rhubarb, vanilla and jasmine flower layer cake (& 1 year of tentimestea)

Today marks one year from my first post. It is also the first time I’ve taken photos on a different background–it required a roll of paper, a great deal of scotch tape, and slightly convoluted camera angles. For mixed results. I guess I’m still working on this aspect.

This past year has been a fun one. A year sounds longer than it feels and I suppose it is as I’ve spent half of it away from the blog. It still is technically a birthday though, and so I’ll continue my celebration regardless.

As is fitting on these sorts of occasions, I’ll start off with some requisite reflection on the past year. It has been quite a year–I think I’ve made some lovely new friends and followed even more and more lovely bloggers. And to think of all the things I’ve learned…

I learned that I actually like muesli. I learned what the texture of baked mochi is. I learned the Italian meringue method for macaron shells. I learned how to make a rolled cake that doesn’t crack. I learned that quiche is incredibly rich but also adaptable and really quite delicious. I learned that I know nothing about sourdough bread. I learned that I need to remember (i.e. bother) to proofread. I learned how to adjust the focus on my camera, finally! I learned that so many bloggers have so much to share, I learned that comments take time, but are so much fun to give and receive, and, finally, I learned how much I value this interactive aspect of blogging.

I knew this last point for a while, but just how much I value interaction only became apparent to me more recently (let me give you a sudden break in writing style so I can just launch right into an anecdote.) A month or two ago, along with a great deal more rejections, I had a couple photos accepted by foodgawker. I was very happy when the photos were accepted–I considered it, for some reason, very important validation of my blog as an actual food blog. And I watched as I had the greatest number of daily views ever on my blog which was (I think some of you may have to try not to laugh!) 65, a very considerable increase from usual.

And then that was all. After it had actually happened, I didn’t feel particularly happier or all that proud. And I realize now that an interested viewer who might interact, perhaps dropping a comment or an email, is so much more valuable to me than the quantity of page views. Immeasurably more valuable actually.

I realized that I didn’t really care about the breadth or width of the reach of tentimestea. What I really wanted was depth. I got to cohost my first Fiesta Friday and had a ridiculous amount of fun. I was on the cusp of becoming an avid depth-oriented blogger.

And then I went through this exhausting blog fatigue thing. A few weeks later, still forcing myself to oh gosh upload these photos, I’m here. One year later.

I don’t intend to make any commitments for the coming year. Though I’m sure I’ll still be around a year later, posting run on sentences and garbled recipes and an excess of dull photos on teak.

Even though I’m tired, I love having a blog. tentimestea has made me a motivated baker. I take notes, I think about what could be improved, I question why things turned out the way they did. Sometimes I’ll actually do something over if it turns out poorly. I love having a place to document what I make, the exhausting part is putting together the posts and making them even a fraction as good as I want them to be.

I won’t commit to posting more or posting less. I won’t commit to maintaining a certain standard of quality for this blog either. I don’t know what will happen, but regardless I’ll try to enjoy myself, as, even if I’m tired, I still want tentimestea to be something I love. And I wouldn’t love it as much as I do without the occasional reader and all the lovely bloggers (food and otherwise) that I’ve encountered.

Thank you for a marvellous year!

Recipe notes:

It is a very rhubarb-y cake. The cake itself has a golden hue from the spelt flour, and was meant to be flavoured with dried jasmine, which did not particularly come through. Between the layers is a very thin gloss of caramelized white chocolate ganache, a vanilla and jasmine pastry cream (which I was very fond of, but unfortunately was lacking in quantity) and roasted rhubarb. It’s then slathered with a liberal coating of butter…or rather Italian meringue buttercream beaten with rhubarb curd.

I found the cake, overall, to be too acidic. I think it could have been remedied with additional pastry cream–it was the most mellow and pleasant component of the cake, not overly tart as was the roasted rhubarb, or overly sweet as was the ganache, or both, as was the buttercream.

I did actually enjoy the buttercream though–it was rich and smooth and silky. It was quite sweet so I made an unsweetened rhubarb curd to beat into it, which resulted in an assertively tart flavour and a gentle pink colouring.

The cake was a bit of a struggle. Having only one pan, I made each layer successively and watched, sadly, as each layer became tougher and rose less. The batter ended up sitting for half an hour between each layer due to the time taken to bake the previous layer, wash the pan and prepare it. Next time I would mix together the butter ingredients and the dry ingredients, divide it into three, and mix each layer individually right before baking.

Altogether it was an alright cake, though rather horrible when it was cold as it made the cakes seem even tougher!