OKAY SO I CAN'T BAKE EITHER!

Pin It When I got out of the corporate world 12 years ago, I was at a stage where, in MY pea brain, I could do anything I wanted to.  The possibilities were endless!  My kids were in high school so it wasn't like I had little kiddos to monitor.  I said to myself "Self, either a pastry chef or a landscape designer - pick one!"  As I was driving home on my last day of work, going down 120th Avenue, I just happened to come upon a garden center first so I pulled in.   A large grocery store with a bakery department was further down the road.  So that's how I made the decision what my second career in life was going to be.  I started out at $8.00 an hour  - approximately at $42,000 pay cut - but I was SO EXCITED!!!  I learned everything I could that first season and then went back to school to study landscape design.  Long story short, I partnered with a young lady I met in school (also on her second career quest) and started a landscape design business call Sundial Landscape Design.  It was great - working outside, get to be around plants, my own boss.  And then came the customers.  Holy crap, can  you just pick a damn tree, already?  Maybe it was just burn out, I don't know.  My thought is that if I'm not the expert, I'm not going to try and second guess who really is the expert.  So, please people - take my word for it - THIS IS THE TREE YOU WANT!  Anyway.....

What I finally realized is that I really only wanted to do was landscape and garden in my own yard.

I often thought that maybe I should have gone a little further to the bakery.  Well, I'm here to tell you that probably wouldn't have worked out very well.  See, as much as I think I'd like to be a pastry chef, there are things I just can't learn.  And baking is obviously one of them.



No, I didn't bake this cake.   I saw this yummy Strawberry Yogurt Cake on A Spicy Perspective.  I thought what a nice treat that would be for my husband.  And it's semi- healthy, too.  If you ignore the stick of butter that's in it.  Hey, I used Fat Free Yogurt!

Anyway, I downloaded the recipe and this morning got to work baking a cake!....

Recipe: Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 Tb. lemon juice, divided
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, divided
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• 8 oz. plain or vanilla, Greek yogurt
• 12 oz. fresh strawberries, diced
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan (10-15 cup pan.) Sift together the 2 ¼ cups of flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in the lemon zest and set aside.
2. With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 1 Tb. lemon juice. Alternate beating in the flour mixture and the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated.
3. Toss the strawberries with the remaining ¼ cup of flour. Gently mix them into the batter.
4. Pour the batter into the Bundt pan. Place in the oven and reduce the temperature to 325 degrees F. Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
5. Allow to cool at least 20 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Once cooled whisk together the remaining 2 Tb. of lemon juice and the powdered sugar. Drizzle over the top of the cake.

NOTE: I’ve had a few questions on the texture of the batter in this cake. The consistency of the yogurt and the juiciness of the berries, greatly determined the consistency of the batter. Thick, (dryer) yogurt will produce a thicker batter, in which the berries won’t sink to the bottom (top) of the cake as seen in the photos. Either way, it is a great cake–don’t worry about the thickness of the batter.

For help with common baking dilemmas, click here.  I REALIZE I PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE CLICKED HERE FIRST!!!!

Preparation time: 15 minute(s)

Cooking time: 1 hour(s)

Number of servings (yield): 12

Remember the beautiful cake shown above.......

And here is MY version....

Want to see a different angle?...

  

What, you don't think they look the same?  Okay, so I can't bake either!  But I can grill a mean steak!!!

Anybody else have baking failures?  

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