Chocolate Drops

It's is finally a new year! I am ready for new and exciting things. I usually don't do New Year's Resolutions because I am too lazy to keep them but this year I thought I would try to make and keep a few. Starting off simple with just a little bit of exercise every week and drinking less soda. I am also going to try to update my blog more regularly. No promises. Especially since January is almost already over... Perhaps I should start in February.

For my first baking adventure for the new year I decided to go easy. I pulled out the wonderful 1940's Christmas Cookies pamphlet from Wisconsin Gas & Electric. They are nice and easy to follow! And usually turn out great. I want to start on a good note.

I had a whole bag of walnuts so had to use those. A little bit of online hunting revealed that 1 square of chocolate equals 1 ounce and that sour milk is 1/2 a tablespoon of vinegar then whole milk added to the 1/2 cup line. And sour milk looks and smells gross so don't think too much about it.

I hate chopping chocolate. Can't tell you why but I find it annoying and messy.

When you are melting chocolate in the microwave, take your time! Do it 15 seconds at a time and mix in between heatings or you will end up with a bubbling mess that is only good for the trash.

So light and fluffy! I'm kind of concerned that these are going to be too soft. I might have to chill them in the fridge for a while.

Well, these actually didn't need any chilling. They stayed together quite well on the tray, ready to be topped off with an walnut.

The smell of cookies is in the air!! I should bake more often... 

It was way too cold to go outside for a picture so I had to actually clean off a table. Boo. 

Little chocolate clouds!

These are amazingly light and airy!! Adding baking soda and sour milk causes a cool chemical reaction which creates cloud cookies! I added chopped walnuts in addition to the one on top. For variety. It was too easy to eat too many of these. Just sit down and start snacking and soon the bag will be empty. The one change I would make would be to add mini-chocolate chips to the mix. I definitely felt that there wasn't enough nuts in the cookies but I think mini chips would be even better. Keep an eye out for an update!

My Rating: Keeper! Must try again with mini chips.

Dylan's Rating: Sooo good! Sooo light. I could eat the entire bag. Can I eat the entire bag?

Lady Baltimore Cake

Happy New Year! 2020 was a year of change and learning but now it on to 2021. Dylan has been bugging me about doing videos so that may happen. No promises. I am hoping to get a lot more baking done and really start to work on my sewing pile. 

In the mean time here is a recipe from last year. I always make a dessert for Thanksgiving. Last year I was planning on making a daffodil cake but upon further reading it sounded too much like an angel food cake. Too light and summery. I need something rich, heavy, and fattening! Another recipe that seemed to pop up in several of my cookbooks is the Lady Baltimore Cake. The recipes varied a little but they all included layers of white cake separated by either a mixture of dried fruits or icing and all of it topped with boiled icing.

I decided to use the recipe from The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, 1924 edition, since it seemed the easiest and the best sounding filling. My family is very picky when it comes to fruit in cake. I love fruit! I am the only one. This is not fruit cake but close enough that I got looks.

This recipe is simple enough. Lots of egg whites. I'm not certain what I'm going to do with all the yolks.

A stand mixer is a necessity when whipping egg whites!

I had to purchase another cake pan just for this recipe. Yep, that is the reason why I bought it. I went with round pans because I think they have a more traditional look. And I already had 2 pans.

These smell heavenly! There was no time given so I just had to keep watch. Just have to wait until they cool to do anything else. The one really annoying part aspect of baking cakes: the wait.

I could not find figs so I went with dates and extra raisins. 

Yummy fillings! Every Lady Baltimore cake recipe I found had different fillings.

As I was following the recipe, it never occurred to me that I was making boiled icing. If I had known than I probably would have done a bit more online research about it.

Hot sugar syrup and egg whites...interesting. It took a considerable amount of time for the bowl to cool off and start to form the icing. I may have let the egg whites sit a little too long and it may have caused the icing to come together slower.

Eventually the icing started to thicken. It is still a little soft but I think it is thick enough to ice the cake.

Making the filling! It looks like I will have more filling than I need. Tastes good!

Well, the filling seems a little soft...kinda nervous about the rest of the icing. Did not use all of the filling. I may have snacked on the filling.

Looks so pretty! So bright white!

Still feels kinda soft. I do not think this will stay upright and iced over night. It has to last until tomorrow afternoon! I hope.

Well, the icing do not last well overnight, even in the fridge. It is still tasty, just oozy. I'm feel lucky that my cake carrier locks or my fridge would have been filled with oozy icing.

It looks prettier sliced than whole! 

We may have scooped some of the icing back onto the slices of cakes. Some of the filling oozed out as well. I was definitely missing some fruits and nuts!

Pretty slices! 

This was an interesting cake both to make and eat. The cake was quite dense, very similar to other cakes from that time. I have noticed that older cake recipes tend to be dense and not light a fluffy. The icing needed more fruits and nuts. Maybe less icing mixed with the fillings, maybe a different filling. I have many recipes to choose from. I liked the boiled icing! I liked the thickness of it and the slight crunch as you bite into it. I need to do a bit more research on it so that it doesn't flow off the cake. It does not last very long. The sugar starts to crystalize after a couple of days and changes the texture completely. I can see why you never see it anymore but the taste is fantastic. I highly recommend!

My Rating: Not bad. A fun experiment. I might have to try another version. I am definitely making the icing again!

Friends and Family Rating: Good! Why is the icing half missing?

Calumet Sugar Cookies

 We have been really good about staying home and trying to be extra careful when we do go out.  Just before tighter restrictions were enacted (Thank you to all the boneheads and selfish jerks who put us in this position) we were able to make it out to a vintage market. It felt great to be outside! Good food! Great atmosphere! Masks and distancing everywhere! I had to stop myself from buying too much! I did snag a couple of old cooking pamphlets. Sadly, I had to leave a few behind. Danm Holiday gift giving! :)

I think the guy is a little creepy...

It's not often that I pick a recipe based on the photo. The photos usually do not make the food look very... tasty. Usually they look .... not good, very not good. But, for whatever reason, this picture called to me. These cookies looked soooooo good! I just had to make them.

 Pretty standard looking recipe but cloves and nutmeg in sugar cookies? Okay, we'll try. Naturally no time on the recipe. I'm happy there is the temp at least!

Went with milk instead of water. I'm hoping it will make a richer tasting cookie. 

Mixing, mixing, mixing...

Looking fluffy! But not very thick...and I'm suppose to roll this out? 

Well, I had to add a bit more flour to the dough to thicken it and added a lot of flour onto my marble to get it to roll out and not stick on everything. I also had to roll out the dough a little bit at a time since my marble slab is not very large.

They are looking so cute! I am excited!

I have a much larger kitchen now but still end up in a little corner. ha ha And I didn't drink all the wine. 2 are empty bottles I'm saving and 1 was used to make a jelly. I'm not talking about the third.

These baked up so perfectly! It only took about 12 minutes in the oven and I probably could have taken them out a minute or so earlier.

Cookie time!

A little crispy and a little chewy. Perfect for snacking!

I was pretty surprised by these. You will not mistake it for a spice cookie, it is definitely a sugar cookie. The spices were very subtle and definitely added a little something to them. I was afraid that the extra flour I had to add would make them tough but that wasn't the case. I would probably use less liquid next time to try get them a bit more crispier. They didn't spread much so these would probably be great for fancy cookie cutters. I might have to do these again for the holidays. I have some great vintage cookie cutters to try.

My Rating: Great! I'd make again.

Dylan's Rating: I love sugar cookies!!