2018 Indiana State Fair - Cakes

I got my second wind at 9:30 pm last night and started making cakes.

Yup. 9:30 pm. Started with my single layer cake, a Mocha Pecan Torte. This is the same cake that won the Single Layer Cake Sweeps in 2015. I didn't have the desire to try out a new single layer cake this year so I went with what I knew. This has been one of my favorite go-to cakes lately. Cake was in the oven by 10 pm and I moved on to my multi-layer cake.

I love doing complex multi-layer cakes. I love the juxtaposition of cake flavors and fillings. I always disliked the sickly sweet confectioners' sugar frostings that came on mass produced cakes so I always want to make sure my frostings and fillings can stand alone and are just as tasty as the cake. I love beautifully decorated cakes too but have decided I want my entire cake to be beautiful and tasty. That's one reason why I've shied away from fondant. Yes, you can make awesome looking cakes... but everyone peels off the fondant.

Quite honestly, I hadn't had the time to think about my multi-layer cake this year. I ended up brainstorming an idea while driving home from dropping off my first batch of Fair items on Friday. This is what I dreamed up - a banana cake with buttercream frosting, and throw in some fresh bananas, caramel, toffee chips, and pecans somewhere in the filling. I also had a recipe for cookie butter buttercream but I wasn't entirely sure I could incorporate that too. Oh, but I love me some Bischoff!

Anyhoos, I picked up the ingredients for the banana cake on Friday night and did a trial run. My original idea called for a banana sponge cake. I like fruit in my cakes but I was worried the banana would make the cake too heavy as a layer cake. A heavy moist banana cake is good as a single layer snack cake. Pulling off a multi-layer banana cake would be a little trickier. So... I made the ultimate banana sponge cake. It had 8 eggs with the whites all whipped up. I pureed the bananas in my blender to make them extra smooth and light... and then the thing baked up HUGE! The original recipe had it filling either two 9" round cake pans or three 8" round cake pans. I wanted a three layer cake but I don't have any 8" pans so I made it in three 9" pans and just figured the layers would be flatter. NOT! The batter baked up all the way to the top of my pans. If I had put it in two pans it would have overflowed and made a ginourmous mess in my oven. By the time I got all the filling between the layers the cake was so tall it wouldn't fit in any of my cake carriers.

I let the cake sit on Saturday, then tried it when I got home from work Saturday night... and hated it. The frosting and filling were great. The cake, not so much. It was moist and spongy but, well, it was spongy and I didn't like the mouth feel of the sponge. I like cakes with a fine crumb and there was no crumb at all, just sponge. Plus, there were all these long tunnels in the cake. This was not going to work. I took the remains to work the next day. At least my co-workers liked it. Funny though, many of them could not identify what kind of cake it was since I had essentially liquified the bananas into the batter. Some people thought it was a spice cake even though there were no spices in it!

So now it was back to the drawing board. I had found another banana cake recipe. This one was more of a traditional cake. I bought more ingredients on my drive home from work on Sunday and made it next. This cake went into two 6" round pans. Directions were to bake it for 22-25 minutes. I questioned that cause it not only had mashed bananas in it, but sour cream too. It was a heavy batter. At 25 minutes it was no where near done! I ended up checking the oven in 3-5 minute increments and finally pulled the cakes out after 40 minutes.

Set the banana cakes to cool and glazed my Mocha Pecan Torte.

Next up was making my buttercream. I have several buttercream recipes and used to always make a Swiss buttercream which requiring boiling a sugar syrup and whipping it into some eggs, the slowly adding butter. It was wonderful but tricky and really time consuming because you had to whip a boiling hot sugar syrup until it reached room temperature, then add butter and if everything was not at the right temperature the whole mess would separate and curdle.

Two years ago I discovered a cooked flour base buttercream. I love it because it mimics whipped cream. I really like whipped cream on cakes but it's disallowed in the Fair due to food safety rules.

I started making my buttercream at 1 am. It required you to cook together flour and milk on the stovetop while stirring constantly so it doesn't burn or get lumpy. This takes about 15 minutes to cook properly or else the frosting will taste pasty. Once that's done, it has to cool to room temperature before adding it to a whipped butter and sugar mixture. The buttercream got done at 2 am.

OK, all that's left to do is frost the cake. I had put the banana cakes in the refrigerator by now to chill as I had to split each one in two to make four layers. I split the cakes. They didn't turn out exactly even but I was too tired to obsess about it at this point. What I ended up deciding to do was make a four layer cake. My buttercream had a vanilla butternut flavoring. I saved some of it for the sides and top of the cake. Next I mixed in toffee chips and chopped pecans to some of the buttercream, then went ahead and made a cookie butter buttercream by whipping together some Bischoff spread into the buttercream. Next I diced a banana and mixed it with caramel sauce. I wanted to coat the fresh bananas in something before adding it to the filling because I was worried the moisture in the bananas would liquify the adjacent filling.

To assemble the cake I did a layer of cake, then toffee pecan buttercream, pressed some caramel coated bananas into it, covered the bananas with more toffee pecan buttercream, then another layer of cake, cookie butter buttercream, another layer of cake, another toffee pecan caramel banana layer, then the final layer of cake. Crumb coated the whole thing and stuck it in the fridge. Now it was 3 am. I figured I'd let it set up for at least 30 minutes and went to rest on the couch.

45 minutes later... ugh... it was hard to get up off the couch. I considered just going to sleep and finishing the frosting in the morning but then decided I just wanted to get this done. Frosted the sides and top, then drizzled my caramel pattern on top... then decided the top of the cake was a wee bit lopsided, as in not level. CRAP.

Pressed some pecan chips into the side of the cake to see if that would change the visual at all. Not much. Grrrr. I got out my icing bags and tips and thought about doing some type of border around the top that draped down the sides and experimented on some cups... but that didn't seem like a good idea either. Part of the problem was that my caramel pattern was so close to the edge of the top of the cake that anything else would make it look crowded. Finally, at 4:30 am, I decided it was time to STEP AWAY FROM THE CAKE! I knew I was tired and I was afraid I'd do something stupid. I also thought that, if it came down to it, I could let everything harden up for a couple hours then scrape the caramel topping off the top of the cake and level the top with more buttercream and do the caramel pattern over. I went to bed.

This morning though, I looked at the cake again and decided it didn't look all that bad, so I left it alone.

Here are my cakes...

Banana Delight

Mocha Pecan Torte

Both were successfully dropped off this afternoon. Now it's naptime!

2018 Indiana State Fair - A Bit of Frustration

I'm Baaackk!!

After skipping last year's Fair, I decided I missed it so I'm back this year. I actually waited until I got my August work schedule to decide if I REALLY wanted to participate. I decided that I wasn't going to request any days off and what happened would happen. I almost didn't sign up for any pre-fair entries because I am working this weekend and this is drop off weekend. Upon closer inspection though I realized I could drop off on Friday and cakes weren't due in until Monday. Originally I was scheduled Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I asked a co-worker to trade with me on Monday and figured if he agreed, then I would enter; if, not, no big deal. Well, he traded so here I am.

Moderation is my goal this year. I only had four items due yesterday. I decided on these four because they seemed to be the most likely goods that I could bake ahead and stay "fresh" until judging since I was dropping off on Friday. I know, like one day is really going to make a difference... but that's how I think.

I always bake things "fresh" for the Fair. In the past that meant I was a crazy sleep deprived lunatic for 48 hours before drop off. Not this year... so I thought. Ha! Well... so far I've managed a little more sleep...

I kicked off my baking on Wednesday (7/25) with a batch of caramel corn. My signature caramel corn that I could make in my sleep. Except... it tasted maybe a wee bit "burnt" when I tasted it. Hmmm. I put it in an airtight container and went grocery shopping for other ingredients I would need over the next couple days. Also made the cookie dough for my decorated cookies and put it in the fridge. Went out for a 5 mile run in the afternoon, then I went out to dinner with a friend. I got back home at 9 pm and baked my cookies, then decided to make another batch of caramel corn. That resulted in me going to bed at midnight.

Thursday started off at a leisurely pace. My original plan had been to get everything done on Thursday for the Friday drop off but when I learned that I could drop off until 8 pm on Friday that changed things. I figured I had plenty of time on Friday during the day to get my cookies baked and make my yeast rolls. So Thursday I made my chocolate chip cookie dough. Actually, two batches of cookie dough. I had two different chocolate chip cookie recipes that I had created and I wanted to try them out both and decide which was better. After that I started icing my decorated cookies and put down the base coat. Went out for another 5 mile run while that dried. Then I started decorating my cookies.

Expectation...

Reality...

I had really been taken by these cookies in a YouTube video I saw last fall and the Fair was the perfect opportunity to try it out. It looked pretty straight forward in the video. Except... no matter what consistency I made the black icing I couldn't get the fine outlining done. The video used a #2 icing tip. I used the same tip but no matter what I did I couldn't get the lines thin enough without them running together. Maybe her cookie was bigger? I dunno. In any case, after multiple attempts I did my own thing without the outlines.

Practice Cookies... do you think my co-workers will eat these?

Of course it was midnight by the time I got done with seven presentable cookies. I have to show six.

This is what made the cut

So... Friday. All I had to do was make my yeast rolls that I've made a bazillion times and bake off my chocolate chip cookies. Sounded simple enough. I waited until a bit later in the day to make my yeast rolls because I wanted it to warm up outside. I've discovered that the back of my SUV makes for the perfect proofing oven on a hot summer day. It's been scorchingly  hot this summer. Except today.

I started by trialing oven times and temperatures for my two chocolate chip cookie doughs. After baking the first two cookies I decided my macadamia nut based chocolate cookie dough was a no go. It tasted OK but was not what I had envisioned for this competition. It wasn't soft and chewy enough.

OK, so now all I had to do was get a good bake time and temperature for my other dough. The first go around made a perfect consistency cookie but it looked too brown. Lowered the oven temp and time. Nope. Too underdone. Put the temp back up and made a bigger cookie. No, still not right. This continued for hours. Ugh. I just couldn't find the right shape, temperature and time combo to suit me and the cookies just looked worse and worse. Finally I ran out of dough and just picked the six best looking ones but definitely not competition quality in my opinion.

Arghh!! This was an exercise in frustration

My Flat Cookies... sigh

In between playing with my cookie dough I finally started my yeast rolls. It never warmed up to where I wanted it but I moved my car so the sun was directly beating down on it and hoped for the best. When I was kneading the dough it felt a bit stickier than usual. Hindsight is 20/20. I should have added more flour but I didn't. I realized the dough was too heavy when I shaped the rolls and they were "oozy". I put them to rise and hoped for the best. Perhaps I should have made smaller rolls? Anyhoos, they came out looking more "flatter" than usual and just looked more doughy. They tasted the same though so, again, I picked the six best looking ones and will hope for the best.

sorting and selecting

I need six that look like these!

The Chosen Ones... they're flat like my cookies

I dropped off all my items at the fairgrounds at 5 pm.

The next items due are two cakes on Monday - a single layer cake and a multi-layer cake. The single layer cake is one of my "go-to" cakes. I had no idea what I was going to make for the multi-layer cake. I came up with an idea driving home from the fairgrounds.

I had promised my older daughter dinner out on Friday night to celebrate her finishing her college calculus class. I got home and she was there but I had no idea where my husband was. We waited... and waited... and waited... and finally shrugged our shoulders and went to the restaurant. I called him again when we got there and found out he had run out to do a quick errand, then got hit by a hit and run driver that tried to flee the scene and, well, hubs gave chase... and so did another woman that witnessed the whole thing... and luckily she called 911. My husband ended up chasing the guy to his residence and was in the middle of a confrontation when the police ... and the ambulance... and the fire department showed up. Excitement on a Friday night in Johnson County I guess. Long story short, he is sore and pissed but otherwise OK. Police handcuffed the driver but then ended up citing him or something and let him stay home, apparently because he was about 70.

My husband drove out to the restaurant and met us for dinner. He and our daughter went home after that and I went to the grocery store again to pick up the ingredients for the layer cake I had just dreamed up.

Got back home at 9 pm and considered doing a little crochet and going to bed at a reasonable hour... But... I wanted to make a trial cake before I entered it. Ended up making the cake. It looked beautiful. I started the frosting and realized it was 11 pm. I was committed now though cause frosting is never as good as when you first make it. I ended up putting the finishing touches on the trial cake at 1:30 am. So much for getting more sleep! Had to get up at 5:30 am to go to work today.

So today after work I tried out my cake... and I didn't like it. Probably going to take the remains to work in the morning.

I'm going to bed now. Not sure if my heart is still in this. Maybe I'm just tired. I'll think about it some more tomorrow.

Checking In on the Status Pole

How much is status worth to you?

That's the question I pondered this afternoon as I sat on my flight, delayed for over an hour, waiting for the weather to clear. I've been dabbling in travel hacking lately so I'm looking into where I want to obtain my "free" status.

So this is how it came about. I flew American Airlines. I hardly ever fly American but they just so happened to have the lowest prices this weekend for direct flights to and from NYC. When I bought the tickets I got to the page where you pick your seats and I was a bit surprised and miffed to see that if you wanted to pick ANY type of seat, you'd have to pay an extra charge; otherwise, you'd be assigned a seat at check in (just like they did in the good 'ole days). Forget that! I'm cheap. I'll take my chances at check in.

I always check in for my flights as soon as the online check in opens. I suppose this is habit from flying Southwest. For those not familiar with Southwest's seating, it's festival seating... like first come, first serve. First one on the plane gets to choose whatever seat they want. The way they determine who gets to board first is by whoever checks in first. No shit, when they first started flying you would show up at the gate and check in, then get handed a plastic boarding pass with a number on it. You then lined up by number and turned the passes in when you got on the plane. It didn't matter if you were 90 or had a baby or had crutches, you lined up by number. First one to the gate got to board first. Things have changed a bit from the 1980's. Now you can pay extra to be one of the first 15 people to board. After that, they will let the people with babies or those needing assistance board... after the first boarding group of 30. I have learned that if you check in as soon as the online check in starts 24 hours before your flight, you will almost always be in that first group of 30... at least that has been my experience.

So back to American. I checked in as soon as the online check in opened. This is the seat I got in the seat lottery.

Looking at the seat map of my plane I realized these seats (Hubs got the seat next to me) would have cost me an extra $22 each had I picked them out on my own. The seat map is from SeatGuru. Yellow are seats people had warnings about, red is bad and green is good. I got the exact seats I would have picked out on my own - closest to the front with someplace to stash my stuff. It's a small plane so the row of single seats has no overhead compartment. The pair of seats in Row 3 obviously has no seat back pocket or place in front of you to stow your stuff that you want during the flight.

Then I saw my Boarding Group. Six. Are they boarding from the back of the plane? How can I be in Group 6 when I'm in the fourth row of seats on an 18 row plane? Status explained it all...

Boarding groups 1-4 were all based on status rather than where you were actually sitting on the plane. Looking at American's website, they had all manner of status. I used to think dance competitions were the only place you saw ludicrous levels of placing but now I see it's everywhere.

From lowest to highest on American's status pole, you have...

Platinum Select or Executive World Elite  (for having one of their credit cards)

Gold (25,000 miles or points)

Platinum (50,000 miles or points)

Platinum Pro (75,000 miles or points)

Executive Platinum (100,000 miles or points)

Next level should be Super-d-duper Perfect Platinum Diamond Titanium...

So what does status get you? The nitty gritty break down in HERE. To be fair, I understand there are frequent travelers that can optimize on some of these benefits. For me though, I don't fly American enough for it to make a difference. I say this because you can also buy status rather than fly your way to status. If you are Platinum or above you can pick your seats for free. Me? I got a preferred seat at no extra cost with no status by checking in early.

The early bird gets the worm... at least this time!