Department Retreat

Classes start Monday and yesterday was our all-day department retreat. I hate the name 'retreat' (Trena had a great post on this recently) because it makes me think of a day at the spa with a massage and pedicure, which is of course far from it. But our retreats actually aren't bad, especially compared to the ones at UT. First, size matters. This department is a lot smaller, only 13 people (including adjuncts) compared to around 30 tenure-track faculty at UT alone. And, even more importantly, we are not dysfunctional and very collegial. So we had a productive meeting, with great food, which really helps. I had made 2 cakes (I love any excuse to bake and spread flour all over the kitchen floor) and a colleague had baked a chocolate cake. Needless to say that I broke my own rule of no sweets on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. I usually don't bend this rule much but I had to sample my own cake, right? My other excuse: I'm due in 5 days, what the heck!
Both of my cakes were a bit of an experiment. I didn't have enough eggs so I used only 3 eggs instead of 5 in the lemon pistachio cake and replaced the 2 missing eggs with a mixture of water, oil and baking powder. I found that on the web and it worked. The second cake was a German recipe for an apricot sour cream cake with coconut streusels. It called for a pack of powder to make vanilla sauce, which you can't get in the US. So I had to use a mix for vanilla pudding and just guess how much it would thicken the sour cream. I was concerned when I took it out of the oven because it looked too soft but it was the right texture after being refridgerated for a while.