I don't cook...

...or rather I didn't cook. I have never cooked, not really. I have developed and fine-tuned an irrational dislike of all parts of food preparation. If I didn't manage to only date men who liked to cook I think I might have starved to death at some point. I am still wondering, even now, what happened to cause me to do a complete 180 3 months ago. The basic order of this particular change started with 1) reading a review of a cookbook by a friend, 2) buying said cookbook on a whim and 3) reading the opening chapter and getting completely sucked in. The book that started my reinvention is All Cakes Considered by Melissa Grey. I didn't really think I'd bake my way through a cookbook nor did I really think that this cookbook would help quell my dislike of the kitchen. But this book takes you by the hand, spells things out and generally takes the fear of screwing up away...especially because of the fact that the author is very comfortable talking about her own cake mishaps. Of course all this is helped by the fact that I love cake. I mean I really love cake. Now it is June and I am 12 cakes deep into the cookbook.

I should probably also mention I am not a writer but have been toying with the thought of doing a blog since I joined another blog community for baking desserts (see, you can already tell this baking thing has snowballed). This was further reinforced by a friend saying I should write a blog about this journey...so I bit the bullet and decided that I would do it. So in order to catch you up (assuming that eventually there might be a "you" out there) on the cakes already baked I'll do as brief of a recap as possible.

Cake #1, The Mancatcher (b/c supposedly you'll catch any man if you make this), Sour Cream Pound Cake, 3.7.2010. This cake is super simple and the glaze is delicious however I overcooked it even though I baked it 10 minutes less than stated. Otherwise I was pleased with my first attempt.

Cake #2, Brown Sugar Pound Cake, 3.13.2010 is an awesome recipe and I still have plans to recake however this one was also overcooked although it was less noticeable with all that yummy cream cheese frosting on it although this is the saddest frosting job I've ever seen...what was I thinking?! In any event I started to get very disappointed because of the overcooking thing and thinking that this was precisely the reason I didn't attempt any type of food prep. However I was encouraged and eventually convinced to buy an oven thermometer which showed that my oven was baking a whopping 25 degrees hotter than the dial said!!

Cake #3, Missy G's Sweet Potato Pound Cake, 3.20.2010 was the best baked cake so far. It wasn't my favorite flavor but it wasn't overcooked either so overall I was very happy.

Cake #4, Key Lime Cake, 3.26.2010 was a big hit that I ended up making a 2nd one. I really enjoyed this recipe but squeezing key limes is a bitch!

Cake #5, Procrastinatin Drunken Monkey Banana Bread, 4.11.2010 was super good even though it fell. It went really well while putting it together especially because I also learned how to plump cherries in rum with fire. The cake looked good when I took it out of the oven. However the banana is deceptive. The cake was not done and I didn't realize this fact until I had tried to remove it from the pan and it started to fall apart and there was a warm layer of an undercooked section. Becaused it wasn't done yet the cake fell. But it was so good I do have a plan to eventually recake this.

Cake #6, The Barefoot Contessa's Sour Cream Coffee Cake, 4.17.2010 was the first of the coffee cake series. Clearly you can tell it fell...undercooked. Telling when a cake is done is not as easy as they make it sound. I did streusel in the cake for the very first time which came out well but I do not think I am a coffee cake type of girl so I'm not hugely excited about recaking...I haven't made up my mind either way.

Cake #7, Argroves Manor Coffee Cake, 4.25.2010, was the 2nd in the coffee cake series and while good probably the uglest cake I've baked so far. It was slightly overdone yet the fruit layer inside helped keep it decently moist. Making the fruit layer on the stovetop was a cool new thing to try and it was delicious to boot!

Cake #7, Miss Saigon's Cinnamon Coffee Cake, 5.2.2010 was the last of the coffee cake series and the best! I am definitely not a coffee cake person but if I had to have it than I think I'd like this one best. I am now a saigon cinnamon (hot ball version of cinnamon) convert!

Cake #9, Dorie Greenspan's Swedish Visiting Cake, 5.8.2010, was by far the simplest cake to make and probably the most fun. Mixing the lemon zest with the sugar was almost a religious experience. It was so much fun to make I made it twice!

Cake #11, Rum Drenched Vanilla Cake, 5.12.2010, was baked in two loaf pans which I am not a fan of...mostly because I am challenged in being able to tell how much to fill the pan (1st time overfilled, oops!) and I have only one pan. There is rum in the batter, in the glaze and it was delicious!!

I think that is enough cake for this post. The next post will be about the gingerbreads and than I'll be caught up. This weekend will be cake #13! Eventually I'll do an update on all the non-cake-a-week items and my Have the Cake April and May challenges.