Last Cake, Next Cake

I usually write the midweek blog post on Wednesday because that's midweek. But if you really want to feel sorry for me, you'll have to know that I've come down with the flu, and nothing I'm saying makes any sense to me. There was almost no consensus about these ingots. Jennifer thought they were "crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside, --they exceeded her expectations." On the other hand, Raymond, who we know is crazy about brown butter and vanilla, wasn't crazy about these. He thought they were "dense and dry and almost totally lacking in flavor." Just to show that it's chacun a son gout
, Vicki thought the flavor was wonderful and that they didn't last long in her house. Sugar Chef was also not a big fan of the peanut butter ingots, although you couldn't tell it by looking at the beautiful job she did. She didn't think they were very flavorful, but she
peanut butter would be better., and she "doctored them with buttercream rosettes and chocolate transfers left over from the cake in the previous post."
Mendy falls squarely in the undecided category: "good but not great." Julie made plain ingots as well as fancy ones, and she was definitely in the running for featured baked until I remembered she got it just last week. Buy hrt ganache-covered ingots and the ingots swimming in vanilla sauce look just amazing.

Our FEATURED BAKER is Lynette. How could I not choose Lynette because she's a big fan of financiers, unlike some of us who had never heard of them AND she made all three kinds--vanilla, peanut butter, and chocolate. Lynette didn't think the gold ingots were quite as flavorful as her stand-by financier, but she plans to add the peanut butter and chocolate versions to her financier rotation.

Next week is another Free Choice week. As we begin to have the end of this project in sight (even if still way off in the distance), it's time to look at the cakes that I made before the Cake Bakers began--just about this time last year.
Here's a list of the 21 (yes, 21!) cakes I made before we became an official group. You should be able to find plenty of cakes on this list of 21.

1. May 31, 2009: Spice Cake with Peanut Buttercream Frosting
2. May 30: Yellow Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate-Egg White Buttercream
3. June 1: She Loves Me Cake
4. June 8: Torta des las Tres Leches
5. June 9: Black Chocolate Party Cake
6. June 15: Financiers au Chocolat
7. June 22: Ginger Cheesecake with Gingerbread Crust
8. June 29: Chocolate Raspberry Trifle
9. July 6: Golden Lemon Almond Cake
10. July 13: Banana Refrigerator Cake with Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting
11. July 20: Tiramisu
12. July 27: Apple Cinnamon Crumb Cake
13. August 3: Heavenly Seduction Coconut Cake
14. August 10: Plum Round Ingots
15. August 17: Rose Red Velvet Cake
16. August 24: Red Berry Shortcake
17. August 31: Deep Chocolate Rosebuds
18. September 7: No-Bake Whipped Cream Cheesecake
19. September 14: Marble Velvet Cake
20. September 21: German Chocolate Cake
21. September 28: White Gold Passion Genoise

Cheers to Nancy B. are in order while we're talking about record numbers of cakes. I think she is the only person who has made every cake since we started last October, although I know some others have come close. If there's anyone else who hasn't missed a cake, let me know.

The week after the Free Choice week, we have the Apple Caramel Charlotte in store. I read the instructions over at least three times, and I think I'm starting to understand how it works. I also see any number of places in the recipe that could cause a person of minimal self-control to throw whatever she's working on across the kitchen.