Not really a disaster, just a rant.

I'm collecting the 'classic' cake recipes, you know, chocolate, red velvet, white, yellow, carrot.

My mom wanted me to make her nurses a cake so I could practice (she's nurse manager of PACU.)

And she decided she wanted a yellow cake with custard filling.

No problem, I've made custard a million times for work. And how hard can yellow cake be?

So I pop online to one of the cake communities I'm on and search for yellow cake. And I come up with "Martha Stewart's classic yellow cake."

Cool, I think, this will be perfect. The original recipe calls for two 9x13 pans, so I'll just cut the recipe in half for 2 9 inch round.

Nope, must have been a typo, I only got enough batter to barely fill one 9 inch round pan halfway, I mean, I should have noticed by the amount of flour and other ingredients that I wouldn't take that much. But I put my trust in Martha Stewart, and she failed me.

*le sigh*

So now I have to tort it (have I mentioned I HATE torting cakes?) and it won't be nearly as tall as I would have liked.

I should have gone straight to the Joy of Cooking like my DH suggested. bah!
:: grump, grump ::

don't feel bad, A lot of people put their trust and money into her, and she failed them too.

As I tell my Mom all the time, ther's more to life than Martha Stewart.

or you could just use a cake mix. Can't go wrong with them.

We prefer to be able to control what goes into our food.

We arent fond of preservatives, and artificial flavors.

Yes, you have to be careful with the recipes posted online. They sometimes omit instructions or are modified recipes. Just an FYI.

I haven't tried Martha's yellow cake. I made her white cake and it tasted great, but was a bit too fluffy. I'm more experienced at mixing batters now so I'll give it a try again one fine day.

I love to torte. The extra layer of frosting is umm, umm, good!

I agree, it might not even be her recipe or it may have been modified so that people wouldn't have to torte it, so baked it for a sheet cake in two pans instead of one, saves torting.
Gee, I have made a lot of her recipes from her own site, you are far better off doing a search on her site, there are three yellow cake recipes, or buying her Bake-it Book.
And just my two cents worth because I happen to be a big fan of hers, people either like her or they don't, she always said she was innocent, people are wrongly convicted all the time and let us face it, people like to go after someone who is successful. So the way I look at it, if I didn't see the person do the crime and there isn't the most definitive proof that they did it, and they say they didn't, well they may well be telling the truth.
Regardless, she served her sentence and is facing the public with grace, I admire that in anyone. We are all capable of change. People make mistakes.
For many of us she revolutionalized the way we cook, entertain, experiment, decorate wedding cakes. She gave catering and entertaining an element of respect that just wasn't there until she came along.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Who is Martha Stewart?
Why did she go to jail?

(Please don't hate me! I live in Australia and have not heard of her before.....)

You have got to be kidding, right?

Do you not get international news channels down there or read a newspaper? I can't believe there's anyone in the civilized world who has not at least HEARD of Martha Stewart and all of her trials and troubles.

That's really quite astounding.

And besides, she's only known in a few English speaking countries, mainly in the US and Canada. The rest of the world doesn't have to know her and no, not all of us have access to US tv channels.

She is some king of "domestic goddess" or "style-setter", also a television and magazine personality known for her cooking, gardening, etiquette, and arts and crafts projects, and as a general lifestyle guide and homemaker.

A jury found Martha Stewart guilty on four counts of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about a well-timed stock sale (she sold shares in a drug company days before its application for a new drug was denied); she was eventually convicted of lying to investigators and sentenced to prison in 2004,.

I love Martha Stewart! I agree with prior posts and if it did not come directly from Martha's Site or books then it might have not been posted correctly from the orginal recipe.

Thank you Squirelly for stating so elegantly (which I have trouble doing) that she may not have even been guilty as charged. I think that folks are very jealous of success and Martha became an easy target. The way she handled the situation was amazing! She did her time and came out on top! She even helped other inmates in the process. I applauded and supported her every step of the way!

I have subscribed to her magazine for years and will continue to do so because it is fantastic!! Her ideas are wonderful and every recipe of hers that I have made has been right on! I love her show and watch it as much as my schedule will permit.

Hey Beany if you have a chance you should go thru Martha's site and check out her magazine if you can get your hands on it! She really has some amazing ideas! Her "good things" sections are my favorite!! You can see them on her site too! Here wedding cakes are also amazing - simple elegance! And her gardening tips ... well I could go on for days about what I love about her stuff.... Oh and she does a kids mag too!!! My kids love her projects....

Sorry I got so long winded - I usually don't even respond to these posts but I could not help myself on this one!! I am just a such a big Martha Fan!!

She's like a "real" Betty Crocker!

Guys....just a quick FYI....I guarantee you that Martha is not in her basement creating the things you see put out. There are writers, artists, food specialists, etc that invent all these things and designs and then Martha puts her face on them and the ideas, recipes, and magazines. I am not a Martha hater at all but want to shed a little realism on how these celebs do this thing. Kind of like the George Foreman grill. George must have been up late inventing that one.

I love the Martha Stewart magazines! but I must say that it is her team that creates all these fantastic things. They have really put together an amazing team. I don't want to credit Martha with all the hard work that is a conglomoration of a number of ideas from a number of different people.

I love me some Martha.

I fully understand that Martha may not have come up with all the ideas herself and I wholeheartly acknowledged her brillant team. I would give my right arm to be on her team!! I love the team - but did you know that Martha Stewart was voted "one the the most fashionable college students in the nation" when she was in college? And the kicker was she MADE all her own clothes. So even if she did not come up with all the ideas I guarentee she can do them all!! She says she only sleeps about 4 hours a night because she has so much to do!! I am a firm believer with surrounding yourself with the best people and Martha no doubt has done it beautifully.



Team Martha!!

Of course, Martha isn't coming up with every idea for a new craft project in her magazines or new linen at kmart. She does oversee an empire. It's always amazed me that she's so good at so many things! She can bake, decorate, cook, sew, craft, AND has a mind for business. She is one of a kind. How many CEO's can whip up a wedding cake and decorate the reception?

I would like to add a bit of perspective to the Martha Stewart comments if I may.
I live in Australia too and I do know who Martha Stewart is. I have been buying her MS Living magazine for the past couple of years at what is a very expensive A$12.00 per issue. It is jam packed with exceptional articles. She has a reputation of being a" domestic diva" because she is the face out in front of a great group of talented people.

I am fortunate to be living in one of the main cities in Western Australia and have access to Satellite TV. 24 Hours a day we have beamed into our lounge room the news from CNN, ABC and FOX NEWS(with good old Steve E.D & Brian). During Martha's trial I don't know how many times we saw her climbing the steps of the courthouse in the rain & wind, struggling with her umbrella and so on and so forth. Eventually, rightly or wrongly she was convicted and had to do her time in prison and then in home detention.
I have seen a few recent episodes of her new show and she does not hide any of her unfortunate recent past. I am actually impressed with the dignity with which she carries herself. A lesser person would not have had the courage to go on as she has.
Just to put things in perspective though. Unless you have lived in or know someone who has lived in a small country town in Australia, you would be unlikely to appreciate the isolation they are in. These communities are serviced by very limited TV,Radio,Newspaper and even telephone facilities. So it would not be unlikely that a person living even 4 hours from where I am would not know of someone like Martha Stewart.
Some of my close family live in farming communities and sometimes their whole livelihood depends not on who is being convicted or otherwise in the US but what the weather pattern is going to be for the next few weeks or months so that they know when to plant, water or harvest their crops, to be able to feed their family.
It's probably a good time now for me to get off my soap box.
Karen

I have to say I agree with Squirrellycakes 100%. I'm not a huge Martha fan, but I do credit her with giving me the courage to even attempt my first wedding cake! I'm not crazy about many of her recipes, but I think the dignity and grace with which she has handled her recent misfortunes should serve as a lesson to us all -- this too shall pass.

Although I don't intend to buy her products any more or less than I ever have, I wouldn't boycott her either. Live and let live, I say.

Just my $.02.

Diane

Karen, I'm sure Beany appreciates what you have said. : )

Beany, Martha Stewart is an amazing talent in cooking, baking, flower arranging, gardening, and many other crafts. She has a couple television shows that run regularly and is very well known in many parts of the world. People either love her or hate her. She recently served a small prision sentence for selling stock based on insider information, the stock was getting ready to drop and it's alleged that she sold to avoid a huge loss. It's against SEC regulations to sell based on insider information. She still claims her innocence, but did go to prision gracefully and served her time.
I wasn't a huge fan before this happened, and I don't know what "really happened", but have become a fan since the ordeal has passed. I saw a lot of character in her through the process and have a new found respect for her. She is very talented and loved her version of "The Apprentice" that aired recently. I'm sorry you're so isolated! She has a great website at: http://www.marthastewart.com/
You can read more about what she's accused of here:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/machan/machan47.html
Hope this helps!

Her old show was a bit pretentious for me (good info, just too stuffy) but I really like the way they have re-styled her new show. She's more down to earth. Seems more human now. I still want to make that poncho she had on when she left but there just hasn't been time!

She modelled to put herself through college. Then she started out catering for friends and built a very successful career in catering. Then television shows, to cookbooks and decorating books, to magazines, to products with her name on them.
No, not every idea is her own, but some are and anything she has on the show or in her magazines, she tries her hand at too. The recipes, well some are hers or her mothers and some are other peoples, but they are all tested.
Like her or not, she has had a huge impact on how people live their home lives, how they entertain, how they cook, what wedding cake designs they choose from. She has educated a lot of people about holiday customs around the world, food items, all sorts of things.
The size of a population of a country has more to do with what commodities you have access to, than even the size of the country. For example, Canada is the second largest by land mass, country in the world, the United States is third largest. In Canada, we have 33 million people, the U.S. has, what, 295,734,130 approximately from census information.
Australia has 20,090,437
Canada has 32,805,041
Where people live in relationship to other countries and to the major cities within their own country has a lot to do with their access to global information. Or their access to just about anything. How much it costs, how difficult it is to establish, all these things affect access to the way information is transmitted.
I lived in a small mining city in Northern Ontario, in the 70's. The cable television hookup was done on an experimental basis, other larger cities had access to it for years. But Sudbury presented challenges because of the huge iron ore deposits and the geological challenges they produced to run lines and hookups to services and the interference they caused. I lived in a much smaller city, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, in the early 80's, because of the close proximity to the Soo Michigan, we had more television stations, access to American products sooner than some of the larger cities in Canada that were not close to an American border.
Now I live in Canada's capital city, the city from which the rest of the country is governed federally. And yet because of the population size, much smaller than the city of Toronto, we have access to far less things when it comes to decorating tools.
So the geography both on a map and the type of land and access to it and the size of the population, the richness of the regions within you live, the attitude and global power of the governing parties, all these and many other things contribute to what access you have to information and goods and other countries.
Haha, the Olympic coverage, I won't even go there except to say that most countries slant their news and sports, to some degree, in their own country's favour. I don't think you can live in too many places where you don't have a least a wee bit of nationalist or government propoganda influencing your broadcasts. If you have ever lived in Quebec, you would see that even within our own country of Canada, this exists. Quebec television news is all about Quebec and then, international news, very little if anything about the situation in the rest of Canada unless it somehow has an influence on what is going on in Quebec. Some countries are worse than others, that is true. I do think that Canadian broadcasts are more impartial than some others but that is something Canadian, we try to see things from all sides. Plus we don't have that strong sense of patriotism and loyalty to our country at all costs, that other countries seem to install. Sometimes, that is not a good thing and I wish we did have a deeper sense of patriotism. And we do have a bit of an inferiority complex about our role in the global world. Doesn't influence our ability to take an unpopular stand on some issues, though.
Every country has its own challenges to deal with and we all have much to learn about these challenges. With the introduction of sites like this, we have an amazing opportunity to learn more about each other.
Haha, way off-topic and just some musings of an old brawd!
Hugs Squirrelly

Squirrelly, just how fast do you type?!? Good heavens, you are one verbose, but always eloquent, critter!