Curse You Bundt Pan!

Curse You Bundt Pan!


It is my mother in laws birthday, and we are doing brunch at my house.  My husband and I just finished binge watching the first season with Noel Fielding as one of the co hosts of The Great British Bakeoff and we were feeling lofty about our baking abilities. (Depending on where you are from, I have no idea which season that really is.)  We had the brilliant idea of doing a lovely lemon and blueberry pound cake served with a Quiche Lorraine. All of it to be served with a white wine sangria.  It sounds super classy, delicious and relatively easy.

Jon and I decided to do the cake a day ahead so that we didn't have to rush this morning.  The recipe is one I found on Pinterest, and sounded easy enough.  Make the cake, put it in the pan, bake, cook and take it out of the pan, cool and icing.  I was good all the way to take the cake out of the pan.
In fact I think the cake decided that it would rather live in the bundt cake pan then ever see the light of day in one piece.  The sole bright side, is that despite it being an utter shape disaster, it was a magnificent  flavor masterpiece.  It tasted like blueberries and lemons.  Total flavor win, when something tastes the way it is expected.

Once we finally retrieved all of the cake bits from the nefarious bundt pan that is the bane of baking existence (or it is in my house).  Oh the swear words that came up, and then it evolved into our best impressions of common judge comments.  We had to come up with a Plan B to go with the quiche.  To the mighty internet we searched, and discovered that cake ruined by unruly bundt is a thing and that breakfast trifle is going to be a thing. Or at least a thing that we are serving for brunch. 

This set back could easily have ruined my day and weekend. I don't often utterly fail so hard at baking. I think the lesson learned is that baking is hard.  When life gives you lemons and your cake doesn't turn out, you just have to make the best out of what you have.  Trifles are amazing. The quiche is delightful and so is Sangria.  Happy Birthday Joanne!


For those interested, this is where I got the Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake Recipe:  Grandbaby Cakes

Grandpa's Cheese Barn

When you say the Grandpa's Cheese Barn, you are either mentally conjuring up a dilapidated old red barn that might be missing a few boards, with a couple of cow roaming around outside and looking a little sketchy or you are thinking about one of the hidden gems of Ohio.

Not Sketchy and Not a Red Barn!

Grandpa's Cheese Barn is like someone read my diary and discovered the way to my heart was through tourist attractions, cheese products and fart jokes. Grandpa's Cheese Barn in Ashland, Ohio covers all three.  Their mascot might be my new favorite mouse mascot.   The facility is neat and orderly and full of humor and food.  There was a little something for everyone there, even if cheese isn't your thing. (I am not judging, we have some dairy intolerant individuals in my family.)  

Colby! Perfect mascot name!

There were samples of  most items, which is extremely effective in convincing a person to try something, and the prices were modest. My husband totally decided he needed to come home with teriyaki beef jerky after a single sample. One of my favorite sections aside from the cheese, tea, jerky, snack food and chocolates, is the gift shop. I love a good gift shop, and the cheesier the items the better.  Their gift shop has a wide variety of shirts and other sundry items.  The thing that stole the show for me were the post cards. 

Some lucky people are getting this postcard from me!

I know that sending physical mail is an archaic form of communication, but I love it.  I love sending mail, I love receiving mail. When a gift shop has post cards, that is one of the first things I check out.  Postcards are a wonderful souvenir to remember where you have been, and often times have a picture on it that is way better then I could have taken.   Grandpa's Cheese Barn did not fail me.  They had their signature joke on their postcard and a postcard with their mousey mascot. It was a double win for me.  I picked up at least half a dozen postcards to send, mixed in with the cheese curds I couldn't live without and tea, jerky, t-shirt and soap that needed to be rescued.  The only thing that I couldn't not find in the gift shop were magnets. They might have been there, but I honestly think I was a bit distracted with amount of excitement I had coursing through me.  Grandpa's Cheese Barn is a dream.  It is one of those places that you thought was made up for television and then realize that this is better than any TV fantasy. T

If you happen to be in Ohio and see and exit for Grandpa's Cheese Barn, I would recommend stopping. The cheesy goodness that oozes out of that place is beyond belief!