June 18, 2004

• How Many Seconds Was That One?

  

  For several nights now, we’ve had thunderstorms racing through. They always build up just southeast of us, and always give us a good light show. Giant fireworks for the budget-challenged, they are. And yet, in my eyes, the best things here really are free. The wind is plentiful, and I keep envisioning myself going down to the lake and sailing. But the weather is so warm and the sky is so blue, I end up pottering around the house and doing all the things I’ve wanted to do during the last 9 years of graduate school — like finding a terra cotta pot to put flowers in, baking a red velvet cake, and putting up bookshelves for all the books I’ve carted from state to state. (My revised vision of hell is a large, never-empty moving van full of textbooks in boxes, and being forced to carry them all inside the house, forever and ever and ever. . . .)

  One thing I miss about Illinois is the buttercream icing at Sweet Indulgence on the corner of Mattis and Kirby in Champaign, Illinois. To die for. I have yet to find a bakery in town that can match the sublime creamy-ness of their icing on their special Red Velvet cake. So, Matt and I tried to make our own.

  Red Velvet Cake Note: Do not substitute any ingredients, for best results. 1.5 cups sugar 0.5 cups Crisco shortening 2.5 cups cake flour (“cake flour”; regular flour won’t do) 2 tbsp Hershey’s Cocoa (dark, unsweetened) 1 tsp salt 2 oz. red food coloring 1 cup buttermilk (no substitute) 2 eggs 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp vanilla 1 tbsp white vinegar 1 tsp baking soda Combine sugar, Crisco, cake flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder, food color, and 2/3 cup of the buttermilk in a bowl. Beat till well blended. Add eggs and the rest of the buttermilk and vanilla. Beat 1 minute. This is the tricky part: Mix the vinegar and baking soda (it will fizz) and stir into the batter. Stir. Don’t beat. Pour into 2 9″-round cake pans (greased and floured). Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.

  And the icing turned out wonderful!!!! (The Joy of Cooking rocks!) Unfortunately, last night we also had chili dogs, and I stuck a raw cut-up onion in the fridge. . . . And now we have onion-flavored buttercream icing!!!!!

  It’s novel, I say. It’ll probably catch on.

  • 12:41 pm
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