[cwcdesign]

Maybe she's lurking and knows we're thinking about her.

I think I'm going to go ahead and add the extra honey (1 tbl) and vanilla (1 tsp) because I think it will help with the moisture. My Irish Chocolate cake bakes at 325 so I'm still thinking about doing that. I'm not going back into work until Friday, but I have interviews for a company program on Thursday, so the cake will probably get made Friday afternoon for Saturday.

[cwcdesign]

You could try bread flour instead of AP. I think there might be some tutorials on YouTube for working with really slack doughs.

[cwcdesign]

I like your thinking Baker Aunt. Would you stick with cake flour at the 2 cups? Maybe make the other changes that we talked about and deal with the flour if it's still not right? I'm like Livingwell (I really miss her); I'm not very good at figuring out the science of baking.

[cwcdesign]

Mike, mine comes from Sarah Leah Chase's Open House Cookbook. She was attempting to mimic the recipe from the old Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston. It was a special treat to go there. My father' family always went there for lunch after funerals. Ha!

Anyway, it's very simple - chicken breast, grapes cut in half, celery, lots of mayo, s&p and the main seasonings are dried thyme and garlic powder which of course wouldn't work in your house. She said that when she was testing the recipe she tried fresh herbs and garlic, but they overwhelmed the salad. I also found that using Penzeys garlic powder I only need half the amount.

I love mandarin oranges. I might have to try that sometime

[cwcdesign]

I made a big batch of our favorite chicken salad with grapes on Wednesday which always lasts a couple of days. On Friday night I made delicious sandwiches in the panini - sourdough bread (sadly not made by me, but quality bakery), Black Forest smoked turkey, guacamole, havarti cheese and a smidgen of mayo - they were really, really good!

[cwcdesign]

On Sunday, I baked my Irish Chocolate Cake to take to an outdoor concert - a Motown tribute band who is always great. I gave half to my friends and left half at home - it didn't last long at either house. If anyone is wondering, my friend doesn't drink alcohol and we were a little worried if she'd like it - she loved it and couldn't taste the alcohol.

The changes I made with all your input definitely put it back in the category I always remembered, so thank you all for that. Now, if we can do the same thing with the Honey Vanilla Pound Cake, that would be wonderful. I added more information to that thread yesterday.

[cwcdesign]

I've been asked to make this cake again and did a little research on the recipe. And, then I discovered I never followed up on it here. So here's what I learned and here's what I'm thinking.

Ina posted the recipe on food network. The comments were pretty evenly split between too dry and perfect. Many thought it should be baked at 325 instead of 350. I'm definitely going to try that. One person had the same recipe from a 2007 House Beautiful where Ina used less flour. Someone used more honey and vanilla which I'd like to do. I think I wrote in another post how you put the eggs, vanilla and lemon zest in a measuring cup and then add one egg at a time and the other ingredients flow in. I wonder if I could cream the honey with the butter and sugar to get all of the honey in the cake. Oh, I think this same person did some research and thought maybe the quantities of baking powder and salt should be switched.

Here are the ingredients as written with possible changes in parentheses
½ pound butter at cool room temperature
1¼ cups sugar
4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons honey (3 tablespoons)
2 teaspoons vanilla (1 tablespoon)
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 cups sifted cake flour (1 3/4 cups flour or 1 3/4 cup AP minus 3 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon kosher salt (½ teaspoon)
½ teaspoon baking powder (1 teaspoon)

Basically cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time. Sift dry ingredients together and add slowly while on low speed.

The person who used the recipe from HB said she used 1½ cups flour

Looking forward to your thoughts. Thanks!

Here are the ingred

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by cwcdesign.

[cwcdesign]

I found a link to James Beard's English Muffin Bread which is similar to this one. I might give it a try - it doesn't look too messy and is made in a 9" pan (which I have). Thanks for the idea, BakerAunt. My one problem with the KAF recipe is that while I like the flavor, I don't think it's holes are big enough.
diaryofatomato.com/2013/02/15/james-beards-english-muffin-bread

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by cwcdesign.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by cwcdesign.

[cwcdesign]

Joan, I'm sorry for your loss - we lost Keira 2½ years ago, and it's still tough, so I understand what you're going through.

Luvpyrpom, I actually made a batch of the Cinnamon a Toast Cake using Foodiewithfsmily's vegan version for a dear friend who brought his truck on Wednesday to help move elder son's sofa from one apartment to another. Just as we started moving, the rain started drizzling, then we got it stuck in door of new apartment and had to take off front door to get it in! The downpour came while I was running to get tools. At least it was under the covered porch. When I delivered the cake the next day, his wife hollered "the supplies are here!" She said what more do you need to ride out the storm than water and cake.

We were lucky the storm went west of us so damage wasn't as bad as it could have been - trees down, a few on houses, the tide was going out so not much flooding. Some were without power; we never lost ours. Because lots of our employees had to cross the causeway over the marshes, they were all told to stay home, so it was minimal staff with those of us on the island. There was a guest who thought the resort had overreacted by closing the beach club. Of course, if it had stayed close to its original route, we would have been slammed.

[cwcdesign]

This week seems to have been pasta week. I tried a 5-ingredient recipe for Creamy Spinach Tortellini. While it looked good and was easy, none of us liked it all that much. But, on Saturday night, I made one of Will's favorites - One pot bacon cheeseburger pasta. It's amazing how much difference a decent stove makes. This is supposed to be a ½ or so recipe once everything's ready to go. At our other rental, it would take me an hour or so just to cook and I always had to worry about the pasta getting stuck to the pan. Not this time - I was done in 35 minutes and no sticking. Yay!

[cwcdesign]

A belated Happy Birhtday to you Mike! I hope it was a great day and the cake was delicious

[cwcdesign]

Wonky, I am so very sorry to learn of this awful situation for your sister and your family. They are very lucky to have such a strong, supportive family member as you.

Sending prayers for healing and peace, Carol

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by cwcdesign.

[cwcdesign]

I sent Cindy an e-card because I couldn't get some flowers sent in time. Got a quick reply (bluemountain makes it easy to do that). Her caregivers took her to her favorite Vietnamese restaurant for lunch and she was very happy. When the flowers arrived 2 days late, I got a text with a picture of them. Turns out she'd had a bad day in between. The flowers lasted almost a week, so I heard from her most recently 2 days ago. Hope that helps

[cwcdesign]

Sarah, it is SO good to hear from you. I'm sorry to hear of your miserable weather. We just dodged Hermine with some winds, power outages and trees down. It went west of us so we avoided the damage you're seeing on TV. And the tide was going out. It's possible RandyD was hit hard.

I got an email today from jej asking if there was anything left of the BC. I gave her the info on this and the FB group. Hopefully she'll join us.

Sending healing prayers to Jozy. I'm sorry to hear

[cwcdesign]

Wow, Mike. That's really interesting. Who'd a thunk it

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