2018 Indiana State Fair - Pies, Burton's Maple Syrup and Hogsdon Mills

Saturday August 11th was Pie Day at the Indiana State Fair. Pie Day is when all the pies for the state fair get turned in. It used to be the day that Pillsbury or Gold Medal held their sponsored pie contests but neither sponsored a contest this year so it was "just" state fair pie entry and closed judging.

There were three new pie categories this year - sugar cream, coconut cream, and lemon meringue. Traditionally pies containing meringue, whipped cream, cream cheese, custard or other similar dairy products were not allowed due to food safety rules. This year, provided you brought your pie in a  cooler, you could enter one of these "refrigerator" pie categories.

I entered one pie. Sugar cream.

I have a great sugar cream pie recipe. I created it for a pie contest that the Indianapolis Star held in 2009. It's basically a traditional Indiana sugar cream pie but made with a coconut graham cracker crust... because, as it's well known, I can't roll a decent crust.

I hadn't made this pie in several years so I made a practice pie on Thursday, in between making my nine bazillion orange scones... and the filling separated. Ugh. It tasted fine but just didn't look good. I almost thought then that I wouldn't do a pie this year. Oh, but then I changed my mind.

I couldn't figure out why my filling separated - like there was a thin film of "fat" on top when it came out of the oven - so I started looking up other filling recipes... then I thought about Crack Pie.

For those not familiar with Crack Pie, it's chef Christina Tosi's signature pie that's sold in her Momofuku Milk Bar stores. I knew the filling was very similar to a sugar cream pie so I looked it up. The difference was that it had eggs, which made it a custard. I didn't think it would pass for sugar cream. But... it also used corn powder. I'd forgotten about corn powder. I really like the depth it gives and I thought the additional starch might keep my filling from separating. So, I made another pie. I used Christina Tosi's oat cookie crust recipe for the crust. The recipe made two crusts. I figured if my second sugar cream pie was a failure I'd make a Crack Pie with the extra crust and not enter a pie. I made my new filling, baked my second pie, then put it in the refrigerator to set up. This still Thursday night. My thought was that if my second pie didn't set up properly or separated again I was done with pies this year.

Friday evening I got home from the Fair and cut into the second pie. The filling was smooth and it had set up perfectly.

Pie #2

 

Looks like I'm entering a pie! I made pie #3. But... of course I couldn't leave well enough alone. I thought my filling was a wee too sweet, especially with the oat cookie crust, so I added an extra tablespoon of corn powder. I poured the filling then scraped the remnants out of my saucepan as the pie baked. Ugh. The filling tasted grainy. Crap.

 

Saturday, I got up at 7 am to take sugar cream pie #3 to the Fair. Pie Day is always a zoo. It's the second Saturday of the State Fair so everybody and their brother is there. Shoup's BBQ Contest was also going on and the Giant Pumpkin weigh off is also always on the second Saturday of the Fair, plus who knows what other special events were going on. So many years I have spent having an anxiety attack sitting in traffic on 38th Street trying to get inside the gates... so now I go early. Pie drop off was from 7:30 am to 11:30 am. I drove through the gates at 8 am, dropped off my pie, got stamped so I could come back later, then went home. I realize I'm lucky I can do this. With no traffic I can get to the State Fairgrounds in 40 minutes. For many of my competitors it takes much longer so they don't have the luxury of running back home.

 

I figured the judging would get done around 1:30 pm. This time when I drove back, traffic was at a stand still on 38th Street. I suspected the infield parking was already full. Since I have a drop-off hangtag I hoped that that would at least get me inside the gates, then I would FIND somewhere to park. After spending 40 minutes out on 38th Street I was surprised to find that they were still letting cars in through the gate. However, once inside the gate I saw that they were waving all the cars into hangtag only lots. I think they ran out of parking in the infield but didn't realize it and now they were putting cars anywhere there was room. I got waved around to park behind the rabbit and poultry barn. Totally not where I'm supposed to park, but heck, it's right next to the Indiana Arts building where I want to go, and it's not like they were gonna get a tow truck in here today...

 

I finally got back to the Indiana Arts building at 2:30 pm. I was worried the judging was over and all my friends had already gone home. I went downstairs and found Mary Alice and Barbara waiting for results. Phew. Still judging. I talked to Mary Alice and Barbara for quite some time. Mary Alice had brought 19 pies. Barbara brought 21! This photo is from Mary Alice's Facebook page. I had to put it here because it's so darn impressive.

 

Mary Alice's pies

 

To put this in perspective for those that don't bake, most pies have to bake in the oven for an hour. That plus your prep time, all your do-overs, and the nonstop washing of baking pans and utensils all add up to a crap load of time!

 

Both Mary Alice and Barbara had problems getting into the fairgrounds. They weren't the only ones. So many competitors got stuck in traffic that they extended the entry time for at least an hour and took all late entries... thus they were still judging.

 

I went and found some lunch then went back. Still judging.

Went to check out the winning Giant Pumpkin in the Ag/Hort Building...



 

1250 lbs!!

 

... then went back. Still judging.

Checked out the rest of the Indiana Arts building then went back. Still judging.

 

Finally, at 4:30 pm, I gave up and went home after stopping by the Ag/Hort building again to buy my Burton's Maple Syrup for the Maple Contest on Monday. I was too tired to stay and I had other things to do. I needed to get started on my entry for the Burton's Maple Syrup Contest. I got a text from Becky saying she had gone home even before I arrived but she had a friend who was staying for results. Finally, at 5:30 pm I heard they were starting to post results but no refrigerator pie results yet and Becky's friend was going home. Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait til I go back on Monday.

 

Saturday night I started working on my Burton's Maple Syrup entry. The contest is any recipe containing at least 1/4 cup of maple syrup. The first year Burton's sponsored this contest was in 2014 and I made Maple Baklava. I managed an Honorable Mentioned but finished out of the money because they couldn't taste enough maple flavor. Ever since then I make sure my entries are loaded with maple syrup. I also feel that in these sponsored contests your entry really needs to be over-the-top unique in some way to stand out. I won in 2015 with Maple Bacon S'mores by making my own maple syrup marshmallows, toasted them, rolled them in bacon and sandwiched them between homemade maple shortbread cookies. I came back and won again in 2016 with my "perfect" Magnificent Maple Cake. One of the best cakes I've ever made. I didn't compete last year. Could I possible manage a three-peat?

 

I settled on making a stacked cheesecake. Maple cheese cake on the bottom and maple cake on the top. I made maple shortbread cookies and crushed them for the crust. I made a maple icing to hold the cheesecake and cake together then made maple sugared pecans to decorate the top. I made my practice cake on Saturday night, put it in the refrigerator to set up, then went to bed... at 1 am.

 

Sunday I got up and tried my creation...

 

 

It tasted great. Cosmetically, I decided the crust needed to go all the way up the sides to keep the cheesecake from bowing out from the weight of the cake. I also decided to make the cake layer thicker and bake it in the same springform pan I made the cheesecake in so they would be exactly the same size. It was great to have a plan. I actually went to bed at a decent hour on Sunday night.

This was a final cake I entered on Monday...

 

After turning my entry in, I went to check on my pie. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much because I thought my filling tasted grainy. Becky had texted me though and said Jennifer had seen the pies and thought I'd either gotten Third or an Honorable Mention. In the back of my head I thought, surely, that couldn't be. It was grainy, plus the pie had come out of the oven with a couple bubbles on top so I had popped them hoping the filling was still runny enough to smooth out the top, but it wasn't, so I didn't have a nice clean top. It was cosmetic, but still...

 

I FREAKIN' GOT THIRD!!!

 

I was incredibly happy to find out I had actually placed! Congrats to Becky. She won the Class. Jennifer got Honorable Mention.

 

 

After checking out the pies I went back upstairs to hang out with my friends at the contest.

 

Mary Alice and me



 

 

Darl and Raymond

 

Michael and Becky

 

Mary Alice made little bite size Pecan Tarts with Maple Syrup and Butterscotch Chips. Darl made Maple Bacon Crack. Raymond made Maple Ice Cream with candied Maple Walnuts and Maple Swirl (I really wanted a scoop of that!) Michael made on Ooey Gooey Maple Pear Upside Down Cake and Becky made bite size Maple Peach Love Cakes.

 

There were a LOT of entries so judging took over 2 hours. Annie Watts was the extension judge and George Neely was the professional chef. Mine ended up being the third entry judged. I breathed a silent sigh of relief when they cut into it and the cheesecake had the right consistency and the cake didn't have any tunnels.

 

 

Annie judged in 2016 when my cake won and I used the same cake recipe in this entry. I'm certain she knew it was my entry and even made the exact same comment she had in 2016 about how I used pears in my cake to keep it moist. George Neely has judged my entries before too and looked directly at me when he made his comments which made me incredibly uncomfortable. Then Becky whispered he knows this is your cake. I kinda wanted to crawl under my chair at that point. Overall though, I could tell they liked my entry.

 

FINALLY, judging was done. The judges looked really tired towards the end and they looked like their taste buds were fried. I'm glad my entry wasn't towards the end, but I was also worried it got judged so early, as I was worried they'd hold back on giving out a high score early on.

 

Christine Rienecker got Honorable Mention with her Streusel Topped Maple Blueberry Cupcakes.

 

Phyllis Hine got Third with her Maple Apple Pie. George Neely had commented during judging that it was one of the best pies he'd ever tasted.

 

Then they said that it had been really close between first and second. I could feel the adrenaline rushing. It's been awhile since I'd had this feeling...

 

I got Second.

 

John Baker won with his Maple Bourbon Tiramisu with Maple Leaf Cookie. Like me, he had make multiple maple items in his entry. I had met him downstairs while looking at the pies. He sells his baked goods at several of the local farmer's markets and Robin had introduced me to him several years ago.

 

Christine's sister, Phyllis, me, and John

 

Photo with the judges

George Neely is on the left and Annie Watts is on the right

 

No 3-peat but I can't complain!

 

Tuesday was spent making bread. The Hogsdon Mills competition was Wednesday and I had to make an original loaf of bread using at least one cup of Hogsdon Mills flour. Problem was, it was hard to find the flour. Kroger carried the rye flour and that was it. Meijer, Walmart and SuperTarget did not carry the brand and that's pretty much my choices locally. I wasn't going to drive an hour for a sack of flour nor did I have time to order any online so rye flour it was.

 

I created a Parmesan Semolina Rye Onion Bread. 40% of the score was Appearance so I decided to make a free form loaf and did a round braid.

 

Loaf #1

 

Since this was a brand new recipe I cut into this loaf to try it. I liked the texture. I couldn't taste the Parmesan and I thought the bread was too flat.

 

So, Loaf #2...  I added another half cup of Parmesan cheese and I tried to shape the dough into a ball for the second rise, hoping it would not spread out as much this way. I also tried an egg wash over the top. My plan was that if this loaf looked good I'd make a third loaf exactly the same early Wednesday morning, then take the fresher loaf unless this one looked significantly better.

 



Loaf #2 shaped for second rise

 

Loaf #2... which pretty much looks like Loaf #1

 

Well boo! Loaf #2 didn't bake any taller than Loaf #1. I'm sure it tasted perfectly fine but somehow I got fixated on Appearance. The other scoring components were 40% on Flavor and 20% on Texture.

 

So... I made Loaf #3. I also added another egg to Loaf #3 because the outer braid "strands" were "bursting" and I thought the dough was too dry. Hopefully this would make it more elastic. When it was time to shape Loaf #3, I made it a small ball on top of a big ball, hoping this would give the bread more height.

 

Loaf #3, shaped for second rise

 

Bread typically needs to rise 1 - 1.5 hours for the first rise and about an hour for the second. I pretty much babysat bread all day on Tuesday. Loaf #3 was done rising at 11:30 pm. However... when I went to go put it in the oven I found that the top ball had slid off the bottom ball and it was just one huge misshapen mass. Arghh!!!

 

Nothing to do but re-knead the whole mess and reshape it. Luckily, the more times you re-knead and reshape your bread, the less time it takes to rise. I threw in the towel on a round braid and made a 6-stranded straight braid.

 

Loaf #3, reshaped for second rise

 

I let Loaf #3 rise for another half hour, then threw it in the oven. It got done just before 2 am. I'd been baking the bread on a baking stone using the Silpat it had risen on. I picked up the hot Silpat to get the bread out, then proceeded to drop the whole thing on the floor! Arghhh again!! Luckily the bread stayed on the Silpat so it didn't actually hit the floor, just the Silpat. However, the force of it hitting the floor broke the crust on one side. Disgusted, I put the whole thing on the cooling rack and pushed the hot crust back in place hoping it would "mend" ...then I went to bed.

 

Loaf #3

 

I had my alarm set for 7 am on Wednesday morning but I couldn't fall asleep. I finally gave up at 6 am and started making ANOTHER loaf of bread. No changes this time. Made it exactly like Loaf #3. I had a meeting for work I had to call into at 7:30 am so I put on a headset and finished shaping my bread.

 

Loaf #4, after the second rise, ready for the oven

 

My meeting got done at 9 am and so did Loaf #4. Ugh. Loaf #4 was HUGE and most of the braid definition was lost. Definitely not a competition piece.

 

Now it was time to play eenie meenie minee mo. Should I take round Loaf #2 or straight Loaf #3? I thought Loaf #3 looked better than Loaf #2, but I was worried about the times I had reshaped it. Did I let it rise long enough after the last shaping? Would it be tough? Would they notice the broken crust I'd pushed back into place? Decisions, decisions...

 

One of G's friends wanted one of my loaves of bread. I had to pick G and her friends up from a coffee shop at 11:30 am and give her friend the bread so I had to make a decision. I gave away the round loaf and kept Loaf #3 to enter.

 

Off to the Fair at 12:30 pm. It was a gray rainy day. The fairgrounds were empty. Ahhh...

 

Judging started at 3 pm. It was a small competition. I think everyone was tired by now... and it was pouring rain... and this was a bread competition... and the flour had not been easy to find. Fifteen people had entered. Seven showed up. I was thankful, mainly because it would be short.

 

Annie Watts and Betsy Robin, both extension judges, judged. I couldn't tell if they liked my bread or not. They seemed to really like the sweet breads. I had thought my bread looked really good at home but now, looking at everyone elses', especially the ones that had beautifully risen in a loaf pan, I wasn't really sure. My bread looked flat.

 

With just seven competitors, my heart started to pound when it was time to announce the winners. I desperately wanted to place just to know that I was in the top half. Is that an awful thought or what?! But I wanted to place!

 

They brought four entries out. My platter was one of them. Phew! I was sure I'd gotten Honorable Mention but then they called Phyllis' name.

 

I got Third!!

 

Happy with Third

Look at everyone else's nice tall loaves of bread

 

 

 

 

 

One more competition to go!

 



 

 

2018 Indiana State Fair - Scones and Other Updates

The Indiana State Fair opened on Friday August 3rd, however I was in New York City that day. It was the last day of G's summer ballet intensive with the Bolshoi Ballet and our whole family went to see her perform at her end-of-intensive performance. We checked her out of her dorm on Saturday morning, loaded up my in-law's mini-van to the hilt, and left New York City for eastern Pennsylvania. Sunday was spent white water rafting the Upper Lehigh River. Monday we hiked Glen Onoko Falls, then drove to Canton, Ohio. We got home on Tuesday. I went to work on Wednesday. That left me Thursday to prepare for my first sponsored competition, King Arthur Flour.

King Arthur Flour's competition this year was scones. Make any kind of original recipe scone using King Arthur Flour. For some reason I had orange cardamom scones stuck in my head. Orange scones didn't sound very original but for some reason cardamom did, and the idea would not leave my head.

So, I made orange cardamom scones. I pictured tall high-rising scones, tender on the inside with a craggy crisp golden brown exterior, coated with a thin glaze of sweet orange icing.

Take One...

The batter came together wonderfully and I patted it out on a Silpat, used a biscuit cutter and cut out circles, then squished the left overs together and cut out some more. The squished together leftovers looked far more "rustic" than the first round of circles and I only got 12 scones out of the batter. I put turbinado sugar on the 6 rustic looking ones and left the other 6 plain. I was trying to decide if they looked better with a sugar topping or a glazed topping.

I baked the first 6 with the turbinado sugar... and they were too dark. The bottoms looked almost burnt. I baked the next 6 for five minutes less. These had better color but were much flatter... like hockey pucks. Plus, I couldn't taste the cardamom.

Take Two...

Plan this time was to make them all look "rustic" by making them all thicker with craggy tops, and I used two teaspoons of cardamom instead of one. First 6 came out looking pretty good. I made the mistake of leaving the other 6 out on the counter (rather than the freezer) while the first 6 baked and they got soft so they spread out more in the oven... so they were flatter and much bigger. Ugh. I had to show 6 scones that looked exactly alike in size and coloration... and I still couldn't taste any cardamom.

Take Three...

I put in a whole tablespoon of cardamom. Then I cut my scones slightly smaller so I got 15 scones out of the batter. Next I baked them 3 at a time so if something went wrong with a batch I'd have more chances to correct them. This was it; I was not making more scones!

Thankfully I was able to come up with at least 6 scones I liked in this batch. But I still couldn't taste the cardamom. I decided I'd leave "cardamom" out of the title of my recipe since if it's in the title the judges are looking for that flavor but if it's not, then the extra flavor is a bonus. I renamed my recipe "K. Arthur's Extraordinary Orange Scones" instead of "Orange Cardamom Scones." By now it was 2 am. I left the scones on a rack to cool and went to bed.

Friday morning. Competition day. I checked my scones to glaze them. I live in Indiana and it's hot and humid. Even with the air conditioning on there is humidity in the house. I had the scones sitting out for 6 hours. When I picked one up I could tell the exteriors were not crunchy anymore. Arghhh... They were perfect 6 hours ago. What to do? I heated up the oven to 250 degrees and put them back in for 10 minutes, hoping to make the outsides more crunchy again without drying out the interiors. Did that, cooled them down again, then glazed them. Hopefully the glazed sealed in some of the crunch.

Scones plated for competition

 

 

Now it was off to the Fair.

Turned in my scones and went to check on how my pre-fair entries did.

Sugar Skull Cookies

 

Mocha Pecan Torte

 

Loaded Potato Rolls

 

Caramel Corn

 

Banana Delight

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

 

I was happy the Sugar Skull Cookies got First because I spent quite a bit of time on them. I was a bit disappointed the Mocha Pecan Torte didn't win but it's always hard to win again with the same cake in an anything goes cake category. I was pleasantly surprised the flat rolls placed as well as they did. I was disappointed though that my caramel corn did not place any higher as I have won multiple times with this. The fact that my other two items did not place did not surprise me. I never tasted the banana cake after I switched the recipe so it might have been awful. The chocolate chip cookies were a disaster and I knew that.

 

After checking on my items I went back upstairs for the competition. First person I saw was Fancheon Resler. Fancheon was the first person that befriended me at the State Fair and I always look forward to seeing her. She no longer competes but her daughter Kenda does and she was here looking after Kenda's entry as Kenda was working over at the Glass Barn for the run of the Fair. Also saw Robin, Becky and Jennifer, then spied Michael, Phyllis, and Marjorie across the stage.

 



Robin took this picture of me with Jennifer and Becky

 

There were a LOT of scones. Unfortunately, there were several other orange scones... so mine weren't very original. The judges liked my scones. They were technically very good. However I knew I had lost out on originality. Michael made Ginger Apricot Scones with crystallized ginger. They smelled wonderful and were incredibly original. I knew he won as soon as I saw them. I was right. He won. Kenda came in second with a savory scone that had cheese and jalapenos in it. I had a feeling a savory scone would do well too because it's different. I, however, could not get orange cardamom out of my head! I didn't place. Oh well. It was fun.

 

 

 

I didn't get out of the fairgrounds until well after 5 pm. Now I had nine bazillion orange scones at home that I had to get rid of, plus I had to make a pie for pie turn in on Saturday. I texted my friend Hope to see if she would take some scones, plus a practice pie. I was starving too. I perused my drive-thru choices going home. Decided Subway was probably my healthiest choice. Pulled into the parking lot and thought I'd call and ask hubs if he wanted something too, then saw that Hope had texted me back. She definitely wanted the pie but just a couple scones... and, did I want some beef and noodles? She was making beef and noodles and told me to bring a container if I wanted some.

 

God Bless!!

 

It's wonderful to have good friends. Heck yes I'll take homemade beef and noodles! I pulled out of the Subway parking lot and hurried home to find a container.

 

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!

To Finish... Afghans

Nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.

I came across this quote recently in a blog that I've been devouring. The blog is a crocheting blog by Lucia Dunn called Lucia's Fig Tree. It seemed so fitting.

The theme for my blog posts this month will be FINISHING.

I have so many things to finish. Actually though, life has been pretty good for me lately although I feel like a child with ADHD. So many fun things to do! I want to do everything at once! The sun wakes me up every morning and I can't decide what to do for the day because it's mostly all fun. Really, nothing has to get done. My husband calls them half-world problems. I am fortunate.

So... some goals.
I have many things I'm working on but this post is about my afghans. I have three I need to finish.

First up is my Owl Obsession afghan. I'm sure many of you remember it. I started it 2 years ago and was on a tear. But then I ran into some problems. Refresher post HERE. The whole saga will be a post in itself. Long story short, I just couldn't deal with it at the time as fixing things involved taking most of the whole afghan apart... so I threw the whole thing in a bag and let it sit in my office for a couple years.

After I finished my last quilt though, I got the itch to crochet again and I didn't feel so completely overwhelmed anymore... so I picked up the owls again. It will be finished soon. I can see all it's imperfections but it will be done and done is better than perfect.

Next up is my Leaping Stripes and Blocks afghan. I first wrote about it waaaay back in my blog post on 9/10/14 .  Well... my daughter has long graduated high school so there will be no snuggling under the blanket watching her cheer at football games but, luckily, she now goes to Indiana University so the colors are still correct :)

This is an afghan I've "picked at" over the years. A couple rows here, a couple rows there. Part of the problem in finishing it is that I made it so big... and hence NOT very portable. Originally I sized it to cover a twin size bed. Seeing it stretched out on my KING size bed, I realize I might have gone a bit overboard! Plan now is to make it a big square and enjoy it. I still love the bold colors and the pattern. I like my blankets large heavy and close knit.

My final afghan is the Spike Stitch afghan. This was started YEARS AND YEARS ago. So long ago I can't even remember... I wanted to make this afghan for several reasons. First, it was a challenge. Something about an "experienced" 4-bar difficulty rating pushed my buttons. Sigh...

Next, I found this absolutely wonderful cashmere blend yarn on clearance at Michaels. I loved the feel and the color so I bought every skein they had, just to have it. Then, I found the afghan pattern and realized this was the perfect yarn for this project. It was destiny. Problem was, I didn't have enough yarn and it was a clearance/discontinued item. So what do you do in a situation like this? Ebay. I bought more yarn on ebay.

Again, this was an afghan that I couldn't put down the first couple weeks I worked on it. Then I ran into problems and it got to the point where I felt I'd probably have to take the whole thing apart and I couldn't deal with it... so I shoved it in a storage bin. First thing I will need to do with this one is undo the whole thing and salvage the yarn... but I think I can deal with that now.

Looking forward to finishing things this month!