Life, Fannishness, and Thespic Infatuation

Several months ago, I ran across this recipe for Irish Battenburg cake.

I'd never heard of it before, and I don't know for certain if this is an "authentic" recipe or if it's been kind of Americanized (as we sometimes do), but it looked really neat, and didn't seem too complicated (in theory), so I gave it a try yesterday for St. Patrick's Day.

The butter cake seems very similar to the recipe my husband uses for Lamingtons, which is delicious all by itself. I'd never worked with marzipan before, and it was kind of like playing with Play-Doh. :-)





For a first attempt at the recipe, I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. And it got rave reviews, along with the Irish bread I made, from everyone who tried it. The best review being from an 11-year old boy, something to the effect of, "I must have died and gone to Heaven, because this food couldn't have been made on Earth."

Got back last night from a trip to Ohio to celebrate the parents' 75th birthdays. The travel was loooooonnnnnnnger than usual, thanks to road construction in both directions. Blech. Got to see Li'l Bro and SiL and Baby Bump. Shopping with Cousin J and Mom, trip to Greenville with the fan.

Today I spend baking for a dessert party fundraiser tomorrow. Friends have graciously opened their home for a dessert tasting party where donations for our adoption fund will be gratefully accepted. My baking includes:

Pineapple pretzel salad
Angel lush trifle (angel food cake and pineapple)
Homemade "bing bongs."
Ice cream cone cupcakes
Texas sheet cake (maybe)

George will make homemade ice cream.

Hostess is baking pies.

Work Friend A is baking cookies.

Work Friend C is bringing hummingbird cake.

Wife of George's Writer Colleague is bringing Thai food.

Open house style, but not a lot of affirmative responses from our invitations. I hope people are planning on coming and just haven't responded.

I'm very excited. One of our friends is going to Texas for Christmas, and he asked George if there's anything he could bring back for me. Geo, being the sharp thinker he is (and maybe missing the nice zip that his lamingtons usually have) told Friend that I'd really like a bottle of La Vencedora vanilla. This is the best vanilla (this, and the vanilla I got in Honduras years and years ago) I've ever used. The bottle of La Vencedora my MiL brought back from Texas many years ago finally ran out, and we haven't found anything to match.

So after the new year, I'll have a new bottle of Mexican vanilla. Yay! \o/ And my baking will be zippy again!

Okay. We all know that pie is a recurring theme in SPN. Dean loves pie. Pie was a comfort food Mary offered him as a child. Generally speaking, pie is a very fandom-friendly dessert (SPN, Twin Peaks, and Pushing Daisies, just to name a few).

This season, however, SPN is expanding it's culinary pallet to include cupcakes and waffles. And it's making me hungry.

Cupcakes have been mentioned in "Shut Up, Dr. Phil" . . . HEARTS IN MY CUPCAKES! (And yes, I've been trying to figure out how to create a jelly-filled cupcake that "bleeds" when you bite into it, for next Halloween.

And there was a reference to Dean's penchant for Ding Dongs Bing Bongs in "Slash Fiction." This, unfortunately, has sent me on my current culinary search for a recipe for homemade Ding Dongs. The cake, of course, is standard. The filling is easy. It's the coating that appears to prove a challenge, a challenge I now want to take on! Forward!

Waffles, of course, speak for themselves. I got Geo a fantastic waffle iron for his b-day, and we've used it almost every weekend since.

I need a pie/cupcake/waffle icon. *nods*

Tonight is the season premiere of H50, which Geo has been looking forward to. Friday is the SPN season premiere, which I have been looking forward to.

The weather is cooling off. Fall is definitely on the way.

We had waffles made with Geo's new waffle maker for breakfast on Saturday. Very tasty indeed.

Then we had a delightful time for Geo's b-day open house. I made (from scratch) a strawberry cake with cream cheese coconut frosting, and Geo made vanilla ice cream.

Should probably go start supper now.

As mentioned earlier, I did the chocolate-citrus cake again this year. It was quite a success.

Cake after assembly and frosting, but before decorations:



I opted not to do the candied oranges again this year. The sprinkles save me time, and I think they look seasonal and festive:



Cross section of the cake:



This is a very serious and seriously rich cake. When you're done, you know you've eaten cake. One of my cousins told me that she broke out in a sweat it was so much cake.

In other words, good stuff, folks. Good stuff.

Also? Whenever I do the ganache, I think of this riff.

Burgers and corn-on-the-cob on the grill.

The first pumpkin pie of the season.

Nomnomnom.

And later, new epi.

Life is pretty good.

scionofgrace asked for my molasses cookie recipe. I actually have three:

( Cousin J's Molasses Cookies )

( Joe Froggers )

( Easy Ginger Cookies )

In other news, Geo is baking the butter cake with which to make Lamingtons in a couple of days. Yum!!!!

In other other news, my icon makes me think I should pull out the pretzel recipe I made in junior high and give it a try again. It was so tasty that no sooner were the pretzels out of the oven than they disappeared.