Fun with fondant

I've been neglectful. And my excuses are lame. I went up to my friend Jen's house last night and learned to make arepas (Venuzuelan corn cake/sandwich things) while she photographed and blogged it. So here I am, inspired.

Life has been a little rough, as I try to get my PhD project started while not really having a good reason to do one in the first place. Whatever. I'm here, I'm having fun and learning. What else do I need? Sometimes, all I need is an attitude adjustment. Or baking therapy. In the meantime, I've been playing video games, sightseeing Denver, elk bugling listening in Rocky Mountain National Park, and running with a group of lovely ladies.

My awesome running pals, post-half

I made some fondant in August, and it's been sitting in my freezer pondering its fate for the last two months. The original plan was to make a "wedding cake" for our first anniversary of Colorado life, a la common-law marriage, but that didn't happen. AP is having a birthday potluck tomorrow, so I figured the time is now. For fondant, that is, not weddings.

I asked AP what kind of cake she was into, and she said "all kinds." So I consulted my ridiculous baking book by Marcy Goldman which has absurdly decadent recipes. Perfect for sharing with a house-full of party-minded people. Flipping through, I was entranced by her Italian Cream Wedding Cake. Maybe it was the long name with the pleasant associations. Italy. Wedding. Cream. Maybe it was the pastry cream, which I am particularly partial too. Actually, this is a fake-out. My co-baker and I decided that the fluffy, divine creamy layers wouldn't stand up to the abuse of fondant, so we changed to chocolate layer cake. You can make this with just frosting, or top it with fondant afterwards.
Chocolate Layer Cake
adapted from A Passion for Baking

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 3/4 cup sour cream

1. Preheat to 350F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.
   
2. Cream butter and sugar. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Whisk together dry ingredients in separate bowl and add alternately with buttermilk and sour cream. Blend together until incorporated. Pour into pans
3. Bake 35-40 minutes. Cool in pan
4. When cool, frost decorate

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• milk as needed for consistency

1. Mix everything together, and adjust consistency with milk and powdered sugar.
2. Frost middle, sides, and tops of layer cake.
   

if looked really nasty before the fondant went on. eiw.
but better after, if a little baby-showerish.

Just Peachy

My family came to visit me last weekend, so I showed them the joys of Boulder before we went up to the mountains. He hiked Chautauqua, ate at Brasserie TenTen, went to the library book store, and explored vintage clothing stores. I think they like it here.

We were planning to spend the weekend in Summit County, but as the timing worked out, I suggested we take a day to go to Palisade for their peach festival. Palisade is on the Western Slope of the Rockies, and might have the best peaches anywhere (take that, Gerogia!). It was a beautiful drive out there. I did somehow expect the Western slope to be green and lush, and it turned out to be just as arid as the East. There's something about the wind coming down the canyon that makes for mild weather in Palisade and ed the proliferation of so many orchards and vineyards. We visited an orchard with beautiful tasty peaches and took a tour on their horse-drawn carriage. Buff horses. And they had peach ice cream for us as we finished.

The festival in town was also a delight. They had a fair with booths and hot dogs (they seem necessary for a fair atmosphere) and various peach products. There was a recipe contest in which contestants submitted a peach food item that was judged. And the best part: they sold sample tickets so that bystanders could taste the goodies. We definitely got five each. Amanda went for the cakey items, so her plate looks gorgeous and appetizing.

I, however, went for the gooey, cobbler-like treats, so my plate looks a little vomitous, but was amazingly delicious.

We got a half-bushel (25 pounds) of peaches on our way out of town and are still eating our way through them. I've been meaning to bake with them, but haven't gotten around to it/haven't figured out who is going to eat it. But I'll make something peachy soon.

Hobbies and hole hweat

I've come to the conclusion that I need a hobby, as Matt spends most of his free time playing with making mobile games. Knitting came up as a likely candidate. I've knit in the past, but usually find myself to restless to take pleasure in it. So last night I decided to knit a cabled hat, and throughout 5 hours of BBC Pride and Prejudice, I started and finished it. (pattern here) Pretty good, eh? Other candidates for hobby include guitar and painting. We'll see what I actually get to.


A friend had us up to her house in the mountains the weekend to watch the meteor shower. I thought I'd bake something to share for breakfast, but in my laziness refused to run out to replenish our supply of white flour. So the only option was whole wheat. Or flourless chocolate cake (why didn't I think of that at the time?) Marcy Goldman's "A Passion for Baking" has become my go to book when I need to make something ridiculously delicious for a crowd who isn't watching their calories (there's a brownie recipe with marshmallows, raisins, dates, oreos, chocolate chunks, pecans, crisp rice and almost as much butter as flour). There's also a section in the back with recipes that may or may not be actually healthy, but they usually lack something considered unhealthy or include something considered healthy. This is one such. She definitely goes for the kitchen sink approach, but these guys definitely garnered some compliments.

Breakfast Scones
from A Passion for Baking

• zest of one orange
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup oil or butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk
  
• 1 cup granola
• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 cup sesame or sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup chopped almonds
  
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 3/4 cup frozen berries or chopped apple
  

1. Heat oven to 400. Line a cookie sheer/baking pan with parchment paper or grease it.
   
2. Blend zest, bp, bs, salt, cinnamon, brown sugar, and flour in a bowl. Drizzle in oil or cut in butter.
3. Add honey, syrup, eggs, and 3/4 cup yogurt or buttermilk. Mix halfway, then fold in granola, oats, cornmeal, seeds, nuts, and fruit. Stir and add more dairy if it does not hold together.
   
4. Pat half the dough into a 3/4 inch thick round and cut into six scones. Repeat with other half. Arrange scones on baking pan and bake them for 17022 minutes. You can brush with milk or beaten egg to make them more shiny if you like.
   

The most ridiculous cake you've ever seen.

I'm in the middle of nowhere at a lab in Illinois for a relatively lame conference that is causing me to miss yet another summer weekend in Colorado. On a scale of 1 to excited, I'd say I'm hovering around a -2. The security is pretty stupid and they have to escort cabs into the premises with these fancy official black escort cars. And we need to have a badge and photo id at all time. Oh, the things we do for funding. I did get to see some cool stuff though, including an electron microscope with 1/2 angstrom (10^-12) resolution and a supercomputer with 5 petabytes of disc drives and 160,000 processors. Scientists get the coolest toys.

Last week was my first week back and work. Things went really fast. The postdoc who was partly in charge of me left for good, so I spent some time frantically figuring out what she got done in the past 2 months while I was away. Colorado is still beautiful, and I got out on my bike a few times to enjoy the (somehow still green) scenery. And I can now get my puppy fix as someone with a dog moved in with my friends.

My friend E e-mailed me this recipe last week, and I was immediately convinced that we needed to make it. Soon. I had planned to go to a band concert on Monday night, but when we got an invite to T and E's for dinner, I decided to bail on the concert and make this cake instead. And what a good decision that was. E was even borrowing a super fancy Nikon from a friend, so I got to play with taking fun pictures of the cake and of everyone eating it.

It's pretty much a flourless chocolate cake topped with hazelnut and chocolate studded meringue. I don't know why I haven't though of that before. Yum.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

from Tartelette

• 10 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 6 large eggs, separated
• 12 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted over double boiler
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 Tbsp rum
• 1/4 tsp salt

• 4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup hazelnuts, toasted, skinned, and roughly chopped
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 4 egg whites
• 3/4 cup sugar

1. Toast hazelnuts in oven for 10 minutes at 350 and rub when cool to remove skins. Chop the skinned nuts. Melt chocolate over boiling water in double boiler or metal bowl placed over a saucepan.
2. Preheat oven to 350. Butter sides and bottom of a 9" springform pan. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper. Butter the paper too.
3. Whip butter and brown sugar in stand mixer until pale and smooth (3 minutes). Add 6 egg yolks one at a time and beat until smooth. Add melted chocolate, rum, vanilla, and salt. Beat until combined.
4. Carefully clean the mixer bowl to ensure not fat particles remain. Beat the 6 egg white until soft peaks form. Fold a third of the whites into the chocolate mixture. Fold in remaining whites.
5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes.
6. Beat egg whites on medium until frothy. Increase to high and slowly add sugar. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form (about 4 minutes). Don't overbeat!
7. Combine chopped chocolate, hazelnuts, and cornstarch in a bowl. Fold into beaten egg whites.
8. Remove cake from oven. Spread meringue mixture atop warm cake, being careful not to deflate it. Bake for another 25 minutes.
9. Transfer pan to cooling rack and let sit for 10 minutes. Remove the outside ring of the pan. Let cool another 30 minutes before cutting.

Home for popovers

After a hectic last week filled with more tears and laughter than I have ever experienced in a four-day period, I am finally home. My summer course hit me like a train and left me just as fast. I feel like I've gained two years of experience and emotional maturity while see-sawing back and forth between love and hate of science and myself. I have redefined my concept of what can be achieved in a day. My esteemed compatriots from the course were (are) an outstanding, driven, hilarious and inspiring group of people that I feel blessed to have met and cursed to have to leave after 7 short weeks. Everything experienced at summer camp was about three notches more intense than it would have been anywhere else, and perhaps because of its surreality, it is already fading away into a dreamlike memory. What a ride.

Our T-shirt design pretty much sums up the experience (Thanks, PH!)

Now that I am home, I feel like I have to re-learn the actions of normal life. (What's a grocery store? I have to drive? I can sit around and not think about science?) And it feels glorious. I have the weekend to relax, recupterate, watch some sick Ultimate. Next week, I have to figure out how to move forward intelligently with the knowledge I've gained. But that's three days from now.

the culture I brought home in my suitcase arrives unscathed. Isn't it pretty.

I had expected that upon returning home, I would be whipped into a frenzy of baking to make up for my months of oven-deprivation. But I still feel so exhausted that I don't really want to do anything. So I'm starting things off simple.

lovely summer produce after 7 weeks of apples and bananas

First a prequel: during the course I mostly ate dorm food, which seemed perfectly acceptable for about three weeks. After that I started craving the simplicity of fresh, simple foods that taste like what they're made from. Luckily, a small group of us started sneaking off to a local bakery with divine popovers and real crusty bread. These popovers were enormous crackly affairs filled with luxurious custardy bits. Divine with a pad of butter or honey. Or just plain. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo, but imagine the biggest baddest popover you can conceive of. I knew I had to make some when I got home.

These didn't turn out nearly as good as Pie in the Sky's, but the texture was pretty fantastic and they come a close second. I think I left my pan out of the oven for too long during filling as I groped around for my missing camera. This is for all my lovely summer course peeps:


Popovers
from the New Best Recipes Cookbook

• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup whole or low-fat milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp butter, melted
• Oil for the pan

1. Whisk eggs and milk together in a medium bowl until homogeneous, about 20 seconds.
2. Add flour and salt and mix with spoon until combined
3. Add melted butter and whisk for about 30 seconds
4. Let batter rest for 30 minutes
5. While batter is resting, prepare your pan by measuring 1/4 tsp oil into each of 10 indentations in a muffin tin (1/2 oil into 6 if you're classy enough to own a popover pan).
6. Heat oven to 450 and place pan in oven to preheat.
7. When batter is rested, pour into a liquid measuring cup or other container with a spout. Remove pan from oven and, working quickly, divide batter between greased wells and return the pan to the oven.
8. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 3 minutes before removing from pan. Serve immediately.

just before going back in

my busy bench. goodbye and thanks for the good times, MBL.

Adventures in microbial ecology

I arrived at my summer course on Saturday. Not sure how many people are interested in microbial diversity, but this is my life for the next 6 weeks. It's odd being back in dorms and eating in a cafeteria again (metabolism is definitely not as intense as when I was 18). Sunday was pretty chill, but since then, things have been pretty swamped. Lectures in the morning, lab in the afternoon and evening, done for the night around 11PM. Almost every minute is planned out with exciting microbiology things. Monday night, the entire class walked out to a nearby swamp with significant methane production, waded in chest deep, and stomped around in the sediments releasing the biogas. The gas was collected in large stoppered upside-down funnels, which we used to make large (as in 5 feet high) flaring infernos. Unfortunately, the experience came with some very unpleasant odors. Tuesday, we went out to some nearby salt marshes and sampled sediment and water. There were a lot of really interesting microbial consortia, including lots of purple-pigmented bacteria.

The lab experience for tonight was making beer from kits. This also involved imbibing for most of the class. My classmates come from diverse academic and societal backgrounds, and are very entertaining to talk to. It's amazing. We do microbiology all day and all night, and when we have free time to talk, we mostly still talk about microbiology. Nerds all.

There is a beach nearby which has bioluminescent dinoflagillates that you can swim with, so that may be the next big adventure.

Lasagna

I've been at my summer course for over 4 weeks now. How time flies. We've finished with organized laboratory procedures and have moved on to conducting our own projects as we see fit. Everyone is really energized and the atmosphere is amazing, but the long hours are beginning to wear on me. I feel guilty if I leave the lab before 10PM. Everyone gets along well, and we have entertaining conversations about science and life. It's good to learn that everyone in academia has issues. It's not just me.

There is a "secret" beach near the site that is reached by a long dark path through the woods. If you go on a good night, the path is lit only by fireflies. And in the waves, the bioluminescent dinoflagellates turn the water to stars when you move. The stars in the sky are significantly less obscured by city lights than in most places I've lived, so the double luminescent effect above and below is enchanting.

Cafeteria food is monotonous, but could definitely be worse. Like undergrad dorm food, for example. We go out on weekends, so there's a little bit of variety. My parents and sister were in town for the fourth last weekend, so I got to sample all the local restaurants with them. The town has a fourth of july parade which is largely populated by scientists from the courses in town. Each course has a theme, and participants dress up as nerdy things. I was Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, the bacteria I might study for my Ph.D. I also helped dress a friend's 3-year old as a phage.

Eggplant Lasagna

• 1 medium eggplant
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
• basil and oregano

• 4 Tbsp butter
• 4 Tbsp flour
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup milk
• pinch nutmeg

• 1/2 lb. lasagna noodles
• 1/2 pound cheese of choice, grated (mozz is classic, but I prefer co-jack)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise and cut into thin slices. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange on foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes until squishy.
2. Heat butter over medium heat in a dutch oven. Add onions, and cook until brown, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add garlic and spices and cook together for 30 seconds before mixing in the crushed tomatoes. Stew for 10 minutes and salt to taste.
3. Melt butter in medium saucepan. Gradually whisk in flour. Cook the roux together for a minutes or two, then slowly whisk in milk. Simmer for 20 minutes until thickened. If you're going to store the white sauce, press plastic wrap on surface so it doesn't get filmy.
4. Boil noodles according to package directions.
5. Line a 13x9 pan with foil and spoon 1/4 of the red sauce over the bottom. Place a layer of noodles on top. Scoop on 1/3 of the white sauce and some eggplant then another 1/4 of the red sauce. Continue layering as you see fit, and cover the last layer with red sauce and shredded cheese.
6. Bake for 40 minutes.

If you can't eat it all in one go, you can store single pieces in ziploc bags with no air bubbles and freeze. Re-heat by placing the bags in boiling water.