half baked

I really, really like to bake. If I'm upset or angry one of the best ways for me to calm down is to bake. I love the measurements, the exactness of powers and liquids and congealed solids. Mixing bowls... love them and will buy vintage coloured pyrex anytime (if it's a good deal). I bought measuring cups last week in anticipation of the bakefest I planned for this weekend. I have dreams of silpat mats and silicone spatulas and mini bundt cake tins. I would spend all my money on cookbooks if I had anywhere to put them.

The things I baked Friday/Saturday:
1) upside down cranberry cake
2) molasses ginger cookies
3) black forest-ish cake
4) apple pie
5) poundcake/trifle
I had intended to make a berry cobbler, but changed my mind at the last minute. Probably for the best. There was a lot of dessert.

Note to self: don't bake so much at one time.

Thankfully a nice hoard of people came by for tea yesterday afternoon. I was concerned I'd wind up eating everything by myself, all the effort for nought. The most popular item, and the one I'm planning to make again soon, was the cranberry cake. Cripes, it was good. I managed to coerce a few people to take stuff home with them because there's no way I'd be able to eat all the leftovers. Baking cakes from scratch (frick, poundcake takes forever to bake, especially when you start at 1:30am) is satisfying; when they actually taste good, the satisfaction is amplified.

I used my china and wore the tea ring Dulcie gave me (thanks, girlie!) as promised. I'm going to try to use the china more frequently because it's much more fun to drink from a tiny teacup than anything. Perhaps more teacup gimlets should be in my future. Perhaps more cups and saucers...

Today I cleaned up the dishes and eliminated the slug that mysteriously died beside my fridge (*shudder*) and decided to bake cornbread muffins. I had a cheese ball that I bought on a whim to use in cooking and decided to cut it up and shove it and some jalapeños in the middle of the batter. Frick, I love cornbread. These suckers are fantastic, but so fricking hot. So good! When I mentioned to my sister about them, she stared at me stunned. The remainder of our conversation:

me: "They're really good. I swear."
Anita: "...I want to try them. The cheese is inside?"
me: "Ya, I usually use cream cheese, but thought I'd try this other cheese. I can give you one when you drop me off."
Anita: "Cream cheese? Oooo...Uh... just one? How many did you make?"
me: "A dozen."
Anita: "A dozen? Can't you give me more than one?"
me: "..."
Anita: "I want one now."

We had this conversation while we were waiting to order at the Reef. She and Peter took me for a belated birthday dinner, my choice. Peter and I both ordered the mahi mahi; Anita went with the less conventional jerk chicken quesadilla ("I ordered Mexican food at a Caribbean restaurant..." - Anita). When she tried mine she looked at my plate forlornly. Peter made lots of mmmm noises while he ate. It was darn good. We briefly discussed dessert, but there was no way to stuff anything else into any of us.

Besides, I still have all that cake in my fridge.