Pound Cakes...and a walk in the park

Today was Day 2 of cakes and it was REALLY tasty! We made pound cakes today, as well as Financiers, which are little individual French almond pastries that I'd heard of, but never knew what they were. Well, what they are is a little piece of heaven!!



Supposedly, the treats originated because the men working on Wall Street (the original "financiers") wanted a little something sweet that they could eat during/after their work day that wouldn't leave crumbs on their pin striped suits..........so the FINANCIER was born! We topped ours with blueberries and raspberries. Next, all of us made pound cakes and then our teams each also made a specialty pound cake (my partner Marie and I got Lemon Buttermilk). Here's a snapshot of the Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake. Doesn't it look just SO MOIST and DELICIOUS?!?!



It's got a great sugary glaze on the top that gives it a nice, subtle little crunch on the teeth. The science behind what we're doing right now is awesome. For example, the cakes we made today were made with a very specific mixing method that is designed to limit the amount of gluten development so that the cake stays moist and soft, even though it has to be mixed for a long time on the mixer in order to incorporate air. Mixing flour with liquid for a long time USUALLY tends to develop a lot of gluten. For this, though, we call it the Two-Step (or High-Ratio) Mixing Method. The basics are: 1. Blend your dry ingredients. 2. Mix in your softened butter. (This is the "money" step, since doing this actually coats the flour so that it CANNOT absorb moisture. Since moisture is essential for gluten development, the flour is then unable to really absorb much moisture when the liquids are added in step 3.) And, no surprise here, 3. Add liquids, a little at a time, scraping down in between each addition. These really need to be mixed really well here in order to incorporate air. So, what you get is a nice moist cake with a good bit of rise and, guess what - no TOUGH CHEWYNESS. I bet you all wish you could have a piece, don't you?

After class, my original plan was to go home and go for a run, then work on my marketing plan, but I decided instead to go to lunch with my buddies from class. We went to Momofuku Ssam Bar, a little Korean burrito house from Chef/Restaurateur David Chang in the East Village. Because we were having SO MUCH FUN, Gabriela and I went afterwards to get pedicures.




Ahhhh...So nice. I took a few pictures of Gramercy Park as I walked by, it looked so pretty with all of the flowers in bloom.





It's rainy and gross outside now, so I'm gonna go to the gym, take a nap, make some dinner and watch some TV (not necessarily in that order). Don't forget TO MISS ME!!! (More cakes tomorrow.)