Lemon Tart

Daring Bakers: Gingerbread House

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I can't remember how many years I make the mistake of saying aloud, always in the company of either cynical DG or others, "I'm making a gingerbread house this year". I mean it when I say it . To me it seems something just for me, since I won't be giving it away as gifts or likely sharing it for its edible nature. Its a chance to play, have fun, put on some holiday movies or music, have the Christmas tree lit and perhaps even a glass of eggnog nearby. Whenever I think about it it sounds just perfect. After all I'm one of those people who loves Christmas. I love the ritualistic visit to the  Christmas lot looking for just the right tree and the smell of it inside. I take out a lifetime of ornaments, recalling old friends, people no longer with us, or a special ornament I made when I was a child. I love the smell of mulled apple cider and fresh grated nutmeg in a glass of magically aged eggnog and I'm a sucker for Bing and Burl and Christmas choir music. Throw in White Christmas or Holiday Inn on the DVD player and I am in HEA VEN. 

I'm also someone who easily goes overboard with the food part of things at this time of year. As usual the days leading up to Christmas Day were a whirlwind of sugar, butter and spices as I madly baked the many old and new things I like to have around and give at this time of year.  A wedding and a visit from family a few days before Christmas, however, threw my baking schedule off track this year.

A Wedding Cake

In a move designed not so much for its socio-political significance, or for its gender-defying "screw you!" to the man, but more out of thanks to her for having kept the groom alive for many years, [lemontart] was the Best Man. She also baked the yummy cake.

Someone quite special to me got married recently. The above words come from the liner notes of His and Her's wedding favour CD's. Those words sum up a special relationship my friend and I share- one created over years of support, hard times, good time and many laughs, often accompanied by Buffy and Muppets. The Groom and I have been friends for 21 years. And without getting mushy, since this is a food blog afterall, I couldn't be happier for this union. Like tomato and basil or peaches and cream, they are perfect together. Except that the Groom doesn't like tomatoes, so perhaps its not the best analogy. But heck, its my blog and I think there's fewer better pairings than tomato and basil, so I'm going with it. If anyone was to convince him to eat tomatoes(I've tried) its the Bride. When I met the Bride I knew she and I would be friends and a worthy partner of the Groom. Each time we share a table together there are no murmurs of "no I couldn't", "I'm on a diet", or "none for me". She enthusiastically eats whatever I've prepared with complete enjoyment and lack of guilt.That is one of the many things I love about her. 

The fact that I was perhaps the only Best Man in a silk, Mediterranean blue wrap dress this side of San Francisco makes me giggle with pride. After all, these labels are just that, labels, originating from another time when men and women weren't allowed to have friendships of the meaningful kind. Thankfully times have changed and the bride doesn't give me the evil eye anymore, unless I ask the groom when he's bringing his entire collection of Bat Man figurines out of storage. I was happy to wear the Best Man label with pride.  The fact that my compatriot, the Maid of Honour, was a witty lawyer named Mark just added to the charm of this truly original affair. He didn't wear the traditional sea foam green taffeta dress suggested but I'm sure the colour would have been lovely on him.

Perhaps the most traditional part of the wedding was this cake you see in the photo above. Being a proud Daring Baker, and always looking for a baking challenge, I knew as I watched this union move towards the inevitable nuptials this would be my chance to make a wedding cake and lucky for me they didn't have any other crazy baker friends. Initial conversations about the cake were a dream for me- complete artistic control was given. When prompted a little I discovered an icing preference- tasty was the word used. Once prompted a little more I was delighted to hear that a cake that tasted delicious was imperative. Fon don't became the word for the cake. There would be no bland fondant on this cake. Butter was more important than perfectly smooth corners. You can see why I approve of this gal.

And now, a day in the life of The Fon Don't Cake, if you will:

Make Your Own Vanilla Extract

I've been making my own vanilla extract for a few years now and have been thinking all year that its something that I should share with my readers, but sometimes I'll admit I like to keep some things to myself. Today is the day to share nicely. I'm not the first blogger to wax poetically about this process, but I'm also certain I won't be the last.

Since starting my batch about 3 years ago, I doubt I'll ever buy a bottle of it again. Its not to say that its better than store bought, but the site of the beans standing at attention in their ever changing brew makes me smile. I also love that in another very small way I've saved 100's of glass jars from being made and then recycled and then made again during the course of a lifetime.

So what exactly is vanilla extract anyways? Well, it's just a simple infusion. Fragrant, heady, aromatic vanilla beans (hopefully), are left to rest in a grain alcohol, which carries the essential oils and therefore flavour with it.  The good ones have a short list of ingredients. But you will come across extracts with added colourings, which along with bleached toilet paper, I don't really get, and sometimes sugar, added to enhance flavour. As long as the sugar is low on the ingredient list it's a fine addition, although you won't find it in the homemade version.  When you see corn syrup or propylene glycol or any other hard to pronounce words, I would suggest stepping away from the bottle. There's a lot of bad vanilla out there, and I'm not talking about artificial vanilla which at least is upfront about itself. If you've recently had someone bring a bottle back from Mexico, as most of us have, be a little skeptical, right after you thank them profusely for their thoughtful gift*. With weak regulations in the extract industry in  Mexico, its easy to end up with something that resembles vanilla while pretending to be the real thing. Although I must stress than not all vanilla bought in Mexico is a fake, but buyer beware.

Making your own vanilla is a fun, easy project that is a great idea for anyone with a source of good but not too pricey vanilla beans. If you live somewhere where your source for beans runs at $5 a bean, this is not the project for you. Best to to spend the money on some great quality extract, it'll be cheaper in the end. If you are lucky enough to get your hands on some discounted dried up beans, this is the perfect remedy for them. Another thing to remember when considering making your own extract is that the finished product will only be as good as the beans. Your vanilla beans should ideally still have a nice fragrant aroma and hopefully a little pliability and you should be confident that even if you get your hands on some dried up premium beans that they haven't sitting on a shelf for a year.