Tuesday, March 2, 2010

bake-tastic

One of the perks to being at home is that I have more time to bake and cook. Or I guess I should say that I feel more compelled to bake and cook although it doesn't always work out with two kids to take care of. I love to check the shows on Food Network to see what's being made so I might get inspiration to try something new. Cook books are fabulous and all, but if it doesn't have a picture with it, I usually won't attempt to make it. I have this thing about needing to see what the final product is meant to look like. Maybe its the crazy, anal, teacher-type person in me that needs specific parameters and an example of an end product. Who knows.

Recently, I've found that I a.) crave sweets, and b.) Luke absolutely loves to help with anything in the kitchen. I saw this recipe on Down Home with the Neely's and immediately wanted to try it. If you've never watched the Neely's, I highly recommend it. They are the cutest couple and make some good food (even though it is SO not good for you!).

So Luke and I (with Keith's help) started in on making a cookies and cream cake. It combines Oreos and chocolate cake; what could be better? Turns out its a fairly intensive recipe for a novice baker like myself. Luke was helpful while measuring ingredients.



Luke was also especially helpful when smashing the cookies. Boom buddy!


Even though the recipe was 5 million steps long with a bajillion ingredients, I thought we were doing really well. By the time the cake when in the oven to bake, I was feeling fairly confident about all the elbow grease we had put into this cake. And a two layer cake at that! Maybe we were trying to get too fancy...


Once the cake had baked, I let it cool the alloted amount of time and began to assemble our creation. This is where it all went horribly wrong. The cake used for the top layer broke apart as I was trying to add it to the bottom layer. I assumed I could use the frosting to hold it together which only made it slide apart worse. The cake looked like a disaster, but after putting in so much time and effort, I couldn't let it go to waste. It all tastes the same once its in your mouth, right? So much for wanting to see a picture of what its supposed to look like at the end. It just made me feel that much worse about my final product.



All in all, this cake is super rich and I could have easily halved the recipe to make a single layer cake that wasn't so filling. Also, the cake ends up looking and tasting and staying together a ton better once refrigerated overnight. Will I make this cake again? Probably. But I will definitely make the adjustments I learned through actually creating this on my own. 

Oh, and Neely's-you make things look too easy. Next time, try to make things look a little more realistic on TV. Thanks.

1 comment:

Traci Tenkely said...

I am right there with you and needing a picture! And I'm sure it tasted wonderful! I love baking so much because my mom baked with me and I have a million photos measuring and scooping. Luke is a lucky kid for sure!