Bread- 2.
Badger Girl- 1.

The Bread took this round.

So I was supposed to shape the dough into a tight ball (see above) but the dough was not cooperating (see below). 

This just about drove me nuts. The cookbook told me I needed to have iron hands with kid gloves. Really. How about a sledge hammer? Would that help? 

I don’t have problems getting the dough to rise as seen above. It darn near rose off the pan. Again. 

Also, in the picture in the cookbook, there is this neat, art-y cross in the breads. You can almost imagine a portly baker dressed all in white when you see the crosses on the bread. Mine looked like I took a machete to it. 

My guest ate some of the bread toasted this morning and said it was good. I am still too mad. I had some after it came out of the oven and pronounced it a disaster. Manatee disagrees and has convinced me he likes it. When I stop pouting, I will probably try toasting it.
I am going to take a break from these sponge breads and return to some more basic recipes, things at which I have previously succeeded and enjoyed doing. This weekend we are having some of Manatee’s family over for make your own pizza so I will be making the crusts the next few days. Hopefully I can rebuild my baking confidence.