Sweet Bakings--A Few Re-peerings

Last month, I blogged about sweet bakings, recipe undertakings spread over 13 years of blogging. Recipes I spotted on the web inspired me to experiment, not merely replicate. i came up with 28 cooky recipes and 19 cake and cake-ish recipes. For cakes, I started out mostly blogging about cupcakes and occasional mini-muffins. For cookies, I varied baking cake mix cookies but also baked scratch cookies.

Maybe surprisingly, I'd done several of the recipes seldom since blogging about them. A few never-agains are because a particular ingredient, usually a cake mix, is either no longer available, formulation is different, or weight is different (mostly less).

Specific to cake mix powder, I'd made cakes AND cake mix cookies over years to remember the standard size weighed 18.25 ounces. Manufacturers reduced the amount to 16.25 for a few years. Now it's 15.25. It's irritating about companies screwing around with powder amounts that, worse than result in smaller finished good(s), make an inferior item. Some recipes WERE perfect with 18.25 ounces of powder.

Cooky Monsterous

With "A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch" (#018), I combined Red Velvet cake mix (especially seasonal for Valentine's Day) and strawberry flavor cake mix. I'd made several batches for a few years for sharing in the workplace. Haven't made them for well over a decade.

I must have been really ambitious or patient when I did Krusteaz Choco Caramel Squares" (#139). Or I might have used a compelling coupon. Anyway, Seems that Krusteaz no longer carries my main recipe ingredient, Krusteaz Molten Deep Dish Chocolate Cookie with Caramel Center.

I noticed that I had omitted "Baking Cookies with Trader Joe Cake MIx" from my cooky recipe list. I can only guess that my results weren't great. In any case, TJ's 28-ounce Golden Yellow cake mix is no longer available. Instead, TJ sells Yellow Cake & Baking Mix, $2.99 for 16 oz. Price is double what I'd consider for name-brands Duncan Hines, Betty Crocker, or Pillsbury. BTW, I often buy my supermarket brand, comparable in quality to the name brands, and a smidge more powder (16.5 oz).

Cakes and Cupcakes and Muffins, Oh, My!

In June 2012, my first cakey recipe was "Lemon Poppyseed Mini-cupcakes" (#070). Not much of a stretch for deviating from a set recipe, but it was a start.

"Square Mini and Whoopie Muffin Experiment" (#88) was an experiment for using up two half-boxes of cake mix (Red Velvet, Strawberry) to try making muffins, and trying out two different pans. Let's just say the experiment was a been-there-done-that experience.

"Mini-cupcake Offload: Pan Type & Prep, Batter Amt" (#118) is another recipe that I made while in muffin mode, specifically mini-muffins. I might be inclined to try layer-caking it at another time. The ingredients sound tasty! The amount of cherry filling, however, sounds maybe more than necessary,. With a few cake experiments under my belt, I might be able to gauge actual amounts to use. Google can also help guide.

In 2016, I moseyed over to something bigger, to be eaten with a fork, then zebra layer cakes. It was another four years before making and documenting a layer. Did another couple more this year. Cakes are a bit more labor intensive than cookies.

I haven't baked muffins or cupcakes in a long while is because of a shifting preference for layer cakes. The longer baking times for such cakes seem to result in more moistness retention. (Cupcakes and muffins have more surface area per batch than two layers of cake.)

I have had an eye on a springform pan cake recipe "Cake in 5 minutes! You will make this cake every day. Few people cook cakes like this!". Thinking that chocolate pudding or blueberry jam in place of the orange filling might be interesting.

Serving Sizes SNit

Related to cake mix manufacturers' weight reduction is supposed number of servings. I distinctly recall that nutrition tables used to state that number of servings was 12. Now it's 10. Imho, it's a lot easier to cut a cake into 12 wedges than 10.

Meandering to barely-related topic--pizza portions. I won't name names, but one big-name pizza manufacturer states that the number of servings is 5. How easy is it to cut a pizza, whether round or square, into FIVE pieces?

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Related:
Pt 1 Sweet Bakings--Cookies, Mostly
Pt 2 Sweet Bakings--Cakes, Cupcakes, and Mini-muffins

Grapes-to-Raisins Musings

I rarely eat raisins. Had not baked anything having them until last week. I made several detours to the result, not something to write about at this time. Let's say my recipe title has "globbylar clusters" in its future. Anyway, back to raisins. I'd always thought of them as dehydrated and wrinkled grapes.

I had bought a 12-ounce box of Sun-Maid raisins to use in my recipe. The image shows green grapes and dark raisins. To my puzzlement, the list of ingredients was "raisins". Hmm, I'd have thought "grapes". Sunmaid.com declares, "Made with nothing but grapes and California sunshine, ...".

I wondered how much shrinkage occurred from grapes to raisins. Also got curious about the process.

Overview of Raisins

"Grapes to Raisins Time Lapse - 50 Days【4K】" shows drying using a fan, from different angles. The transition from firm green grapes to wrinkled brown raisins is eye-catching.

"6 Different Types Of Raisins You Can Find In A Grocery Store" provides overview--richly showing images and describing these raisin types. Apparently, method of drying, temperature, and humidity affect the final raisin colorations, which processors use for creating the desired results.

"Sun-Maid Sun-Dried California Raisins" explains the terrain, climate, harvesting, and 14 to 20 days of sun-drying.

"Video: Raisin Processing and Packaging - How It Works" takes up the grapes-to-raisins process from truck deliveries to manufacturing facility. A few clips of mechanization are impressive, a well-oiled machine. Sun-Maid does show products besides raisins, a testament to their versatility over time.

DIY Grapes to Raisins

Some sites mention two to four days for grapes to become raisins, much shorter than sun-drying or fan-blowing. You can DIY grapes-to-raisins processing.

"How to Make Raisins" explains three methods, with detailed steps and pix in sections titled "Drying Grapes in the Sun", "Making Raisins in the Oven", and "Using a Dehydrator". An unusual feature in the article is that each subtopic title "travels" with its respective method.

"Here’s a Grape Idea – Make Your Own Raisins!" is a short article, but explicit with explanations and steps for the methods (dehydrator, oven). Overview excerpt:

the red and purple grapes will yield a darker raisin, the green grapes a lighter version. Homemade raisins can come out plumper and juicier with a flavor that's truer to that of the original fresh grape, only more intense. Grapes are 80% water so it takes time to turn them into raisins. ... The traditional way to make raisins is for them to dry in the sun. The weather needs to be hot and dry. This takes 3 to 4 days, turning them frequently.

Grape and Raisin Water Content

The "Grape Idea" article, which mentions grapes being 80% water, nudged my curiosity about density.

"How Do You Raise a Raisin?" states "about four and one-half pounds of fresh grapes to make one pound of raisins." BTW, the article has engaging info and illustrations that look intended for younger audiences, but appealing enough for grownups. Look for explanation about raisins drying in the sun. It actually complements the Sun-Maid video about harvesting and drying the grapes.

"Comparing the nutritional content of Grapes and Raisins" states "A raw grape is on average 80.54% water and a raisin is 15.43%." This article is detail-heavy about nutrients and comparisons between grapes and raisins. Let's say it makes for dry reading. A factoid correlates with the Sun-Maid video WRT grape type--"Typically it is of the green seedless variety grown mainly in California."

"Why Grapes Cost More Than Raisins. What Eats Jellyfish." has grapes/raisins info. Ignore the jellyfish segment, although the article writer might have thought a tie-in about water percentages made sense. More reiteration about types of grapes, grape/raisin ratios, with a mention about regulation.

From four to four-and-a-half pounds of raisin grapes make a pound of raisins. There’s actually a raisin commission in California that keeps track of the size of the harvest and the number of boxed raisins held in storage. They control the number of boxes released to market, again, to avoid droughts and gluts on the shelves.

California Raisin Advisory Board (CALRAB)

The California raisin commission mentioned in the previous subtopic greatly influenced the popularity of raisins in the 1980s.

"The Story of The California Raisins" describes the Board's role with promoting raisins with claymation

It all began in the mid-80s when the California Raisin Advisory Board (CALRAB) started to look for a way to make raisins a cool thing to eat. After few failed attempts, the CALRAB called Oscar-winner Will Vinton [who passed away in 2018] to create clay animation figures for a commercial using Marvin Gaye’s 86 hit “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”.

Plumping Raisins

While Googling about raisins, I ran across topics for "plumping" (rehydrating) raisins for recipes. I had visualized maybe fewer or smoother wrinkles, maybe the raisins becoming bigger. Nothing like trying a process or two to see end results.

"How to Plump Raisins" intrigued me for seeming ease of the microwave technique of 1 cup of raisins and 1 tablespoon of water. After a couple of two-minute bouts of microwaving, using tight-resting lid to single-layer raisins on plate, I wasn't impressed. Not only did the raisins look unchanged, they weighted slightly less, indicating evaporation.

Later, I tried microwaving a different batch, immersing some raisins with plenty of water for a couple of minutes. The weight increased by about 17%. A few hours later, I gave those raisins another zap session, with additional water. Ultimately, they weighed more by another 18%. (Initial weight: 2 oz; second weight, 2.37 oz; final weight: 2.75 oz)

Comparing one ounce of out-of-box raisins to equivalent of plumped raisins (half of initial 2 ounces), the image shows size difference. Eh,.the time and effort hardly seems worth the effort. Also, I infer that some flavor and nutrients floated out in the microwaved water, maybe suitable for breads or muffins, maybe not for no-water cooky recipes.

Circling Back to DIY Raisins

Considering the yield of raisins after DIY drying, and the time, effort, and watchfulness required, it seems reasonable to leave the drying process to the pros (grape growers, harvesters, and raisin-product facilities). They have the infrastructure