The Case of the Encoded Cookie Cake

Someone at work shared his cookie birthday cake from the Milk and Cookies Bakery on Commerce Street here in NYC. I found my slice to be fine and pleasingly crumbly. Though the dark chocolate ganache on top was slightly more rich than I would have liked, it was still a good mid-afternoon diversion.

Don't ask what was written in icing across the cake. Apparently, it's something of a secret. Inside Joke Cake!

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Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Cake Takes the Cake

My son turned one a month ago. We decided not to throw him a big "First Birthday" party because he'll never remember it and we have so many adult and baby friends we'd need to invite that we'd never find a suitable party venue we could afford.

What we did instead was show up at a local park on his birthday with a picnic blanket, cake, water, and a few snacks. We also texted and emailed a bunch of people at the last minute inviting them to stop by for a piece of cake. The impromptu get-together meant we kept our numbers and budget low.

The cake I chose was really more suitable for adults than babies, and slices were more like incredibly rich, moist brownies than cake. The key ingredient that made for this texture? Mashed banana. It was dense enough that revelers didn't need forks or plates, which was perfect for the park. Peanut butter frosting served alongside made for an optional topping.

I am looking forward to making this cake again. It was really good.  Find the recipe for the cake here (I used coconut oil instead of olive oil). I also used this frosting recipe.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Baby! I hope there are countless cakes in your future.

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Let Them Eat (Fish and) Cake

Bon Chovie fried, fresh anchovies.  Eat the head or twist it off -- it's up to you!


Ridiculously good pumpkin cake with hot fudge sauce and bourbon whipped cream -- the perfect cake to eat outdoors on a frosty autumn afternoon.

Months and months ago, we made our last sojourn to Smorgasburg, the seasonal (outdoor) Brooklyn Flea food market that is for neighborhood "foodie" fare what a farmer's market is for fresh fruits and vegetables.  Shortly after this trip, it closed for the winter.

I haven't come anywhere close to trying at least one thing from each vendor, but I look forward to continuing this quest in the spring. Smorgasburg reopens April 7th.

See past Smorgasburg/Brooklyn Flea posts here and here.

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From the Vaults: Cake and Bake

I've managed to create a few homemade desserts in the past several months, even with a rug rat taking up much of the time I'm used to spending in the kitchen.



Here's a slice I remember fondly.  It's from a Tres (actually Cuatro!) Leches Cake.  This cake was amazing.  I doubled the recipe and made two -- one for a friend's birthday and one for myself.  Thanks go to Zach for the recipe.


Cake:
6 eggs, separated
2 cups sugar
2 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Topping (leches):
1 can coconut milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup heavy cream

OVEN @ 350

Use a mixer: Beat egg whites till soft peak, slowly and sugar to stiff peaks, add yolk one at a time making sure to incorporate each one. Alternate dry and wet ingredients. Make sure to do this part quickly (to not lose volume). Put in a greased rectangular cake pan and bake until golden- maybe 25 mins.

To make the milky topping: in blender/processor- combine all ingredients.

Remove cake from oven, while still warm, poke holes all over the top. Use all the liquid.

You can make this double layered by using two round or square cake pans.

Once you poke holes in the cakes and pour all the liquid in, it works well to wrap the pan up really well with saran wrap an put in the fridge to cool. To get the cakes out of the pans once they have chilled, set the pan directly on your stove burner on low for a bit to warm up the bottom. Then when you flip it over it will pop right out! I just left it in the pan, though, and ate it that way.

Frosting: Top with whip cream blended with sugar and vanilla. In the middle of the two cakes (if stacking), spread whipped cream and some sprinkles of cinnamon.

 



Oh, and I managed to turn out a pretty tasty Plum Cake -- honestly, I'd forgotten where I got the recipe, but I think I used this one. Yum.




And we had a plateful of Apple Fritters -- These came from a kids' cookbook I have.  They were only really right when freshly made (and then quickly got soggy), but were quite good at that point.

Just looking at these photos makes me want to get back to my mixer.  Got any recipes for me to try?

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I love you more than I love dessert...

A good wedding is good for many reasons, but a good wedding with a great dessert spread hits the top!  I couldn't get very nice photos because of the (romantically) dim lighting, but I ate my heart out.  I almost managed to try everything.  Well, not every flavor of everything! There was so much variety.



Highlights for me? The chocolate cake (a bit salty -- in the best way) and the tiny, white-chocolate-covered, carrot cake bites.  Also cream puffs (I had two).



Congratulations, Steph and Pete!  Sweet, sweet happiness to you!

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Birthdays at Bars

Chocolate Bourbon Birthday!

Two charming friends had birthday celebrations over the weekend.  The weather was hot and steamy here in Brooklyn, so I appreciated that both get-togethers took place at bars with outdoor spaces.

James' birthday soiree happened at The Woods.  The bar's outdoor space is large and there's a mighty fine taco truck parked out back.  This worked to my advantage, as a delicious dinner was one of my goals for the evening.  Dan had an asparagus taco and a chicken taco  ($2.50 each).  I had a chicken burrito filled with chicken, rice, corn, verde salsa, and beans ($5).  Nice.

We also enjoyed reading the geopolitical equations someone had written on our table with black marker:



My favorite, not pictured here, said "USA - Australia = Jesus Camp."  While I doubt the scribe of this sentiment really knew what he/she was talking about, I like the idea that she/he was thinking  a good dose of Australian values is the only thing keeping the U.S. from becoming one big Jesus Camp (a fine documentary, by the way).

I wasn't drinking much at the Woods, but I was talked into trying a "pickle back."  This is a shot of whiskey (often Jameson) followed by a shot of pickle brine.  Now, I love pickles and had no problem thinking about drinking the pickle juice.  The whiskey was what worried me.  But I found that once I took the plunge everything was just fine.  The pickle flavor wiped any bitter alcohol away.  I felt refreshed and ready for more.  This could be a dangerous drink for me!



The second birthday gathering I attended this past weekend was Kelly's.  She celebrated with a "day drinking" session at Spuyten Duyvil.  We enjoyed plates of cheese, pickles, and olives from the bar.  I drink a sparklng wine from Juve y Camps and a (non-alcoholic) ginger beer.  But the highlight of that afternoon was snacking on segments of mini chocolate bourbon bundt cakes from The Blue Stove.  They're quite a deal at $3 each, tasting moist and sweet like cake and frosting all swirled into one.

More summer birthdays, please!

Trickle-Down Cakenomics

Caitlin made a vegan chocolate cake for a Passover/birthday dinner on Monday evening. She brought some into the office yesterday and gave a leftover slice to Jeff. Apparently knowing how I feel about cake, Jeff offered half of his slice to me. It was delicious.

If you think you don't like vegan food, you should at least make an exception for vegan chocolate cake. I love vegan food, but I wager you won't be able to tell that most vegan chocolate cakes are vegan.

Now that I've used the word vegan so many times in a row, I'm exhausted.

Almost forgot to tell you.

A while back, this one guy at my parents' church gave my sister a slice of cake to take home from Pennsylvania to Boston. But she met me in New York city to change trains and gave the cake to me (she'd had a slice while at the church, so she knew how good it was). Isn't she nice?

It was dark and deep -- like chocolate and chocolate again. Thanks, sis.

My caramel hot tub.

I followed a chocolate brownie cake recipe I found online.

The blogger warned me that the cake might cave in as it cooled.




It did.

The recipe also said that, because I was supposed to fill the top of the cake with honey-roasted peanuts (I made them, too) and caramel sauce, this caving-in of the brownie cake wouldn't matter.




It didn't.


Never has something that looked so much like a hot tub tasted sooooo good.

I had Apple Cake for breakfast.

Thanks, Martha!

In Love with Lemon Cake

Thanks to Susan, I enjoyed a slice of lemon cake from Our Daily Bread, which she found the Union Square Farmers Market yesterday. Dense and smooth with an easily loosened crumb, it was something like lemon pound cake baked in a bundt pan and topped with a lemon glaze. Flavors swung from sharp and sour to sweet and mild in a perfect pendulum arc.

Happy Birthday, Rachel!

Sunday was Rachel's birthday. She's a woman who knows what she wants, and what she wants is to not make a big deal out of her birthday. But I couldn't help making a small-to-middling deal. After all, as a friend, she's a big deal to me.

The back story: a month or so ago, our mutual friend Stephen threw a party. One of the desserts featured there was a coconut cake he made from a Cooks Illustrated recipe. It was heavenly. Rachel raved about it, exchanged messages with me and Stephen about how to locate the recipe and the ingredients (creme of coconut can be a bit tricky to find), and even mentioned her love of it on the internet (I believe she said, "I dream of this cake" on Facebook). I thought it might make a good birthday present.



I spent early Sunday afternoon baking, toasting coconut, and creating the frosting, as well as putting everything together and cat-proofing the finished product. The cake was made of 2 round cakes cut in half horizontally, so it was a 4-layer cake with coconut buttercream frosting in between and on top. There were coconut creme and extract in the cake and the frosting, as well as toasted coconut throughout the icing, so I would call this triply coconut.

I'll make this admission: when I was making it, the buttercream frosting seemed to curdle, so that texture was a bit off, especially to the eye, but it still tasted delicious -- light and filled with coconut.



Other than the buttercream fumble, this cake was spectacular on every level. I rarely use cake flour, but the recipe called for it and the result was a silky-smooth texture very pleasing in the mouth. It was perhaps not unlike eating an angel.

Rachel deserved no less a cake.

Sweet and Lowdown

(photo by Dan)

I'm feeling a little low. My cat's spending the night at the veterinarian's office, due to a suddenly blocked urethra. I miss that bugger.

But I'm trying to keep good thoughts in my head while waiting to hear his prognosis. My memory of the cheesecake Ethan brought to work yesterday is one of those good thoughts. It was certainly the high point of the work day.



You see, Ethan's birthday was last weekend, and his brother got him an amazing gift -- a cheesecake sampler from Junior's. I felt a little like it was my birthday when Ethan brought some of the leftovers to share with us.



I've always meant to get to Junior's but haven't yet. This taste of their wares whet my appetite for another slice. Hopefully I'll have something to celebrate in my cat's continuing recovery. Good news tomorrow morning could just necessitate more cheesecake.

Giant Movie Night -- Accidentally Awesome

 

 GMN Week six Film: Boogie Nights, starring Luis Guzmán, as far as I'm concerned. With Thomas "Mr. Patricia Arquette" Jane of Hung, interestingly enough. 

Snack: Spotted Dick (a gift from Rusty), ice cream. 

Guests: Dan. 

Outcome: It was another quiet Giant Movie Night. I appreciated the film on this re-viewing. Like Casino, it's the sort of stylish epic (with just enough humor) that I don't get tired of.

 

Canned Spotted Dick was a frightening and exciting treat. I may have mentioned I'm not too big on raisins, and this is basically a stiff sponge cake with raisins (if only it had been currants, as described on the Wikipedia page). However, once steamed in the microwave it wasn't half bad. It was a little like slightly dry pumpkin bread (with raisins). I didn't even need to cover it with ice cream to make it palatable. Perhaps the non-canned version is grosser? I thought it would be grosser. In short: this snack was not terrible at all. Thanks, Rusty! It was only due to your thoughtfulness that I had the chance and encouragement to try it. Still, the cake does manage to look unappealing. You could work on that, Brits. But don't let me tell you your business.

Cheesecake shots

Jeff brought leftover cheesecake to work on Friday. I'm not sure of the flavor -- almond, perhaps?

Whatever it was, it was good. I'm going to have to check out this Veniero's place myself.


p.s. These sandals (top photo) by White Mountain might be the most comfortable non-sneakers shoes I've ever owned.

Cupcakes After Dark

Mike's snazzy birthday cocktail party was catered by a friend of his named Emily Anderson. I enjoyed everything of hers I tried -- "devils on horseback" (dates wrapped in bacon), ceviche on tortilla crisps, vegetarian pizza squares. I heard great things about her mini meatballs, too.

But the shining moment of the evening was when the cupcakes came out. Apparently, Emily has won cupcake contests with her creations. I believe it. The pineapple milkshake variety was divine, which is what Dan chose. I had Boston Cream -- also amazing, if not equally outstanding. Both were rich, tender, and flavorful -- yet not too sweet -- sexy, sexy little cakes with frosting to shove someone out of the way for.

Seriously, I think these were the best cupcakes I've ever had (homemade or commercial). I've certainly never made better myself. I would pay money for her recipe(s). Someone get Emily on the horn!

The Accidental Patriot

My grandfather's birthday is July 4th (Happy Birthday, Grandpa!), so those holiday three-day-weekends during my childhood were often spent happily at his house (and especially, in his little above-ground pool), celebrating his birthday and the Fourth with sparklers and fireworks, grilled hot dogs or burgers, birthday cake, ice cream, and the festive wearing of red, white, and blue items of clothing. I took my fashion choices very seriously and tried to incorporate all three colors on the big day.

In high school, as I was stretching my coltish-yet-sarcastic-and-cynical legs, I still enjoyed Grandpa K's birthday and the relatives (and the pool, the summers before we totally outgrew it), but I began a tradition of making sure I was not wearing red, white, and blue on The Fourth of July. I continued to take my outfits seriously, but in a different sort of way. Clearly, I would have been the lamest of all lames if I coordinated my colors with a national holiday, you guys! Jeez.

Now look at me: a softened-and-aging adult, and I've almost come full circle. Here I am on July 4th, wearing blue, white, and green (I'm almost to Quacker Factory land, aren't I?!) and baking a fruit tart in the colors of the flag.

It's not my fault, cynical teenage Self! I have had a handful of blueberries languishing in the fridge for more than a week. Then I impulsively bought 2 pints of sour cherries at the farmer's market on Monday but have not had the time to use them in my cooking up to this point.

This morning I knew the fruit had to be used or I'd risk it rotting in the refrigerator. I found this recipe, which was originally written for pears but which Chowhounds said worked as well with sour cherries and other fruits. I threw caution to the winds and tossed the blueberries on top, realizing I was now creating (and planning to eat) a red, white, and blue dessert on Independence Day, of all days.

I used 1/2 tsp of vanilla and 1/2 tsp of almond extract in the batter and sprinkled brown sugar over the top before baking, but otherwise followed the recipe as given.



OMG, y'all. Moist, moist, moist. Yum, yum, yum. More, more, more!! Happy freakin' Fourth of July! I'm feeling kind of patriotic about this.

Houseguests and Cupcakes: still sweet after 4 days.

One of the things that kept me from blogging this week was the fact that our friend Laura was visiting from Chicago and staying with us. There was a lot of eating and talking, but little tip-tap-typing on the computer.

Laura bravely trekked in some of the most delightful cupcakes from Taste of Heaven in Andersonville to share with us. They got a little damaged in the hand-off, but remained delicious and moist. The frosting was superior -- not greasy or heavy as some cupcake icing is. I know little about the ranking of cupcakes in the Chicago area, and haven't had the pleasure of trying Taste of Heaven's competitors' c.cakes, but these were terrific.

Out of the sampler of six (and over the course of a couple of days), I had the whole Whoopie Pie cupcake (my fave), half a Vanilla-Vanilla (my least favorite, but that was after a few days of refrigeration), half a Hazelnut cupcake, a bite of Malted Milk Ball, and a taste of orange-creamsicle-tasting icing that remained in the carton.

Cupcakes and friends are sweet.

Not too sick to snack.

I missed D.M.'s birthday celebration because I felt like I had to spend an evening at home fighting off a potential cold, but Dan brought me a piece of the cake at the end of the night. Miss Molly, did you make this?

Buttery, bright, light, sweet, tender lemon cake? I feel better already.

Multi-purpose

Day One

• An afternoon snack of homemade frosting (made by Rusty):

• Dessert of frosted dark chocolate cake (made by Geddes and Eli) and strawberry ice cream (snack-trend-scouted at Whole Foods by me and Rachel):

Day Two

• After-breakfast dessert of frosted chocolate cake (see above).
• Mid-afternoon snack of frosted chocolate cake (see above).
• Dessert (after dinner) of frosted chocolate cake (see above).

[Note: sizes of cake slices varied.]

• Late-night snack of strawberry ice cream: