bake therapy

I missed yesterday, but yesterday I was sick as a dog, so I think I should be excused.

I’m neck deep in baking projects, because Jen’s last day is either tomorrow or Monday (you’d think I would know, but alas, I do not) and I was recruited to bake things for the occasion of Jen leaving or having a job, depending which spin you want to put on it. Two sides of the same coin.

The first ticket on the menu is split with Denise, on the occasion of her birthday, which is also tomorrow: a fortuitous occurrence. Denise specifically requested creamsicle cupcakes, which I made sometime over the summer because I wanted to try the recipe.

The recipe is fantastic, in case you’re wondering, and Denise’s request was echoed merrily and emphatically by the boys. Ben, in particular, was a big fan of the cupcakes. They are really very nice. You put a package of orange gelatin in with a white cake mix, as well as orange zest and substitute some of the water for orange juice. I use real orange juice that I squeezed from an orange, because I already zested it.

I zested the orange with a steak knife. It is primarily because I don’t have a zester, but hang with me here for a minute: it’s actually a great way to zest because you don’t get any of the stringy orange peel bits that the picky eater might pooh-pooh at.

Then the frosting is made with more orange zest, cream cheese, and orange extract (along with the other common frosting ingredients). Altogether, the cupcakes seriously live up to their name and I think that’s cool!

I should really pin this recipe because I always think I have, and then when I go looking for it, I have to search ‘creamsicle cupcakes’ on pinterest. I know, I know, not really a problem. If you look for them, they’re the ones with the adorable little flags stuck in them. Disclaimer: I do not do the flags. No one really cares about the inedible bits.

I used one of the fine mesh strainers that Jonathan got me for Christmas, and it filtered out the pulp and seeds beautifully! In the end, I probably had closer to 1/3 cup of orange juice than ¼ cup as the recipe called for, but I’m okay with that. I adjusted the water accordingly.

Then, when the batter was smooth and pale orange, I put it into the darling little batter dispenser that Laura got me for Christmas, and I have never in my life made neater cupcakes. I probably won’t even have to wash the cupcake pans. Game. Changer.

So now I’m in the process of baking the little boogers, and the first set of 12 has exited the oven. I invite you to imagine what kind of heaven my apartment currently smells like. It is a wonderful smell. I really can’t say enough good about this recipe. I can’t bake more than 12 at a time, though, and that’s an oven limitation because the bottoms of the cupcakes on the bottom rack always get burnt and I can’t be bothered to check on it early, so I just bake them in sets.

Then, tomorrow night, we are having a dinner out in Jen’s honor. It turns out there aren’t that many places in New Haven who can accommodate around 30 people (this count includes significant others), but Lauren found one! So we have a reservation for 7:30 and she asked me if I could make cake.

“Well, yes,” I said, “I’d like to make a cake, but are they okay with that? Since they make food for a living…?”

“Oh,” she said dismissively, “I’m sure they’ll be fine with it. Why wouldn’t they?” (This is quintessential Lauren.)

“Because they make food for a living…?” I repeated, laughing.

Later that day she stopped by and said, “They’re totally okay with it!” She asked for something chocolate, so I’m going chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. In no small part because it is easy and I could probably do it in my sleep.

Just watch. I’m going to botch it terribly now.

I have basically decided that even though layer cakes are more attractive and perhaps impressive, a cake baked in a 9x13 pan has (at the time of counting) two not inconsiderable advantages.

1. If there are 30 people in attendance, it is literally impossible to cut a layer cake into 30 pieces.
2. It is so much easier to travel with a layer cake. Or maybe I should get myself a cake carrier. But the point still stands: I do not currently own a cake carrier.

So in more science-related news, I had my first day on the mass spectrometer today. It was not nearly as exciting as it sounds. I ran about six hours of experiments on it, and found more or less what I expected to find, which means I don’t fail at chemical biology!

Not yet, anyway.

I will not be able to replicate what we did in terms of using the instrument again yet, though, so in order to familiarize myself with the instrument I will need to keep using it. Still, an auspicious beginning.

I saw Candice for the first time in a while (well, outside of group meeting, anyway… she doesn’t really talk that much at group meeting). I had a really nice conversation with her, actually. She’s frustrated with science (aren’t we all?) and also with Andy’s continual absence (aren’t we all?) and talked a little bit about her plans to leave in May 2015 no matter what, to perhaps join the Marines in some capacity, and to have three children.

Candice is much easier to get along with when you’re not sharing space with her, which is kind of sad because she is so very aware of the face that she’s hard to get along with when you’re sharing space with her. But today I remembered why my first impression of her had been so positive: she’s just a very open, friendly person. I was glad to have talked to her.

And then I wrapped up my 96-well plate, stowed it in the refrigerator, and headed back up to CRB to my office, to collect my things and head home to baking therapy!

At the time of posting, I'll have you know, the chocolate cake is in the oven and the cupcakes are out of the oven.  Perhaps I'll post pictures and since a picture is worth 1000 words, that will be two blog entries per picture of which I will have absolved myself.  That was a badly written sentence.  I probably won't do that anyway.  But I might still post pictures if the end result is pretty enough.