I've never been a person who gets sick often, but this week started out bad. I felt a little crummy when I got up on Monday, you know, a scratchy throat and some body aches. I went to work, mostly forgot about it and went to bed that night without giving it another thought. About 1:00 in the morning, I woke up, throat in flames, could not swallow, definitely could not sleep. I took some ibuprofen, switched on the TV, made myself some hot tea and a salt-water gargle (2 separate things!) and tried to make myself feel better. The hot tea felt good on my throat. I made another cup of tea. And another. And another. Pretty soon, another thing that was keeping me from sleeping -- I had to pee every 10 minutes! The next morning, I went to the doctor and found out I had strep throat. Do adults even get strep throat? Well, I did. The doctor sent me home with some penicillin and told me to get some rest and stay out of work for at least 24 hours. I crashed on the couch and willed myself to feel better. Two days passed in misery.
Now, today I am no longer contagious, the antibiotics have kicked in, and all that's left is that minor scratchy feeling in my throat, mostly a memory. I bet some ice cream would make it feel 100% better!
Please enjoy this delightful ice cream trio, adapted from David Lebovitz' The Perfect Scoop. Tomorrow, it's getting plated up as a grown-up banana split...
Showing posts with label banana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label banana. Show all posts
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Anatomy of a layer cake
Today I would like to demonstrate how to assemble a simple layer cake, the banana blitz (or nannersplosion, please feel free to comment and let me know which name you like better), from start to finish.
To begin, the cake layers should have been baked, cooled, then wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen overnight. Bring them to room temperature to thaw for 1 hour before assembly. Also, put previously-made buttercream and ganache on the counter at room temperature for an hour as well.
Grab an appropriately sized cake board (at least 1" larger in diameter than your cake), place a small smear of buttercream on the middle of the board to keep it from sliding. Unwrap one of your cake layers and place it top-side down on the middle of the cake board. If you left your parchment on the cake when it cooled (a good idea), you can place your hand here to steady the cake as you cut it in half. Use a long, sharp, serrated knife (at least a couple inches longer than the cake) and start slicing through on one side in the center of the layer. If you watch the other end of your knife while you are moving the cake around, you will see that the knife continues to follow the path you originally cut. This helps to keep the layers even. Once the cake is cut in layers, remove the top half and set it aside.
To begin, the cake layers should have been baked, cooled, then wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen overnight. Bring them to room temperature to thaw for 1 hour before assembly. Also, put previously-made buttercream and ganache on the counter at room temperature for an hour as well.
Grab an appropriately sized cake board (at least 1" larger in diameter than your cake), place a small smear of buttercream on the middle of the board to keep it from sliding. Unwrap one of your cake layers and place it top-side down on the middle of the cake board. If you left your parchment on the cake when it cooled (a good idea), you can place your hand here to steady the cake as you cut it in half. Use a long, sharp, serrated knife (at least a couple inches longer than the cake) and start slicing through on one side in the center of the layer. If you watch the other end of your knife while you are moving the cake around, you will see that the knife continues to follow the path you originally cut. This helps to keep the layers even. Once the cake is cut in layers, remove the top half and set it aside.
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