May 30, 2021- turn the heat back on

We have gone from air conditioning to needing the furnace in a very short time. 

Friday night it dipped into the 30's in Iowa City, causing some people to bring in their houseplants. 

Not I.

Mostly I had the excuse that I am not to lift anything weighing more than 10 pounds. My body at the moment is limiting how much time and enthusiasm I have for the garden. 

For now I will enjoy the gems in the garden. 

Since Katie and family arrived yesterday for a two week stay I now have a garden helper who can do things like dig holes and help with planting.

This week we saw the first of the Shirley poppies. How is this for a first impression?

The second of the group to bloom was this remarkable flower.

It has the color of Beauty of Livermore, but is a more orderly presentation.

It has been a week for the Siberian Iris

Julia's recipe

Orange Cake

This is a festive cake for a festive occasion, with orange zest and finely chopped walnuts and golden raisins. And with orange frosting too. The recipe, as one might expect, is from Betty Crocker so it is both festive and achievable by the ordinary human. The cake can be baked as a 3 layer cake in 8" round pans which would be impressive. I made it in a 9" x 13" oblong pan, which was not so impressive but easier to eat out of hand. 

The cake ingredients: 

2-3/4 cake flour (or 2-1/2 all purpose flour if you don't have cake flour); 

1-1/2 cups sugar;

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda;

1/4 cup table salt;

1-1/2 cups of buttermilk (or sour milk using lemon juice - see below);

1/2 cup soft butter;

1/4 cup shortening;

3 eggs;

1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla;

1 cup golden raisins;

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts;

1 tablespoon (or more) orange zest - 1 to 2 oranges depending on size.

Frosting ingredients: 1/3 cup softened butter; 3 cups powdered sugar; 4 tablespoons orange juice concentrate; 2-3 teaspoons orange zest. 

I started by creaming (that is beating the daylights out of) the butter and shortening, adding the sugar when the butter was soft.  I have a stand mixer (a gift from an old friend some years ago) and so I used it. 

Then I added the salt, baking soda and vanilla. I did not have buttermilk so I made sour milk by putting 2 tablespoons of lemon juice in a 2-cup measure and then filling the measuring cup up to the 1-1/2 cup line. 

I added the flour and sour milk, one third of the flour then one third of the sour milk, mixing after each addition. 

Lastly, I zested the orange (I needed 2 between the cake and the frosting) and ground the nuts. Then I mixed in the zest, walnuts and raisins. I am usually opposed to raisins in baked goods, but I make an exception here. The recipe said to chop the raisins. This is ridiculous. Don't bother. 

Here is the mixing bowl with everything in it (lastly the nuts). I beat the whole batter about 1-2 minutes on medium high so the batter would get fluffy.

Oddly enough this is a picture of nut grinding. I have an old hand-grinder and I like it because it is easy to clean and easy to control. No risk of turning the nuts into nut butter. 

I sprayed the pan, dumped the batter in and smoothed it with a spatula. I baked the cake in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes.

I started checking at 40 minutes by sticking a bamboo skewer in the middle. If the skewer is goopy, bake for another 5 minutes and check again.

The cake has to be completely cooled before it can be frosted. While it cooled, I made the frosting. 

The frosting made in a mixer. I washed the stand mixer and used it. I creamed the butter, and I added about half of the powdered sugar. Then I added some of the orange juice concentrate and the orange zest and then the rest of the powdered sugar and enough of the orange concentrate to make the frosting soft but not too soft. In other words, spreadable. 

Here's the cake. The recipe suggested using orange liqueur (which I didn't have) or orange juice. I thought concentrate straight from the can would be more intensely orange-y and it was. 

Nice cake, nice frosting. 

Odds and Ends

With Katie and family's arrival all of a sudden we have many more things on the floor and are eating dinner at 5:15.

Be safe.

Philip