Some cooking flops

On Valentine's Day, I was in a baking mood.  I made MY FAVORITE FROM-SCRATCH CHOCOLATE CAKE and tried a new frosting recipe. 

I saw the frosting recipe on The Pioneer Woman blog and the notion of a cooked frosting with flour and granulated sugar (not powdered sugar), along with butter, vanilla, and milk, intrigued me, so I had to give it a try.  Plus, the frosting was called "That's the Best Frosting I've EVER Had!," so of course I had to try it.  The verdict:  Meh!  Not my favorite frosting. 

The cooked frosting recipe can be found HERE if you want to see what all the fuss is about.  I am over it.  I brought some of the cake to a friend for her and her teen son.  My friend's dad also came for dinner on Valentine's Day and apparently they loved the cake and frosting.  She was telling me about it a week after the fact.  I also brought some of the cake to my Thursday knitting group to share with the ladies and they were still talking about the cake and frosting a week later... so apparently some folks like this frosting.

Over the weekend after Valentine's Day, I also tried to make some Orange Sherbert at the request of my husband and son (since they like the raspberry sorbet and lemon sorbet so much).  I found a Food Network recipe for Orange Sherbert by Alton Brown, and I like Alton Brown so I tried his recipe. The recipe can be found HERE.  This recipe was a flop.  In fact, it was so bad, my husband and son thought it was a really good practical joke!

I know I did two things wrong.  I got carried away and added WAY TOO MUCH fresh orange zest and I used only 1% milk (not whole milk as called for).  Turns out you can add too much orange zest.  You could FEEL the bitter orange oil on your lips and on your tongue and not in a good way. 

Never fear... I did not let the Orange Sherbert go to waste!  I put it in the freezer and am adding it into my smoothies... Orange, Banana, and Strawberry... Orange, Banana, and Vanilla Yogurt. Good stuff!  Lesson learned... even really bad ice cream, frozen yogurt, or sherbert can be used up in fruit smoothies.