Sometimes my experience in the kitchen is a disaster. Friday almost ended up as one of those days.
I had invited friends over for dinner. They were to arrive at 6:30 p.m. My menu was Spicy Fall Pumpkin Stew, Pobalano-Cucumber Salsa, Vegan Coconut Cake. Here’s how my afternoon turned out:
2:00 Grocery shopping (forgot Peanut Butter, a staple for 2 year olds)
3:00 Start prepping Vegan Coconut Cake
3:10 Searching for Baking Powder (Where is it?)
3:15 2yo grabs coconut milk and spills it all over him and the floor
3:20 2yo demands needing the stool to help me (not helpful)
3:20 Found the Baking Powder!
3:25 Discover the gas for the oven is turned off
3:30 Call husband for directions on turning on the oven
3:31 2yo has melt down
4:00 Place cake batter in cake pans
4:05 Glance across the kitchen and realized the baking powder was CORN STARCH!
4:06 Dump cake batter bake in bowl and mix in baking powder
4:15 Cut new parchment paper for cake pans
4:30 Place batter back in cake pans
4:30 Cake goes into oven
4:40 Baby needs fed
5:00 Cut and prep pumpkin
5:15 Realize I’m out of Cheddar Cheese for pumpkin!
5:29 Cake is finished baking
5:30 Start prepping ingredients for Pumpkin Stew
5:31 Husband arrives home but needs to send out work emails
5:32 Kids are fussy and screaming
6:00 Poblano peppers makes it into the oven for broil
6:01 Text friends to ask if they could arrive at 7:00 p.m.
6:05 Husband leaves to buy Cheddar Cheese
6:30 Stop to soothe fussy baby
6:45 Husband returns with Cheese
6:50 Pumpkin Stew assembled and placed in oven.
6:55 Guests arrive.
At this point I still need to assemble the cake and Poblano-Cucumber Salsa. Luckily it was our good friends Mike and Edlyn who were joining us for dinner, and since Mike is a professional chef he helped me whip everything into shape.
But this is where my confession is given — I planned to blog about the Vegan Coconut Cake, however with my afternoon, something just wasn’t clicking. I forgot that I had changed the icing when I made it before — instead of doing a butter cream, I had done a coconut milk glaze. Midway through mixing the icing I remembered what I did and tried a compromise — a course correction, I call it.
Not all yummy cakes turn out looking like a beauty.
It didn’t work.
Instead I ended up with a slick icing that didn’t stick to well to the cake. On top of my distractions I had placed the cake on top of the stove, which was warm, and my icing melted.
The result was a cross between a flop and ugly — fuggly.
However this fuggly cake still tasted good, even with corn starch.
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Every week I collect recipes out of the local newspaper — we have an award winning food section, and quite often it gives me inspiration to cook. Now whether I act upon the inspiration is another story. However a month or two ago, I clipped a recipe for Apple Annie’s Tea Room & Bakery Poppy Seed Dressing. Folks, this recipe is just sinful. I had to try it. When I make it again, I think I’ll adjust a few of the ingredients to help bring the calorie count down, down, down — way down. I feel so guilty that there is still a whole tub of it in my refrigerator that still needs to be used. I dare not tell my husband what’s in the ingredients. Though if you want to try this dressing and live in San Antonio, I can tell you that a trip to Apple Annie’s would be worth the effort, just let this dressing pass your lips.
Sweet & Tangy Poppy Seed Dressing
The Hip Vegetarian 