Get better sleep, and make more cake.
I am very sleepy this afternoon (which is why this is getting sent so late). I haven't been sleeping well this week and I'm not sure why (I am not really a person who believes in astrology or the planets and moons making a difference for things yet I just googled "full moon" to see if maybe it's the moon's fault? It's not.). I always want to be sleeping better, and a few months ago I bought this Lush Sleepy lotion because I read some blog post about how the person who bought it slept like a baby after trying it. I don't really think it makes a measurable difference on my sleep (though I haven't used it at night for a few days, hmmm) but this lotion smells great and is super moisturizing, and I've bought another bigger container of it since. So if you like things that smell like lavender and a little vanilla, you'll like the smell of this, so duck in to your closest Lush and try it. They also have a bath melt thing in this same fragrance that's fantastic, (and you can cut off a sliver of it and use it in your bath to make it last longer, just like you can cut up the bath bombs and use them in pieces like I always do).
Again this week I accidentally read a book that's Olympics related! I read Still Life, the first Louise Penny Inspector Gamache book last year and liked it a lot, and this week I was in the mood for a good mystery and picked up the second one, A Fatal Grace, and I liked that one a lot too. And the murder happens during a curling match! They're set in Quebec, and there's lots of eating pastries and drinking hot beverages inside while it's cold outside, and some tramping through snow, and lots of interpersonal drama, and I recommend both books a lot.
Last Friday night when I got home I dropped everything on the floor and went straight to the kitchen to bake a cake. I recommend that Friday night activity a lot. It was not a cake for anyone, or for anything, it was just because it had been a hard week and I wanted cake. I made Nigella's Dense Chocolate Loaf cake, which I recommend a lot, and posted the recipe for in a newsletter a few weeks ago. Also, when I looked up the recipe for that on a blog, the comments that suggested changes to the recipe filled me with fury; those people are idiots, it's a perfect recipe (though, okay, a pinch of salt doesn't hurt). Here's another good last minute kind of cake (from Dorie Greenspan, one of my faves) to make for yourself or people you like a lot.
Rum Drenched Vanilla Cakes
Dorie has you make these as two loaf cakes, but I've both cut the recipe in half (it cuts in half very evenly!) and done it in one bundt pan with good results. I tinkered with this recipe a little, but not a ton.
For the cake or cakes:
2 sticks or 16 tablespoons melted and cooled butter*
2 and 2/3 cups all purpose flour
2 and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
6 eggs
2 and 1/3 cups sugar
1 and 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 and 1/2 tablespoons dark rum
* Okay seriously Dorie calls for 15 tablespoons of melted butter, that's two sticks minus one tablespoon, just melt the two damn sticks of butter for the love of god and use a little bit of it to grease the pan.
For the syrup:
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup dark rum
Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour your loaf pans or your bundt pan (if it's a bundt, butter and flour it VERY well). Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together.
Mix together the eggs and sugar. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then whisk in the cream, followed by the rum. Gently stir in the dry ingredients in 3 additions; then fold in the melted butter in 3 additions. Pour the batter into your pan or pans smooth the top with a rubber spatula, or shake the pan gently a few times so that the batter settles. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
While the cake is in the oven, make the syrup. Put the water and sugar together in a saucepan, and put the pan over medium heat until the sugar melts, then bring it to a boil. When it's boiling, remove it from the heat and stir in the rum, and let cool.
When the cake is done, let it cool for about five to ten minutes and then flip it out of the pan onto a rack set over a baking sheet (or something to catch the drips). Poke holes all over the cake, and brush all over with the syrup (do this in batches so the cake can soak it all up). Leave the cake to cool to room temperature.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Jasmine
Find me elsewhere! Facebook Twitter Instagram
Buy my book, THE WEDDING DATE