Cycles

Cycles are integral systems of how our world works. To name a few, First Nations communities have a medicine wheel and there are plenty of weather cycles we can refer to. Naturally you’d think it’s a good thing. It’s a routine and it probably, unknowingly keeps us grounded. But what happens when you’re caught in a poverty cycle or the vicious cycle of depression? Not all cycles are positive. While I’m fortunate to not be in either, there is one particular cycle I’m writing about today.

The menstrual cycle as it relates to conceiving.
We keep trying, and it keeps coming.

To the couples out there who are trying to conceive but are not yet successful, I applaud you.
Your patience, your optimism, your hopefulness and your resilience.

But perhaps you’re like me.
You’re trying, and it keeps coming back.
You’re mad, confused, impatient and frustrated at this seemingly self-inflicted pain.
Allowing yourself to be hopeful and to feel sad.

Perhaps the greatest lesson here is the gift of patience, the practice of healthy optimism and the ability to appreciate and show gratitude despite tough times. This 6-going-on7-month process is teaching me to give myself permission to feel all my feelings-emotions, to share them unapologetically and to communicate clearly in my relationship.

But most of all, it’s knowing that at the end of the day, A is there and we’re together despite whatever happens. Perhaps we’re building our foundation…

I’m Trusting the Process

I’m learning that I write-type whenever I have strong feelings that I cannot comprehend. The last time I wrote a blogpost was when I turned thirty! Thirty! The day of my thirtieth birthday was marked with anxiousness, a large pinch of fear and heaping spoonful of worry. In my post, I rambled a bit about all these things and of course created a new blog… It’s been almost five months since that day and I have yet to write another post. In a way, I guess I should feel relieved as it’s been…well almost normal (besides adjusting to life in a pandemic). Side note, I can’t even remember my new blog…hence why I’m taking over The Marbled Cake Stand. It will now be a personal blog with intermittent food-recipe posts. The later more common in the summer where there’s always an abundance in free time and hobby-ing.

Bringing it back to today’s post, while it’s not my story to share, I heard some unexpected and sad news today. My Master’s advisor would recommend, “story-ing” it in order to work through my thinking and feelings. It’s a part of the process and with trust, it’ll eventually make sense. It can be neatly summarized with the common saying, “everything happens for a reason.” A recent book I read, Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown encourages us to “feel the feelings.” Only when we recognize and honour these feelings do we work through them and recover. I love it.

So here I am, feeling sad and heartbroken for my friend. Wishing with all my might that I could erase the pain, shock, anger they must be feeling. Here is to trusting that time heals and when you’re ready, hope will be waiting.

As your friend, I love you and am here for you whenever you’re ready to chat, hug, or just sit together in silence.

Gingerbread Coffee Toffee Cake

Every December I indulge myself in a plethora of different gingerbread flavoured sweets. It’s really the quintessential Christmas flavour! When I dabbled in the world of cakes, I came across Tessa Huff’s cake book, “Layered.” This gingerbread coffee toffee cake was baked with Tessa’s flavour combination but adapted for my chiffon cake. I also used a coffee whipped cream filling to match the cake’s lightness.

All from scratch – card design, assembly and cake bake and decorating!

This was a particularly fun cake to make since it was for my mother-in-law’s birthday and my partner helped with the decorating! 🙂 It was a half-day activity as I designed her card and he assembled it. What a treat it was to create something together!

Sliced view of cake

HBD card with bear popping out of the cake!

Vanilla Marshmallows

As you know, I’m an advocate of desserts that are light, delicate yet flavourful so that you can enjoy several treats rather than one. Who wouldn’t want three slices of cake or ten marshmallows?

Homemade marshmallows have been on my radar for awhile now. While I enjoy the Kraft brand marshmallows, I find them too sweet, dense and chewy. So when a friend shared her homemade marshmallows with me, I fell in love and had to try making some! Homemade marshmallows are so airy, soft, fluffy and heavenly! The best part is that there are so many flavour combinations waiting to be created! Hellooo, gourmet marshmallows!

And no, I haven’t forgotten cake, everything is made for a reason… I want to make a s’mores cake with homemade marshmallow minis as a filling!

Until next time,

The Marbled Cake Stand

 

Base Layer: Vanilla Sponge Cake

I found it! A base recipe for all my future cake flavours! My science-self would call this a control recipe. It took about three weeks for the tests but this is it! My criteria for cake was 1. light, 2. fluffy and 3. soft (almost pillow like). With this in mind, I ruled out butter cakes (normally what a layer cake is made of) and tested out both chiffon and sponge cakes. I think this is a combination of both…

Anyways, this recipe makes one, two-layer, 6″ cake and works for both vanilla and chocolate cakes!

Here’s a picture of the base cake: this is a picture of an earlier bake…the later bakes were consumed before I remembered to take pictures! OOPS!

So I was thinking…now that I have a base recipe, that I’m happy with, how do I make it even better? Some questions and variables I’m considering..

• Can I replace milk with sour cream to make it more moist and soft? If so, will I need to add in baking soda?      (I’m worried sour cream will make the cake too dense…)
• What would happen if I add the dry ingredients into the yolk mixture instead of into the meringue?      (Am I deflating my meringue right now?)
• Will beating the egg yolks and sugar until light and frothy help the cake rise more?

Until next time!

The obsessive hobbyist 🙂

6″ cakes

New phase alert – 6″ cakes!

I’m not usually a cake fan…in fact, here are some of my opinions of cake:

• I think frosting/icing is too sweet
• Cakes should be soft, pillow-like and have a hint of surprise
• 6″ cakes are the most adorable ones out there (followed by 4″ cakes, then 8″ cakes)

Having said that, I’ve never really baked cakes. But I love the idea of limitless flavour combinations and possibilities. My goal with these cakes is to be able to create a cake based on the taste preference of my family and friends.  Unique cakes for each person.

As author Shaun McNiff says, to become creative in a field requires hours of preparation and foundation building. Once the foundation is laid, novel and interesting ideas will break through. In other words, “trust in the process.”

In thinking about the foundation, classic flavours of vanilla and chocolate come to mind. And since my partner loves vanilla, it should be a good place to start. Though…to be honest, vanilla has never been something I’ve loved on its own…will have to pair it with something fun.

Until next time,

The obsessive hobbyist

The birth of “The Marbled Cake Stand”

Here it is, the momentous moment when I clicked the sign up  button and created The Marbled Cake Stand (TMCS). What’s TMCS you ask? It’s going to be a living document of my kitchen adventures. I, and probably my friends and family, would describe myself as an “obsessive hobbyist.” More specifically, someone who needs to learn and know everything about a particular hobby.

This all started with macarons last winter (2017). I haven’t had much baking experience and have always loved challenges. But what really intrigued me about macarons and the art of baking is that it’s science! My inner scientist is always dancing ecstatically whenever there’s an opportunity to learn the “how” and then conduct the “trials.”

From macarons, to mousse, then to bread, followed by pasta and now cake. A plethora of pictures were taken throughout these phases and sadly, my phone was running out of storage. Hence, the creation of a blog as a documenting tool (thanks, WordPress!).

I’ve debated (for a few minutes) whether to post a picture of my marbled cake stand. The conversation in my head went something like this, “don’t post it yet, the photo isn’t edited” “you need to post a picture, “you’re not even sure if it’s marbled…you just used it cause it was the closest thing you had a word for” “you can’t call it TMCS without a picture.” Since this isn’t Instagram, it doesn’t have to be perfect!

So here it is! My marbled cake stand, complete with the tag and sticker from Winners (obviously where I picked it up from today).

Until next time!

The Obsessive Hobbyist