The Vintage Counterfeiter: 2-2017- Cake and a Super Long Post

I had an ah ha moment at the end of last year when I began thinking about this blog. When I first started it, it was a way to showcase my furniture creations and maybe somehow turn it into a magical way to make some money. That happened...sort of but it was short lived. Not because I knew I couldn't be successful over the long haul but because I'm all over the place, never want to stay in one spot or do the same thing twice. ( I also need to mix things up to give my hands a rest from one project to the next) I realized I'm not crazy just wired like that and that's where I struggled with this blog and its lack of posts for 2016. Most blogs have a common thread that runs thru them like a sewing blog or a knitting blog. Even when they are off the beaten path it usually relates back to their main theme. That doesn't happen in my world, I am really all over the map. Roger will ask what's for supper and I'll tell him one thing only to have him come home to something totally different. So for the blog I was slightly frustrated with myself that I don't fit the blogging mold and I apologize if you've come here to see or read about one specific thing because that ain't happenin'. :) I also felt I showed you the best of my best because that's what I think people wanted to see. That's not real life so this is going to be more of my adventures along with the good the bad and the downright ugly projects.

Roger and I were alone for the first time on Christmas day so we thought it would be fun to spend $20 on each other just to have a little something under the tree. He cheated big time and sat before me the most beautiful red Kitchen-aid mixer. Mine had died after years of service back in May and knowing my love for baking and that it's hard on my hands he upgraded from my old flip one to the Professional 5 plus series. It was pretty, I cried and I baked.

No secret that the Great British Bake Off is one of my all time favourite shows and that I've gone back to watch and re watch them on Youtube. I really do bake a lot and started to try lots of different things in 2016 like the Macaron. ( not to be confused with the macaroon) I can not tell you how many batches of those I've made to try and get the perfect foot... but I digress.
The Victoria Sponge Cake or Sandwich is an easy little cake to make or so I thought. When I first tried to bake it, the cake was dry. It seemed like I didn't have enough jam and when I had added the whipped cream just like they had done on the show it oozed out everywhere on the first cut.

Take two.

Let's start off with the positives shall we..

I used this Vanilla Cake recipe because I don't know about you but trying to bake a good vanilla cake from scratch has been hard. Chocolate no problem, but I've tried so many dang vanilla cakes recipes only to have them come out dry each and every time that I resorted back to box cake until this recipe. It's day two and still very moist.

The jam filling. I took jam and some frozen strawberries and made more jam/sauce for my layers and then took fresh strawberries to avoid all the jam soaking into the cake and leaving nothing behind. That was one of the issues I had before. I had lots of jam for my tastes but by the time I was ready to serve it, it had disappeared into the cake. ( no it didn't help to moisten the cake, it was just dry cake with jam soaked in)

Buttercream icing. Instead of whipped cream I used buttercream. I must tell you that piping things makes my hands seize up but I've come to make the icing so it's on the verge of being soft but still holds it's shape. This was to be served at potluck at church but church was cancelled due to our stormy snowy weather. I knew Buttercream would definitely stand up better then whip cream for a potluck which it did and is still doing next day!! For a home bake whip cream would still be nice.

Now for the negatives..

I made this cake in two 9 inch cake pans but the recipe calls for 8 inch therefore I had to make this recipe twice because it really needed another layer to look right. It made the cake massive. Cutting and serving this would have been a bit of a nightmare. You can't cut it into regular cake size pieces, I mean you can but it's a lot of cake. Most of which I'm sure would have seen the garbage pail because to much of a good thing is still to much. As my 19 year old son said... let me repeat that, my 19 year old son said

"Mom to much icing"

The cake pans themselves are two different companies and therefore made two different 9 inch cakes. So make sure you've got the same make when you bake. If you think I'm crazy go back and look, I know you can see it when you really look. One cake pan baked it darker even though they were put in at the same time and came out of the oven at the same time.

I should have pureed the jam. Visually it would have looked better.

That piece right there, Roger and I shared that piece possibly for breakfast. I mean it had fruit and all and it was more then enough for two. :) I've judged myself for it's appearance and how I can improve it but I can say hands down that everyone who tired it throughly enjoyed it.