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Baking Birthday Cake Like A GirlA Revolutionary Act of Feminism in the KitchenIf a girl makes a cake for her boyfriend she's considered old fashioned, but when she does it with sass she's a retro revolutionary grrrl baker.
Grrly Girl BakerWant to impress your birthday guy? Tie on that cute, cup-cake print apron and get Betty-ing in the kitchen to make a four-layer birthday cake with billowy, swirl-y white icing. Sound old-fashioned, unfeminist, and not like you? C’mon girl, think outside the box of Swan’s light-as-a-feather cake flour; bust-up the little 50s housewife statuette and throw the pieces over your strong, broad shoulder. We’re in the time of the bad-ass girly bakers. Anyone who has ever made a cake knows its no piece of cake. You need brains, brawn to whip those egg whites, and stamina to perfectly frost it. It’s a labor. Maybe not as laborious as putting in a new, double-decker deck, but baking pastry is architectural. You are building, cantilevering—with eggs, butter, flour, sugar, butter, butter, butter. Make sure you have enough of it. You’re not only architect but also contractor. Its going to be you, sweetheart, hoisting those two-by-fours to make the cathedral ceiling-ed summer home of your dreams, and getting them for the best price. In other words, ingredients count. Buy the best you can afford. Because, Like You, Its A Little TartLet the choice of recipe lemon layer cake. If can get your oven mitts on the March 2007 edition of Cooks Illustrated, do so because the lemon layer cake therein will make your man feverish with desire. Cooks Illustrated is the magazine from American’s Test Kitchen, the hit PBS cooking show where they test every recipe over and over, tweaking each time to get it exact. Christopher Kimball, the show’s host, wears a bow-tie with his apron. This man does not mess around in the kitchen, he nails recipes, he gets them right so you, home chef extraordinaire, can get them right, too. The lemon layer cake is four layers of light white cake alternating with tangy lemon curd—ridiculously delicious, though curd is an unpretty word and an endeavor requiring several sticks of butter and long constant stirring over low heat so the egg yolks don’t seize. Seize meaning freak out and clot and ruin the velvetyness. Maybe when lifting a forkful to your birthday boy’s eager ruby lips, call it “rich lemon filling.” Cake is propaganda, right? Watch anything set in the 50s and the camera invariably pans over to a perfectly formed, untouched cake on a Formica counter-top. It’s waiting. It’s stage-craft, a prop—use what it says to your advantage: this is a happy home where, with credit to Garrison Keillor’s Lake Woebegon, “all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above average.” Ahhh. Comfort. Happy Birthday, sweetie. One day a year.
The copyright of the article Baking Birthday Cake Like A Girl in Baking/Decorating Cakes is owned by Elizabeth Bastos. Permission to republish Baking Birthday Cake Like A Girl in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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