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Today's my husband's birthday. This made tonight's TC topic a total no-brainer. So, join me in the birth of a birthday cake! As a total bonus, I was listening to Patrick Rothfuss's utterly PHENOMENAL book, The Name of the Wind during the baking process. Sorta made it feel like it was my birthday, too!
Raw ingredients for both cake and frosting are here:
Which somehow becomes this (and makes my husband HAPPY!)
Here's what makes the actual cake:
Here are most of the wet ingredients (melted butter, egg yolks, vanilla, buttermilk, oil):
missing from this shot are the 3 egg whites. We have other plans for those. So, whisk together the wet ingredients and set aside.
Now, for the egg whites. Those get tossed in a stand mixer (because I have one, you can use a hand mixer if you don't) and through the magic of the whisk attachment and speed, they turn into this:
(Obviously there was a location transfer here.)
Now, mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients:
and finally, fold the egg whites into the batter.
From here, the batter is poured equally into two 9" well greased cake rounds and baked for 30 minutes or so at 350 degrees. Then let the cakes cool in their pans for 10 minutes and on a rack until they're room temp (about an hour)
(do any fellow Sarahpaloozers notice anything in this photo?) :)
While the cake bakes and cools, make the frosting!
Here are the frosting ingredients.
First, melt 8 oz. chocolate chips in a double boiler or the microwave. I use the double boiler out of habit.
The chocolate needs to cool to between 80-100 degrees. While that's happening, throw all the other ingredients into a food processor (metric buttload (20 tbsp) of butter, 3/4 cup of dutch process cocoa, pinch salt, 1 cup powdered sugar). Process until smooth, roughly 15 seconds. Then add 3/4 cup light corn syrup and 1 tsp of vanilla extract. Repeat processing. When the melted chocolate has cooled sufficiently, add it. The frosting is ready to go! You can store it for a few days, but the nice thing is that this frosting is ready right away, which, trust me, is NOT typical of homemade frostings.
So frosting the cake - I'm so not an expert there. But I did learn a nifty trick to keep the plate neat - line the plate with wax paper and remove after frosting is complete. Here are some pics of frosting the cake.
Finally, it's ready to go! The crayon candles are a family joke. My husband is older than 7.
Most days.
Without further ado, here are tonight's top comment nominees!
First, a couple that missed yesterday's cutoff:
From Leroy the Roadie:
Who liked this thread, started by CoEcoCe and had this to say:
So there's this Teabagger named Gene, see, and he walks into a lab where a Daily Kos guy just got a job as a researcher (yay! someone got a job!), and the Kos Guy ISOLATES TEABAGGER GENE'S TEABAGGER GENE (you following this?) and he converts it to Dark Energy...!
It provides enough energy to do away with any worries about peak oil...! Just from one teabagger...!
From Land of Enchantment:
I'm still chuckling about zemongoose's description of a Blue Dog.
From Eddie C:
In the diary We don't need ... don't want your help ... there was chumley's There's a contradiction in their logic. followed by I think the message is even harsher from cskendrick.
From Indycam:
Magnanimous to the very end . What style and grace . Comment by chumley from his GBCW diary.
From Jan F:
When jotter is a little late posting High Impact Diaries as he was on Friday, the natives get restless (we're looking at you, bubbanomics!). In jotterville today, this thread attached to BlueJessamine's comment about Markos' book seems almost sacrilegious (towards someone). And this thread to start the Friday fun (started by LaFeminista ) ends up with some NSFW pootie pics.
Top Mojo excluding search-identifiable tip jars, first diary comments, Cheers and Jeers, and Mojo Friday:
1) Without further comment - by Richard Cranium — 172
2) Sincerely curious. Do you think that... by Meteor Blades — 144
3) Thank you Bobswern by LaneJ — 131
4) Where I live no one reads the NYT or The by Williston Barrett — 128
5) LiberalCanuck's Diary Summarized by JekyllnHyde — 123
6) All time great Robert Reich quote by Albanius — 99
7) Bravo, GG! by funluvn1 — 97
8) jesus fucking christ by GlowNZ — 96
9) Thanks for this, Laurence by Cali Scribe — 92
10) I attended a teabagger meeting last spring by Greek Goddess — 88
11) Your commentary, IMHO, is based upon what... by bobswern — 87
12) I have to say I've been very impressed with by ontheleftcoast — 87
13) Zog No Like Taxes by JekyllnHyde — 86
14) Watch out, The hippy-punchers are out in force by cskendrick — 82
15) I hope you're right, Laurence by Dallasdoc — 79
16) I need to go. by KVoimakas — 76
17) Im an electrical engineer, not an economist by grey skies turning to blue — 75
18) Message is somewhat different ... by A Siegel — 75
19) Sorry, but that is BS by BoiseBlue — 74
20) I liked what kos had to say to Politico by Situational Lefty — 73
21) the idea is by RickD — 73
22) He has done what he said he would do. by Kiku — 73
23) McCarthy was brighter. by Frank Palmer — 73
24) Krugman doesn't dispute the fact that... by bobswern — 71
25) You say he is by Timaeus — 70
26) god dammit, OBAMA IS NOT DUMPING A PUBLIC OPTION by Walt starr — 69
27) I'm a hippy by Mongo1967 — 69
28) I think a large part of the problem by Diogenes2008 — 67
29) More like tearing it down by Walt starr — 67
30) Great diary. The unions know by Geekesque — 66
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1) Tip Jar by Greek Goddess — 628
2) Tip Jar by slinkerwink — 603
3) Tip Jar by LiberalCanuck — 385
4) Tip Jar by NWTerriD — 369
5) Tip Jar by bobswern — 322
6) speaking for myself by Laurence Lewis — 319
7) Tip Jar by TomP — 306
8) Tip Jar by DRo — 261
9) Tip Jar by blackwaterdog — 261
10) Where are the Christian Fundamentalists... by KingOneEye — 239
11) Tip Jar by chumley — 215
12) Tip Jar by Detroit Mark — 206
13) Tip Jar by A Siegel — 186
14) Without further comment - by Richard Cranium — 172
15) Tip Jar by KVoimakas — 162
16) Hoping for Dialogue by soothsayer99 — 161
17) Sincerely curious. Do you think that... by Meteor Blades — 144
18) Thank you Bobswern by LaneJ — 131
19) Where I live no one reads the NYT or The by Williston Barrett — 128
20) LiberalCanuck's Diary Summarized by JekyllnHyde — 123
21) Tip Jar by Clarknt67 — 122
22) Scritchie Jar... Michael here...Tricia no wifi... by triciawyse — 105
23) Tip Jar by Jason Rosenbaum — 104
24) All time great Robert Reich quote by Albanius — 99
25) jesus fucking christ by GlowNZ — 99
26) Bravo, GG! by funluvn1 — 97
27) Mojo Mug by TexDem — 92
28) Thanks for this, Laurence by Cali Scribe — 92
29) I attended a teabagger meeting last spring by Greek Goddess — 88
30) Your commentary, IMHO, is based upon what... by bobswern — 87
31) I have to say I've been very impressed with by ontheleftcoast — 87