Thus Baked Zarathustra

It's nearing the end of the week of St. Patrick's Day, and I had promised some friends that I'd bring something over last night. I found myself with very little time, and therefore couldn't make the Bailey's Irish Cream cupcakes that began my little cupcake obsession (they tend to take me an hour or two to prepare, and I wanted something that I could make in about half an hour). And so... I resorted to something I rarely do: cake mix. It's been such a long time since I've had a date with Betty Crocker, so at first it was awkward. Like any date with an old friend you haven't spoken to in years, naturally.

I wasn't about to make a ho-hum boxed cake that's subtly spiked with some Irish cream. So... I did a little experimenting, and it turned out as this fluffy, moist, and very slightly boozy cake with a lovely flaky top. How does one make THAT out of boxed cake (not that I don't respect you to the utmost, Mrs. Crocker)?

Things I learned from this cake:

1. No one is limited to a boring boxed cake.
2. Interesting things happen when you swirl frosting INTO the cake!
3. Whipped frosting makes the cake fluff up more (although I guess that makes sense).
   
4. If you don't know what else to do with your cake before you throw it in the oven, ADD SO MANY CHOCOLATE CHIPS. Like how many? SO MANY. An entire 12 oz. bag went into here. Why add more chocolate chips? I am woman, therefore I love chocolate. By rule of the chocolate lover's creed that reads "one can never have enough chocolate," more chocolate chips = better.

So... without further ado, here is the recipe:

Fluffy/Flaky Irish Cream Cake (makes one 13x9 sheet cake)

• 1 box of yellow cake (feel free to use any other kind as well!)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup Bailey's or Carolan's Irish Cream
• 3 eggs
  
• 1 can of your choice of frosting (I used whipped cream cheese frosting by Pillsbury)
• 1/4 cup of Irish Cream
• 1 12 oz. package chocolate chips (or as many as you'd like... white chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter, or vanilla chips would work as well)

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
   
2. Mix yellow cake mix, eggs, and 2/3 c. Irish cream into a bowl. Pour half of it into the baking pan.
3. In the bowl with the remainder of the batter, empty out the can of frosting, and stir in 1/4 c. Irish cream and however many chocolate chips you want in there. Combine well.
4. Spoon out the batter-frosting mixture onto the top of the batter in the baking pan.
5. Swirl things around with a fork.
6. Optional: sprinkle chocolate chips on top of your unbaked cake as well.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

And voila... you end up with the fantastic deliciousness of a fluffy Irish cream cake.

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When I first arrived at the University of Chicago in the fall of 2010, I met one of my current closest friends, Anna. We shared a suite in the dorms during first year, and from the very first time we laid eyes on each other we became inseparable, and it was magic.

Well, actually, it was quite awkward at first. I guess that's what happens when you introduce yourself with the story of how a beverage cart on the plane nearly broke your arm. "Hey, you must be Connie! Nice to meet you, I'm Anna!" "Hi! I nearly died!" Yeah... that pretty much guarantees you an awkward start. Later in the week, we took a tour of the city, which was absolutely beautiful. I sat next to Anna. Throughout the entire trip, we probably spoke about two words to each other. Mostly because I'm partially socially inept and just generally bad at making small talk with people I don't know very well. That and the only thing she knew about me was that I had some recent near-death experience.

In any case, we're very close friends now. Anna takes me on random adventures across the city on occasion, and she introduced me to the greatness that is Improv Shakespeare earlier this year.

On one of our most recent adventures, we (foolishly? brilliantly? perhaps both) signed up to make study break (a time when someone makes snacks for everyone else in our part of the dorm). And because a) Anna is Jewish, b) I'm not Jewish but oddly interested in Jewish holiday traditions, as long as I don't have to fast, and c) Purim was in a few days, we decided to make hamantaschen (which my browser wishes to correct as "enchantments") for probably between 20 and 30 people. I, as a gentile, and she, as not someone who bakes often, did not know what kind of task we were signing up for.

We doubled a recipe we found on Allrecipes by Sharon in order to feed the horde of hungry and stressed college students and learned some things...

1. SO MUCH FLOUR. Hamantaschen are really, really doughy, and combining 11 cups of flour into anything is tough with a bad hand mixer and bowls that aren't quite big enough for the task.
2. Orange juice helps to make a truly flavorful cookie.
3. It's pretty difficult to keep the triangle shape looking nice. Well, at least it was for me. Anna's Jewish intuition must have made her an excellent triangle pincher.

Here is the recipe:
Easy Hamantaschen (makes 24)
(Credit: Sharon from Allrecipes)

We doubled this recipe, but it somehow made over 70 cookies... I wonder how big everyone else made their hamantaschen! These turned out amazingly, though. The cookie part was firm but crumbly when you bit into it, and it had a slightly sweet and very slightly tart flavor. We used cherry preserves (with a name like Smucker's...) because Anna asserted both that cherry hamantaschen were the best and that any flavor other than cherry and lemon would be an utter travesty. I trusted her judgment, but perhaps I'll experiment a bit next time. We also had to bake for quite a bit longer than what the recipe says. I took them out of the oven after 15 minutes, and the dough was cooked through, but Anna (who would know more than I would) insisted that they should be more brown and harder. This sometimes needed twice the baking time, but it turned out great.

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