I Blame My Mother

I'm sitting at the island, with a seizing back.  Good grief.  I did it again.  I baked all day.

I don't know what's into me lately.  If I start a small-ish project, it just magically gets super sized right before my eyes.

Today's task was to start baking for the teachers at our school next week as part of the Parent Council teacher appreciation that happens monthly.  I'm not bragging about my participation in this at all, in fact, this is our 8th year at the school and, ahem, my first year providing this snack.  And, I'm only doing it because someone asked me to and I figured that I could ... so therefore I am, and, quite willingly, by the way.  After being in the school for so many years, you come to appreciate the sense of family that develops and so I will do a small gesture to let them know we notice and respect them and all that they do for our boys and our family.

Anyway, it's taken me a long time to decide what to make for their snack time.  Nobody can give me a firm answer on how many teachers/staff are on staff, but a wild guess at 43 + got me panicking.  What on earth could I make for 43 people???  At one sitting?  I thought about fresh cinnamon buns, but those are best hot out of the oven, and, they suggest the snack should be there first thing in the morning and I might be crazy but I'm not getting up at 0600 to make sure anyone has hot cinnamon buns by 0900.  Sheesh.  Dodged that crazy bullet. 

After discussing it with my "baking advisers" (okay, my co-workers during coffee break), I decided that cakes would do the trick and then I spent some sleepless hours (unrelated) last night deciding on what cakes to bake.  In fact, I had such a sleepless night last night that I nearly got up at 0600 to start my baking for the day.  How's that for ironic? 

Anyway, the long story made short is that, really, once you drag everything out to bake one, you might as well bake all four and be done with it.

And so, all four cakes are done.  I made a chocolate zucchini cake - and plan to ice it with brown sugar icing for the retro vibe, ha ha!  Cake #2 - hmm.  Brain fart.  What IS cake #2?  Oh yes - Banana Chocolate Chip cake and I plan to drizzle it (via piping tip) with cream cheese frosting.  Cake #3 - Pumpkin Streusel Cake that will be glazed with an orange/vanilla glaze.  Cake #4 - Carrot Cake, also to be drizzled with cream cheese frosting.

And then...........

Then there was the nasty, devilishly so, Angel Food Cake that let me down.

This is where my mom and "blame" comes in.

Growing up, I loved Angel Food cake - 'twas my favorite cake and most often requested for my birthday. 

My dear, sweet mother was, how do we say it nicely? ... not so good at baking Angel Food Cakes.

And so, as I grew older and eager to try making new things, it became my thrill to become the Angel Food Cake baker of the family.  In fact, a few years ago, mom just gave me her angel food cake pan, seeing that it was fairly useless to her. 

(Now I have to be up front and mention that I have never made an Angel Food cake from scratch.  I make it from a box, and if your culinary respect for me just went flushing down the toilet, I understand if you click on the little "X" in the upper right hand corner, never to return again.)

When I told my mom this morning that I was going to make an Angel Food Cake for myself for my (a-word-that-sounds-like-"earth")-day tomorrow, she told me "well, I hope yours turns out.  Mine always flopped."  To which I replied "don't worry, mine ALWAYS turn out and have NEVER flopped."

Yup.

Mine flopped.

And that's why I blame my mom.  I think she jinxed me.




....p.s.  I couldn't live with the flop....so I made another one.  And it's gorgeous!

See, Mom?  ;)


Flop:
(I know what I did wrong - I didn't let it cool long enough before taking it out of the pan)

Success:

Victory is sweet!!!!!!!!!