Lessons in Baking: Sponge Cake

I got it in my head to re-read Anne of Green Gables (and I can't wait until I can introduce Sophie to this classic, and one of these days I'll make it to Prince Edward Island...) and man they ate a lot of cake at the turn of the century. (Also, fruit preserves which somehow I'm now feeling like I want to attempt) so I got it into my head to try making a sponge cake.

Well, a sort of a sponge cake, I should say.

As of January 2nd this year, AJ and I are on health journeys, so I thought I'd try out a sugar-free sponge cake, by replacing the sugar with applesauce. I've eaten cakes like this before and even though you may notice the difference, it's negligible and still delicious. But, maybe it affected my sponge cake.

One thing I learned is that the secret sauce of a sponge cake appears to be the whisking of the egg whites. That. Took. Forever. So long, I'm questioning if I actually did it right.

I may have messed up when I combined the ingredients with the egg whites. The recipe called for folding them in together, but when I poured them into the cake pans, there was such an obvious difference, I poured them back into the bowl and stirred them together with a whisk, which really muddled them together and I'm wondering if that didn't take away some of the sponginess.

They came out looking decent, although I sorta wish I had one deeper cake pan rather than the two shallow ones, and when I cut it, it looked kindaaaaa spongey.

Overall, it wasn't a total waste, but it was a bit of a fail. The interior was a bit damp and there wasn't too much flavor, it could have benefitted from either some actual sugar or maybe even more flavoring. If the texture was fine, eating it with more flavorful sides, like berries and cream or maple syrup would've made it more tolerable.

We made it through one of the cakes and AJ took the other to his lucky (or unlucky) coworkers.

Looking forward to trying again soon!

The Friday Girl

Last week, our family got to experience the joy of not just a wedding, but seeing Sophie experience a wedding for the first time herself too. She didn't know what a wedding was and even though I pointed out our cousins walking down the aisle and then the bride, the very beautiful girl in the white dress, she just sorta sat there confused, thinking we were just sitting on the chairs until the time ran out, although she did point out the squirrel she saw in front of us. But I'm guessing that it was me whispering "the bride, the beautiful girl in white" or yelling it over music, what she heard was Friday? And she kept referring to the bride as "The Friday Girl" and I thought that was so cute (and pretty appropriate considering it was a Friday wedding!)

Aria was immediately taken with Sophie and Sophie, being shy and timid at first, wouldn't even look at her and would bury into me. But by the time the cocktail hour came and Aria was out taking pictures, Sophie was begging to know where Aria was and soon after that, Lily too.

We had such a good time and Sophie, the most of all! For our shy she can be, I couldn't believe how well she took to the dance floor, running back and forth, always with Aria or Lily, chasing the lasers, literally rolling on the floor, joining hands with other kids she didn't know and spinning endlessly, it was so much fun. And AJ and I got Summer to nap and got to hang with the family and the infamous Dalton LOL.

We had to leave sooner than I wanted to because the music was just a bit too much for Summer, and Sophie cried the whole way home because she didn't want to leave, but I felt so lucky we got to be there that day and take part in the celebration.

♥

Palm Springs

Well hello on a rainy Monday. We're back from Palm Springs, from mine and Sophie's and Summer's first experience at a golf tournament. AJ took us out to the American Express Pro Am along with Sophie's godparents and their girl (one of Sophie's best friends Bryce), and I had a lot of anxiety about a 3 year old at a golf tournament where we need to be supremely quiet at times, but the girls did amazing.

I was a little sad that my favorite golfer (Kisner) was in the tournament but not at the Stadium course that day, but I still got to see a lot of great players, like Ricky Fowler, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler, Tony Finau, Patrick Cantlay, and upcomer Akshay Bhatia.

Chris's dad lived across the street from the course and we got to be there and have the girls take a nap there and have dinner there before we went to the evening concert where Train was playing. Sophie and I had so much fun dancing on the grass during the music!

On Sunday, AJ and Chris went and did a round at a private course, courtesy of Chris's dad, and Megan and I took the girls to the Living Desert. The way that Bryce and Sophie can interact and play now is so cute. Sophie pretty much worships the ground Bryce walks on and wants to do everything she does (climb on the same things, jump off the same things), and pretty much follows her lead, but is also old enough to add her own ideas and fun too. (Watching them play hide and seek endlessly throughout the condo in the morning was adorable too by the way - Sophie is incapable of being quiet and usually shouts "I'm in here!" from wherever she is as soon as she hears you coming LOL).

We've done the Living Desert before but I never made it to the Australia habitat before - like the Nashville Zoo, you get to be "in" with the kangaroos (okay, here they're wallabies), but you have to stay on the concrete path, whereas in Nashville you get to wander around everywhere with them, pet them, let them come up to you, feed them, etc. Still, A for effort.

Notice her outfit? Sophie has a 
matching one - courtesy of their dad LOL

We came home late Sunday night, which was so nice, and I had to marvel at the state of our supplies for simply 3 days now that we have two kids... if this was just me and AJ it would be just 2 duffel bags!

And we had to make a stop by this landmark to keep my tradition with Sophie going...

January 2024

December 2021

August 2020

Have a great week everyone!

My Girls in January

Well hi there. I am back to work (and wow am I back to work - they had clearly just been waiting for me to return to drop a bunch of stuff on my desk) and we are getting through this chilly winter.

Summer started daycare with Sophie this month, and here was a photo I received of her there on her first day:

Sophie loves having Summer there and loves to remind me at pick-up that we need to bring Summer home with us too.

And at home, Sophie is endlessly entertaining as she comes up with new phrases and dances and wild ideas, like telling us she's her friend Wesley and making us call her Wesley all evening, or making us throw cat toys for her when she is a cat to go catch.

We got to have a zoo day with Gangy

And Summer has been meeting milestones - like rolling over

and turning 5 months old on the 12th.

and then of course, our various instances of sleep.

And who could forget that Orange Monster Kiwi, always up to no good?

We're in Palm Springs this weekend for the PGA Tour, so maybe I'll have some fun stories from this weekend in a bit.

Hope everyone is doing well and staying warm!