{"id":2298,"date":"2013-04-04T20:31:36","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T01:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/headofstatecakes.com\/?p=75"},"modified":"2013-04-04T20:31:36","modified_gmt":"2013-04-05T01:31:36","slug":"the-botanist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2013\/04\/the-botanist\/","title":{"rendered":"The Botanist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jefferson3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is so much to be said about Thomas Jefferson<\/a>. Many people are out there saying it all. I see Jefferson as almost a magic 8 ball. We turn to him looking for something that resembles the answer we most want to hear.<\/p>\n

In addition to being the main author of the Declaration of Independence<\/a> and our third President, Jefferson had many interests. For example he was into architecture, archaeology, wine making, cooking and industrial design.<\/p>\n

Jefferson was also what was called a gentleman farmer<\/a>. These guys had estates of many purposes. I’ve seen the gentleman farmer described as an “intellectual farmer.” This term, like many, fits Jefferson.<\/p>\n

At Monticello<\/a>, Jefferson oversaw the growth of many plants. Monticello had flower gardens, fruit gardens and vegetable gardens. there is much to choose from here toward developing a cupcake for Jefferson. Jefferson called his eight-acre fruit garden “fruitery.” There he grew gooseberries, currants, raspberries and apples.<\/p>\n

\"jefferson4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And there were the peaches<\/a>. At some point Jefferson planed as many as 38 varieties of this sweet, juicy fruit. With his bounty of peaches, in addition to drying them, he made mobby, a peach cider or brandy (depending on whether or not it was distilled).<\/p>\n

In contrast to the success of his peach growing, Jefferson tried with limited success to grow almonds. Since, Jefferson was a man of contrasts, it seemed suitable that his cupcake should combine the flavors of his successes with the flavors of his failure. His failures, after all, were as important in the making of the man as his successes.<\/p>\n

The cake:<\/p>\n

The Botanist is a peach and almond cupcake. The cake is flavored with peach schnapps, peach preserves and peach puree. There is a bit of ground almond and almond extract in the cake as well. The frosting is a peach-rum buttercream; it was flavored with a bit of almond extract, peach schnapps, peach preserves and spiced rum.<\/p>\n

With all of the peach-based ingredients in this cake, I expected the fruit flavor to be stronger than it was. Overall, I would call this cupcake a flavor success. However, there were some elements that weren’t what I was going for. These cupcakes turned out to be softer than I thought it would be, and as you can probably tell from the picture below, they did not rise as much as I expected them to. I may find myself back in the kitchen tweaking this recipe. I’d also love to try the frosting with a brandy instead of the schnapps and rum combination.<\/p>\n

\"jefferson2\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  There is so much to be said about Thomas Jefferson. Many people are out there saying it all. I see Jefferson as almost a magic 8 ball. We turn to him looking for something that resembles the answer we most want to hear. In addition to being the main author of the Declaration of
…read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[247,242,248,249],"class_list":["post-2298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-almond","tag-cakes","tag-peach","tag-thomas-jefferson","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p33KTw-B4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2704,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2013\/08\/the-bachelor\/","url_meta":{"origin":2298,"position":0},"title":"The Bachelor","author":"sherlonya","date":"August 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 James Buchanan is one of the presidents unfortunate enough to be on one side of Lincoln, a president commonly remembered as a great one (well, at least among some folks). The one fact that I remember from elementary school studies is that he was the only president not to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"buttercream\"","block_context":{"text":"buttercream","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/tag\/buttercream\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"buchanan1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/headofstatecakes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/buchanan1.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3336,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2014\/04\/the-silent\/","url_meta":{"origin":2298,"position":1},"title":"The Silent","author":"admin","date":"April 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"If people know that you\u2019re into presidents, that it is your thing, you get to hear a lot of people tell you their favorite presidential anecdotes. One of the stories I hear most often is the one about a woman betting that she could get Calvin Coolidge to say more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "baking"","block_context":{"text":"baking","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/baking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"coolidge2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/headofstatecakes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/coolidge2.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/headofstatecakes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/coolidge2.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/headofstatecakes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/coolidge2.gif?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":632,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2010\/04\/president-monroe\/","url_meta":{"origin":2298,"position":2},"title":"President Monroe","author":"admin","date":"April 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't know what it was about this biography, The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness, but every time I picked it up, something about it made me think, \"Oh, James Monroe is so cute.\" And then I followed it up with a sigh. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"31 goals\"","block_context":{"text":"31 goals","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/tag\/31-goals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/1344197_200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4769,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2016\/06\/so-i-think-someone-tried-to-buy-sex-from-me-this-afternoon\/","url_meta":{"origin":2298,"position":3},"title":"So, I think someone tried to buy sex from me this afternoon","author":"admin","date":"June 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"It has been a while since I have felt genuine fear when approached by a man, and I don\u2019t miss that feeling at all. This story starts weeks ago. I was on a lunch break walking to a nearby restaurant, when I took an alternate route in order to avoid\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "stranger than fiction"","block_context":{"text":"stranger than fiction","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/stranger-than-fiction\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4766,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2016\/06\/cocktail-coundown-founding-fathers\/","url_meta":{"origin":2298,"position":4},"title":"Cocktail Coundown: Founding Fathers","author":"admin","date":"June 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"If Election 2016 makes you feel like drinking, I can help. Here I\u2019ll make cocktails for each US President. By November, we can drink them all! One died in service to his county. Three died on the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, two on the same day, one,\u00a0five years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "baking"","block_context":{"text":"baking","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/baking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4191,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2014\/12\/phoenix-south-carolina-1898\/","url_meta":{"origin":2298,"position":5},"title":"Phoenix, South Carolina (1898)","author":"sherlonya","date":"December 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"November 1898. \u00a0 Black to white ratio in the general area of Greenwood County, South Carolina. Years since changes to the South Carolina constitution that raised the voting requirements. One needed to be able to answer any questions about constitutional provisions asked and one needed to pass a literacy test.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mathematics of a Race Riot"","block_context":{"text":"Mathematics of a Race Riot","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/mathematics-of-a-race-riot\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ballotbox","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.riotnumbers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/ballotbox-300x300.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}