Let's have a post!

I'm going to be using this blog primarily for the Heavenly Cake Bake-Through, but will also post on cake or bread or other baking, and maybe general cooking, too. I was putting that sort of thing on my sporadically updated LiveJournal blog, but I figure people coming to my blog from HeavenlyCakePlace won't be interested in my rants on life, book maunderings, and other slice-o-my-life stuff. So, I'll put the food stuff here, and cross-post or link on LJ to here.

And to get started...an update on my standard challah recipe. After experimentation last year for Rosh Hashana, we all decided that dried cherries needed to be a standard addition, so I knead in about a third of a cup just before the first rise. I also try to get the dough a little wetter to help hydrate the cherries.


For Rosh Hashana this year, I made two--tried to do a round braid on one, but didn't execute it very well and it wasn't very pretty. The coil was fine, but didn't get eaten--it ended up in a baked French toast with berries and a crumb topping this weekend.

Just so every challah gets its time to shine, here's the coiled one.