There's good, and not so good

So yesterday, rather than playing with our new, ever so addictive Wii, I decided to bake 2 goodies: Angel Food Cake and Pistachio Bark.  One happen to turn out much better than the other one, but I'll explain that as you read on.

First up, the Bark.  Simple, easy and oh so delicious.  I got the recipe from the one and only, Brown Eyed Baker.  One blog I highly recommend to all of you.  The recipe is plain and simple, 3 ingredients:  pistachios, white chocolate and dried cranberries.  It's easy:  melt the white chocolate, mix in the nuts and berries, and spread it out on wax paper.  Let it set and you're good to go.  I only have one complaint... the pistachios were to hard to break!  We only had shelled nuts, so I had to break them open and fill up a 1/2 cup.  It took FOREVER!  And I got a blister out of it, so I thought "this bark better turn out." 

It did, and I have the pictures to prove it. 

Next up, Angel Food Cake.  It seemed to go very well while I was making it.  I think the hardest part was making sure the 10 eggs were room temperature, in order to make sure the whipped peaks were just right.  I was able to use my new Kitchenaid mixer, so I was very excited about that.  If you don't have one, get one.  It is probably one of the best kitchen inventions ever.  It whipped my egg whites into great shape!  Another ingredient I had difficulty with was sifting the flour and powdered sugar together, only because I don't have a sifter.  Well, technically I do, but it's stored away, so I had to use a pasta strainer.  And sifting flour through a strainer 3 times can become a huge pain in the butt, but I did it.  Other than those two inconveniences, the pre-baking process went well. 

I baked it in our friends oven because they were making us dinner, and this was dessert!  It baked very well, rose, and had a great golden color.  The only problem after baking, was getting the cake out of the pan.  Part of it never made it out intact.  I had to cut it out and place it in the gap.  Plus, some paint from the pan came off onto the cake.  It was an old pan, so I took it to it's maker.  So it wasn't the prettiest looking cake, but it's not all about looks, it's about taste, right?

Well, the taste was OK.  I made a slight change to the recipe with honey, as suggested by the cookbook.  Instead of using a full cup of granulated sugar, I used 1/2 a cup and 1/2 a cup of honey.  It was a good idea, but not such a great taste.  I think I put in a little too much honey.  So, like I said, the taste was OK, but I think I'm going to use the regular recipe next time.  We also put kiwi on top of the cake, which tasted pretty darn good.  So take that as a suggestion for your cake!