A Sweet and Sour Introduction
***
“Souls bound in body and mind,
Like lost owls,
Searching not only to find
The truth,
The flaw,
But a gateway,
Forever open,
To love.”
05/23/17
Springtime is here, and that means it’s finally time hold up two fingers to yesterday’s long, cold, harsh winter. It’s time for new beginnings—time to get excited about EVERYTHING again.
One of my most prominent traits is that I’m easily bored…sometimes with myself, but mostly with the world. I always search for ways of making it more beautiful, more exciting—more meaningful. A lot of times that’s not easy for me and I lose sight of what makes me truly feel alive: creating. Whether I write a piece of music, a poem, draw, paint a poster, or make food fit for the eyes of a Queen…it always becomes a reminder that this strange planet combined with imagination can be quite the exciting playground.
I’m an 18 year old musician, with dreams of becoming a film composer. This summer my family will be opening a restaurant in Plainfield, Vermont, and I will be made head of the pastry department. I hope to start my own business on the side to cater gourmet cakes and other desserts and pastries for weddings and other events. I also want to travel and see the world through different cultures before I can settle down, and basically, I plan on creating my life to be one crazy adventure with many, many different stages. I plan on doing everything in my power to find the cure to my seemingly chronic boredom!
And so, I am creating this blog to share all that I am with you. To show you (and further convince myself) that this planet is really where it’s at! I encourage you to follow me through this blogging journey filled with art, existential conversations, fancy foods, stories, poetry, and I will also be featuring all kinds of characters from my life that I call friends and family. To start off this sweet and sour adventure, here’s the recipe for my Fluffy Sponge Cake with Balsamic Strawberries! Isn’t it the cutest? I hope you can handle this one.
FLUFFY SPONGE CAKE WITH BALSAMIC STRAWBERRIES
A recipe by Linda Lomelino – Call me Cupcake – http://www.callmecupcake.se
yields one 9.5 inch cake, serves 6-8
This cake doesn’t keep very well in the fridge–the strawberries tend to get a little mushy after a while, so make sure to prepare the strawberries and cream topping right before serving!
Ingredients
The sponge cake
2/3 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3 medium eggs, at room temperature
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
zest from 1/2 lemon
2 tbsp milk
The balsamic strawberries
300 g fresh strawberries
1 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
zest from 1/2 lemon
The topping
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tsp granulated sugar
Fresh mint leaves and wild strawberry blossoms
Directions
Sponge cake
1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Butter and flour a 9-9.5-inch cake pan. Make sure you get some on the sides of the pan.
3. Melt butter and let cool.
4. Beat the eggs and sugar until lighter in color and texture, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in the melted butter.
5. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Gently stir the flour
mixture into the egg mixture. Add lemon zest and milk and stir until batter is smooth.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth top with a spatula.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
8. Let cake cool for 10 minutes before sliding a knife
around the edge and removing cake out of the pan. Let cool to room temperature.
Balsamic strawberries & topping
1. Hull the strawberries and cut them into thirds lengthwise. Place them in a bowl and toss with sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt, vanilla and lemon zest. Cover the bowl and let stand for 30 minutes until the berries release their juices. Toss every now and then.
2. Prick holes in the cake with a knife and spoon some of the syrup from the berries on top of the cake.
3. Whip the cream with the sugar to soft peaks. Spread the whipped cream on top of the cake. Spoon strawberries on top and decorate with some mint leaves. Drizzle any leftover syrup on top of the cake.
***
During my first semester at Bishop’s University, I met a bass-guitar player and singer, Jaymin, who was in the same rock combo as I was. As my first fellow musician friend, I invited him over one night to jam and exchange music.
As the night progressed, we both got pretty hungry, so I decided I would try and cook something. I had just moved into my dorm, and while I had a kitchen, I didn’t have much food to cook with. So I thought I’d improvise–I’d done that before with some pretty good results! My ingredients consisted of flour, salt, and eggs. No jokes, that’s all I had. Hmm…no sugar, so we can’t make cookies. (tragic) I decided I would try making eggs-on-crust. Sounds great doesn’t it? I don’t even know why I thought that was a good idea to begin with, and it turned out to be the most awful tasting piece of food I’d ever made. My pride as a cook was crushed. He ended up going home hungry, and I told him I’d somehow redeem myself one day. Well my friends, today was the day!
It’s been over a year since this happened, but it’s never too late to wipe away frightening memories for good! This is a shot of Jaymin eating my cake, and while the egg-biscuit-monstruosity isn’t very hard to beat–I think I’ve managed to make my point.
I’m not that bad of a cook you know!
Dream Owl Cakes 