Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Cooking By Latitude



Hi Elise,
I was visiting Mom and she had made a yummy chicken curry for dinner and I wanted to bake a cake. We got on the topic of banana cakes and I've made one before, 3 layers with cream cheese frosting. Banana cake sort of seems to go with curry. We are at the same latitude anyway. But Mom only has one cake pan. One nine inch round pan. She doesn't even have a spring form. (do you think we are adopted?) So I searched around a little, (she does have an excellent cookbook collection) and found a recipe for banana upside down cake. I like fried bananas and I love bananas foster, so it seemed like this could be a good thing. To be on the safe side, we'd serve it with whipped cream.
You probably already realized this would be nasty. You probably thought that as soon as I mentioned banana upside down cake. The whipped cream made it edible, but it was just one dimensionally sweet, no nuance, no subtly, no surprises. I even added orange zest to the batter, which made it taste like a banana upside down cake with some orange zest stirred in.
There are two things to do in a situation like this. One is to just leave it on the counter and let Mom throw it out once I've gone home. The other is to just leave it on the counter and let Mom throw it out once I've gone home and then think about what went wrong and how it could be improved. Some possible improvements
-better bananas, these were a little firm and dry
-some spices
-serve with ice cream
-serve with butterscotch sauce
-make the cake with apples
-make a coconut cream pie, still within the correct latitude

The chicken curry was really excellent. And now I know what to give Mom for her birthday. Although then I would probably get gardening tools when my birthday rolled around.
Love, Margaret

Wednesday, March 2, 2011