Day 13

Ah, it just feels so good to be at home baking. There is something very therapeutic about the act of baking, and I believe it is becoming a lost art due to competing against a world of grab and go services. But may I be the first to say that baking is not something that your grandmothers did way back when because they didn't have a choice. Its FUN. Its the tasty-ist science project that you will ever come across, sometimes it will explode in your face (or all over your kitchen) but sometimes it will turn into a melt in your mouth morsel that will make you wonder why you ever bought cake from a grocery store.

Tonight I made the Lemon Poppy Seed Pound cake with a Lemon Syrup glaze. This turns out to be a 24 hour process, after having a lemon zesting party (a sad party of 1, me), and freshly squeezing lemon juice. I made the cake, to my amazement the cake has come out just fine even though I had MANY bloopers tonight.*

*In making this cake, I added the poppy seeds and lemon zests to the wrong batch (the wet not dry), had to bring the butter to room temp by turning up the heat in the house (which actually worked) because I have learned what happens when you don't have it the right temp, forgot to place my favorite item -  magi strips around the pan to adjust to the proper heating (I placed them on after two minutes after baking and seared my finger tips a little) and fumbled the cake, due to the seared fingers tips, into the oven causing a slight tilt in the baking.   

Once the cake was almost finished, I glazed it with the syrup. Top, bottom and sides. I decided to taste a bit of the syrup to see what it tasted like and let me tell you, I did a double take.. It was soooo tart from the lemon, I felt like one of those babies on commercials that taste something sour and their face scrunches up in displeasure. Shocking and something I did not need at 9pm at night. Later, I read that you need to let the syrup rest in the cake so it looses some tartness, now you tell me. Jeez.

 I now am instructed to fully wrap the cake in plastic wrap and let it set in the refrigerator for 24 hours before serving. There will be pictures of the cake tomorrow side by side with a yummy Chocolate Bread.