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Do you know the blog Cake Wrecks? You totally should. The blogger, Jen, posts daily photos of professional cakes that have something hilariously wrong with them. Her story is neat—she was a working schmoe like you or I, but she started blogging about something she found entertaining, and now it’s her full-time job. Nice, huh?

She’s put out a book, and went on a book tour with her husband. On November 5^th, they went to the Barnes and Noble in Bethesda, and I simply had to be there. One component of the tour is that attendees were invited to make cupcake-sized replica (wreckplicas) of the cakes on her site and compete for prizes. And… I simply had to do that, too. So I chose to re-create the “dirty turkey” cupcake cake from this post. Here’s what I came up with:

Nice, huh?

I attended the event on the 5^th with my coworker Erica, and while I do believe that my cupcake was well received, it was not a winner. That’s OK. If you check out her roundup blog post, you’ll see that I had some hot competition (and you can also see Erica and I in the second row in the crowd photo!)

Despite my loss, it was a cool event. They gave a slideshow of their favorite wrecks, took some audience questions, and then signed our books for us. And there was cake! Of course.

Onyah Fail. Weeks 12 and 13 whizzed by without getting a chance to blog anything. I’m a big sack of lame, I know. Here are a few highlights from the past two weeks…

The End of Peaches! When I was picking up my share yesterday, Mr. Farmer said that there will be no more peaches, and a small cheer went up from the crowd. Which made me laugh. But the end of peaches heralds the arrival of craploads of apples! So it’s time for me to stock up on T. Marzetti’s fat-free caramel dip and start gathering apple recipes. Here are the results of some apple research I’ve done:

• Golden Delicious: Sweet and well-balanced flavor makes it perfect for fresh eating, salads, and processing in applesauce or pies.
• Grany Smith: Tart but well balanced flavor. Their crisp bite and tangy flavor can be enjoyed out of hand or in a salad, but their flavor really comes through when baked or sautéed
• Rome: Good eating apple due to its sweet and mildly tart flavor. Better as a cooking apple because its flavor grows richer when it is baked or sautéed.
• Grimes: Rich, distinctive, aromatic, and spicy in flavor. Perfect for applesauce. It is an excellent, juicy, cider apple; good for all kitchen uses except baking.

I’m happy to see squash, eggplant, and sweet potatoes. The DC weather has turned cooler lately, and I am loving the feeling that fall has arrived! I used the eggplant and basil to not-so-creatively make my usual eggplant parmesan. The sweet potatoes I foresee being turned into these curried Sweet Potato Wedges, which I’ve made before and found very tasty. I’m also planning on roasting the tomatoes and tossing them with whole wheat penne and shrimp for dinner tonight. (The tutorial on tomato-roasting on Smitten Kitchen’s blog is excellent. Interesting side note: I learned that my friend Karen and her boyfriend Jwon are friends with Deb from SK, and I was totally starstruck and dorked out in her dining room when she told me this. Deb is one of my heroes.)

My last peach recipe: This one was a real crowd-pleaser, so I wanted to share. Another gem from SK was this Peach Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting recipe. I brought them to a BBQ and to work and everyone thought they were mega-tasty. I was glad to see the Great Peach Onslaught of 2009 go out on a high note.

Weigh-in switch: I’ve been forgetting to weigh in on Thursday mornings. Every other Thursday I’m out the door before 6:00 AM to hit the gym, and I’m just not capable of remembering to weigh in (and then remembering what the scale said) that early in the morning. So I’m switching my weigh-in day to Sunday. Sadly, my first Sunday weigh-in was not a stellar one, likely because of all the beer and Mexican food I consumed on the Saturday prior.

While last week’s delivery was a pretty sane assortment of things that are none-too-difficult to use up—a tomato, a pepper, a few peaches, a few apples—this week is a bit more challenging! Another dozen peaches have arrived. And I’m flying to Houston for my cousin’s wedding this weekend! How am I supposed to consume a dozen peaches when I’m not even around?

Also… when I land on Sunday afternoon, Steve is picking me up at the airport, and taking me directly to our friends’ house for a BBQ (and not just any BBQ—a goat roast)! So I did a little research on pie-freezing, and the internets say that you can freeze your pies before you bake them, then pop them in the oven and they’re good as new. Trusting that the internets know what they’re talking about, I embarked on another cooking adventure!

I took today off to prepare for the trip, and spent the better part of the afternoon making these hand pies from Smitten Kitchen. The recipe calls for a lot of prepping and chilling and prepping some more and chilling some more… so it takes a while. But I baked two of the hand pies, just to see how they would turn out, and I had one of them and they. are. awesome. The crust turned out wonderfully crispy and flaky and I’m sure all those chilling steps are to thank. The rest of the pies are in my freezer, and baking instructions have been written down for Steve, so he can bake them on Sunday and we can bring them to the goat roast. Lord knows I don’t need 20 tiny pies sitting around my house!

How does this spread look, eh? So nice that it attracted not one but two kitties! I apologize for the delay in writing about my week 6 delivery—it’s been a very awesomely busy week. We got the veggies Wednesday, I spent the better part of Thursday night and Friday morning cooking, then we drove out to The Plains for a birthday weekend in the woods. Here’s how I used the foodstuffs this week:

Oregano: Dried for future use (just like week one)

Peaches: Eaten just as they are. Crazy-delicious!

Zucchini and garlic: Mediterranean Quiche for Saurday morning, which was pretty darn tasty. If I were to make it again, I’d put some effort into squeezing the liquid from the cooked zucchini—I thought it was a little watery.

Cabbage and basil: Horseradish Cole Slaw, which paired awesomely with the BBQ Brisket that was served Saturday night.

And then there were the apples! They’re lodi apples, and there were eight of them. The farmer warned that they don’t last very long, and eight is a lot of apples for two people to eat… so I decided I should make something pie-like! A while back, when visiting Iowa over the holidays, I thoroughly enjoyed an apple galette (which is like a tart, but more rustic) that my stepmom made, and I asked her for the recipe. She ever-so-kindly scanned and e-mailed me the pages of Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home that featured this awesomeness. The recipe is actually pretty simple; the filling is apples, dried apricots, and dried currents, and the glaze is apricot jam and Grand Marnier. In addition to the anxiety around making my first pie crust, I was a little nervous about the lodi apples. I found very little information about them online—one site said they were good in pies, but I had no idea if it was trustworthy. It turns out it was—the galette was perfect! I can’t say enough about how tasty this was, and what a crowd-pleaser it turned out to be this weekend. Next time I have a surplus of apples and an upcoming special event, I’m breaking this one out again!

Three words: holy freaking crap. I made HG’s Lava Chocolate Cakes for Steve and I to enjoy while watching the Oscars, and they turned out even more awesome than I’d hoped.

At every step along the way, I should point out, I had my doubts. When I whipped up the filling, I worried there was not enough of it to go around. When I put the filling in the freezer, I worried the blobs were too flat. When I put the filling-blobs in the cake, I worried they were not frozen enough. When I pulled the cakes out of the oven, I worried they were underdone.

But I placed my faith in the Hungry Girl, fought my instincts, and followed the recipe exactly was it was written. Wow did it pay off. The cake was moist and light, the filling was smooth and delicious, and the proportion was just right. I served them plated with sliced strawberries, and we were both in heaven. I’ll definitely make them again!