I Take the Cake

My Plum Kuchen was a success at church coffee hour.

Gone in 60 seconds!

I actually never got to try it. This violates Julia Child's rule, "Taste the food before you serve it." However I did everything I could to help it along. I got to church a half hour early, went into the empty hall and set up my cake for best results. I picked out a fine purple platter for it, then unfastened the Springform pan, took out the cake and placed it carefully on the platter. Springform are the greatest. They protect your cake in transit and then you can take the cake out of the pan and it is perfect.

Bundt cake pans are overrated. Springform pans are underrated!

Anyway. After placing my cake on the platter I took a knife and cut it carefully into squares. Then, using a spatula, I pushed the pieces carefully together so they would not dry out while Mass was in progress. Then I sprinkled the cake with powdered sugar. Then I sugared it again.

Then I placed the cake at a place on the banquet table where I thought it would be sure to go over big. You want to put it close enough to the center so people have not yet filled up their whole plates and they have room for it.

Finally I photographed the cake. That is it up above!

Because I have made cakes two weeks in a row, I now have momentum going. Next week I will have to make a third cake. What will it be? I am leaning toward a Polish lemon cheesecake. However my brother George might turn up with some other fruit from the Clinton Bailey Market. That drove my choice for the last two weeks and might do so again.

It is almost apple season. That will be fun!

So many coffee hour ideas.

So little time!

Kuchen in the kitchen

 I have been rediscovering my interest in baking for church coffee hour.

Out of the tree of life I have picked me a plum. Today I made a recipe from my Taste of Home Baking cookbook. I made Fresh Plum Kuchen!

This follows Peach Coffee Cake which I made last week. That is a picture from that adventure up above. The clutter shows how out of practice I was. However I am getting better!

The Fresh Plum Kuchen called for two cups of sliced plums. My brother George had brought us plums from Bailey Clinton. I took a bowl of them and sliced them. You always think you can slice them neatly however you cannot. There is this pit that has to be removed. The recipe writers never think about that. Here is a secret however: It does not matter. The plums get buried in the cake anyway.

They say: "Arrange them neatly over the cake" No need to bother!

The world slows down when you bake. Getting the pastry together always takes a little longer than you think it will and you have to go with that. It did feel so good today to butter the springform pan and pour the cake batter into it.

Then the plums scattered in the batter. I took my time trying to distribute them well.

Then I sprinkled white sugar over the top. That was my contribution to the recipe.

Then Howard and I were eating dinner so I had to set the timer on my phone to make sure the kuchen did not bake too long. We were out on the porch and all of a sudden I hear this jingling and goofy music and it was my phone. "What is that?" I wondered. Then I realized: Ah, the kuchen was done.

Being on Keto I have not sampled the cake. However it looks good, and it smells good. If something looks good and smells good you know what that means.

It is good!