Vintage Cakes: Watergate Cake with Impeachment Frosting

This is a white cake flavored with pistachio pudding and a pistachio marscapone frosting.  Before serving, caramel coated pistachios will be scattered across the top.

In true Watergate fashion, the layers slid while it was in the cake holder and I had to straighten it out when I unveiled it.  "A disaster, just like Watergate!" my friend Laurie exclaimed.  

In the Vintage Cakes book, the author revamps old recipes of cakes from years gone by.  She found the Watergate cake recipe as part of a marketing scheme to sell more Jello Pistachio Pudding Mix.  I probably should say that the book has you make the pistachio pudding, not buy Jello Pudding Mix.  I don't even know if you can get pistachio pudding mix anymore.  It sounds like old people food.

I chose this cake because I was born in the Watergate year of 1974 and figured I would not have much call for a pistachio-flavored cake.  Sadly, I did not get to taste this cake because a coworker threw away the bit I was planning on eating the next day.  I did hear it was quite good.

Vintage Cakes: Blackout Cake

Birthday cake #1.  This is a dark chocolate cake with a chocolate pudding frosting and chocolate cookie crumb coating.  It was intense.  And very, very rich.  I had trouble finishing my very small piece.

Parchment Paper Sheets are winner!

I've been buying rolls of parchment, but in restocking my supply I came across these cookie sheet-sized papers and decided to give them a try.  The result?  I love them.  They don't roll like the parchment paper does, which eliminates one of those annoying struggles that cause me to not breathe.

Last of the items needed for birthday cakes.

It seems birthday cake ingredients and accessories require a lot of dairy.

Vintage Cakes: Maple Pecan Chiffon Cake with Brown Butter Icing

I like chiffon cakes because you aren't left with the massive amount of yolks that an angel food cake saddles you with.  This was a quite delicious cake and the brown butter icing was more delicious than it had any right to be.

The cake did slide out of the pan while cooling, which made me very happy I had set up a triple cooling rack structure rather than going with the traditional pop-bottle-through-the-neck format.

Perfection: Peanut Butter Pie

Man, oh man, was this delicious.  How can you go wrong with a graham cracker crust, a filling made of whipped cream, sugar and peanut butter as well as a chocolate and cream topping.  It turned out to be a good looking confection, too.

Fifth of five in the 5k series.

I have completed my last in the ORRC 5k series.  This one was the Blue Lake run and I recieved a medal as well as a 30th anniversary t-shirt and a hot dog.  Plus I won the 5k series raffle which was a Cliff Bar (consumed by Matt) and a reflective band for my ankle.  It was pretty awesome.

I finished in 38:42, which wasn't bad considering I've not been running in the mornings.

Matt was a most excellent athletic supporter.  He took this picture, among other things.