Sunday is a prep day, when I start assembling doughs and organizing a week of orders. But it's also my favorite time to savor a few hours playing with ingredients and techniques. Today I defrosted some cassis purée and dug a big bag of matcha out from the back of the pantry. I chiffoned and I buttercreamed and I assembled. Then I took out the serrated knife and dug into the layers, cutting out a bowl from the middle of the layer cake, flipping it over and then building it over again. I had meant to take pictures of the process, to give a detailed how-to for creating a checkerboard cake. However, once I shoved that knife into the middle of a perfectly good layer cake, dug out a monstrous hunk, draped a reserve layer over what was now a gaping pastry sink hole, flipped the cake over, and then replaced the hunk of cake I'd just sawed and set aside, I'd developed a serious case of baking flop sweat and was physically incapable of picking up a camera with my buttercream sodden hands and taking a picture. And if I had, you'd just be as confused as I was. Next time. I promise.
