Bingo Fill: Taste

For this prompt, I decided to bake a cake, and to do a little write up about the flavour. I chose to make an Orange Sponge cake, but the lack of appropriate pan means I ended up with two square layers, instead of one big cake. One 'layer' was topped with salted dark chocolate ganache and the other was topped with orange zest whipped cream. The whipped cream was a last minute decision, though a yummy one; the original plan was just to use the salted dark chocolate ganache. My reasoning for choosing an Orange Sponge cake with a salted dark chocolate ganache was that I wanted to combine all five 'basic tastes' in one dish if I could, and I'm more comfortable baking than cooking. I managed four out of the five: Sweet (because of course the cake has sugar), Sour (from the citrus, though it was a rather subtle orange flavour), Salty (the main reason it was a salted ganache, though it did help cut the bitterness too), and Bitter (from the unsweetened chocolate I used in the ganache). I couldn't find a way to add Umami to the dessert, so I decided that it was still perfectly acceptable even with only four or the five tastes.

Below the cut will be an image of the cake(s), and my thoughts on the taste.

( picture of the cake and a description of the taste )

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Monday update?

I know I usually write my weekly updates on Thursday or Friday, but I just couldn't find the energy last week, so it's happening now. I didn't do a whole lot over the week, but I did make an Orange Sponge cake which turned out really well (yay!), I got a few household things done, and I made a bit of progress on my crochet project, so not bad overall I guess.

I've still got a ton I want to do, but I have time still, and I'm feeling hopeful for this week. Chief among my goals is working on my Bingo Card, and painting the table that will eventually make its way upstairs into my loft-like area.

Random thoughts:

1: After reading the China's Mistake thread by dialecticdreamer and ysabetwordsmith and a helpful instructional post by the latter, I have decided to try to boycott China, at least on the superficial level of nothing with "Made in China" tags. Getting more in depth and not buying anything with *parts* from China is a goal, but I'm going to see how the easy step goes first, instead of throwing myself in the deep end. It's been alright so far, as most of what I buy is food but I did have two enlightening experiences. The first: I didn't realize how much bakeware is made in China, and I can see any cake pans or cookie sheets being difficult to find if I want to by-pass China. The second: TY beanie babies are made in China and I totally caved and bought one because the black dragon was just too cute not to. It's not even that fluffy, it was just cute and calling my name. BUT. Now that I know (consciously anyway) that they are made in China, I shall just steer clear of that brand and I should be okay. It's been a long time since I bought a stuffed animal so it shouldn't be too hard (I hope.)

2: I went and got a haircut this Saturday, which was great cause I've badly needed one since about March, but it set me to thinking again. I really wish my area had a place where you could pay people to play with your hair, as opposed to cutting it. I like hair cuts, but I also love having my hair played with and I would gladly pay them the price of a haircut to spend the same amount of time playing with it as they do to cut it. I'm not a business person though, so I have no idea if that would be viable or if there would be interest. I figured combining it with a version of a "Healthy Touch" program would serve a wider base and make it more feasible, but I still don't know.