Day 8: Four Lessons and Ginger Tea Cakes

Today starts out with basic kitchen lessons (which I seemed to have forgotten). When in the kitchen:

1. Remember that metal does NOT go in the microwave. It wasn't like this was the first time that I have used a microwave, but just spaced out this fundamental fact. I needed to soften the butter so I decided to unwrap it and leave it on the wrapper and the next thing I knew - the microwave was sparking and arching and it needed my immediate attention. I am surprised that I didn't blow up the microwave. Sshhheesshh

2. Again - dry ingredients don't get creamed in with butter and sugar (you know that I did this a few days ago). I threw caution to the wind and just left the dry ingredients and moved forward with the recipe.

3. Buttermilk tastes like horrible. I had never tried buttermilk before so I "manned-up" and took a swig. Oh my gosh....it tastes absolutely horrible. I remember Chris' grandma used to like to drink buttermilk over ice. EGADS....how in the world did she drink it?!?!?! I think there is still a film covering my tongue.

4. When taking pictures of your dessert, use both hands. Uh, when you don't, your iPhone ends up landing on top of the desserts. Next thing you know, I am licking the glaze off my phone - smoothing out the dessert tops again and taking a new photo....using both hands. Phone is still sticky, but I am tired of trying to lick off the lemon glaze.

I have to start off by giving kudos to the recipe. It was suppose make 24 tea cakes...mine made 23 tea cakes. YEAH!!!

As noted above, I added the dry ingredients with the sugar. Added the butter; Kitchen-aid locked....mix, scrap down the sides and the bottom (since I have the stuff sorta stuck to the bottom). Suppose to add eggs one at a time - nope that didn't happen either. Add both eggs and the extra egg yolk all at once. Another caution thrown to the wind. Next buttermilk.

[Side bar] I was not going to buy a carton of buttermilk when I only needed a couple of tablespoons. What did I do??? Off to the baking aisle. Did you know you can buy dried buttermilk??? Me either.

Buttermilk "made" and added to the mixture. Kitchen-aid locked and ready to mix for 2 minutes. Done. Mixture - nice and creamy. And I might add - tasty. I have never really been a ginger fan. Who would have thought that ginger would taste so good??? Into the oven for 12-15 minutes at 325 degrees. I went with 14 minutes. Insert toothpick to make sure they were done. Toothpick came out clean. Pull them out of the oven and let them cool completely. Glaze was easy. Powdered sugar, water, and, lemon juice. Gray helped with icing the tea cakes - thanks Gray!!!

Here is the good thing about this dessert: just the right amount of ginger, just the right amount of lemon, just the right size and just a couple of missteps in the kitchen today.