Almost too embarrassing to post…

We are back to normal life, which means Yuki’s back at home and at school, so I’m back to making bento every day, for the first time in a couple of months. This means that there hasn’t been much culinary exploration in the last week or two. I did make taiyaki and I also failed at making mushipan, or steamed cakes. I hadn’t noticed that the new bag of flour that I opened did not include bakpulver (baking powder) like my last bag and so they turned out flat and thick. I still kind of liked them — they were eggy and chewy and filling — but I have very low standards, you must recall. I grew up eating spray cheese out of a can and loving it.

Things that I have learned
4) Never skip the baking powder.

This is common sense, of course, but apparently I needed a reminder. Baking powder (and baking soda and other leavening agents) add those pesky but necessary gases that help baked goods not turn into rocks. I went and bought a little can of baking powder, so hopefully this will not require a repeat performance.

Oh! And looking through my photos to upload I suddenly recall that I also made a birthday cake for Yuki last week. Which also reminds me of…

Things that I have learned
5) Even if it has been sitting a while, there’s no need to give frosting a copy more stirs.

The frosting had been lovely but after leaving it in the fridge as I assembled the cake, I thought, “Oh, I’ll just whip it around a bit and make sure it’s still good to go.” Um, no. That just caused it to start separating and go lumpy. Damn. Luckily, the Yukster didn’t say a thing about his lumpy cake.

Yuki’s strawberry cake

My ugly taiyaki (of course I gave the good-looking one to Yuki)

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