I've recently been on a bit of a baking kick lately. I had the People's Liberated Knitting Front of McGill over for tea and British comedy on Saturday, and a potluck later that night, and so I had to bake something. My secret shame is that I love baking more than cooking anyway. My parents let me bake before I could cook, because I was a notoriously accident-prone child and if I was baking they could just pop it in the oven after I was finished. I remember standing on a kitchen chair, carefully measuring out ingredients with my parent's yellow table and teaspoons, then levelling them off with a butter knife. I've always made sure to level off all my measurements just as conscientiously, convinced that disaster would surely follow if I did not. I usually used the recipes my mom had copied out in cursive on index cards, or the food-splattered Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, but now I use the Internet. The recipes are easy to find, free, and if I drop an egg on it I can just print off another copy. Here are my top 5 favorites.
1. Alton Brown's The Chewy Cookie: Delicious chocolate chip cookies, with a little caramel bite. I make these every time I want to perk someone else up, and then scarf a few myself.
2. Orangette's Lemon Yogurt Cake: This has been making the blog rounds lately, and since she's had it up since 2004 that's definitely a testament. It's not a sweet cake, but it has an elegant simplicity and a refreshing lemony bite. It's also very easy to make. The batter is whipped up in one bowl without even needing beaters, and the glaze doesn't need to be boiled in a separate saucepan or anything. I've subbed olive oil in for the canola when I've been low and it's turned out fine, and I also recommend using Liberté's 2% yogurt if you're in Quebec.
3. Upside-Down Pear Cardamom Cake: There's a delicious blend of flavours here, with the simple cake lightly spiced with cardamom, and then topped off with Anjou pears softened during baking with a simple caramel. It doesn't take much more work than your average simple cake, and looks lovely on a simple white dish. The recipe gets a little shrill about the fresh cardamom, but you know what? I'm cheap, and I am lazy, and the McCormick's ground cardamom tastes just fine. That's a photo of a slice of leftover cake, which I'll shortly be enjoying for lunch.
4. Cakeman's Red Velvet Cake: Make sure to use the entire bottle of red food colouring for that unnatural red glow. The point with Red Velvet Cake is to make it look like it's fake! It should be at home next to a set of acrylic nails and a bottle of Aquanet. The cake tastes delicious too, and makes for some great cupcakes. I'm not one for cream cheese icing, so I usually ditch that for a simple white buttercream frosting.
5. Baker's Best One Bowl Brownies: Yes, it's a recipe from the back of a box. Yes, it looks a little pedestrian compared to the others here. But they are my favorite simple brownies, and I've been making them since I was a little kid. I lost the recipe I stole from home, but I found it online again! The official Baker's recipe seems to involve a microwave in some capacity, and has dropped the delicious, and very sweet, icing. Since my family was always microwave-less (my Dad was convinced we would all sprout tumors and die once one was brought into the house), and I love sweets this simply will not do. Here's the classic.
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