Some Busy Days

There have been complaints!  No blog post for two weeks.  Is all well?  What is going on?  Well, I’m not sure.  I have decidedly been well, and I haven’t done anything really special or time consuming, but I have been doing lots of time nibbling things.  In short, I have been kind of a busy bee, buzzing about my little hive, but have not much to show for it.  Except maybe a smiling face, as I have been having a very good time doing not much whatever.

I have been cooking!

Felting with friends!  You can see a marvelous movie here, and an even more marvelous movie here.  Be sure to look at both of them!

The little pink eared mousie at about three-thirty is my contribution.

Helping Barbara the Choir Librarian.  We filled seventy-five choir books for the coming liturgical season, and took apart the choir books for the previous season.  This is a rather mind-numbing job, as one has to take care to get everything right, but it is hours of repetition.  The last season, we probably handled 4,000 pieces of music.  The Lenten and Easter books were not so onerous.  This may sound dreadful, but actually, it is not.  I look forward to spending the day with Barbara. It’s an opportunity to help with the music at the Cathedral, and even better, an excellent opportunity to gossip chat with Barbara! 

Back to cooking – The Twins and I are conscientiouely and religiously I observing Lenten practices some of which involve food, and most recently, we observantly ate this cake (hence the photo of the tiny bit that is left.)  I think it is now my favorite.  The original recipe, which I made a few weeks ago, called for a root vegetable – specifically, turnip, rutabaga, or parsnip and whole wheat flour.  Last time, I made it with turnips and it was super.  This time, I decided to be daring and try beets.  As I didn’t have any whole wheat flour, I used regular all purpose.  I expected the cake to turn out red, as was the dough - actually, it was a murky maroon - but I guess the molasses trumped the beets, and the cake came out brown. While not red, it was fluffy and delicious. 

Gingerbeet Cake (adapted from Dan Lepard’s Short and Sweet

2 eggs

100g dark brown sugar  (1/2 cup)

100g molasses (1/3 cup)

150ml canola oil  (5 oz)

150g grated beets*  ( about 2 medium)

about 2T chopped stem ginger

175g all purpose flour (1 ¼ cup)

2t baking powder

1t baking soda

2t ground ginger

Icing

About 3/4 cup powdered sugar

Grated zest of one lemon

Lemon juice (start with 1 tsp)

Line a 20cm cake tin - either spring form or one with a removable bottom – with baking paper. Grease the pan and the paper.

Heat the oven to 350°.

Separate the eggs, reserving one of the egg whites for later.  Beat one white and the two yolks into the sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the molasses and oil and beat well.  Add the grated beets and the chopped ginger.

Mix the dry ingredients well, and add to the wet.  Mix that well. 

Beat the remaining egg white until it forms stiff peaks.  Gently fold this into the bet mixture.  Carefully pour into the prepared pan and bake until the center is firm and a knife inserted into it comes out clean – about 45 minutes. When the cake is cool, remove from the pan and slather on the lemon icing.  Yummmmm!

Lemon icing:  Whisk the lemon juice into the powdered sugar and zest, starting with one tsp, and gradually adding lemon juice until icing is the right consistency.  

*I could not bear to grate them, so they were finely chopped in my food processor.