Why I follow recipes

I love baking (as pretty much everyone and their mother knows).  But I am typically a "follow the recipe" baker.  If I am making something for the first time, I follow the recipe precisely (no real alterations) and then make adjustments the next time I bake.

I can't even count the number of times I've made fruit crips or cobblers.  I always pull a recipe out and follow it or make slight adjustments.

This week I got overconfident and decided to make a berry crisp without any recipe at all.  And, to complicate it, I used frozen berries and didn't wait for them to thaw, even though I've done that every other time.  They were rock solid frozen when I put them into the oven (First big mistake)

I made a crisp topping with random amounts of flour, butter, sugar (I was being lazy.  How hard is it to get out your cookbook?).  I threw it in the oven.  After 45 minutes, the topping didn't look crisp (and Jon really likes the top brown and crispy).  So I thought broiling it for a minute or two would help.

Boy was I wrong.

The top did get crispy, but the inside/middle of the "crisp" topping was the consistency of raw sugar cookie dough (weird and not right).  And the berries were really runny (that was actually okay just not pretty).

That didn't stop us from eating some of it, I mean we had to try it.  It was edible, but not worth the calories.  It was definitely my worst effort at a dessert to date.

I took a picture of it. The picture doesn't make it look nearly as bad as it was.

I threw the rest of it away.  Good riddance!

Tonight I felt like I needed to redeem myself from this terrible baking attempt, so I decided to find a recipe that would use the buttermilk I happened to have on hand.  I went to pinterest and typed in chocolate buttermilk bundt cake and came up with this recipe from Joy the Baker. http://joythebaker.com/2010/05/the-making-baking-and-consumption-of-the-best-chocolate-bundt-cake-ever/ I followed it almost exactly (I did leave out most of the coffee from glaze, I just wasn't sure that the boys would like it, but that was my only alteration).

And I ended up with this.

And all was right in the world (ok, maybe all was right in just my baking world).  I am reminded why I follow recipes when baking.  When I do, the results are good, consistent, pretty and delicious.  Everything my cobbler attempt wasn't. 

Part of the reason I like baking (other than the fact I like eating) is that it appeases that "type A" part of me that likes to accomplish something that turns out correctly in a short amount of time.  The realization of a goal (in this case a cake) and doing it well helps me be more laid back with the kids.  It might seem silly but in my day to day life, I am working on 4 growing goals (named James, Andrew, Aaron and Caleb) and when I have outlets like baking and running where I can push myself and challenge myself in areas that have NOTHING to do with mothering, then I am a better mom.  I become more patient, more willing to live with the mess and plastic toys, and better able to just be. 

Tonight, I made something tasty and pretty and tomorrow I will run (maybe an extra mile or two after having had a piece of said cake). 

Now to find someone to take half of this cake off my hands.  I don't know what I was thinking when I baked a giant cake while my husband is away on a 3 day work trip.