Barbie, dinosaurs, and cupcakes. Lots of star tipped cupcakes.

Then there were the buttercream colors. Yellows and blues. Reds and purples. Greens and oranges. In all shades mind you. I loved watching her decorate, mostly because I loved sticking my fingers in that real buttercream. I never picked up a piping bag, though, until last fall.

I was nervous. I had never decorated cakes, only eaten them. But I was taking a legit baking class, and we had three requirements for cake week: lettering, swirls & curls (borders) and roses. We also only had a week to master the elements and produce a finished product.

One thing my pastry chef professor said, though, stuck with me and encouraged me. She said, in all seriousness, that those who have horrible handwriting in everyday life are often the best cake decorators.
That meant I had a chance.

But decorating the cake wasn't the only part of the feat--baking the cake from scratch was an obstacle too. We were planning to make sponge cake because not only are those simple cakes to make, but outside of boxed cake mixes they are the cheapest. But let me tell you... for someone who has never made a sponge cake before, it isn't that simple. It's a two step process and lots and lots of beating.
I was used to opening a package, mixing in two eggs and vegetable oil, and stirring for two minutes.

For a sponge cake, you have to  first separate the eggs, and then beat each part. The first part (egg whites) must stay fluffy.
The second part, which is egg yolk and sugar, must be beaten until "ribbon"stage: which I did not understand whatsoever until it was explained to me. And then I realized just how simple it was. When you disconnect the beater and let the batter run off, it will stay in ribbon form in the bowl. Ultimately, the batter is so thick it looks like mousse.

Can I just add there's a lot of sifting and folding in there as well, but when I was done, my cake batter was perfect.
And it looked delicious.

Appearances do lie, though. I hated the taste. Talk about eggy.
Lesson learned.
Sponge cake: love/hate.
Boxed cake: I may just stick with it.

See, my mother never baked cakes from scratch, either. Pillsbury, Dunkin Hines, Betty Crocker... those were staples in our cupboards growing up, and they transferred into mine.
And we all loved them. The taste of boxed cake is delicious... definitely not Cake Lore cake... but for us none cake bakers, they worked.
And what made me smile was that my pastry chef professor said boxed cakes were a work of art. Cheap, nothing like homemade, but still a work of art.
Again, it meant I had a chance at mastering cakes.

Nonetheless, this is what my completed product looked like that day:



Not bad for my first try

And it means there may be a little bit of Cake Lore in me after all. When I finished my class two weeks later, Chef left me with something I'll never forget, "You have hands. Whatever you do, don't stop baking. You have hands. Use them."

Perhaps next time I'll blog about the from-scratch-completely-homemade chocolate cake I have stumbled upon and will never let go.
It's heavenly, and definitely Cake Lore worthy.