fandomhigh | Baking Workshop 7/24, Monday Morning

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cooking

Baking Workshop 7/24, Monday Morning

"Good morning," Piper says cheerfully as the students arrive. "Today, you're going to bake a cake. I made a sample cake for you, but I also brought muffins again. Take whatever you want."

She hands them a list of instructions. "You'll notice that one of the ingredients is coffee, but it's optional. I made a pot of it if you do want to use it. You can even drink it if you want to."

"There are a lot of instructions here, so you can work with a partner if you want to. As always, ask questions if you need help with anything," she adds.

Equipment Needed

Mixer

2 Cake Pans

Measuring Cups

Measuring Spoons

Cooling Rack

Wax Paper

Non-Stick Spray

Ingredients

2 cups Sugar

1/2 cup Butter

1/2 cup Cocoa

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1 cup Coffee (optional)

1/2 cup Buttermilk

2 Eggs

2 cups Flour

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1-1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

Instructions

Mix sugar, butter and cocoa.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Add buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and coffee.

Mix flour, salt, and baking soda on a paper plate.

Then while the mixer is on a low speed add the ingredients from the paper plate into mixing bowl slowly.

Continue to mix the cake batter until there are no more dry ingredients visible.

Scrape sides of bowl if needed while mixing.

Take both cake pans and spray them with cooking spray.

Then put a round sheet of wax paper (the size of the bottom of the pans) in the bottom of each of the cake pans.

After this spray them again so that all the insides of both are covered.

Pour the cake batter into the cake pans making sure that each pan has half of the batter.

Place them into the pre-heated oven for 35 minutes.

Test if done by inserting a tooth pick, if tooth pick comes out clean cake is done.

Cool to room temperature.

Once the cake has cooled take a knife and cut around the side of the pan to loosen the cake.

Then put a cooling rack on top of it and flip the cake over.

Slowly remove the cake pan.

Remove the wax paper by slowly peeling it off horizontally rather than straight up. This will prevent the wax paper from taking pieces of cake with it.

Equipment Needed

Mixer

Spatulas

Measuring Cups

Measuring Spoons

2 Paper Towels

Ingredients

1 Pound Powdered Sugar

1/2 Cup Cocoa

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Vanilla

6 Tablespoons Coffee (optional)

6 Tablespoons Soft Butter

Instructions

Mix sugar, cocoa and salt.

Add vanilla, coffee and butter while the mixer is stirring.

Wet the paper towels, ring them out and lay them over the frosting bowl. This will prevent the chocolate frosting from drying on top until you are ready to frost the chocolate cake.

Frosting the Cake

Take a spatula and spread on a very thin layer of frosting.

You only need enough so that the other layer will stick, don't drench it in frosting.

Now place the unfrosted second layer on the frosted first layer.

Frost the sides of the cake.

To frost the top, scoop out a large amount of frosting onto the top and then spread it around using the end of your spatula rather than the edge.

[ooc: ingredients and instructions from here.]

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Isabel sat down to the read the instructions. Baking a cake without a box mix was new territory for her.

Molly walked over to join Isabel. "Can I work with you? This looks way more complicated than brownies or cookies."

"Hi Molly, sure." Isabel nodded, "I've only done box mixes before. Hopefully between the two of use we can figure this out."

"Hopefully," Molly said with a grin. "Do you mind if we leave out the coffee? I tried the cake Piper made and it isn't very strong, but I can still taste it."

"Not a problem. I like coffee but only to drink," she replied, making a face. "Which is odd. But then again, I like my desserts laced with Tabasco, so odd is appropriate."

Molly grinned. "Cool. Thanks." She looked back at the instructions. "So, how do you want to do this?"

"I guess step by step?" Isabel gestured towards the bowl. "Looks like we add the sugar, cocoa and salt first."

Molly reached for the ingredients and looked at her copy of the recipe for how much of each they needed. "Um, I think you're looking at the frosting recipe," she said. "We need to start out with the sugar, cocoa and butter first." She set the salt aside and got the butter instead.

"Huh," she shook her head. "Well that would have certainly start us off on the wrong foot. Butter it is then." Isabel add the sugar and cocoa to the mixer and waited for Molly to measure out the butter.

Molly measured out the butter and slid it over for Isabel to add before turning back to the recipe.

"Oven to 350, check. Buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and we're leaving out the coffee, so just those three." She got the wet ingredients and measured them out for Isabel to add.

After checking to make sure the butter and the sugar were appropriately mixed, Isabel started to add the wet ingredients. "Okay, it seems simple enough. What's next?"

"The flour, salt, and baking soda which need to be added slowly with the mixer on low," Molly said, reading from the instructions. She measured out the dry ingredients onto a paper plate and slid it over to Isabel.

"Low is good. Otherwise we'd wind up wearing most of it," she said. Isabel doubled checked the speed of the mixer, before slowly pouring in some of the dry ingredients.

"Yes," Molly said with a grin. "That happened to me and Sam last week. Luckily, it wasn't really bad."

"I know you can mix sugar with stuff for a really good natural scrub. But flour?" Isabel laughed as she poured in the rest of the dry ingredients. She raised an eyebrow as she watched the mixer work. "Hmmm...That looks...interesting."

Molly looked into the mixing bowl. "It's really thick," she said.

She shrugged, "We're following the directions. So it should be okay. Are the pans ready?"

"Oh, let me do those quick," Molly said. It just took her a few moment to spray the pans, put in the wax paper circles and then spray them again. "Here they are."

"Here goes nothing then." Isabel carefully divided the batter between the two pans, using a spatula to spread it out when the thick mass refused to evenly coat the bottom of the pan. She placed the pans in the oven and set the timer. "On to the frosting now?" she asked, reaching for the cocoa. "So did you get caught up in Saturday's insanity?"

"Frosting it is." Molly got the powdered sugar and salt ready to add.

"Yeah, I ate one of Sam's cookies," she said with a grin. "I missed most of the singing though."

After measuring out the cocoa, Isabel pushed the bowl over to Molly to add the sugar and salt. "I missed the cookies. But I did get caught up in some of the dancing in the park. It was amusing."

Molly chuckled. "I ended up back in the dorms making campaign posters for student council."

"Oh really? Can I hire you to help me in the fall?" Isabel asked. "I think I might run again. We're skipping the coffee again?"

"Sure! I can help you make posters. Just make sure I make them for you and not Patty Simcox," she said with a laugh. "And yes, please to skipping the coffee again."

"Thanks," she said, distracted by the odd mush in the mixer. "Okay, I've added the butter and the vanilla. But I think we have a problem. I can't see how we're going to spread this."

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