Rogue Bakery Says…

Guilty Pleasures? THAT TERM SHOULDN’T EXIST

May 3rd, 2012

 

[Seinfeld voice] What’s the deal with guilty pleasures? [/Seinfeld voice]

 

Really, why must there be things that give us pleasure, but cause us guilt? Why do we feel this guilt? This sounds very philosophical, doesn’t it? What’s with all the questions in this blog post???

I don’t know why we feel guilty, but I can probably narrow it down to two things: 1) people are douchebags and 2) people are douchebags. Why? Because they are the ones who tell us that the things we like aren’t things we should like. Where do they get off saying that? I’m sure it has something to do with social acceptance and blah blah blah other stuff. It shouldn’t matter to other people what we like or don’t like! [Well, unless you don't like any of the Rogue Bakery cookies. Then we really need to have a talk. ;) ]

But back to guilty pleasures…we have guilty pleasures when it comes to music, television shows, movies, etc. I also find a lot of people have food guilty pleasures. Or more accurately, foods that people like, that other people think is disgusting, or just wrong. Do you like McDonald’s, but you have friends that look at you like you’ve killed millions of innocent kittens when you admit it? Yeah, we all do. Wait, do we…? I don’t know. I hope I don’t. Then again, I don’t go around saying I like McDonald’s. I do like it, though. “But those burgers are terrible!” Well, yeah, they are, if you compare them to really well-made burgers. But it’s McDonald’s. I don’t view McDonald’s cheeseburgers as the end-all-be-all cheeseburger. I don’t even view a McDonald’s cheeseburger as a hamburger with cheese. In my mind a McDonald’s cheeseburger is, in itself, it’s own food. Like Chicken McNuggets. That’s not chicken. I can’t compare that to any part of  an oven roasted chicken, or even compare it to chicken fingers. They’re McNuggets. I’m not even sure what’s in them. It could be chicken, it could be fillers. Who knows? They’re just delicious. And I’m not just talking about McDonald’s here. I also enjoy Taco Bell. See? There’s another example of what I’m talking about. Taco Bell isn’t Mexican food. It’s just Taco Bell. Sure, you can get an authentic Mexican taco from one of the many taco trucks Columbus has to offer. But that taco is nothing like a Doritos Loco Taco, except that they are both called “tacos”. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Cake of Mistakes

January 27th, 2012

It was my friend’s birthday yesterday, so I decided to make her a cake, as I stated on Twitter.

 


[I know, exciting.]

Even though I bake cookies, I think I’m a decent cake maker. Except for yesterday, where I was the idiot of cake making. I did so many things wrong, I’m surprised the cake came out as good as it did. Then again, you can’t really go wrong with chocolate cake, right?

So I got my two 8-inch cake pans out, buttered and floured them, as usual. I also like to put a round of parchment at the bottom, just to make sure the cakes come out of the pan nicely. I traced out some circles on parchment and cut them out.

Next, I mixed up the batter. As I always like to do, I mixed the dry ingredients together first, then mixed the wet ingredients. Except for one of the wet ingredients, which I dumped directly into the bowl of dry ingredients, instead of the bowl of wet ingredients. I have no idea why I did that. MISTAKE #1.

At that point, I just decided to mix all the ingredients together. And I did. Then I carefully distributed them between the two pans (without the parchment bottoms, of course). Great. All is fine. Except I didn’t put the parchment rounds in the bottom of the pans. They were sitting on the counter. MISTAKE #2. Also, I didn’t put any vanilla in the recipe. MISTAKE #3.

So, what did I do next? Well, I poured half a teaspoon of vanilla in each pan, and proceeded to try to stir vanilla into the batter…while the batter was in the pans. This is the most ridiculous thing ever. I finally got fed up and just put them in the oven. While it was baking, I made frosting…which went surprisingly well. No mistakes there…yet. And actually no mistakes the rest of the time. Well, besides the “Oh, yeah, this cake isn’t going to come out of the pan”-thing. The bottom layer was basically cut in half across the diameter of the cake, so it was put down in two pieces, because that was the only way the cake was coming out of the pan. The split was covered up by a layer of frosting. The mangled second layer, which miraculously stayed in one piece, was placed on top. The whole thing was frosted rather messily, because I had already lost my patience. And that’s when I remembered: I didn’t put vanilla in the frosting. MISTAKE #4. What was up with me and not putting vanilla in things? It was ridiculous.

After dinner, the cake was served. Not one of my best cakes by far, but no one complained, and everyone loved it. Yay for people who aren’t too picky about the look of their food as long as it tastes good!

the worst cake ever

Look! It’s already half gone! Cut right where the bottom layer broke in half! Haha! Yeah, not my best cake, but it’s edible. :)

Also, I’m a much better cookie baker. I swear, I am.

 

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