De Baking Psychopath

A third goodbye in the lab within the last 8 months, and the heralding of the end of summer. At least there's cake to make it a little better. I have a love affair with the pairing of orange and chocolate (amongst other things), and I have exploited this well-matched flavor combo on more than one occasion, usually in a drunken cake of some sort, often involving Grand Marnier. I always forget how strong this orange-flavored liquor is (40% alcohol, can you believe it?!) and add too generously, resulting in a chocolate cake with an orange punch in the face. So I made the same mistake this time too, but I tried to remedy it by cooking the jam-liquor mixture on the stove a little bit to burn off a little alcohol. Whether the sugar melded with the liquor enough for me not to notice it as much, or if it really burned off, I can't tell, but in any case, it's already soaked into the cake, so too late! The cake comes from Nigella Lawson , the decadently sensuous Brit who makes her...

To celebrate my advisor's birthday, I brought birthday cupcakes in for lab meeting today. Since she is quite sensitive to refined sugar, I was excited to try out these "Splenda-iferous Cream-Filled Vanilla Cupcakes" from Buttercup Bakes at Home by Jennifer Appel, founder of Buttercup Bake Shop in Manhattan. With nonfat milk powder and buttermilk to keep things hydrated, these cupcakes were wonderfully tender and moist and light! The frosting was uber-creamy and completed the whole melt-in-your-mouth experience that these cupcakes provided. Totally did not miss the sugar here. Not low fat, mind you, but at least you save yourself that sugar high. Splenda-iferous Cream-Filled Vanilla Cupcakes (adapted from Buttercup Bakes At Home ) Ingredients: 2 & 1/4 cups cake flour 1/2 cup instant nonfat powdered milk 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup (1 & 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened 1/2 cup Splenda Sugar Blend for Baking...

Wow, rave reviews for both cookies =) Very many happy seminar attendees and labmates. My favorite quote of the day, from one of my labmates after polishing off an oatmeal cranberry cookie, "I like working here!" My second favorite was, "So I guess no more cookies for a week, huh?" from another labmate, since I am going out of town from tomorrow to next Wednesday. One of my friends and a couple members of my lab who have had both the CI chocolate chip cookie and the Tate's one said today that the CI cookie is the best I've made thus far. This is quickly escalating up to a match-off!! I think the previous feedback from my friends saying Tate's was better may have been skewed because of the inaccurate texture (too crunchy), so Take 2 may be the more accurate feedback? The funny thing is that my rendition of Tate's cookies has an "inaccurate" texture as well--the cookie is supposed to be thin and crispy, but I think I use too large of a coo...