Fiber Fool

This weekend I did a trial run of a red velvet cake. See, my friends sometimes have an odd sense of humor and you combine that with a love of themed parties and you end up with an evil party on 06-06-06. I thought a red velvet cake would be fun since it is red, but I had never made one before. I decided to use the chocolate one from Martha Stewart. It wasn’t hard until I came to the baking part.

As you can see, the cakes fell. And they fell hard. The center of them? Probably 1/4 inch thick if I’m lucky. There were many adjustments made so I do not know what the real cause of the fall was. Firstly, we had to use 7-in pans rather than the 8 that were called for as we only had one 8-in. That meant that not only were the layers a bit thicker but the baking time was questionable and that meant towards the end of the bake time I was opening and closing the oven every 5 minutes or so, not a great thing for the sturdiest of cakes. Secondly, this recipe did not have specific adjustments for altitude so I followed those set out by DH’s baking bible. But, this involved changing the amounts on many different ingredients - cutting back liquid (I split it between the water and the buttermilk), cutting back baking powder, increase oven temp by 25 degrees, etc. I also used Wilton’s paste food coloring rather than the bottles of liquid so your redness may vary.

We may give it another try this weekend, this time with the proper sized pans. I’m not sure what to do about the adjustments for altitude though. I don’t know if I will go ahead and give them a try one more time now that I’ll have a closer idea of the bake time, or if I’ll seek out another opinion on the adjustments for 5,000 ft.

It tasted really good anyway. The crumb was great, the chocolate was pretty subtle, but that allowed the cake to be really nice and red. The cream cheese frosting was light and fluffy and just the right amount of sweet. We served to some for fika this weekend (along with rugelach that DH made for the first time and had his own share of trouble with). They aren’t bakers (well, I’m not really either, which I was reminded off with this experience) but love baked things so they don’t mind things that don’t look as pretty as they should.

If you have a difinitive set of altitue adjustments for elevations around 5,000 ft I’m open to suggestions!

Well, I’m off now. I need to apologize in advance for not getting back to comments you all made yesterday. I will be out of the house the entire day as water aerobics is followed immediately by the baby shower which is followed by voice lessons (in fact, I may have to duck out of the shower early), etc. etc. I haven’t had such a crazy busy day in a loooong time. I’ll try get back to everyone this evening as well as make my usual blog rounds. I’ve been behind with the push to get the baby shower items completed and haven’t been commenting much, but I have been reading my entire blogroll. Oh, and Chris, I don’t know what it is but Blogger does not want me to comment on your blog, I’ve tried a few times in the past week without success… *sigh*

I was so surprised when my doorbell rang yesterday afternoon around 2:30pm. I wasn’t expecting anyone. My Dye-O-Rama swap buddy had commented last week that my package would be on its way, but I wasn’t expecting it on Monday! But sure enough, it was our lovely postmistress with a box that wouldn’t fit in our little locked mail box. When I opened the box, on top was an envelope and some bright blue tissue.

She had already won me over in a big way with the awesome card. I love the bold graphic designs and the colors on this one are great. I was also excited because the card had said she too was making her first jump into acid dyes and that she decided to follow my lead and dye Dale Baby Ull, a wonderfully soft superwash wool. When I removed the tissue I saw the yarn first. I pulled it out and danced around the kitchen with it, LOL! The colors were better than I could have ever imagined. I have so many long sleeve, short sleeve, and tank tops in those shades of green, I could live only in these socks once I get them knit, LOL! It was great. But, what was even cooler were the labels she put on them… Santa Lucia Yarn! Swedish! Then when I wrote her yesterday to let her know it arrived and tell her how happy I was she told me that is an old family photograph. That makes it even more special! When I finally got done dancing around the kitchen I dug a little deeper in the box as it seemed there was something else in there. Sure enough - there was the Big Girl Knits mug! She’s been reading my blog very closely!

Here is a closer look at the colors of the yarn. They look pretty accurate here on my computer. I suppose I should lift the suspence and tell you all who the very best Dye-O-Rama buddy is so if there is another round you can request her… It was Kirsten of Through The Loops!

Kirsten, this package was better than I could have even come up with for myself! In fact, I cast on for a pair of socks last night at SnB with it. I’m doing a picot edge and slip stitch rib on them. There will be further photos of it in progress probably later this week.

I was telling Kirsten I was going to have to come up with another blog post for this week because I was going to put out a call for you all to suggest mugs that say “Kristi” to you. You see, since I got the coffee maker from DH for Valentine’s Day I have been wanting a mug to call my own. Not one that goes with our dishes or one that DH picked out long before he met me. Now I have one and I love it!

I’m of the firm belief that no one can have too many mugs, so if you know of or even run across one at anytime that makes you think of me, send me a URL please, okay? Obviously I love green or purple. I like unusual color combinations. I like humor, but I don’t often drink my coffee very first thing in the morning so jokes about being asleep or fresh out of bed are probably not my thing. I adore geometric patterns and designs. I’m not a big floral print sort of person, though if it is bold and graphic I’d probably like it.

Thanks once again, Kirsten! Now to go make a pot of coffee and enjoy it in my mug…

Just a few things I’ve run across recently in blogland that have piqued my interest etc…

There of course has been a huge surge in using freezer paper for stencils to apply designs on t-shirts, bags, pants, etc. In fact, it has been so big there is a Flickr group dedicated solely to sharing projects that have used freezer paper stencils. There is some really cool stuff in there, but I have to say my favorite is from M&C - a Barrel of Monkey Tee! Yes, I do know this craft diva in real life so you could probably accuse me of being biased, but there is just something about me and my monkies and the whole red and green color combo makes it even better!

Of course, you don’t have to have read this new blog for very long to know that I’m getting in touch with my Scandanavian roots, so when I was greeted this morning with a notice that the 200SOX blog was updated and I came across these gorgeous socks that Helene made I couldn’t help but be in awe (and inspired) and now lusting after the book she spoke of.

Have you seen Theresa and Julie using Weavettes? I love what Theresa did with her square! Don’t know what a Weavette is? Check out their web site! For other sizes and shapes check out Hazel Rose Looms (thank you for the tip Amanda)!

There is also from a while ago the great flip-flop socks that Alison recieved. I think they are adorable. I recall seeing some last year. I really don’t wear flip-flops much but I love those socks. And, thanks to Whip-Up for the link there is a PDF pattern in English available! Plus, it is probably a great way to use of yarn after making shorty socks!
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I just finished reading The Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg (translated by Gustav Lannestock). I actually read an old hardback library copy I got about a year ago. Along my recent theme of Swedish cooking this is the story of a family’s emigration from Sweden to American in the middle nineteenth century.

I am unsure why, but I was expecting the book to be more about their settling in America. Instead, over half of the book was dedicated to the time leading up to their departure. Ultimately, I think that was done quite well. It gave me a sense of why they made the decision they did and also gave me a better feel for the political situation in Sweden at the time. It also gave me a real sense of what the crossing of the Atlantic was like. There are three more books to this series (which was originally planned as a trilogy) so there is plenty of time to devote to their settling and adjusting to this country.

I did find the names in the book quite interesting as you got to see the evolution of the Swedish and other Scandanavian names which are so prevalent in Minnesota - Nielson, Johnson etc. It was just a nice reminder of the roots of those names.

When I first bought the book I had started to read it and then set it aside. It is not a real page turner, so I suspect I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind to read it last year. It isn’t one I would universally recommend. I suspect one needs an interest in Swedish culture and the emigrant story to enjoy this and the other books in the series.

Now I’m on to Anne of Green Gables. Last year I had thought the summer would be one of revisiting all my children and young adult classic reads - Little House on the Prairie, Anne of Green Gables, if time permitted The Secret Garden and A Little Princess, but somehow the summer flew by and I didn’t read any of them. So, I’m going to give at least some of them a try this summer. I might also throw in some newer books aimed towards that age group as well such as the His Dark Materials series. We’ll see how far I get though…

I’m also taking part in a religious text reading group. We’re a group of mixed religious backgrounds and current beliefs and we are starting with the Old Testament, then The Book of Mormon, followed by the New Testament and depending on how much steam we have left after 26 or so weeks we might delve into other religious texts as well (perhaps after a bit of a break). But, I think that heavy reading will be broken up quite nicely with some easy child and young adult reading. Especially since they have set a pace of roughly 100 pages per week.

For those who are wondering, the numbers in the subject are (fiction books read, non-fiction books read, total books read so far this year). I’ve been terribly slow with reading this year, I’m not sure why.

This week I focused on Project Spectrum foods, which this time of year isn’t too difficult. Aside from the asparagus, rhubarb, edamame, and wasabi peas, we also ate a ton of spinach and salad greens this week, though they were mixed with too many other things to really say “green” when photographed. I was impressed with the variety of greens amongst our green food though. It was quite fun!

Up next week - favorite things bought and made!

Tuesday I decided to break out the old dye pot again and start playing around. I was going to use my real dyes I picked up a week or so ago (violet, purple, chartreuse, and gold ochre Jacquard Acid Dyes) but we didn’t have appropriately sized jars for mixing up the dye stock. So I decided to use the sale-priced Kool-Aid. I haven’t really explored that much instead I usually go for the Wilton’s.

It has also been getting rather warm around here and because we lack big shade tress our house gets *really* hot by late afternoon so I try to cool it down as much as possible and keep it as cool as possible as long as I can. So, I didn’t really care to have a big stock pot simmering away on the stove all day. Since we are at an elevation of nearly 5000 ft I decided to solar dye. I took an old box and covered it with aluminum foil to act as a reflector and I went outside to set it up. However, it was a bit breezy and I couldn’t keep the reflector in place. Then inspiration struck.

I drive a black hatchback. It’s 13 years old so if for some reason something would spill, I wouldn’t cry about it. When it is parked, the rear window is aimed in a southwest direction. Perfect! I removed the rear shelf, put the reflector in as well as the dye pot and a zip-loc with some other dye and yarn in it and shut the trunk. It cooked very well out there. In fact, I had to use pot holders to carry the dye pot back into the house. I didn’t get a temperature reading as the four immersion temperature probes in the house get used for cheesemaking and I wouldn’t have a driveway to park my hatchback in any longer if I used one for measuring the temperature of dye liquid.

I suspect it worked well enough that if I pre-heated the pot of water I could probably still solar dye in the car in colder months just from the solar gain in combination with the black of my car. Now, my car has a slight fruity smell to it right now, but I don’t mind that. It is pretty slight and I’m not sure anyone else would even pick up on it unless they knew I dyed with Kool-Aid in my trunk.

Want to see the final results? As usual, click the thumbnail to view the larger version…

I was planning on sending the violet-y one to my dye-o-rama pal as she said her favorite color was purple. Purple is one of my favorites as well and I like it, but I’m a bit concerned that it might not be purple enough. In real life it can almost look a bit like a deep mauve. It leans pretty heavily towards the reds. I’m contemplating over-dyeing it with the Jacquard Acid Dyes Violet or maybe Purple, or perhaps some of each… What do you think?