stock + cake

remember the lobster rolls and the cartoon version? well, i had saved the shells to someday make a lobster stock. the someday actually came quicker than i thought. there's a risotto recipe i want to try soon, and it called for fish stock. since i couldn't find any at the store, i figured i'd use my lobster shells and make some. i used this recipe. kind of. sort of. i forgot a few things and didn't follow the quantities exactly, but i ended up with some delicious stock anyway.


boiling forever.
in the hot, hot heat.


i don't have cheesecloth or a chinois for proper straining.
oh well.

it was father bear's birthday last wednesday, and the bear and i had planned to go have dinner with the bearents yesterday. so i decided it would be a great time to try out smitten kitchen's best birthday cake. problem is, the bearents don't really like sweets. fruit = dessert to them. so i decided to make mini cakes. 4" round ones, to be exact. plus mini = CUUUUUUUUTE!!! eee!


butter paper.
the best way ever to grease pans evenly.


i overfilled my pans for the first batch.
no worries, as the bear enjoyed the dome that i scrapped
to get a nice, flat cake.
like a muffin top.

i made two kinds of frosting. why? well, i wanted to try the bear's favorite yellow cake + chocolate buttercream combo, and the monkey is allergic to chocolate (one was for her as a thank you for hosting us for dinner). both started with butter.


i love butter.


lemon buttercream.


frosting dropcloths.
AKA wax paper.


crooked cake layer.


see? dropcloths are totally necessary.


frosted and confetti-ed.


monkey + mr. monkey seemed to have enjoyed it.
[photo by weezermonkey]


dry poo.
i mean, cocoa powder + butter.


even goopier poo.



chocolate frosting crumb coat.
the chocolate was a little stiffer and easier to work with.


final coat of chocolate + confetti.


plop.
in the box.


then each got a tulle bow.
tulle is very forgiving for those (like me) that can't tie pretty bows.
[photo by weezermonkey]

what did i think of the recipe? too dense and eggy. but amazingly moist, especially when stored overnight in tupperware. however, i like those spongy, light asian bakery cakes with barely sweetened whipped cream as frosting. the bear loved it, and he's my litmus test for yellow cake as he loves the duncan hines and betty crocker kind. yay! oh, and the recipe for batter makes A LOT of batter. a lot. i made four 4"x3" tall minis that i split in half to make into the mini layer cakes and then another, thin 9" round layer that got frozen for the bear's birthday coming up. oh, and i didn't use her frosting recipe. i used some out of this book that skims gave me awhile back.

i have one week and one day until school starts. crying big, crocodile tears.