Expectations versus reality: Baking for the Fourth of July

With the Fourth of July coming up we’ll all be at our backyard BBQs smelling in that sweet mesquite smell. And of course, every BBQ needs dessert!

However July 4th baking is not always realistic. I spent a full day baking Fourth of July goodies and nothing turned out the way it was supposed to. I love baking, and it’s a hobby for me – something to do to relax and take my mind off of things. It’s even therapeutic in a sense, but baking for the fourth was anything but.

I spent around eight hours in the kitchen and here’s how it turned out.

American Flag Cakes

Recipe:

• 8 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• a little salt
• 3/4 cup buttermilk

Expectation

Reality

All recipes show the finished product but they don’t show what it should look like step by step. In the beginning stages of the cake, I’m guessing this is how it’s supposed to look. In order to make this cake you have to make the basic batter five times, two white, two red, and one blue. This was really time consuming! I spent most of my day just repeating the batter for the cake.

As you can see the outside looks nothing like the picture and they don’t tell you that little bits of the cake will be all over when you attempt to spread the frosting.

The inside, however, turned out better than I had hoped! At least it looks semi-patriotic.

Note to self: Do not attempt this cake in the future unless you are a successful baker. This was a very challenging cake, and probably the most complicated thing I’ve made. But in the end I’m happy about the result of it after two days of working on it.

Berry Slab Pie

Recipe:

• 1/2 17.3 ounce package frozen puff pastry thawed (1 sheet)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 1 tablespoon crystallized ginger
• 1 12 ounce package of frozen berries thawed and drained
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons water
• course sugar (optional)

Expectation

Reality

I mean it doesn’t look too far off right?! It’s got the right look, and of course it hasn’t been professionally shot by a nice camera in a photo studio. I love puff pastry recipes, I think they’re delicious especially if you’re a big pastry fan. They’re also relatively easy to make. This recipe was not too complicated and was the least of my worries in the kitchen. The only thing I would recommend is definitely making sure your thawed berries are drained because they will run all over the puff pastry.

Red, White, and Blue Cupcakes

Expectation

Reality

Cupcakes should be easy right? Wrong. Patriotic cupcakes are anything but simple and easy. The recipe tells you to make three different batters: one white, one red, and one blue. Then spoon a little of each into the pan one on top of the other and it’ll come out looking tie dye! Also wrong. As you can see in the first picture, by adding three different types of batter, it overflows.

The frosting also didn’t turn out like I had wanted, so naturally I tossed the first batch and started over on the cupcakes the next morning and decided to just go with simple red and blue cupcakes which turned out a little better. Not perfect but definitely better than the tie dye cupcakes.

My adventure baking for the Fourth of July was not anything like I thought it was going to be. I had to go to the store about a billion times because I kept needing more ingredients. I also spent probably 100 plus dollars on groceries. What I got from this was that recipes should have step by step pictures and should have additional directions on amount of ingredients. For example, one cup is fine, but maybe add how many boxes total of that sugar I’m going to need for the entire recipe.

Moral of the story don’t let a messy kitchen, messed up batter or less than perfect final product get you down! I definitely don’t recommend making all three things in one day, so definitely plan ahead. And have a very yummy and patriotic Fourth of July.