February 4th, 2011

Coconut Cream Layer Cake

I have been on a baking binge this winter and the birthdays of coworkers has finally given me a safe outlet. I was chatting with one of the technicians about the project manager who only wears Hawaiian shirts (he's from Hawaii), and mentioned that he was wearing a new shirt today. Last year we came up with this awesome plan to have everyone wear Hawaiian shirts for the day in honor of his birthday. So when the PM walked into the lab, the technician naturally remembered to ask when his birthday was. "Tomorrow."

Woah. We had no time! So we immediately send out an e-mail to everyone to get them in on the last-minute Hawaiian shirt-wearing theme. Then began to plan our Hawaiian-themed party. Really this just involved someone maybe picking up some leis and me agreeing to make a cake. So I went with coconut, since I love coconut.

I chose Alton Brown's Coconut Cake by way of this really delicious baking blog. It would be one of my first traditional cakes from scratch. What I mean by traditional is that I really love cake mix with added pudding. I will jazz up the mix, go to down on shapes and frosting - but the base cake is never my own creation when it comes to fluffy, cakey cake. This is kind of a daunting recipe. Four layers, filling, 7-minute frosting, and 5 different types of coconut products.

I managed to get the four layers baked, filling, frosted and topped, following instructions to the t, but mine really wasn't quite as lovely looking as the recipe blog photos. I used pre-separated egg whites for the batter, which immediately fell after I reached stiff peaks. So they weren't as fluffy as they were supposed to be. this resulted in a more dense, drier cake. However, the coconut water-soak saved the day to make it ultra moist. The 7-minute frosting was also less fluffy than it was supposed to be, which I'm sure was a temperature thing that I didn't notice. You can tell that its sort of glassy.

Overall everyone loved the cake - its richly sweet with every kind of coconut you can think of - coconut cream, coconut water, coconut milk, coconut extract, coconut shavings. I ended up cracking a coconut on my front stoop in like 20 degree weather with a hammer because I having issues cracking indoors. A man was walking by with his Pomeranian who really, really wanted some coconut. It was an odd scene between us.

This image was captured last minute on the travel tray right before we cut into it. Poor lighting. I would like a prettier cake holder with a 9-inch base rather than 8 inch, but this old Tupperware one that my mom gave me has the most secure handle/locking mechanism on the market. The new ones are all really sketch.

February 3rd, 2011

Relax Cool Red Wine

My favorite wine comes in a sweet red in addition to the original riesling.

February 2nd, 2011

Maverick Square Mural
East Boston, MA

I was waiting for my bus in Maverick Square, when I looked up to notice this mural overlooking the streets. As I tried to find a decent angle, an older gentleman started chatting with me. He introduced himself by way of explaining that he has a copy of that mural, which was actually painted from a turn-of-the-century postcard.

It turns out that he was an East Boston native, up visiting his daughter from Florida with his wife. He explained that there is an entire set of East Boston postcards from that era, which can often be found at local fleamarkets. He gave me some tips on where to find fleamarkets, and chatted a bit more about how the face of the square had changed over the years. He and his wife took off on the 116 bus a few minutes later and I was left wondering how hard it would be to locate one of these postcards when fleamarket attendees hardly have business pages documenting the goods they have for sale.

February 1st, 2011

Never ending snow
East Boston, MA

It's very difficult for me to snap photos on week days. The fact is, I'm usually in such a rush to get to work in the morning, that any am photography will have to take place between my kitchen and the train station. I am a creature of habit who takes nearly the same route each day, so I am not offered a variety of brilliant photographic moments.

Then I labor indoors at work all day. When I emerge, it is dark! I am again confined to photographing things at the gym, the supermarket or on my dark commute. Also a bit limited.

So this leaves me with photographs like this one, where I just demonstrate on how tedious all this snow is getting to be with a general, poorly lit image of the freshly cleared sidewalk. This will not be the last, I'm sure.

January 30th, 2011

Blood orange
January 30th, 2011

It's blood orange season. There is little more for me to say besides "I'm obsessed with blood oranges." It happens every year. There is no citrus fruit more magical than the sweet blood orange.

January 29th, 2011

Kumquats
January 29th, 2011

I purchased and ate my very first kumquats today! Luckily the box had instructions on how to eat them, or else I would have been pretty confused.

"Eat everything, except the seeds."

That's my kind of fruit. Heck, I'd even eat the seeds just so I didn't have to dig them out halfway through, and just munch on it in one go. The peel is sweet and the inside is tart. It's a fun, delicious combination.

January 28th, 2011

Court Square
Boston, MA
January 28th, 2011

Heading through the deserted poorly lit streets by the Old City Hall after work.