Baumkuchen

My cake turned out fantastic! I have to refrigerate it now and ice it tomorrow and then I'll have some pics. This is a cake I came across when I lived in Japan and it was so delicious I started craving it last year and had to find out more about it. Since it is a specialty German treat that they usually only have around Christmas time, it's relatively hard to find. We have a local bakery that sells them around Christmas but they are imported and usually stale when they get here. I'm taking a speech class with a bunch of hardcore religious, Republican, members of the military so many of the topics that I might choose to speak about probably would not ingratiate me with the locals. I figured I should talk about what I like. What I like is cooking and eating. And when I think of something strange and interesting, I think of baumkuchen. It looks spectacular, it tastes good and most people have never heard about it.

I had a bit of a saga today trying to find a pan for cooking my baumkuchen. Since you have to broil it layer by layer, you can't use nonstick. Nonstick past 400 or 450 emits noxious fumes that can be dangerous or carcinogenic. Usually you broil on a baking sheet or with foil. Well, I needed a cake pan. Specifically a springform. I started out at Target and bought a springform before I remember the whole nonstick business. I returned it and then went to Walmart. All their pans were nonstick. Springform, basic cake pan, everything! Luckily I found anodized aluminum cake pans at Meijer that were blessedly nonstick. I have no idea what the other people who made baumkuchen at home did with their pans (I found a bunch of recipes on the net) but they certainly made no mention of nonstick. Since you put it in for 2 min at a time perhaps the coating wouldn't melt off. But who wants to take chances like that?

I'm doing my speech on Wednesday. I'm prepping the cake this weekend and I also ordered one made in Chicago which I'll be defrosting because I ordered it WAY too early. I think it's probably overkill for the grade but hey, it'll be a lot of fun and everyone likes to eat cake.

This last week has been topsy turvy simply because of the house stuff. I don't want to jinx that or talk about it any further until we have it so I'll leave it at that. Suffice to say I had a melt down mid week because I thought I got a B on a test. Lol. I know. Dental hygiene school is so competitive and I don't want to be where I am for any longer than I have to be. Anything short of perfect is not good. Worried for nothing. I got a 97% on the test which was the highest grade in my class. 103% on my first test. 100% on lab exam. Most of the class is averaging 70%. Pardon my brag but I really do love my microbiology class. I think if I didn't have to hurry out there and go make money in a practical field, I might have possibly had a future in biochemistry. Perhaps in another life...So MB is going well as long as I spend nearly every minute waking studying.

At home we are watching Big Bang Theory season 2 on Netflix. I can't think of much on TV that was funnier than BBT.

It's really hot outside. GAH.

Cracking down on the diet and exercise again this week. Some days are good. Some days are less so. I never used to eat movie theater popcorn. Now I'm ruined on it!

Oh Bad Teacher was hilarious.