Angels and Cupcakes

A couple of weekends ago, San Francisco hosted Fleet Week, an annual event held during the Columbus Day weekend to honor the Sailors and Marines serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. The past few years, Karen and I have missed Fleet Week, as either one or both of us have been out of town for some reason or another. (For instance, we were in Hawaii during last year's event.) This year, both of us were in town, so we decided to head down to the waterfront to check it out.

One of the main draws of the weekend is the airshow, which is highlighted with an aerial performance by the Blue Angels, the Navy's Flight Demonstration Squadron. Though I had been to a few other airshows in the past, this was the first one where I saw the Blue Angels. They did not disappoint. The precision in their maneuvers was amazing; at times, it appeared that the six planes were moving as a single entity, as the fighters flew together with just a few feet of separation between them.


From our vantage point near the shore, we could feel the immense power of the jets as they roared overhead during their 45 minute show. One of the more memorable moments for me was when a solo F/A-18 did a high-speed pass at what must have been no more than 50 feet above the water, the vortex of its mighty wake turbulence parting the waters of San Francisco Bay. It was just a lot of fun to watch the planes weave between one another against the gorgeous backdrop of the San Francisco skyline and the Golden Gate Bridge.


After the show ended, Karen and I decided to take advantage of the fact that we were in the Marina District to grab some sweet treats at Kara's Cupcakes, named after owner Kara Lind. An advertising sales exec turned baker, Lind sources the organic ingredients for her cakes from local suppliers to ensure that her products are as fresh as possible. After having read about this little bakery in both the Daily Candy and in the local paper, both of us were excited to pay them a visit.


Luckily, we beat the big rush and only had to wait a minute or two before it was our turn to order. Karen decided to go with the Chocolate Velvet (below left), a chocolate cupcake with a velvety bittersweet chocolate buttercream, while I went with the Raspberry Dazzle, a chocolate confection frosted with a raspberry buttercream.


The cupcakes were very good, a bit lighter than I expected. At $3 (or more) per cupcake, it's also a bit on the expensive side. I wonder how the cupcakes compare with those from New York City's Magnolia Bakery, of Sex in the City and SNL fame. Maybe it's time for a West Coast v. East Coast, SF v. NYC, cupcake face-off.

Easy Baking 101

While I enjoying cooking very much, I'll be the first person to tell you that I'm not much of a baker. All of the precision and rigor that went along with being a mathematician (in my former life) never made it into in the kitchen for me; hence my general lack of interest around baking. The freedom to improvise while I create is one of the things that I really enjoy about cooking. Unfortunately, improvising is something that does not work well while baking.

However, there are a few things that I don't mind baking. These baked goods have recipes that are characterized by their simplicity (both in the number of ingredients required and the complexity of the steps) as well as their tolerance for being tweaked due to my general indifference for precise measurements. One such recipe was passed along by my friend Christy, who also gave me the famed wild rice hotdish recipe. Friday night, I decided to pop out a batch of these popovers. Here were the results:

Doc Lampi's Never Fail Popovers

2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt

Break eggs into bowl. Add milk, flour, salt. Mix well with spoon, disregarding the lumps. Fill greased muffin tins 3/4 full. Put into cold oven, set control for 450. Turn on heat and bake for 30 minutes. Success secret is starting with a cold oven and not opening the door to peek. Makes 9 popovers.

Karen mentioned that they looked different from the last batch that I made, but they were equally as good, especially fresh out of the oven. Since the stove was already hot from making the popovers, I actually decided to make a second batch of baked goodness. Once again, it was a simple and easy recipe, one which I first saw mentioned on Slashfood. This second recipe comes from the blog Rasa Malaysia and is a formula for replicating Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits.


It's been quite a few years since I last visited a Red Lobster, so I can't attest to their authenticity, but these biscuits, like the popovers, were definitely good eats.

Math + Baking = Pie-cosahedron

If you are one of those can't-get-enough-of-geometry baking types out there, you should check out a potential weekend project.

I like math and all, and cooking as well, but I can't see myself actually taking the time to make something like that...

Incidentally, I'm editing this post as I cruise over the North Atlantic, thanks to Wi-Fi broadband service provided by Connexion by Boeing on my Lufthansa flight. Unfortunately, due to their inability to recoup the operating costs, Boeing has decided to discontinue this service by the end of the year, so I may not have many more opportunities (for a while, at any rate) to post from 35000 feet in the air.