Bake Sale for Haiti this Saturday!

Well, looks like great minds think alike. Over the weekend a friend let me know that one of the local coffee shops was hosting a bake sale for Haiti and was looking for bakers. I contacted them right away and I'm so excited to participate! If you want to bake something contact Lacey at Crema. If you want to eat a tasty treat the sale is from 12-5p this Saturday Jan 23rd.

All proceeds are going to support Partners In Health. Ironically, our pediatrician was signed up to leave this week on medical mission to Haiti through the same organization. This is an annual visit for her and was planned long before the earthquake. Her trip has been indefinitely postponed until commercial flights are allowed back in. But I know our much needed support will go a long way in aiding the work that is all ready happening there right now.

I made Haitian Cake balls using the cake recipe and mixed it with Lemon Frosting. I dipped some in Chocolate and some in Vanilla.

I preferred the vanilla. My husband preferred neither. haha... I must admit the lemon flavor was a bit overwhelming in the bite size cake balls. So, I think for the final recipe, I'll just go with The Haitian Cake with Chocolate frosting dipped in white Chocolate. That settles it. Why be all fancy? Just go with what you know.

Don't tell my New Year's Resolution but I've been sneaking bites of "Gateau au Beurre" (the second Haitian Cake recipe I found). It is REALLY good. It's not very rummy (In fact you wouldn't even know it was there) and after 3 days isn't dry at all. I'm thinking of doing it in mini pound cakes for the bake sale. I was thinking I might be able to use a perfect brownie or mini loaf pan- neither of which I currently own. But, I think it might work well! Trying to think along the lines of things that will be easy to package individually for a bake sale. Really looking forward to it.

I'm also thinking of holding another bake sale in another month or so like I had originally planned. Right now the Girl Scouts are holding residency in grocery store lobbies (making it difficult for me to find a high traffic location). I was thinking maybe around Valentine's day I could make up baskets or bouquets. Presents with a purpose. I think once they've gone through this initial rescue phase, we'll start to understand the rebuilding needs and there will be a lot of needs still to be met. I hope you guys will consider having a sale and letting me know how it goes!!! For now I can't wait to do my part in our bake sale for Haiti this Saturday!

Third Time's A Charm?

I ate a bite of the cake from yesterday and nearly choked because it had become very dense and dry overnight. Betty Crocker, your boxed super moist recipe has shamed me. But you haven't heard the last of me!

So, I decided I had to take one more day to work on the Haitian Cake recipe. I added a little oil in hopes of softening it up. Thankfully, it turned out the best so far. I even felt wild and crazy and made 3 cupcakes with some of the batter to see if that would work. So far so good. No custard texture or egg taste at all. But I'm curious about how it will taste tomorrow. Here you go... one for you, one for me. Don't eat it now though... we have to wait until tomorrow!

I also tried another recipe I found for Haitian Cake or as they called it "Gateau au Beurre." It was VERY similar but had some of the measurements were slightly off and this cake called for a little rum & lime zest. It seemed like a pound cake type desert from the picture so I baked it in a loaf pan. It was VERY good. Again, I'm anxious to see how it fairs overnight.

*** NOTE that both recipes leave out the steps to adding in the flavorings (i.e. vanilla /rum). I'm not sure how they were missed... but I have been adding them after the egg is mixed in. The consistency of the batter for both recipes is so thick. It's more like a cookie dough. So if the cake is still not working for me tomorrow I might try making COOKIES! Going back to the original recipe, I decided I might try Haitian Cake balls... so here they are right before I put them in the freezer.

I mixed the cake with lemon icing and am debating whether to dip them in chocolate or vanilla tomorrow. I just don't know if lemon and chocolate are a good combo. Let me know if you have any thoughts on that.

Anyway, feeling more and more confident that I can conquer this from scratch recipe... Third time's a charm, right?

Haitian Cake Take 2!!!

I'll say it before you think it, "Someone needs to send that girl to a Wilton class!" Don't be jealous of my decorating skills. ha!

I made this again today and it was MUCH better.

Here are the changes I made:

- I hand mixed everything with a wooden spoon. (Now I don't have to work out tonight!)
- I used all purpose flour NOT cake flour
- I only used 3 eggs
- I added in the vanilla that they forgot to write into the instructions. (It was listed as an
ingredient but omitted in the preparation directions.)
- I poured it in the round pans as instructed instead of cupcakes
- I baked it for 40 min

And VOILA... much better... I guess it was all my wild improvisatory ideas... Stick with the program, Lani!!!

Then came the icing test. Coconut Pecan, Lemon, White, or Chocolate? So far the results are unanimous... however... There were only 3 of us voting! And the winner is... Drum roll please...

LEMON ICING

I'm not sure why this combo works so well. In fact the three of us don't consider ourselves "lemony" people. But we all agreed it was best with chocolate close behind! I'm going to make the cake again tomorrow to work up my final recipe. Can't wait!

I just found out a local coffee shop is wanting bakers to coordinate a bake sale for Haiti relief. That's amazing. My goal for the weekend was to find somewhere to do this. I'll keep you posted! I've found a few places online that are doing matching donations as well. So, I'm hoping my little contribution will actually go a long long way! I've challenged friends to consider holding there own bake sale. So far people across the country are jumping in. Stay tuned for more details!

Bake Sale for Haiti

Hey fellow cakers...

Last night as I was posting I felt an overwhelming sadness for the situation in Haiti. Feeling bummed that I couldn't help out in a more tangible way, it hit me... Use what you've got! Why not turn this renewed passion for baking into something that could really make a difference?

I found this recipe and thought it would be perfect to bake up and sell to raise funds and donate. Would you consider joining me?

*** UPDATE *** After trying this recipe once, I would suggest less egg!!! It was VERY custardy in the eggy sense. Not really up to our sweet-tooth standards. I did try it with coconut pecan icing and it was VERY good.

Haitian Cake

Ingredients

• 2 sticks of butter
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup of sugar
• 5 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp of vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup milk (boil a cup of milk with several sticks of cinnamon and let reduce to 3/4 cup, and let cool, and discard the cinnamon sticks)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease two 8 1/2 round pans.
2. In an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Mix until the mixture is light, fluffy and smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine the remaining 2 cups of flour, baking powder and salt. With the machine running, add 1/4 cup of the flour mixture at a time, gradually add milk. Mix well. Pour the filling into the prepared pan.
4. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until the center is firm. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Use any flavor of icing.

I'm still forming this idea and want some help!

- Thought of coming up with something specifically related to Haiti... maybe cupcakes with their flag?

- Maybe setting up a table outside a store this weekend?

- Maybe taking them to work, school, church, etc... and setting out a donation cup?

- Set up a blog and have people posts their earnings and make one big donation?

Let's do this! Need your suggestions...

Cake Scratch Fever

Well, Well... Wouldn't you know my ambition is all ready being overshadowed by my lack of knowledge... but I guess it's all trial, error, and google! I REALLY wanted to try finding a simple cake recipe from scratch. Realizing that I had all of the ingredients on hand for this recipe, I decided to give it a whirl. That should've been my first hint... the ingredients seemed a bizarre combination... but hey, who was I to judge? I'd never made a cake from scratch. Trust your instincts, Lani. My first hiccup came when the instructions said to "sift the flour." That seems like a reasonable thing to do while baking except, I don't own a sifter. Enter the lap top stage left. "how do you sift flour without a sifter?" I scoured through a couple google offerings and decided that I could just whisk my flour and baking soda for now and add a sifter to my shopping list and an apron. Maybe that would have made all the difference... but I doubt it. Just after putting the cake in the oven, I sampled a bit of the batter. It wasn't bad. It wasn't good. It just was. I thought maybe something magical wood happen inside the oven.


After cooling, Jody and I grabbed some chocolate icing and milk and headed warily towards the cake. We took a bite. I waited on his response before saying anything. We agreed that although not overcooked, it was a bit crunchy. Dense. It was sweet. But not the buttery kind of taste from a box cake. It seemed alot like cornbread to me. Alas, he did not whisk me into his arms and sing my praises. That's the kind recipe I'm looking for. If you have it, let me know. I've got the fever. I've got it bad... Cake Scratch Fever!