Lucy or Martha?

    Today, Thing 1 came to me and said he wanted to make a carrot cake.  After deciding it would be a nice way to warm up the house (it just seemed cold on this drab, rainy day) I said yes.  I informed DD via text.  He gave me the dancing for joy emoticon.  (Carrot cake is his favorite cake.  One of the only cakes he likes actually).    I was going to tort it.  With cream cheese frosting.  I briefly contemplated making orange and green frosting and making little carrots on it (don't worry that wasn't going to happen!).  This was going to be a grand cake indeed.
    So I found a 5 star rated recipe.   I had even found a recipe modification that made the original a little more "healthy."  I grated carrots.  I assembled my "mis en place" of ingredients.  I preheated the oven with my baking stone (because baking geniuses know baking stones are good for even heat when baking.) and prepped the pans.  I got my mixer mixing.  The batter looked beautiful and smelled great.  I poured it in the pans and put it in my well heated oven (double checking my oven thermometer to make sure the temp was correct - as a baking genius would do of course). 

     The timer rang and I grabbed a toothpick to check the doneness.  Tooth pick came out clean so I put them on a cooling rack and set the timer for 10 minutes to flip them out the pans to cool.

     This is where the baking choir starts to sound a bit off key.

     I  expected the cakes to flip out no problem (since I am a baking genius - they should have popped right out, right?).  Yeah, they didn't. 

     I used a plastic knife to go around the edges (even though they looked like they had pulled away).  They didn't come out.  I did a toothpick check again.  Not done.  (The baking genius must have tooth picked the outside of the cake, where it was done - doh!)

     I decided to put the cakes back into the oven (thank goodness the baking genius had a still hot baking stone in it right?).  I pulled them out five minutes later.  I did this several times before I realized the baking genius had forgot to turn the oven back on.

     The baking choir is sounding pretty terrible at this point.  At this point, this is feeling more like an episode of  "I love Lucy" than "Martha Stewart Living."

     I turn the oven back on and put the cakes back in.  After 10 minutes, I pull them out and let them cool.  At this point I'm worried I'm just drying the outside out and possibly burning the bottom.  I put them outside to quick cool.  After flipping them out, part of the bottom ripped off.  They for sure still weren't done inside.
    
     You might be saying, "Give Up".   Bake a new one. To this I say "Never"!  I am too stubborn.  I don't like to be defeated.  I hate wasting food.  I already had the cream cheese frosting made.  DD was expecting carrot cake.  He even made the "dancing for joy" emoticon.  He doesn't get worked up over much.

     At this point I turn to Google.  Here's when I tried to microwave one of them.  Shockingly that didn't work either.

     While I was nuking it one last time, I found a "fix" for cake mistakes.  Turn heavy, underdone cakes into pudding.  I am starting to feel like more of a genius again.  Well at least I'm happy this cake hasn't totally gotten the best of me. 

     I whipped some eggs, milk, and brown sugar (I was out of vanilla at this point), cut the cakes into cubes, threw it all into a greased 9x13, and put it back into my still hot oven for 45 mins at 350 degrees. (thank you baking stone).  And, yes I did turn the oven back on this time.

    I let it cool and frosted it. 

    It's actually pretty good.  (Maybe it's the cream cheese frosting?)

    Moral of the story, if life gives you underdone, dried out carrot cake, make pudding instead!

Nuf said :)

I will try a new cake tomorrow.  Or Wednesday when DD comes back home from working. DD brought more vanilla home.

Cheeseburger Pizza, Not quite there...

     So tonight, Dear Dad (DD) is working late, and I was scrambling my brain as to what to make Thing 1&2 and myself for dinner.  (For those of you Stay At Home Parents I know I am not alone when I say dinner morphs when DD isn't present. It usually goes towards the breakfast for supper or "brupper" as I call it (even though I call it dinner usually), or something really easy, or something that I'm not sure DD will eat).  Tonight, there would be no brupper, as I'm out of eggs (not in the mood to drag two kids to the store), and then I thought of picking up a $5.00 pizza (they have a drive though, and they're not half bad for $5.00), then I thought, "hey, why don't we make a pizza".  Of course Thing 1 wanted pepperoni, and something in me said "cheeseburger pizza." 

    So I threw all the good stuff in my mixer, made some dough, and proceeded to make the pizzas - kiddos first of course.  The pepperoni pizza was pretty straight forward, with the exception that Thing 1 insisted that it be in the shape of a triangle.  For Easter.  (He decided this should be the recognized shape of Easter - triangle Easter chocolates coming your way soon ;).  So a triangle pizza we made.

    While that one was cooking I made up mine.  I had memories of Godfather's Cheeseburger Pizza floating through my head the whole time.  Unfortunately, it didn't quite turn out how my memory expected it to be :(  It was, OK, but not great.  The crust was good and crunchy, and the flavor was OK, but only so.  I was going for mouthwatering, I want to eat the whole thing, great.

Here's what I did:

• Dough (I added garlic and onion powder to it)
• Sauce (equal parts Miracle Whip and Ketchup with a good squirt of mustard)
• Browned Beef/Turkey mix seasoned
• Mix of Cheddar and Mozzarella cheese
• Dill Pickle coins

     I made it on parchment paper, on top of my Epicurean  (got it for 40% off at my fave Knife sharpening place) cutting board, for ease of transfer.  (I'm in love with this cutting board - it's heat resistant for one thing - but that's another post).  Baked it on the parchment for 10 minutes on my pizza stone at 400 degrees, then slid the paper out, so the crust could crisp up, and cooked for another 10 minutes.

Here's what I think I'll do next time

• Pizza Sauce this time? Or leave out one of the three condiment/sauces
• Either use relish in the condiment sauce so there is more pickly-ness to it, or at least at pickle juice to sauce.  Or add pickles after it's cooked
• Add sauteed onions to toppings (I was too lazy to unthaw mine from the freezer)
• Add Crumbled Bacon
• Plan ahead and have lettuce and tomato to shred to top after it's cooked

     So I'm wondering if anyone has made lately a cheeseburger pizza they really loved?  Or have you dined at Godfather's and had their deliciousness lately (I'm really curious if they use a red sauce or a condiment sauce)?  Any pointers?  Any thoughts on what I could do for next time?

     Maybe I'll try recreating a BLT pizza next time.  Jet's Pizza makes a mean BLT hand tossed....yum...good thing I made the gym this morning ;)

***Editor's Note: I'm feeling better about my creation - DD just got home and had some - he said it was "yummy."  I'm also feeling good about myself that I was able to save $$ by making this at home.  I was looking through today's mail and noticed a Papa Murphy's ad for a Cheeseburger Pizza for $10 - $12 for the family size.  ***