Bourbon Plum Cake
The thing I longed for most in the past few days was to have my life back. I liked my life. I never stopped; working hours that would have been sufficient for two people let alone for just me. It was a challenge and I loved it. Yes, it wore on me every once in a while. I dreamt of more free time but I found it challenging. When I accomplished everything I had set out to, then even better!
I never once had given a thought about the possibility of another type of life for myself. While I was thinking about life, I had never once really entertained the possibility of other life forms, or actually entertaining other life forms, literally. It's a good thing I didn't find a possessed bottle of Mr. Clean.
I watched the morning sun slowly but surely brightening the room. I sat there a while. It was something I normally never did. I wasn't used to sitting. I wasn't used to not doing anything. I actually started to enjoy it. I smiled to myself. I laid back, stretched my arms out and yawned. This felt really good.
Something hit the floor as my outstretched arms knocked it over. There was the bottle I had finished off last night. It was full again! Oh no. How did that happen? Had I dreamed everything up until now? But the fly-by fairy told me otherwise.
"Fairy? " I noticed, she didn't look happy. She really never did but this time she looked even more annoyed.
"I'm stuck here even longer because of you!!!"
I realized, she couldn't leave because the bottle had refilled itself. It was my stupidity. That little escapism I drowned in last night was apparently going to cost me.
"Come on, Fairy, You want to go home? I want you to go home too. Let's get cracking!" I figured with her help, we could get this done. We could use up the bourbon without drinking it and feed whomever The Oak King wanted to. It was amazing, the variety of food we were able to make...
Bourbon Shrimp, Bourbon Syrup over French Toast, Bourbon Chile, We used Bourbon in Meatballs. We made Bourbon and Balsamic Roasted Tomatoes, We even used Bourbon to make a BBQ Pizza.
It was fun. She wasn't as drunk as normal. She didn't break as many things as normal and with her help, her drunken magic and a little bit of luck, we found ourselves back to where we were before. We had enough bourbon left to make "the official dessert" and "the official drink".
The Oak King never did show up during our cooking escapade so we had bourbon dishes laying on every free spot in the house. I looked around amazed at how versatile one ingredient could be. Each recipe we made highlighted the oak-iness or the vanillas... In every recipe we made, official ones or not, the bourbon was essential. There wasn't any other ingredient I could think of that would be even close to replacing the flavors that had developed with the bourbon. I had a new respect for this drink.
The rustling leaves and forest-y breeze once again blew through the room and the man from the party was standing in front of me.
"The Gathering is tonight. Finish quickly." With that he was gone. He never looked around. His gaze was direct as were his words. I felt slightly ignored, maybe even belittled. We had done so much work and it wasn't even acknowledged.
I threw the nearest book toward the spot he stood only seconds before. The book was a cookbook. We had them all over. It landed, open to the following recipe.
As I picked up the book, his voice filled the room, maybe even the block,
"FINISH QUICKLY".
Although everything within me wanted to argue and plea my case, I dutifully and begrudgingly made the cake recipe. A drink after this and I would be done! Thank goodness.
BOURBON PLUM CAKE
Things you will need:
Parchment Paper
2- 9" Cake Pans
Ingredients:
2 1/2 Cups Flour
1/2 Cup Warm Water
1 Pkg Instant Yeast or (2 1/4 Tsp)
4 Tbsp Butter
3/4 Warm Milk
3 Tbsp Cane Sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 Egg Yolks
4 Ripe Plums, chopped
1/4 Cup Bourbon
1/2 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Cinnamon
2 Tbsp Butter
Plus extra butter and brown sugar
Chop plums. Place in a bowl. Add Bourbon. Set aside.
.
In a sauce pan, heat milk gently with butter and 1 1/2 Tbsp cane sugar.
Let cool slightly (you don't want to kill your yeast)
Combine yeast, warm water and 1 1/2 Tbsp cane sugar.
In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, the milk mixture and the foaming yeast. Beat well and set aside waiting for the dough to double in size.
Butter your pans liberally along the sides and bottoms.
Line the bottom the the pan with parchment paper and liberally butter the paper too.
Sprinkle the bottom of each pan with a coating of brown sugar.
Drain your plums, setting the liquid aside. Place the plums in the bottom of your pans.
Divide dough in half and stretch to cover your plums in each pan.
Let dough rise, once again for about 1/2 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Comine 1/2 Cup of flour, the leftover juice from the plums (there should only be a few tablespoons full), the brown sugar, cinnamon and butter. Combine using your fingers until the mixture is crumbly and spinkle on top of your risen dough.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.
Let cool.
Run your knife along the edges of the cake.
Place a serving plate over the pan and flip.
Your cake should come out easily.
Remove parchment paper.
Before serving, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
It was an absolutely beautiful cake.
The little pieces of plum looked like a stained glass window.
The Oak King had good taste. I wanted to take the smallest piece, but with a cake, unless it is frosted, it's quite obvious if something is missing.
So, a gathering? a feast? I had made dishes that would be served to an otherworldly crowd.
I wondered if I could use that in a future resume.
-Catered The Oak King and his Minions-
Curiosity was beginning to set in. What did these people look like? Did they all live in oak trees? Was it a fun type gathering? Was it more like a business meeting? Would I get to catch a glimpse?
The little fairy must have been hitting the bottle again. She whizzed by and the tiniest, twinkling voice proclaimed "I'm going home!!!" I heard little chimes of laughter. I smiled, happy for her, relieved for me.
Oops, she hit the wall.
Drunken Fairy!
As she plummeted straight down, almost into the middle of the cake, a summer wind swept the cake into another dimension making the landing for the poor little fairy a quite hard.
No comments:
Post a Comment