Baking with the Boys

I am going to take my camera in this week!  Still subjecting you to laptop pics.

Things that do not go together:

1. Peanut butter and sardines
2. High heels and football
3. Little boys and DVD players**
4. Little boys and Genoise

As was made painfully clear by Dorie’s instructions and the P&Q this week, the genoise for our Berry Surprise Cake was fragile.  It needed focus and calm.  So, I made it right before lunch.  Because I am a genius.  If you don’t immediately see the problem with this scenario, you a) have no children; b) have children who have long since grown; or 3) have much more patient and angelic children than me.

My children become raving little me-bots before lunch.  “When is lunch?  I’m hungry.  Can I have some juice?  I don’t want sandwich/hot dog/cheese.  When is lunch?  Are you finished yet?”  This is not the preferred environment for tackling egg “divas.”  I actually thought I was doing OK at first.  Sugar dissolved.  Eggs tripled.  Ribbons were visible.  At the direction of Baking Illustrated, I took out some of the eggs and folded them into the butter.  Still going well.  Then I added the flour.  (Insert about seven “when is lunch” interruptions into this description).  I was nervous about over mixing so I used a very gentle hand.  Like a whisper on a cloud.  So gentle that when I was pushing the batter into the pan, there appeared a GIANT clump of flour.  GIANT.  A more experienced baker may have been able to recover.  But, we aren’t talking about an experienced baker, are we?

Crater city.  Oh well.  I don’t think I was the only one.  I decided just to fill the ready made well on the top of the cake and call it a day.  Before starting the cake, I had imagined doing a chocolate and apricot filling.   After making the cake, I immediately switched gears for something simple.  This can of bing cherries has been starting at me for many moons.  I have no clue how I acquired it but it suddenly became perfect for my filling.  I used some of the juice from the can for the syrup and folded the cherries right into the cream cheese/cream filling.

You can see some cherries peaking out.

Honestly, despite the clear problems with my cake, I really liked the end result.  It was so much better than I was anticipating.  Maybe someday when my children are at sleep away camp or married, I will try this again.

**I would like to have included a picture of the cut cake but we were using the computer to watch The Empire Strikes Back.  We had a really nice mult-disk DVD player once and then a thick haired toddler shoved some toys in it.  Then we had a decent one disk DVD player.  A blond toddler shoved some toys in it.  Now, we use our laptop and plug it into the TV.

The full recipe is on Mary Ann’s blog.  To see the other Berry Surprise Cakes click here.

Next week: