Pegleg Penny goes to Washington

Trying new things is always difficult. Whether it’s conquering a fear or doing/eating something you’ve never tried before, exploring something new, always has a little bit of hesitation. I’m not going to lie – sometimes fear of the unknown holds you back, but sometimes, if you give it a try it turns into an outstanding experience.

Let me take you back to the spring of 2003. I was offered a fantastic internship for that summer in Washington D.C., working at the Smithsonian. At first I was thrilled, not to mention proud, the fact that I could beat out hundreds of applicants to work at such an institution was pretty impressive – at least to me. However, I wasn’t too sure I wanted to go, it was more to prove to myself that I could get there. My other strong internship possibility in Chicago fell through. I was devastated and freaked out. Which are two very strong emotions that really don’t belong together. They may cause you to spontaneously combust or do very crazy things. Then I panicked and scrambled. I had to find something else. Washington DC, while a romantic idea, took on a whole other dimension of difficult. I had to find a place to live and get my booty out there, not to mention my boyfriend was staying in the area and I didn’t want to leave him. (I know – I’m a total sucker – but I already knew ‘long distance’ was NOT one of our strong suits.) In other words, I was terrified. But I needed a summer job to make a little pocket change, add things to my portfolio of tricks, AND I needed to give a little substance to my resume. So I went to Washington. (Yep, exactly like Mr. Smith.)

Which brings me to buttermilk…I’ve always had sort of ‘Eww’ Factor towards it. I think it’s that spoiled milk thing it’s got going on. It was never really been my thing. So when I picked up the June issue of Gourmet and they had a Raspberry Buttermilk Cake, I was skeptical. It was heavily buttermilky, it wasn’t like the Whoopie pies that just use a little bit. Then I looked at the pictures and my skepticism died down a bit. Then I noticed how easy the recipe sounded, and I considered it a little more. Then I decided to bite the bullet, to conquer my fear of the unknown, and try using buttermilk.

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake (As seen in Gourmet Magazine, June 2009)
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ stick unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup plus 1 ½ TBSP sugar, divided
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
½ cup well shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh raspberries (about 5 oz or one little carton)

Directions
-Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, placing your rack in the middle.
-Butter and flour an 9” round cake pan. Make sure you get all the edges well floured. It makes the cake a lot easier to dump out.
-Beat the butter and 2/3 cup of sugar until pale and fluffy. (Basically, until it’s pretty smooth.) -Then, add the vanilla and beat. Next, add the egg and beat well.
-In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.
-At a low speed on your mixer, mix in the flour with the butter/egg mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Make sure you begin and end with the flour.
-Spoon the batter into the cake pan. Scatter the raspberries over the top of the cake (there is no need to press them into the batter). Sprinkle the remaining 1 ½ TBSP of sugar over the top of the cake.
-Bake until the cake is golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Approx. 25-30 minutes. Cool in the pan for about ten minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges of the pan to make sure nothing has stuck and dump the cake to finish cooling.

I felt like this was more of a breakfast cake than a dessert cake. It came out very light, fluffy, and delicious, but it didn’t fill that after dinner sweetness craving that I sometimes have. I made two of them and they were easy and came out almost identical. There may be spots that are purpley on the cake. Don’t worry – it’s not mold (I was worried). I think the juices of the berries tend to run when they’re cooked. I had the leftovers a couple times for breakfast and it was a great croissant/toast substitute. It was also a great mid-afternoon snack for my workmates.

At the end of the day, buttermilk may not be so terrible. It has it’s place in the kitchen; I just need to figure out where it is and how to use it so it’s not hiding in a dark corner in my refrigerator, waiting to scare me.

As for Washington DC, maybe I didn't make an impression on it, but it made an impression on me. I ended up renting a room right by Union Station. I had old childhood, wonderful, amazing friends living there that I was able to reconnect with. Part of experiencing that summer I will forever owe to them. I saw the city inside and out. I welcomed my 21st birthday there. I, by no means, will say it was easy. It’s hard to be comfortable in a place when you’re there for such a short period of time. However, once I got out there I was determined to give it a chance – I had no choice. I had friends to go to museums and foreign film screenings with. But I also took the time to go to the farmer’s market, wander the city, go to the zoo, and go see the giant flower at the U.S. Botanic Garden (the one that flowers once every decade and smells like rotting meat) by myself. I took the Metro to Bethesda to go to Trader Joe’s. I went to my first movie screening in the park on the National Mall. It was visually and mentally stimulating. (Even if I came away with nothing to add to my portfolio.) While it may be totally cliché, sometimes you don’t realize how great something will be until you try it. I may not be a big fireworks fan, nor a big 4th of July fan, but nothing can replace the memory of sitting on a cornerstone/planters ledge off the steps of the National Gallery and watching the 4th of July fireworks on the Mall. And to think if I had stayed in the safety of my comfort zone I’d have a little less to talk about and be a lot more boring.