I'm trying to summon up the energy to do my pre-Thanksgiving big grocery run.
We're celebrating Thanksgiving in California for the second time, but this will be our first full-fledged holiday dinner in our own home. Last year we'd just arrived on base, and cobbled together a little feast for just the two of us in our hotel room kitchenette, thanks to some supermarket rotisserie chicken and pumpkin pie from Trader Joe's. It ended up being a lovely day.
Last year's Thanksgiving dinner. If you know the Lt., you know that no feast is complete without Dr. Pepper. |
This year, we are very thankful to be in our own home and with friends, even if we can't manage to make it back to the East Coast to spend the holiday with our families. The Lt.'s good friend is driving out here from Phoenix to spend the weekend with us, and my best friend here in California, whose husband is in Afghanistan, will also be joining our little party. She'll be bringing her little boy, who is literally one of the cutest children I have ever seen.
A seriously cute little boy. |
I was hoping to get a few other officers from the Lt.'s unit to come as well, until it suddenly became clear that either one of them or I would be hosting a huge party of 20-30 hungry Marines. This 8-months-pregnant gal has gracefully bowed out of that race. (Not, of course, that I am actually physically capable of bowing gracefully right now!)
I'm a little behind in my preparations, thanks to a bad cold I've been battling for the last week or so, and am only now making my menu and lists to take to the store. But I thought you might be amused by a recent baking fail of mine.
For the last several weeks I've been wanting baked goods available at all times. Nothing overly sweet – this spiced applesauce cake over at Smitten Kitchen looked perfect. “Snacking cake” for me, with a bit of cream cheese frosting for the Lt. (to whom cake without frosting is a waste of time).
Since I don't actually have a small cake pan, and since more cake seemed like a better idea than less cake (duh!), I decided to double the recipe. However, I made the crucial mistake of attempting to double a recipe in my head while I was:
A) Pregnant
and
B) on the phone (with Sukie).
It wasn't until I took my cake out of the oven (after I had more than doubled the baking time and it still refused to set) that it occurred to me something might be wrong.
Indeed, I had very carefully doubled every ingredient… except the flour. Resulting in something I, for lack of a better name, dubbed spiced applesauce pudding.
Because I'm sure you wanted to see another picture of the Cake Fail. |
It tasted… like it would have been an excellent cake. We valiantly struggled through a few pieces of it, but no more. Sigh. Next time.
(Really, I am quite convinced that it would've been a delicious cake, and this should in no way be construed as a condemnation of the recipe, which I intend to try again – perhaps paying a little more attention next time.)
In much more tasty news, I soon after made (but sadly did not photograph) these Homemade Twix Bars, which were amazingly good. They consist of a layer of shortbread, a layer of caramel (I actually used a simpler caramel, which I had in the fridge already because the Lt. was on a caramel apple dip kick), and a layer of chocolate, and they looked and tasted exactly as wonderful as you would hope they would.
Hopefully my Thanksgiving baking (and yours!) is more uniformly successful!
_Leila says
Hahahahah.
Now, you really need kids asap. If your kids are like my kids 😉 they will tell you it was the best thing ever and could you PLEASE make it again! (Remember the “mistake cake”? I totally did not want to make that again…)
So hurry up little Pepito!
Rosie says
I dunno. Little Kid Rosie possibly might have eaten this, but it definitely hurt Grown Up Pregnant Rosie's stomach.
Whereas as far as I remember, Mistake Cake was delicious.
sibyl says
Well, that cake looks pretty good. I'm sure it was a bit wet and goopy to eat, though.
Good luck doing your first Thanksgiving in your new home. What a great thing to look forward to! Time to establish your own traditions. Isn't family building great!
Nancy says
Well, that cake looks pretty good. I'm sure it was a bit wet and goopy to eat, though.
Good luck doing your first Thanksgiving in your new home. What a great thing to look forward to! Time to establish your own traditions. Isn't family building great!
Donna Jannuzzi says
I've actually made that spiced applesauce cake (except that I used pear butter instead of applesauce – turned out wonderfully). It's definitely worth another try. I will say that you should use a pan that is at least 9×9. Deb says you can use an 8×8 and that's what I used, but I had to bake it longer than the recommended time to get the middle done, and by then the edges were on the dry side. I'll bet that an 11×7 would work too.
Camille says
When I was about 7 mos pregnant with my daughter, I went to the store. When I came out of the store (in a very metropolitan area), I found that I had not only forgotten to lock the car, but had left TWO doors wide open! For at least 30 minutes! I was very happy my car was still there. 🙂 I'd say that a botched cake is much better than a missing car! LOL
MamaHen says
Homemade Twix bars! Not that is something to get behind!
Layne says
My big baking fail was yesterday….in a hurry, I decided to make some cookies from a box….I usually do home made but since time was precious, I pulled out a particular brand that is almost as good as homemade. I looked at the picture and saw a stick of butter and an egg so threw it in the bowl, turned on the mixer and threw them in the oven. As I was throwing away the box, I realized…..it was a tablespoon of butter, not a stick! Now those were some caloric cookies!
Rachael says
Hosting holidays is a ton of fun, I think. This year is the first time we get to host my family (going to be 12 total, plus two small children). I've hosted easter dinners with 15 before, but it was all just friends, never included family (we lived in So Cal and family is all in central US). This years big quandary is chairs. I always just had the friends sit on the floor, but I figure I should let Grandpa have a chair! So, I venture out today to find a few low cost folding chairs.
Habou says
Your cake fail reminds me of when, many years ago, I forgot the carrots when making a carrot cake. Did not have the excuse of being pregnant but was talking on the phone.
Patty says
OK, so is there a post about Mistake Cake? I'd love to read a “recipe” or at least a good story about it because that's a fabulous name. 😉
Susan (DE) says
I did that once — or maybe more than once — blush — with brownies. They were, um, sticky. Very, very sticky. The children said they were delicious. I wouldn't know. I didn't eat 'em.
Susan (DE)
Rachel P. says
I just have a tip I thought I might share that has worked for me. I have no cake pans so when a cake recipe is calling for a 9 by 9 or 8 by 8 pan I use a deep pie plate, a casserole dish or even my cast iron skillet.
Anne says
That picture of the little boy looks like philip when he was little, in fact at first I thought it was him…I'm just saying, your chances are good. 🙂
carrien says
You know, I'm guessing we are practically neighbors. That is if you are at Camp Pendleton right now. I recognize that pier. If that's the case and you want to email me I'd love to meet up for tea or something. Also, I know the most wonderful midwife in Oceanside you may want to meet, she delivered our 4th baby for free in August. She has doula referrals as well.
Anyway, this is odd perhaps, but if you'd like to make a new friend I would too. 🙂