Treacle Tart! (Harry Potter's Favourite!)

According to facebook, May 2nd was [somewhat unofficially] Wizarding Independence Day - the day Harry defeated Voldemort! I happen to be a manic Harry Potter fan (I listen to legitimate Harry Potter bands - the genre is called wizard rock*) and so I decided I had to bake something for this ;)

Treacle tart! It's interesting and no one here has ever had it before. Most importantly though, it's Harry's favourite dessert :)

I was at a total loss on where to find a recipe for this. I eventally chose this one. No idea how "authentic" it is, but I don't think that matters because this is one of the greatest things I've ever tasted.

Jo Rowling made a good choice for Harry.

This dessert presented a challenge. Golden syrup. What on earth is golden syrup? Apparently it's some sort of byproduct made when sugar is refined - similar to molasses, but sweeter. I ordered a can of it from Amazon; it was (thankfully) relatively inexpensive. And it came in time :)

The golden syrup and butter

The recipe itself was pretty simple. Nothing difficult. And! I made fresh whipped cream for the first time. It was so delicious~ :D Recipe from allrecipes.

A piece of treacle tart with earl grey tea in my favorite tea cup

*Wizard rock: music about Harry Potter! The bands are actually very good, most of them. A lot of them are really talented musicians. My favorite bands are The Remus Lupins, The Parselmouths, The Mudbloods, The Moaning Myrtles, The Whomping Willows, The Butterbeer Experience, Misuse of Muggle Artificats Office, Ministry of Magic, ... etc :)

www.wizrocklopedia.com

HAPPY WIZARDING INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

At my school, we have a class period between second and third periods (deemed “power period”) that is used for remedial and enrichment classes. My power period is Science Olympiad – we prepare for science competitions in different events. And people bringing in baked goods stirs up quite a lot of excitement. Thanks to a dear friend who is quite vocal about his opinions, everyone knows that I bake, and that I was bringing something in for St. Patrick's Day today.

I'm always nervous to take baked goods to school - the ownership of food often attracts, for lack of a better word, moochers.

I climb out of my car, throw my backpack over my shoulder, and gingerly pick up the sweets. Making my way across the overcast parking lot, I glance around in paranoia, clutching my tupperware box of treasure. I make it through first period without event. Then, as I walk to second period, panic. My box! It's missing - what happened to it? I rush back up the hall. My friend David sees me and attempts to give me a hug; I side-step him, apologize, and dash around a group pf people blocking the way. When I get to the classroom, my teacher has left. The second period class is congregated outside the door. I look around in distress, and decide to wait. Still no sign of the teacher. The bell rings; I'm late. I wait around for another minute or so before asking one of my friends in the next class to pick up the box and GUARD IT WITH HIS LIFE. When I get to power period, I see my dear friend over by a lab table, cradling the box under his arm. Sighing in relief, I thank him profusely and place the opened container on the front lab table. People take notice, and within five minutes, everything is devoured. I'm thanked, hugged, and even picked up. I think everyone liked them.

CAKE BALLS! I know I make these too often, but as you can see, no one seems to mind :P

I wasn't crazy about the combination I used. White cake (with green food coloring) and cream cheese frosting. I'm not sure why I thought cream cheese frosting would be a good addition; it totally overpowered the white cake. No one mentioned anything but "yum," though, so I'm led to believe I did okay.


And oh goodness, did I mess up making the cake. I made the white cake batter as usual, poured it into the pan, and began baking it. About 10 minutes in, I checked on it. Wait, why wasn't it green?! The brand new, unopened bottle of green food coloring stared tauntingly at me. Oh dear. I threw open the oven door, dropped the pan on the stove, and quickly mixed the coloring into the steaming, (thankfully still liquid!) batter. Whew.

Baking certainly is a learning process ;P

Hope your St. Patrick's Day was great :)

Anyone for Pi?

As many of you probably know, March 14^th was Pi Day! It was only right to bake a pie ;) I decided to try to make “Crack pie,” which I’ve heard a lot about. It’s made by the Momofuku bakery in New York, which I hope to visit someday, and it’s supposed to be… well, like crack cocaine – addicting as anything. While I did find it notably good (sort of like a pecan pie, without any nuts) I wouldn’t necessarily call it addicting. That’s just my version though – if I could try the one made by Momofuku, I’d be happy to change my mind ;)

I'll admit, I threw this together a bit haphazardly. The recipe was supposed to make two pies, but despite the deliciousness of pie, I think it's unlikely I could eat two. My circumference would pay for it. So I reduced it by half and didn't check my fractions. They seemed about right, though I did forget to add powdered sugar for decoration.

Delicious, ugly pie

And! because I like being a math nerd...

From memory: 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105

Hope your Pi Day was... er... well-rounded! ;D

(In case you missed it, recipe here)