Baking Frenzy

Periodically I have a weekend when all I have to do is bake. Normally these baking frenzies occur around Christmas; however, we didn’t get back from vacation until December 20th. So there was pent-up demand to fling some flour around.
Two occasions precipitated this weekend’s frenzy. Last week our friend BG gifted me with some of his sourdough starter. On Sunday we got together with the crew to welcome BG’s beloved back in town for a visit. It was also Julian’s birthday. Julian had requested chocolate or pecans, but not in the same dessert. So the frenzy broke down as follows:
Saturday: Sourdough whole wheat bread and pancakes. The bread came out of Bernard Clayton, Jr.’s New Complete Book of Breads. For some reason, these loaves didn’t rise very high. The pancakes came out of the King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook. They were nice and fluffy, but they burned on the outside before they were done inside. I should have thinned out the batter with a little milk.
Sunday: This day of baking was a bit more successful. I made the buttermilk cocoa cake out of Laurie Colwin’s More Home Cooking. The second was a Huguenot torte from The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen. This was an eggy batter that contained diced apple and pecans. Both of these recipes were quite easy. Both recipes were complementary in that the cake contained no eggs, while the torte contained no dairy. Both desserts were inhaled at the Sunday night soirée. One person was chipping away the dregs of the Huguenot torte off the  sides of the pan. Both of these recipes will be made again.