a five things meme
Jan. 13th, 2010 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rushthatspeaksHave been sick, still am sick, and haven't had much to write about. A meme is a good way to realize what I may not have been talking to people about as much as I think I have.
So, five things, from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
trishkitten, and if you want me to give you five things, uh, I guess I can? Not very good at that end...
Trish wanted me to talk about:
amazing cakes. Which is interesting, because cake in itself isn't my primary dessert-making focus, it's just that a lot of the desserts I make tend to use it as a base because it can be sculptural and is otherwise modifiable. I do like cake, though. I like it so much better than pie. But not as well as mousse. I work very hard at making good cake, and have considered trying to become a professional baker, although I am still fighting with myself over the baker/more general patisserie/line cook question.
a vegan cake recipe from the 1940s, via the Homesick Texan, with my notes added: I can vouch for this. It was initially a wartime cake, but then so was carrot cake.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (with my usual note to use the good stuff)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
5 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup cold water (not iced)
1 cup diced Granny Smith or other good baking apples, peeled and cored (1 medium-sized apple)
optional: 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine dry ingredients in flour sifter and sift into an ungreased 8x8 square or a 9-inch round baking pan. You can also use a 9-inch cast-iron skillet. You really don't need to grease the pan, there's enough oil in the batter.
3. Poke three holes into the flour mixture. In the first hole, pour the vinegar. In the second hole, pour the vanilla. In the third hole, pour the oil. Enjoy the reminiscences of your fifth-grade science project.
4. Then pour one cup of water into the pan (don't wait for it to subside or anything) and mix very well.
5. Stir in the apples and nuts.
6. Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes or less, until done.
7. Cut in squares and sprinkle top with powdered sugar. You really don't need to ice this. Most of the icings I can think of that would go well with it aren't vegan anyway.
my current default icon: is from Baccano!, the anime that kept me in anime fandom last year when I simply couldn't otherwise bring myself to care. There was just nothing I wanted to watch, and nothing I wanted to buy, and nothing that didn't make me feel like I'd outgrown such vast portions of anime-as-it-is-marketed that there was no point in trying to keep up with the new stuff. And then there was Baccano!, and it makes me smile every time I think about it, literally, I'm smiling now. And having that kept me paying attention enough to run into a couple of other shows, such as Spice and Wolf, which I would have been sad to miss. So partly the icon is a character I love from a show I like that makes me smile, and partly it's a reminder that even though the things I like can be few and far between and the landscape of particular portions of culture can look like a horrible wasteland of sameness and banality, it's worth continuing to poke around anyway. (My primary specification for a default LJ icon is: makes me happy to look at.)
And I think the other three get a second post.
So, five things, from
trishkitten, and if you want me to give you five things, uh, I guess I can? Not very good at that end...Trish wanted me to talk about:
amazing cakes. Which is interesting, because cake in itself isn't my primary dessert-making focus, it's just that a lot of the desserts I make tend to use it as a base because it can be sculptural and is otherwise modifiable. I do like cake, though. I like it so much better than pie. But not as well as mousse. I work very hard at making good cake, and have considered trying to become a professional baker, although I am still fighting with myself over the baker/more general patisserie/line cook question.
a vegan cake recipe from the 1940s, via the Homesick Texan, with my notes added: I can vouch for this. It was initially a wartime cake, but then so was carrot cake.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (with my usual note to use the good stuff)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
5 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup cold water (not iced)
1 cup diced Granny Smith or other good baking apples, peeled and cored (1 medium-sized apple)
optional: 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine dry ingredients in flour sifter and sift into an ungreased 8x8 square or a 9-inch round baking pan. You can also use a 9-inch cast-iron skillet. You really don't need to grease the pan, there's enough oil in the batter.
3. Poke three holes into the flour mixture. In the first hole, pour the vinegar. In the second hole, pour the vanilla. In the third hole, pour the oil. Enjoy the reminiscences of your fifth-grade science project.
4. Then pour one cup of water into the pan (don't wait for it to subside or anything) and mix very well.
5. Stir in the apples and nuts.
6. Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes or less, until done.
7. Cut in squares and sprinkle top with powdered sugar. You really don't need to ice this. Most of the icings I can think of that would go well with it aren't vegan anyway.
my current default icon: is from Baccano!, the anime that kept me in anime fandom last year when I simply couldn't otherwise bring myself to care. There was just nothing I wanted to watch, and nothing I wanted to buy, and nothing that didn't make me feel like I'd outgrown such vast portions of anime-as-it-is-marketed that there was no point in trying to keep up with the new stuff. And then there was Baccano!, and it makes me smile every time I think about it, literally, I'm smiling now. And having that kept me paying attention enough to run into a couple of other shows, such as Spice and Wolf, which I would have been sad to miss. So partly the icon is a character I love from a show I like that makes me smile, and partly it's a reminder that even though the things I like can be few and far between and the landscape of particular portions of culture can look like a horrible wasteland of sameness and banality, it's worth continuing to poke around anyway. (My primary specification for a default LJ icon is: makes me happy to look at.)
And I think the other three get a second post.
