Friday, August 20, 2010

Cake and the sweet life.

Last Sunday was baking day for me. I entered red velvet and pineapple upside down cakes in the Kentucky State Fair and they were due by 5 o'clock Monday.

When I was a kid and in 4-H I entered lots of categories for the county fair. My sister did the same thing. Luckily our projects weren't just baking. There was sewing, silk thread embroidery, forestry, canning, meal planning and table design. Girls growing up on Indiana farms saw their futures as farm wives. My mother was a farm wife and when our daddy died she was a farmer. I won lots of blue ribbons during this time and even once a grand champion in the Indiana State Fair for an embroidered picture of the Lord's Supper on white linen.
I stopped entering things in the fair when I left home for school. I started again when we bought our first house. Dennis would help me and on the Sunday before the entries were due, I'd make six cakes. It was a whirlwind of flour, sugar, washing mixing bowls and baking pans. Then again I stopped after he died.

About eight years ago Reggie encouraged me to try again. He is a good baker and enters about ten things from yeast braided bread to herb plants and apple pie. He's won lots of ribbons over the years including blue ribbons. I have always entered just two cakes. I won a fourth place, second place and third place ribbons over recent years.

This year I had carefully planned to have all ingredients on hand and at room temperature; the mixer bowls and beaters were clean. The recipes were practically memorized. I was ready. I started with the red velvet cake because I could be whipping up the pineapple upside down while that one baked. I turned on the oven to preheat and had the butter and sugar creamed. I just added the paste made from dry cocoa and red food coloring when I checked the oven. It was cold.
I checked the plug, the connection from the cord to the stove, flipped the circuit breaker back and forth; no heat. It was about 9:40 a.m. by then. I covered the bowl and put it in the refrigerator and put everything away. I sat down and thought about the situation while reading the papers.

Reggie called to check how things were going. I told him of the dead oven. He said, "Well bring your things over and bake them here." What a prince! I completed the assembling of both cake batters, put them in the appropriate pans, figured how to get them the two miles or so to his place and spent the afternoon trading use of his oven for my cakes and his breads.

When I got home I removed them from the pans. I wrapped the layers and closed the kitchen door. Next morning I got up early and frosted the red velvet. About 11:45 a.m. we loaded up my truck with my stuff and his stuff. We drove out to the fairgrounds and got the exhibits entered. It felt good to be finished.

Reggie won two ribbons. This year I did not win a ribbon.

I will be getting a new stove in a couple of weeks. I'm already thinking of making more cakes for practice. I used to make cakes for neighbors when I was young. They loved them and that was like a reward to me because they would always want me to stay and talk to them. 

It is hard to describe what baking those cakes and entering them into a fair contest does for me. I had a good childhood. Learning domestic things felt good and if I had become a farm wife, I would have been happy for Dennis was the son of a farmer. But both of us left home and went to school, never returning. Perhaps making those cakes is a step back into sweet nostalgia for something that never was.

31 comments:

  1. damn that looks GOOD, sugar! xoxoxo

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  2. This is such a sweetly old-fashioned thing - I can see well why it appeals.

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  3. I think it needs more frosting. The winning cake had lots. Of all the cakes entered mine was one of with the least frosting. Next time I will make 1 1/2 the frosting recipe.

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  4. Well, if I'd been judging I would have awarded you Gold Ribbon for presentation, Gold Medal for taste, Gold Award for texture, Gold Cup for environmental awareness and Gold Sash for everything else and as I would have eaten every last crumb before the other judges got a look in there would have been no argument. Well done!

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  5. Even if you didn't win, it sounds like a lot of fun anyway (except the non-working oven). :-)

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  6. Thank you Christopher!

    As soon as I get my new stove, I'm making the red velvet cake again and I'm making all my friends eat some and tell me what I need to change to win next year!

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  7. I should try my hand at kolaches for the westfest...nah..
    but it does sound fun.
    and that red velvet cake looks fantastic..I swear I can taste the icing..u done good.

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  8. Cake and icing... the only thing better is cake and MORE icing... :oD Those look GREAT!!!!!!

    Now I want CAKE!!!!

    ~shoes~

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  9. I don't think the Pinapple Upside Down cake would have made it to the Fair had I been there ;-)

    It looks so good !

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  10. That looks delicious ! I once tried my hand at cake decoration. The only reason I had to stop was because I ate all the material and grew a fatter ass.

    I wish I could sample some of your entries ! Go you ! I hope you win next year !

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  11. YDG: You should make your kolaches. I bet if there's a contest you'd win.

    Shoes: I like the icing best too. My favorite cake is dark dark devils food with thick boiled caramel that turns almost hard.

    Mac: Lenny and Reggie both like the pineapple cake better than the red velvet.

    Senorita: I once had the whole Wilton tips and bag collection and could make roses. That got lost in one of my moves. Now I have just a few tips for borders. My hands are stiff a lot and I figure I'd not have the fine motor control for fancy stuff.

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  12. I just got hungry, looking at those pictures. Good thing I'm eating a ginger snap at the moment, I would have to go out and buy a slice of that wonderful red velvet cake. It looks like a prize-winner to me. :-)

    I like your blog...!

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  13. marie antoinette would be proud of you.

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  14. Jo: Thank you. I like your blog too and love to browse through the blog roll.

    Billy: Marie Antoinette would never have baked a cake.

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  15. YUM! Pineapple upside down cake!!

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  16. Looks yummy to me. Love pineapple. Love chocolate. Love winning :). Good luck next time!

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  17. I'm a city gal and know nothing about baking, sewing,etc. My mother was a great cook, but she refused to pass it on.

    So I'm impressed with people who know all this stuff and enter cakes in contests.

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  18. Good stuff there, Charlene. I looooove to cook but I hate to bake. Bakin grequires one to follow the rules of the recipe. Now a big fan of rules. Cheers!!

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  19. wow, I want to come to your house and eat!
    thanks for reading my blog and the great comment you left for Why?

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  20. Sandy & She Writes: I wish I could bundle up some cake and send it to you. When I'm practicing before the fair my friends get tired of eating cake, so more eaters would be welcome.

    Wolynski: Being a city boy has nothing to do with baking. Reggie is a city boy and he's the fella getting the ribbons!

    Matt Man: If you think chemistry baking is easy.

    Jilda: You sure can come eat! I'm not sure what the "Why?" is about but if I said something weird, sorry!

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  21. YUMBO! That upside down cake...mmmmmmmmm....

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  22. Thanks for stopping by the blog!

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  23. OMG I am so jealous, I can't bake anything. I don't know what Red Velvet is? It sounds a bit like a horse in the two thirty but it looks much more delicious.
    I used to blame my cooking on my bad oven but then I bought a new one and my cooking did not improve so I had to admit I am just pants.

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  24. Purple Cow: I agree. I like a small snack cake like the upside down one too.

    Shimmy: You are welcome; likewise.

    Kerrie: A Red Velvet cake is like a white cake with 1/4 cup of cocoa dyed red with food coloring. The frosting is cream cheese; powdered sugar, butter and cream cheese. I've not had any myself but when I get my new stove, I'm make it again and eating a piece!

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  25. Awww. Bittersweet.

    I can't cook worth a damn. But sweet things? Cookies, cakes, pies? I am pretty confident in my skills there. As a matter of fact, baked an apple pie last night... and I'm gonna have a slice for lunch.

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  26. Oh my word! I am awe-struck.. Gee, I left school without the skill to boil an egg. You say you learned how to can, too? Jeez, I sure could use those skills of yours around here, if ever you fancy a vacation..?

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  27. Awe that gives me warm fuzzy feelings of my own childhood. I never did get involved in contest, but I remember baking fresh bread and waking up and feeding the horses and seeing the new piglets...

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  28. Somehow I got occupied and didn't get back here for a while. My apologies. I also seem to have lost a comment that I approved several days ago when my computer was messing up. Sorry Flirty 30 who said about the "Others in the 102 degree" heat story: I love this story :-) and the lesson attached to it. xx

    Tulpen: Apple pie! Wonderful. Reggie makes wonderful apple pie.

    Shrinky: Canning is fun. Get a book or bing it; there is lots of info on the net. With all the farmers' markets around you don't even have to garden yourself.

    Just telling it like it is: fresh bread is the best! My husband got me a Kitchenaid in 1972 for Christmas with a dough hook. I made him bread every week. Now days I avoid bread. Sigh.

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  29. I went to the Indiana State Fair this year, it is really big, I am sure there is a lot of competition at those things. I love bread more than cake I should be a bread judge!

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  30. Gosh - you'd get a ribbon from me. I haven't had a piece of red velvet in a long time. I'd even drink another cup of coffee if I had a slice here in CO!

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  31. Please would you ship a few of those pineapple cakes to London? That looks soooo good!

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