You know, your avatar doesn’t show up for me. I’m seeing others’ avatars …
I canned some plum preserves. It made it necessary to make buttermilk sourdough English muffins.
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wow, that looks great. been wanting to try one of these for a while.
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Naturally!
So impressed with your reconstruction skills! You’re like the Bionic Cake Doctor!
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Painting layers of syrup on Flo Braker’s cream cheese pound cake with mint-lime glaze. I cut out 4 oz of sugar bringing the amount down to 12 oz. Because I used all salted butter for this, and cream cheese has salt, I left the 1/4 tsp amount of salt as is, but if I were using unsalted butter I would have doubled the salt no question.
I adore the glaze on this, which is really a syrup even though it’s made with powdered sugar. It’s not too sweet, not too tangy from lime juice, and the mint is just right. I used a tablespoon of tequila in place of one tbsp of water. Rum would have been more appropriate for the mojito theme, but tequila sounded appealing when I went to get the rum.
I am also baking another rosemary cake because the last one was hugely popular, which I was not expecting! I thought the unusual flavor might not appeal to people unaccustomed to it, but everyone loved that it’s not a very sweet cake, the crunchy sugar crust, and that the rosemary flavor is different and refreshing.
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Only very vaguely, but I don’t think I would enjoy baking with the higher expectations that come with someone paying you. Even if I know I could meet those expectations, it would be pretty stressful with my perfectionism. I also don’t think that people who would consider getting a cake from cottage industry bakers want to pay very much and I am not fast enough at baking to make a profit if my time was included as a cost. I can do the kind of cake decorating I like, if I was asked to do anything else that would take a whole bunch of research and new skill learning. For example, I don’t even have a go to chocolate cake.
I could see it working if I could somehow not care too much about the client’s expectations about the cake and mostly use it as a way to pay for the ingredients & tools to practice with instead of trying to build a sustainable business. Maybe if I just rejected all jobs that I didn’t really want to do.
Your bread looks so beautiful!
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I think you have nailed it. I looked at turning a much-loved hobby into an income source some years ago and concluded exactly this. To cover costs to learn a new skill made sense, otherwise it would just turn something I loved into a tedious underpaid task. I ended up doing some teaching instead which was also underpaid but for me, immensely satisfying.
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Where do you live? In San Francisco it could be profitable. But, the idea of just teaching classes might be the way to go, too!
@pavlova “damper than ideal” describes mine, too. I think this may be a flawed recipe, perhaps converted to use butter from one that called for melted shortening and didn’t decrease the liquid (or increase the flour) to fully make the conversion. Per the “Cook’s Hints” on the recipe I used a cup of rhubarb. OK flavor, but limp - fork food - so not the texture / sturdiness of a “blondie” bar.
I have an alternative recipe that I’m planning to try - one that sallyt recommended last year from Sister Pie cookbook which includes almonds. She modified this recipe, using 2 T. less butter. https://joanne-eatswellwithothers.com/2019/06/rhubarb-white-chocolate-and-almond-blondies.html
Or just modify my grandmother’s blondies recipe to use rhubarb in place of chocolate chips.
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Yes, I ended up throwing the last half away. It just got wetter as it sat. I used a cup of rhubarb as well. Will try the other recipe, so thanks for that. Will probably skip the white chocolate though.
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I froze mine and will try eating one still frozen/barely thawed.
I still have 2 dozen jars of assorted preserves from last year ( I know), so doing some baking to use it up/justify making more. My current favourite for using up jam is this Jessie Shehan recipe: https://www.thespruceeats.com/one-bowl-oatmeal-jam-bars-4843487. I used two jars of jam: one blueberry rhubarb, and one cherry rhubarb. Easy, quick, and very tasty!
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Thanks for the link! I have jams to use up, and love sweet treats with oats in them.
Blueberry Cream Scones from Claire Saffitz.
I chose this recipe as it a) included oats, b) called for all cream and no butter and c) included honey, which I’ve come to appreciate in a cream scone. I wanted to make 12 scones, not 8 as per the recipe, and used a #14 scoop instead of cutting wedges. I whipped the cream slightly before mixing, and used the larger, cultivated berries instead of wild. No other changes.
Baked on a double-sheet pan with silpat and parchment for 28 minutes. I glazed several of them, and left a few un-glazed for the freezer.
These were OK, but I’m learning I find fresh fruit (not dried) in a cream scone kind of odd. It was the same things with the oats: wrong material for the medium, I guess, as they didn’t do anything for me here (and I usually love them in anything). These will get eaten, but I’m going to move on from this recipe.
ETA: Molly O’Neill has a very similar recipe without the blueberries and oats which strikes me as the better recipe. I’ll try it.
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Pizza rolls made with tomato sauce, mozzarella, and soppressata. Plus some Grana Padano on top both before and after baking.
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Pizza rolls…
Wonderful! Is there a recipe you can share?
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They are really delicious!
Because I used something with a lot more visible fat than pepperoni I decided to render it out over low heat and I used the fat from that instead of olive oil for brushing. A little chili flake is good on the sauce and I threw in some basil sprigs and a little sugar 
. I also really liked sprinkling some granulated garlic on these post-bake. I baked at 400 because he seems to bake with convection and I always end up needing higher temps than he calls for.
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Thank you! These look great!
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