HCB: Financier Style Vanilla Pound Cake

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If you asked me what my preference for cake is, I would right off the bat tell you that it will be those that are rich, dense and full of fat goodness, meaning they pack a gazillion calories, because they tend to be rich in butter, eggs, sugar and flour.

It’s no wonder that when it really comes down to it, I usually prefer the simple cakes.  I admired the fancy cakes with all the cool ingredients and decorations and fillings.  But, deep inside, I tend to run for those simple, easy cakes.

For the last couple of weeks, I been craving a pound cake. So when I read that this week’s choice for the Heavenly Bakers was the Vanilla Bean Pound Cake, I was ecstatic.

This lasted until Sunday, when I actually took a look and really READ the full recipe and realized that it was NOT going to be a pound cake. 

Tsk, Tsk, Rose, you had me fooled.

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HCB: Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake

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Rose writes on this recipe that this cake is “wondrously soft, light, and deeply chocolaty.

Check! Check! and Check!

This cake is all that.  Perfect because its easy to make, easy to decorate, easy to served and the most important easy of all? To eat.

Which was perfect for me, since I been sick with a nasty cold since Thursday, compliments of our wonderful temperamental weather here in Florida - for the past 4 days - we had 40, 30 and 80 degree weather all in one day.  Perfect situation to catch a cold and make life just a little bit hard.

So I was not looking forward to complicated baking.  In fact I was not looking forward to being in my kitchen period.

But, when you are sick you crave comfort food and for some inexplicable reason, I craved chocolate cake. So it was my luck that I could actually whipped this up in not time at all.

There is nothing complicated about making it.  I don’t remember if this is in the Quick and Easy section of the book - it may not be, because there is a complicated sidebar of instructions in of how to make the marzipan candle.

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HCB: Lemon Canadian Crown and Ladyfingers

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Do any other cooks/bakers out there has a kitchen bucket list?

I do, I decided a while ago, to write everything that I wanted to accomplish in cooking/baking - specific recipes, techniques, things that made my legs go jelly (I’m looking at you fondant).  My list has stuff like, puff pastry, pie dough (I think I got this one conquered), bread, pate, croissant, and yes among all of those difficult techniques and dishes is written “ladyfingers”.

From scratch.

This is the part where I thank my lucky stars that I found Heavenly Cake Bakers group, because without the push of having a weekly deadline, I would have never gotten around to making ladyfingers from scratch. And if I continue to write “scratch” over and over is because - Oh.my.god, I made ladyfingers from scratch!

Were they difficult? Was there a lot of swearing from my kitchen - a la Apple Charlotte? Did head rolls? Dogs and cats go into hiding? Did Tom walked out and told me to get my *stuff* together?

No, no and no.

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