Lessons

 Third graders are back at the museum for their immersion into Lowell history. They spend two whole school days at the museum learning about Lowell through various activities.  I help lead one of them. We work them hard and I'm sure when they get home at the end of the day they fall asleep in their mashed potatoes. 

It looks like they are doing nothing but writing but  this is the only time they are still!   And after Day 1 they are grateful that on Day 2 they are sitting more than standing.  This is   a wonderful program for our local kids and wish school was like this when I was their age.  Boy, do I wish!

Lesson2

We are going to friends' house for dinner tomorrow night and I said I'd bring dessert ...of course.  As I always do, if something CAN be done ahead of time, it IS done ahead of time.  You never know what might happen when you make plans and that need to pivot is so much a part of our lives I just prep early.

One month during covid I decided to see what really was the best chocolate cake recipe that can be made.  I like my cakes moist, not dry, so I tested one recipe a week and of course tweaked things as I always do.  There was a clear winner.  Ina Garten's chocolate cake is now my go-to.  It is just exactly as good as everyone says it is.  My change?  I don't like coffee so where she adds a whole cup of hot coffee I add just hot water. I tried once to add coffee to a chocolate cake, like they all say to do but I can taste it so I don't do it. 

 I keep experimenting and one day Elizabeth asked for the chocolate cake of the day that I made with this particular filling for her birthday and I was having a busy week so I thought of making the filling ahead of time.  It's a filling made with butter, sugar and cooked flour and milk.  Kind of like the filling you get in those  Ho Ho cupcakes we can buy in gas stations.

I wondered if I could make the filling ahead of time.  It  had two sticks of butter in it so it would solidify if I put it in the fridge.  So. I made a circle on parchment the size of the cake pan and after whipping the filling I spread it within that circle, covered it with cling and put it in the fridge to harden.

It worked beautifully. When I needed it two days later I had it the exact size I needed and just took it out, and put it on the cake. 

Here's another trick I learned about  45 years ago when I took a cake decorating class.  Cut an old dish towel  it's length but 6 inches wide (basically, cut the towel in half lengthwise,) wet it, wring it out good and pin it around your cake pan.  This keeps the outside of your pan cool so the whole cake rises evenly and you don't get that hump in the middle you see people cut off to level a cake.  If your cake pans are 2 inches high, you will have folded the wet towel into a three fold, wrapped it around the pan and pinned it.

It comes out looking like this every time, level and ready.

Another trick I recently experimented with.  After making a ganache with whipping cream and chocolate chips (I also add a bit of vanilla and sometimes some malt powder to cut the chocolate) let it cool in the fridge so it's firm but not fudge rock hard. 

Then whip it. No sugar.  Just chocolate chips, heavy cream and a bit of vanilla. It's delicious and easy. This was a "hmmm, I wonder....." moment that worked.