March 1, 2009
· Filed under cake · Tagged breakfast, brown sugar, cinnamon, coffee cake, easy, food, options, recipe, walnuts
Recently, while reading Vintage Cookbooks, I decided to pull out one of my old cookbooks. Since I’ve been going through a phase of wanting to throw every excess thing away (especially books) in preparation for my potential return to university, I figured I should try baking something from it to see if it was worth keeping.
I have two old cookbooks: one is from the very early 1900s but it’s in storage;

The book with the original recipe
the other is an old Duncan Hines recipe book – last copyright 1946 – that I literally found on the street that has been sitting in my bookshelves unused ever since. In other words, I’ve had this book for nearly
6 years and never baked a thing from it. But I was really hoping that it would prove to be worth the space since it entertains me to no end with it’s peculiar salads, it’s essential cocktail recipes, and it’s near complete disregard for what is now considered healthy. (I may have to write more posts about that, a la Vintage Cookbooks, just because I find them so funny.)
Read the rest of this entry »
January 9, 2009
· Filed under cake · Tagged chocolate, dessert, difficult, food, frosting/icing, recipe
This was originally posted on my other blog, What If. I’m moving it – and all of my baking posts – here in the next few weeks.
Experiments in Baking, it may seem obvious to say, springs from my love of baking. My love of baking, in turn, comes from my love of science, and my love for the incredibly basic yet transformational processes that turn a mixture of individual liquids and solids into a completely different, edible form.

the collapse, side view
My chemistry was a little off tonight. My egg whites wouldn’t peak at all and I, frustrated, simply mixed them in anyway. Which produced a chocolate cake, still edible, but completely collapsed in the center.
It’s still delicious, of course.
Read the rest of this entry »