Slightly Off Center

So I think I last posted about a month ago, with a box and a half of clay remaining. The delivery was actually delayed a day, presumably while the carrier shifted my pallet from the big truck to something a little more maneuverable. But I finally got my ton+ of clay two days later, along with some bagged glaze chemicals for Club Mud.

I thought the ribbon was a nice touch.

So Club Mud is not... well heated. We have a lovely gas furnace in the main studio work space, there's a somewhat effective electric heater suspended in the back private studios, but the kiln room and the glazing room where I like to set up and work? Nada. Which was kind of an issue, this last glazing cycle, as temps were sub-freezing overnight, and not that warmer during the day, for better than a week. Fortunately, I brought a radiant heater from home, and found a small forced-air electric heater that only occasionally tripped its in-cord breaker, so given an hour or two, could get the back room warm. Nobody else was firing anything, though, so the kiln room was still like ice. As was the water in my wash-up bucket. Still managed to get a kilnload of pots glazed, in about a week-and-a-half. Some samples:


Pie plates...

casseroles...

serving bowls and pitchers. Also stick butter dishes, colanders, a whole bunch of mugs and bowls and stew mugs. Forty mugs for Great Harvest Bakery. Dinner and dessert plates, of which I was woefully low. It feels good to be properly stocked again!

Sometime mid-January, I got an Instagram instant message from the partner of my potter friend, Kat. Her fortieth birthday was coming up and he was planning a surprise party; could I help him quietly get word out to her friends at Club Mud? And did I know anyone who could bake a gluten-free birthday cake for her?

Well, I'm always up for a challenge. I had a couple of small bags of gluten-free flour in the cupboard: the remains of a bag of Bob's Red Mill, and something I'd bought in bulk at Market of Choice that I'm pretty sure was more of the same. I dug out my trusty chocolate cake recipe--Old Fashioned Cocoa Cake, copied off the Hershey's baking cocoa tin back in, oh, 1977. Made a half-recipe, one nine-inch layer, popped it in the oven.

It wasn't half bad. A little flat in the center--I skewer tested it at 35 minutes and it settled a little, decided to go the full forty minutes for the real cake. Had that slightly gritty texture I'd noticed before with gluten-free. The Red Mill bag recommended adding a little Xanthan gum to cakes and cookies, which I didn't have, but might want to try, if I could find it in the bulk foods bins. I'd have to buy more flour anyway, as I'd used up most of my supply.

Well, Winco no longer had the little one-pound bags of Bob's. They only carry 2.5 lbs bags of Red Mill 1:1 substitution gluten-free flour; 3.5 lbs. for King Arthur. They did have Xanthan gum: eight bucks for 8 ounces. This was looking like more of a commitment than I'd planned for.

Fortunately, they also had a gluten-free flour in the bulk foods, I think the label said Happy Valley brand. Scooped out the couple cups the recipe called for, grabbed another bag of powder sugar for icing, and went home for round two.

So I creamed my shortening and sugar, eggs, vanilla. Sifted together my dry ingredients--well, ran them through a wire strainer with a bowl whisk. It's the only way to get the lumps out of the baking cocoa. Added alternately with milk, then mixed the whole thing on medium for three minutes while I prepped the pans.

Can't grease and flour, of course, so I dosed them with pan spray and lined the bottoms with a circle of parchment. The batter was light and smooth, but oddly sticky--I think the flour had gum included. Divided it evenly between the pans, popped them in the pre-heated oven, crossed my fingers. Washed the dishes while I waited for the results.

They actually came out pretty well--didn't rise as much as a wheat-flour cake, but didn't settle either. Came out of the pan readily, cooled on the wire racks. Frosted it the next morning with a recipe from my Mom--for years, I'd been using the other recipe from the Hershey's can for my frosting, and cursing the lumps in the cocoa. Mixing to cocoa into melted butter solves that problem, as the stuff is fat-philic, goes in smooth. Thanks Mom! Mixed a tiny batch of coconut icing to decorate, using a Ziploc as a piping bag.

The cake was a huge hit. Lovely crumb, no gritty texture, luscious frosting. Days later, Kat and Tyler were still raving about it. And he pulled off the surprise perfectly.

Hershey's Old-Fashioned Cocoa Cake

2/3 cup shortening
1-2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2/3 tsp vanilla

2 cups (Happy Valley gluten-free) flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa
1-1/3 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

1-1/3 cups milk

Cream shortening and sugar together until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs and vanilla.

Sift together dry ingredients (if using kosher salt, whisk in after sifting, as it won't go through the mesh). Add, alternating with milk, to shortening mixture. Mix three minutes on high. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans, and line bottom with baking parchment. Pour batter into pans, smooth and level. Bake in a preheated 350° F. oven for 40 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan onto a wire rack to finish cooling. (Peel off parchment then flip them right-side-up immediately, or the top will stick to the wire and tear upon cooling.)

Mom's Easier Chocolate Frosting
This is enough for a 9x13" loaf cake. For layers, make one-and-a-half batches.

1/2 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup baking cocoa
3 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Mix cocoa and melted butter together until smooth. Beat in sugar and milk alternately to spreading consistency. Beat in vanilla. Spreads well. Freezes well.

What a beautiful firing!