Author Archives: Mark

What’s next? Having made orange cake and used orange marmalade as an ingredient, I realized that I have some grape syrup that I made last fall. It was supposed to be grape jelly, but I didn’t use enough pectin, so it’s runny syrup that isn’t really good for anything, although it’s not bad on waffles.Continue reading “Learning 2 Bake, from Scratch – V ½”

No new recipe for this one. This is the Orange Cake recipe from Part III and the Cream Cheese frosting from Part IV. What has changed? New non-stick 9-inch cake pans. I didn’t put parchment paper on the bottom of the not non-stick pans on the third attempt and it was an adventure trying toContinue reading “Learning 2 Bake, from Scratch – V”

Orange Cake – Frosting As I mentioned, I started with Italian Buttercream. Italian Buttercream From: MarkSource: allrecipes.com 1 ¼ cups sugar⅔ cup water – room temperature5 egg whitespinch cream of tartar2 cups unsalted butter – room temperature cut into Tbls1 tsp vanilla extract Bring sugar and water to a boil until 240 degrees.While sugar isContinue reading “Learning 2 Bake, from Scratch – IV”

Equipment I’m interrupting the flow for backstory so y’all know what I have to work with. I have no idea why I even had cake pans, but I have two 8-inch round cake pans. I now have two 9-inch round cake pans. Because the store was having a buy-two-get-one-free sale, I also have a newContinue reading “Learning 2 Bake, from Scratch – III ½”

Orange Cake From: Mark [that’s me]Source: Williams-Sonoma.com via Rob 1 ½ cup sugar6 eggs (room temperature)separated plus 2 egg whites1 orange zest½ cup fresh orange juice (room temperature)2 ¼ cups cake flour, sifted1 Tbl baking powder1 tsp salt½ cup vegetable oil (canola recommended)¼ cup water½ tsp cream of tartar [This one has instructions!]Preheat oven toContinue reading “Learning 2 Bake, from Scratch – III”

Orange Cake From: Erna [that’s grandma]Source: Leona 1 ½ cups flour6 eggs (whites separate)1 orange rind½ cup orange juice2 cups Swansdown™  flour (after sifting) Bake one and one quarter hours slowly. This is the recipe that inspired the Learning 2 Bake effort. If you know anything about cakes, which I did not when I attemptedContinue reading “Learning 2 Bake, from Scratch – II”

Introduction I have a PDF of my grandmother’s cookbook, which I have transcribed. It has a large number of cake and cookie recipes. After attempting my first cake, I was inspired by Julie and Julia to make all of them, because I need the practice. All the posts will be tagged with L2BFS so theyContinue reading “Learning 2 Bake, from Scratch – I”