A few of my readers and I are cooking our way through Ree Drummond’s book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks.  We’d love to have you join in with us.  Jump in any time, cook the recipe, and then come discuss it here on the comments section of  my blog.

Don’t let the above picture fool you.  This recipe, for me, was a disaster.  But I’m pretty sure it was my fault, and not PW’s.  Allow me to explain.

First of all, despite the misleading heart I put on top of my cake, I did not bake this over Valentine’s weekend.  No, I baked it about two hours ago.  Valentine’s turned out to be a lot busier than I anticipated, and then this week has been busy too with Jack Henry having his first head cold and all of us trying to make preparations to make a quick trip this weekend.  So, knowing I needed to get this posted today, I was rushed, and I’m blaming baby snot for it.

Secondly, I think my shortening was a little on the old side.  I had just used it before Christmas, so I don’t think it was detrimentally so, but it did look a little glossier than I think it should.  I threw the tub away after I made the cake, but by the time I realized it had seen better days, Jack Henry was napping, and Bonny Annie was at her tutorial, so a grocery run was not a prospect at the moment.

Thirdly, I had a headache.  I think it was because I colored my hair last night, and I always get a little bit of one when I do that.  I am more than likely giving myself a brain tumor for the sake of vanity concerning a handful of white hairs.  But, regardless, by the time I was finished I just felt like I was throwing ingredients everywhere and not really baking with purpose.

I think that’s all, but I’ll let you know if I can think up any more reasons that this cake kinda failed for me.

This is the kind of recipe that will totally trash your kitchen.  By the time I was finished, every single counter was covered with baking paraphernalia.

I pretty much stuck to the recipe, with just a few minor changes.  I used plain, old all-purpose flour and not cake flour.  My Publix apparently doesn’t carry cake flour, and that’s where I made a quick grocery run yesterday afternoon. 

I have no idea how much red food coloring I used.  I didn’t have the liquid kind on hand.  I had the gel kind that comes in little tubes, and the tube wasn’t full.  This accounts for the lighter pink color of my cake.

The only other variation was, like I said, using shortening that was a little “off.”  This may account for the slight aftertaste that I think my cake has.  It’s slight, but it’s there.

I had to bake my cakes for about ten minutes longer than the book calls for.  When I checked them at 20 minutes, there was still wet batter on my cake tester.  Then I think the outsides got a little too brown.  Then they stuck a little in the pans too, even though I let them cool longer than the 20 minutes that was called for…

Nothing terribly tragic, and they frosted up just fine.  The icing, I thought, was really good, but then how can you go wrong with cream cheese icing?

Overall, the cake tasted okay.  Dirty Harry was the only one available to taste-test, and he gave it a thumbs-up…but then he’s a nine year-old boy who is having a piece of cake before his lunch, so he’s perhaps not the best critic.  After a few more people have tasted it, I’ll let you know in the comments.

My sister-in-law, Susan, sent me these sweet pictures of her baking experience…

As you can see, she opted to make cupcakes, and I’ll let her share the details of that  in the comments section.

So, how did it go for all of you?  Did you whip it out for Valentines Day?  Are the ingredients still in your pantry?  Weigh in below and let us all know…

For our next assignment, we’re going to the “In the Morning” section.  Let’s get back to the basics and try the Buttermilk Biscuits on pages 44-45.  I’m going to skip all of next week and give you until Monday, March 1 to cook up a batch of these babies.   Have fun!