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Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Brown Butter and Vanilla Bean Weekend Cake


Do you ever find yourself running and spinning with a "to-do" list that is a few feet long and a feeling that you are constantly letting people down? I was just in the place, in the space in my head. It was Sunday morning and I had a million things to do...
plan a menu for the week, make a grocery list, and get to the store first thing in the morning
make a dish to share for at the club meeting later that day
print out sign up sheets and prepare for my part of the meeting
pick up, put away and in general restore order to the house
start planning decorations for the fundraiser
email a million people about a million things that I am suppose to be in charge of
pick up bird seed so the birds will stop sitting on the empty bird feeder while giving me the stink eye
figure out a way to clone myself so that I can do the things I need to do and be home every night at my son's bedtime
and the list stretched on a few more feet before finally petering out

I was swirling and whirling...spinning like a child's toy. And so I baked.

After opening my cookbook and laying it open I went to the fridge and pulled out 4 eggs out and some butter and placed them on the counter. I then went out on to my back deck, turned my face to the sun and breathed. I breathed in and out....in and out....filling my lungs with sunshine drenched air. I stood there, with my face turned up, my arms pulled back and my palms turned out until the ingredients were ready. And then I baked.

I scraped the seeds out of a vanilla bean and used my fingers to mix them into sugar. Pure white sugar becoming dotted with little specks of black sticky seeds. I browned butter, swirling and swirling as it went from solid to foamy until finally it became a golden toasty brown. I wished I could bottle the smell in the kitchen, full of burnt sugar and sticky vanilla, and wear it as a perfume.



Weekend cakes are easy to make. Nothing fussy or complicated should ever be made on a weekend. No mixers to pull out, no food processors to assemble and dissemble. Just a bowl and whisk.


Flour and sugar, and burnt butter and cream, and more all get gently mixed together. Slowly and uncomplicated. Like the sunshine air that filled up my lungs. Like the warmth on my face slowing me down. Like a weekend should be.



Baking can do a lot of things. It bring families together to sit around the table. It can open doors of friendship when "welcome to the 'hood" cookies are exchanged. And if you let it then baking can untwirl your mind and still your soul one cracked egg, one scoop of flour, one dash of salt at a time.

Toasted with butter for breakfast. 
The small print:
Brown Butter and Vanilla Bean Weekend Cake, pg 6 of Baking Chez Moi



17 comments:

  1. Your cake looks like it turned out beautifully! Well done. I do hear you on all the "to dos" but the birds will live and no one reads emails anyway... just texts right? Good for you to take time and breath.
    all the best to you

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  2. Your cake looks like it turned out beautifully! Well done. I do hear you on all the "to dos" but the birds will live and no one reads emails anyway... just texts right? Good for you to take time and breath.
    all the best to you

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  3. Beautiful.
    I find baking to be a welcome relief from all the demands of life.

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  4. My kitchen time is very meditative! Without it, my week becomes unbearably stressful.

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  5. I can't decide if my favorite part of the post was the cake (really pretty and lovely) or the fact that you were able to stand and have sunshine on your face!! We are deep into winter here and that sunshine sounds awfully nice. :-)

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  6. Baking has always been a stress reliever for me, a place where I find solace! Your cake looks lovely…love the photo of the toasted piece! I had one just like it this morning with my tea! Happy Tuesday!

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  7. Great photos! I bet that toasted and buttered slice tasted great!

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  8. Love your pix! I want to reach right through my screen and grab that lovely, toasted and buttered slice!

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  9. Your cake turned out beautifully. All of your photos are great, especially the one of the toasted slice.

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  10. Oh that toasted piece looks so good! I will have to make sure we have leftovers next time to try it that way!!

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  11. Baking IS calming! And yields such delicious results!

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  12. Beautifully done! I love how many of us toasted and buttered the slices---I still have a little left in my freezer and will have to give it a try!

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  13. Your cake is beautiful. Please send me the recipe. I think it will bring back memories of long ago times.

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  14. I love being in the baking zone...definitely a head-clearer. I want to snatch that piece of toasted cake, though! :)

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  15. The aroma in the kitchen was divine. Beautiful looking loaf. I did not get a chance to try it toasted - looks amazing.

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  16. I feel the same way about baking. And your last photo makes me wish I'd saved enough to try it toasted!

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  17. Your cake looks like it turned out wonderful. Glad that you were able to relax and take a moment while making it.

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