A month ago my friend Nancy showed up for our weekly coffee date carrying a large William's Sonoma bag. She handed it to me and said, "Here's your work!" Inside I found a sunflower cake pan and a box of butterscotch streusel cake mix. It was obvious that I was the person bringing cake to Nancy's Thanksgiving dinner.
And so today, I baked the sunflower cake. I don't bake cakes very often, but when I do, I don't use a cake mix. Well, that sounds defensive. Actually, when you consider that these particular mixes are almost like making a cake from scratch, it's no surprise that they work well. For this cake, I used two sticks of butter, four eggs, vanilla, and milk. The mix provided the flour, the sugar, and the streusel. Since it was a sunflower cake and wanting it to be yellow, I added food coloring to the batter. Usually, cooking is very relaxing for me. Not this time. The color of the cake looked an alarming day glow orange when I peeked at it in the oven. I tried to remember if I had ever seen sunflowers in that color. And I was convinced that it would not come out of the pan intact. I pictured a orange, crumbled looking oddity.
The cake did come out of the cake pan perfectly. There was no problem with that. But as you can see, it's so dark you can't see a smidgen of yellow. It looks like a dried sunflower--not a fresh cut one. I was sure I hadn't baked it too long, and turned to my friend and master cake baker, Glenna, for advice. She told me that since my cake pan was so dark, it probably caused the browning that masks the yellow color. That's annoying, and a design flaw in my opinion.
I expect the real star of the desserts tomorrow will be this wonderful pumpkin pie from my favorite bakery and coffee house, Konditorei. That's a marzipan Butterball turkey on top!
And finally, this is what 13 pounds of russet potatoes looks like after it's turned into a lethally rich version of mashed potatoes. My friends Char and Lizz have praised this recipe so highly, I decided to make it. Have you ever riced 13 pounds of steaming hot potatoes? At the 7 pound mark, you begin to question the whole enterprise. After ricing the potatoes, I added 2 packages of cream cheese and 2 cups of sour cream--and butter, of course. I think this dish is dangerous. But, it's delicious too.
Butter count for the day: three sticks, in the food I prepared. There's no telling how much is in the pumpkin pie. But, it's Thanksgiving.
I guess I forgot to mention that I have that pan too and when I use it I usually whip up a little buttercream and generally outline or go ahead and fill in the petals with a thin layer of yellow, leaves with green, and the center with brown frosting or with chocolate. Did I not mention that? :-) Okay, I admit it. I wanted to see what you would do because my way was the lazy cake decorator way. But it's still beautiful without the frosting. It is too bad that the dark pan doesn't allow for the yellow of the batter to remain when baked the way a shiny silver aluminum pan would but it's still a fun, novel presentation. The three dimensions can't be beat. There won't be a crumb left.
Still can't believe you riced 13 lbs of potatoes. Are your biceps sore? I think you can count that as a workout.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted by: Glenna | November 24, 2005 at 03:17 AM
Well, I don't think using three different colors of buttercream is the "lazy cake decorator's way"! Sounds very impressive to me.
I think the food hangover I have right now is masking the pain in my biceps
Sher
Posted by: sher | November 25, 2005 at 12:05 AM
My gosh, I wish I was at that dinner!!!Our food was good, but nothing compared to that cake and fluffy potatoes
Posted by: Bunty | November 25, 2005 at 02:36 PM
Bunty,
The potatoes were very fluffy indeed! I froze some of them for when you visit.
Sher
Posted by: sher | November 25, 2005 at 10:34 PM