Channeling Connie Francis
I am so sorry to all of my adoring fans out there. I have had a very trying week with auditions, the day job, ninety degree weather, and some baking mishaps, you get the idea.
Last week I was given six - SIX - 1950's pop songs to learn for a new Off-Broadway show coming in from the West Coast. Being that I am a trained opera singer, I never in my wildest thought I would have to learn "it's my party." Needless to say I was a little stressed out. Thankfully Dusty, Connie, and all the other greats never screamed their faces off so it was kind of fun - in the end - to sing the songs. And who knows maybe I have a new Karaoke tune?
There was one song that was not so fun to sing seeing as though I am the whitest girl in America - Rescue Me. Ah Aretha why do you taunt me so? This song gave me Agata. Drag queens could sing this better than I can. Trying to make this song work resulted in a couple of things: 1. procrastination station 2. crochet fun and 3. baking for the masses. Really, 2 and 3 fit into 1 as my tools for procrastinating, but still...
As I have told you before, I moved into a new place about 3 months back. I am SLOWLY piecing together my apartment and one of those things entails a handmade welcome mat. Yes, folks I crochet too. It is comprised of a million circles that I have to sew together and they were just sitting there for weeks so instead of practicing I got to crocheting UNTIL I realized that I had two birthdays I needed to bake for - Oops! Jim and Chris, two of my salsa friends, have birthdays a day apart and I thought why not make a cake for both of them? Yellow cake with a light lime green vanilla buttercream frosting. Super cute and super summery. Well, it was easily 95 degrees outside and since I am anti-air conditioning it was like over 100 degrees in my apartment. The cake went into the oven and came out looking and smelling really good. I decided to try a different buttercream recipe then my old faithful. MISTAKE! The buttercream was mad at me because it was so damn hot. It would not set up. No matter how much confectioner's sugar I put in it, it was not having it.
It was a two-layer cake and I made the unfortunate mistake of putting the layers together not realizing that the buttercream would literally melt and ooze out from the layers. When I tried to take the top layer off it was like cemented on so I tried to make the best of it. Then it happened... (and this hasn't happened since my lame-o attempt at an ex-boyfriend's birthday cake 5 years ago) the cake cracked in half. A huge Crater down the center. For the love...! Btws, it was 9 I was supposed to meet my friends with said cake AT 9. What to do? Thank the sweet baby Jesus that I have baked goods in the freezer and I had some frosting left over. I grabbed the few cupcakes I had left and frosted them and headed out the door praying that they wouldn't melt on the way to the restaurant. I went from a whole cake to 6 measly cupcakes. Not the birthday cake extravaganza I had in mind, but still good.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Lime Green Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and Handmade Royal Icing Daisies. A great impromptu alternative, but still not the dream cake I envisioned. Happy Birthday Jim and Chris!
I managed to stay out, um, waaay too late or, er, early on Friday night/Saturday morning for said birthdays. Let's put it this way, I stepped out of the bar with the sun. Needless to say I was a hot mess all day Saturday, but dreamed of delicious blueberry muffins. I found this great recipe from this brilliant blogger http://www.elanaspantry.com/ She is a GODDESS when it comes to the gluten free recipes. In her baking she uses a lot of almond flour which I don't like to use because of fat, calories, and the price, but she did a series of coconut flour recipes one of which was for blueberry muffins. I decided I would bite the bullet and buy some coconut flour to try the recipe. I, of course, did not do this on Saturday - although I did rally for a super fun and super steamy (due to the heat) night out salsa dancing under the stars at Lincoln Center. This was a Sunday evening event. Upon looking closer at her recipe, I noticed it called for SIX eggs. That seemed a little over the top so I decided to use 4 large egg whites and crossed my fingers. The muffins smelled AMAZING and when I tried one it was moist, sweet - a little too sweet - and jam packed with blueberries. These are gluten-free, yeast-free, sugar-free muffins and they are really great. I think before I publish my version of the recipe I am going to tweak things a bit; 3-4 eggs, less agave nectar, and perhaps I will devise a streusel top. But over all delicioso.
This week my challenge is a key lime pie for Eduardo. He is such an amazing friend schlepping me here, there an everywhere, helping me out when I need it, and just being a cool guy. Key-lime pie is his absolute fav so I think I am going to surprise him with a little something this week. Provided he doesn't read my blog... Until then, happy baking.
Last week I was given six - SIX - 1950's pop songs to learn for a new Off-Broadway show coming in from the West Coast. Being that I am a trained opera singer, I never in my wildest thought I would have to learn "it's my party." Needless to say I was a little stressed out. Thankfully Dusty, Connie, and all the other greats never screamed their faces off so it was kind of fun - in the end - to sing the songs. And who knows maybe I have a new Karaoke tune?
There was one song that was not so fun to sing seeing as though I am the whitest girl in America - Rescue Me. Ah Aretha why do you taunt me so? This song gave me Agata. Drag queens could sing this better than I can. Trying to make this song work resulted in a couple of things: 1. procrastination station 2. crochet fun and 3. baking for the masses. Really, 2 and 3 fit into 1 as my tools for procrastinating, but still...
As I have told you before, I moved into a new place about 3 months back. I am SLOWLY piecing together my apartment and one of those things entails a handmade welcome mat. Yes, folks I crochet too. It is comprised of a million circles that I have to sew together and they were just sitting there for weeks so instead of practicing I got to crocheting UNTIL I realized that I had two birthdays I needed to bake for - Oops! Jim and Chris, two of my salsa friends, have birthdays a day apart and I thought why not make a cake for both of them? Yellow cake with a light lime green vanilla buttercream frosting. Super cute and super summery. Well, it was easily 95 degrees outside and since I am anti-air conditioning it was like over 100 degrees in my apartment. The cake went into the oven and came out looking and smelling really good. I decided to try a different buttercream recipe then my old faithful. MISTAKE! The buttercream was mad at me because it was so damn hot. It would not set up. No matter how much confectioner's sugar I put in it, it was not having it.
It was a two-layer cake and I made the unfortunate mistake of putting the layers together not realizing that the buttercream would literally melt and ooze out from the layers. When I tried to take the top layer off it was like cemented on so I tried to make the best of it. Then it happened... (and this hasn't happened since my lame-o attempt at an ex-boyfriend's birthday cake 5 years ago) the cake cracked in half. A huge Crater down the center. For the love...! Btws, it was 9 I was supposed to meet my friends with said cake AT 9. What to do? Thank the sweet baby Jesus that I have baked goods in the freezer and I had some frosting left over. I grabbed the few cupcakes I had left and frosted them and headed out the door praying that they wouldn't melt on the way to the restaurant. I went from a whole cake to 6 measly cupcakes. Not the birthday cake extravaganza I had in mind, but still good.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Lime Green Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and Handmade Royal Icing Daisies. A great impromptu alternative, but still not the dream cake I envisioned. Happy Birthday Jim and Chris! I managed to stay out, um, waaay too late or, er, early on Friday night/Saturday morning for said birthdays. Let's put it this way, I stepped out of the bar with the sun. Needless to say I was a hot mess all day Saturday, but dreamed of delicious blueberry muffins. I found this great recipe from this brilliant blogger http://www.elanaspantry.com/ She is a GODDESS when it comes to the gluten free recipes. In her baking she uses a lot of almond flour which I don't like to use because of fat, calories, and the price, but she did a series of coconut flour recipes one of which was for blueberry muffins. I decided I would bite the bullet and buy some coconut flour to try the recipe. I, of course, did not do this on Saturday - although I did rally for a super fun and super steamy (due to the heat) night out salsa dancing under the stars at Lincoln Center. This was a Sunday evening event. Upon looking closer at her recipe, I noticed it called for SIX eggs. That seemed a little over the top so I decided to use 4 large egg whites and crossed my fingers. The muffins smelled AMAZING and when I tried one it was moist, sweet - a little too sweet - and jam packed with blueberries. These are gluten-free, yeast-free, sugar-free muffins and they are really great. I think before I publish my version of the recipe I am going to tweak things a bit; 3-4 eggs, less agave nectar, and perhaps I will devise a streusel top. But over all delicioso.
Gluten-free, yeast-free, sugar-free blueberry muffins. Surprisingly sweet, delicious, and a
fantastic texture. A new sweet treat for little old me! TRIUMPH.
fantastic texture. A new sweet treat for little old me! TRIUMPH.
This week my challenge is a key lime pie for Eduardo. He is such an amazing friend schlepping me here, there an everywhere, helping me out when I need it, and just being a cool guy. Key-lime pie is his absolute fav so I think I am going to surprise him with a little something this week. Provided he doesn't read my blog... Until then, happy baking.
0 Comments