Quick Roundup of the Unphotographed

Both of my cookthroughs are winding down, and before I get too invested in any other cookbook projects, I am going to try to finish up all or most of what I've missed over the last few years of participating in Tuesdays with Dorie and the Heavenly Cake bake-through. To that end, I've been taking stock, and wanted to mention in passing a few recipes that were made but never photographed, and so never blogged. As I leaf through the books, I'll put up a brief note whenever I discover one of these omissions.


The first was recent--I made Rose Levy Beranbaum's Pure Pumpkin Cheesecake the weekend before Thanksgiving, as kind of antidote to the pie frenzy. I left it crustless, with just a few graham cracker bits scattered throughout. With no crust to add salt and contrast, it was almost painfully rich, but well received at work. I've promised my sister a cheesecake for the successful completion of the GRE, so more to come shortly.

"...we hope this doesn't ruin your life..."

Last week, we caused our downstairs neighbors some inconvenience (I won't go into it, but let's just say there was some water coming through their ceiling), and I baked them a bundt cake to make amends. They weren't home when I went to drop it off, so I left the covered plate outside their door.

The next evening we went up to visit our upstairs neighbors. This makes our building sound absurdly cozy. The truth is, that while there are only five apartments, and we're friendly all around, we don't socialize all that much. Still, we have a lot in common with the folks upstairs, and when we do see them, even for a short stairway conversation, I always think that we should spend more time hanging out.

Back to the story at hand--we went up to see the upstairs neighbors. The conversation turned to the water incident, and Clarence, who also has a food blog and loves to cook, said, "Oh, is that why there was a cake in the hallway?" I admitted my complicity, and he mentioned that any cakes that came their way would also be welcomed.

Now, it doesn't take a special occasion to get a cake out of me, but I knew they'd be getting a cake immediately when he followed up his cake observations by saying they had something to tell us...

"Now," he said, "we hope this doesn't ruin your life...but we're going to have a baby."

We assured him that we couldn't imagine it ruining our lives (we like little people, and are already up at all hours). In fact, if they let me put a funny hat on their kid, it may well enhance my life immensely. They laughed, and said they had heard that it might ruin their lives, but they would take advantage of Matt's 3AM ukulele solos as lullaby fodder.

With all this good news and running up and down the stairs, it was clearly time to make them a cake. I chose one of the last contenders in the Rose's Heavenly Cake countdown, an Apple-Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake.  It's a simple but appealing sweet, two layers of sour cream coffeecake, sandwiched around a thin apple cinnamon filling, and covered with buttery walnut streusel.

Two unrelated notes: my spellcheck doesn't recognise coffeecake or streusel. Or spellcheck. It has a lot to learn. Also, I am really over people using 'buttery' to describe rich tuna belly or other sashimi. Maybe I just don't like sashimi. At any rate, Clarence assures us that the cake was excellent.

Heavenly Cake Bakers: Rose Red Velvet

Just a little red velvet cake, chilling out at work.

Most people who know me know that my personal dessert pantheon looks something like PIE! CUSTARD! FRUIT! COOKIES! ... cake. Every now and again, though, I get a strong urge to bake and frost something tall, fluffy, and all-American. Red Velvet cake, while not my favorite, fits the bill perfectly, with the additional perk of being covered in cream cheese frosting, which I prefer over buttercream. I have made Rose's white chocolate cream cheese frosting before, and found it a little grainy and thin. For this batch, I used a recipe from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook, a shelf staple at my house.

I made this little fella and took it to work last week, where messy as it was (I undershot the confectioner's sugar quotient needed for the frosting), it was appreciated.

Cakes and Cakes and Cakes

On looking back, that last post seems very ambitious. Did I do all of those fun sounding things? Well, not yet. The bike is still blocking the side door, the African dance remains a myth. I did go to yoga, though, once, and I made three cakes. Although the photo above was the only survivor of the process (Matt deemed the others 'unacceptable,' and I have to trust his word), there were in fact three cakes, and all three were Heavenly cakes, it seems only right to have a little discussion of them, photo or no.

Two weeks ago, I made the Apple Upside Down Cake, one of the first recipes in the book but one that I hadn't gotten around to yet. Caramelized apples under a yolky, buttery cake layer, sprinkled with nuts...that one was good. I tried to give it away as a housewarming present for my cousin, who just moved back to town, but only half of it made it over (next time, Sophie). Luckily, my Aunt Nicki was down the following weekend, and as a fellow devotee of Dorie Greenspan, she instigated the making of a Swedish Visiting Cake, so all was well.

Last week, I made the much-awaited Ginger Cheesecake, a fairly classic cheesecake made with a ginger crust (in my case, crushed oatmeal cookies), and juice squeezed from grated ginger. I didn't have quite enough ginger to get the amount of juice recommended, but it was still clearly present in the final product. My crust was oily, probably because my cookies were less austere than your average gingersnap, but the cake itself was excellent, and was devoured whole by hungry librarians at a training I helped conduct on Saturday. 

This week's cake, pictured above, was a riff on the Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake, which I last made for Liana's birthday the year before last. I didn't have white chocolate, which is called for in the cake, so I made Rose's White Velvet cake layers instead, and filled it with a pear buttercream and pear butter, then covered it with the Sticky Chocolate Frosting. The result, although it looked like Boston Cream Pie, tasted more like sheet cake. The pear frosting didn't really make itself heard, and without it the cake was, as Liana and Matt both admitted, somewhat boring.  My co-workers disagreed, and finished it happily, proclaiming Liana and Matt spoiled, to which they both readily and happily admitted. I thought it might improve with chocolate ice cream, but then just went for the ice cream and ignored the cake.

It's been a chaotic few weeks, at least under the surface of placid librarianship.There's a new year coming, and I'm not ready, but maybe I'll get there. Right now, I'm trying to remember what's best in life, and to hold on to it with a fierce grip.

Somewhat on that last note, I've had one more Rose Levy Beranbaum-related milestone. I finally got too annoyed at the broken binding and sticky pages of Rose's Heavenly Cakes, and bought myself a brand new copy. Time to make that one sticky too.

Backward

I need to get out more. To remember that I live in a giant city with hundreds of parks, bike paths, and beautiful places. I need to be like that guy who walked every street in Manhattan. I need to find more adventure. I need to go hear more music. I need to re-acquaint myself with a lot of things.

In the meantime, while I'm strapping on bike helmet and going to yoga and starting African dance and re-learning to drive, I need to post a link back to the Heavenly Cake of the week, Coffee Chiffonlets, made back in May of 2010.

This and That

First, the Heavenly Cake Bakers (Cont.) are making Mud Turtle Cupcakes. Here's the link to mine. Incidentally, I realize I never posted the Lisbon updates to which the post refers. Been a busy spring.


Secondly, a query--I just made some carnitas and allowed the (very charming) butcher to sell me a piece of pork butt with several inches of thick fat on it, which then had to be trimmed off. I now have several pieces of thick, expensive (raw) pork fat in my freezer...any ideas? Render for lard?

Heavenly Cake Bakers: White Gold Passion Genoise

Strangely, not my favorite of the Heavenly Cakes. For some reason, Rose and I seem to part ways when the frosting involves cream cheese, which doesn't even make sense, as all cream cheese frosting should be delicious. The cake was a bit dense, which was my fault, as I got the mixing instructions backward and mixed all the egg whites into the butter, deflating them quite a bit.

The frosting was ok, and the passion curd, as always, was amazing. I had it all over my breakfast muffins for days, and am definitely trying to worm it into the wedding cake. The flecks in the passion fruit curd are because I made it with the leftover brown butter. The leftover syrup was spectacular in selzer. I think next time I'll skip the whole cake and just make stuff with passion fruit.

Making Things Up

I've been making a lot of cake. There is buttercream in my dreams. After three little chocolate cakes in a row, it all started to tasted like Ho-Hos to me. I started to yearn for something white and fluffy, something with jam and creaminess. In a fit of perversity, I thought up the cake below--honey buttercream, rhubarb curd, crabapple jam, and buttery cake. 

All the recipes are based on Rose Levy Beranbaum's, though many are a bit adapted. The honey buttercream, from The Cake Bible, was good but I found it overwhelmingly buttery, and not strong enough on the honey, even after I beat in about a quarter of a cup of extra honey.

I decided that as long as I had all this soft buttercream and not enough sleep, the time was ripe to learn some flower piping techniques. I tried for sweet peas and roses, and...well, got some fluffy piles. Maybe next time I'll go with some stiffer frosting.

Pretty in pink.

Oh, by the way, this week's heavenly cake was the Swedish Pear and Almond Cream bundt, which I made a while ago.

Heavenly Cake Bakers: Chocolate Raspberry Trifle Goes to the Park

This weekend was a banner weekend. I had not one, but two days off. It was heaven.

On Sunday, I puttered about all day, spoke to no one, and made two cakes. One was a wedding cake prototype for Jessica and Christopher. More on this later. The other was this trifle. I made half the recipe, and tucked it into a convenient vase for transport.

I made a few changes in the various components, based on the contents of the refrigerator. The final product was composed of Moist Chocolate Genoise, apricot preserves, creme anglaise made with cream, milk, coconut milk and the dregs of the milk chocolate ganache syrup left over from the wedding cake prototyping (it was in the glass measuring cup I used, hence the brownish flavor), and raspberries. I was going to make the raspberry whipped cream topping, but ran out of room in the container.

After I made the trifle, I felt ambivalent about taking it to a picnic in the park on a hot day, and put a daisy cake (visible behind) into the oven. However, when I emailed my concern to Stacey, her response was, and I quote, "Are you f*ING kidding me? I have been dreaming about trifle all day and night. Put it in a tub, I am bringing my spoon!!!!!" I brought the trifle. Avi took pictures of it with his new camera. All went well.

In the end, it was good that we had two cakes, because all of the lunch that we brought along was disgustingly healthy, including this salad from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day that has been obsessing me, quinoa cakes, egg salad, and roasted asparagus. On the way to the park, I realized how lame it was that we didn't even have a single bag of potato chips or something. Next time, barbeque sauce.

Heavenly Cake Bakers: Barcelona Brownie Buttons

My parents are debating a long-planned trip to Europe. They had been strongly considering Barcelona, but a friend recently informed them that it was a 'second tier' European city, and recommended they go to Rome. Not that Rome doesn't sound great, but I don't think Barcelona deserves the slur.

These particular brownies probably can't prove that point, though, as their name is somewhat incidental--they were created for an event there. I'm not a giant brownie person, and when I am, I actually like the inside pieces, the kind you cut. However, these were perfectly nice, with hazelnuts and cacao nibs in them.

They also took about 20 seconds to make. Glad to cross them off the list, probably won't make them again...but I'm possibly no judge, as I think Ghirardelli box brownies are spectacular.

On an unrelated note, Matt is now in Hamburg, and has gotten himself some puffed spelt cakes called Dinkel Poppers. DINKEL POPPERS. Thank you, German language, for being you.

A Round-Up on the Heavenly Cake Horse Race

Hello again. I was off graduating from Library School. While I was off-blog, a graduation of another sort was happening over at Heavenly Cake Place. Marie has finished baking every cake in Rose's Heavenly Cakes, finishing up with the spectacular mousse globe of Zach's La Bomba. For those of us who straggle a bit, another RHC baker, Jenn, is going to be picking up hosting duties while we finish up whatever's lacking.

My photographer is out of town, and I'm making some extensive and long-overdue changes to my web presence, but I'll definitely be finishing out the RHC bakethrough, and continuing to post the results here.

To keep me honest, and to help those of you who are sometimes asked to select Free Choice cakes...here's the list (updated as appropriate) of cakes baked. The linked cakes have been baked and blogged. Those in italics have been baked at some point, but never blogged. The order of cakes is lifted from the list at the front of the book. Plenty done, plenty to go. Anyone have a birthday coming up?

HEAVENLY CAKES:

BUTTER and OIL CAKES:
Apple Upside-Down Cake (September, 2011)
Plum and Blueberry Upside Down Torte (August 9, 2010)
She Loves Me Cake (May 31, 2010)
White Velvet Cake w/ Milk Chocolate Ganache (January 9, 2011)
Heavenly Coconut Seduction Cake
Southern Manhattan Coconut Cake w/ Silk Meringue Buttercream (May 2, 2011)
Whipped Cream Cake                                                                                                 
Karmel Cake (April 4, 2011)
Golden Lemon Almond Cake (March 1, 2010) 
Lemon Poppy Seed Sour Cream Cake (March 1, 2010) 
Woody’s Lemon Luxury Layer Cake (March 24, 2011) 
Apple-Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake (November 16, 2011)
Marble Velvet Cake
Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cake
Swedish Pear and Almond Cream Cake  
Cradle Cake (February 5, 2011)
Sicilian Pistachio Cake (March 15, 2010)
Gateau Breton (May 10, 2010)
Sticky Toffee “Pudding” (February 28, 2011)
English Gingerbread Cake (March 1, 2010)
Fruitcake Wreath
Rose Red Velvet Cake (October 29, 2011)
Chocolate Tomato Cake w/ Mystery Ganache (September 27, 2010)
Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cake (June 14, 2010)
Chocolate Banana Stud Cake (July 19, 2010)
Devil’s Food Cake w/ Midnight Ganache (March 13, 2011)
Chocolate Layer Cake w/ Caramel Ganache (August 30, 2010)
Bernachon Palet d’Or Gateau (May 24, 2010)
Double Chocolate Valentine                     
Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake  (December 5, 2010)
Black Chocolate Party Cake (February 20, 2011)
Classic Carrot Cake w/ Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting (January 16, 2011)
Pumpkin Cake w/ Burnt Orange Silk Meringue Buttercream (November 15, 2010)
Many-Splendored Quick Bread (October 18, 2010)
Banana Refrigerator Cake w/ Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting (April 12, 2010)
German Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Ice Cream Cake or Sandwich (July 5, 2010)

SPONGE CAKES:
Angel Food Cake (October 27, 2010)
Miette’s Tomboy (April 25, 2011)
Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake (September 13, 2010)
Chocolate Apricot Roll w/ Lacquer Glaze (March 8, 2010)
Génoise Rose (June 29, 2010)
White Gold Passion Génoise (June 16, 2011) 
Red Fruit Shortcake
Torta de las Tres Leches (December 21, 2010)
True Orange Génoise (June 16, 2011)
Génoise Très Café
Chocolate Génoise w/ Peanut Butter Whipped Ganache (November 22, 2010)
Moist Chocolate Raspberry Génoise (March 7, 2011)
Catalan Salt Pinch Cake
Almond Shamah Chiffon
Orange Glow Chiffon Layer Cake (March 29, 2011)
Lemon Meringue Cake (August 2, 2010)
Apple Caramel Charlotte (September 20, 2010)
Chocolate Raspberry Trifle (May 31, 2011)
Saint-Honoré Trifle (May 4, 2010)
Holiday Pinecone Cake

MOSTLY FLOURLESS CAKES and CHEESECAKES:
Cranberry Crown Cheesecake (December 27, 2010)
Pure Pumpkin Cheesecake (November 20, 2011)
Coconut Cheesecake w/ Coconut Cookie Crust (June 23, 2010)
Ginger Cheesecake w/ Gingerbread Crust (September 17, 2011)
No-Bake Whipped Cream Cheesecake
Lemon Canadian Crown with Ladyfingers (February 20, 2011)
Ladyfingers
Tiramisù (September 19, 2010)
Sybil’s Pecan Torte w/ Coffee Cream (April 5, 2010)
Chocolate Feather Bed (August 17, 2010)
Hungarian Jancsi Torta 
 Le Succès (March 29, 2010)
Zach’s La Bomba

BABY CAKES:
Yellow Butter Cupcakes
Chocolate Butter Cupcakes (June 7, 2010)
White Velvet Butter Cupcakes (May 11, 2011)
Frostings: Golden Neoclassic Buttercream, Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting, Chocolate-Egg White Buttercream
Designer Chocolate Baby Grands (July 26, 2010)
Gold Ingots (September 10, 2010)
Chocolate Ingots
Peanut Butter Ingots (March 22, 2010)
Plum Round Ingots 
Financier-Style Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes
Mini Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes (July 13, 2010)
Baby Lemon Cheesecakes (May 17, 2010)
Quail Egg Indulgence Cake (February 20, 2011)
Marionberry Shortcake (August 25, 2010)
Coffee Chiffonlets w/ Dulce de Leche Whipped Cream (May 1, 2010)
Individual Pineapple Upside-Down Cakes
Caramelized Pineapple Pudding Cakes with Classic Brioche (October 4, 2010)
The Bostini (November 1, 2010)
Deep Chocolate Rosebuds
Molten Chocolate Soufflé and Lava Cakes (October 11, 2010)
Chocolate Bull’s-Eye Cakes (January 2, 2011)
Barcelona Brownie Bars (May 23, 2010)
Baby Chocolate Oblivions
Two Fat Cats Whoopie Pies (April 19, 2010)
Mud Turtle Cupcakes (February 8, 2011)

WEDDING CAKES :
Tropical Wedding Cake
Golden Dream Wedding Cake
Grand Marnier Wedding Cake
Deep Chocolate Passion Wedding Cake (June 1, 2011)
Double-Chocolate Whammy Groom’s Cake
Wedding Cupcakes (not really a recipe, more suggestions of combinations)

Heavenly Cake Bakers: White Velvet Cupcakes with Apricot Neoclassic Buttercream

The last time I made these cupcakes,for a Polybe + Seats bake sale last spring in Carroll Gardens, some reality TV construction workers proposed marriage. Nothing so dramatic happened this time, but everyone who got one of these fluffy cakes with apricot golden neoclassic buttercream seemed pleased. They're going into the office today, so the co-workers will have the final word. I particularly like how the Lyle's Golden Syrup adds a salty edge to the buttercream. My sister told me she was on a health kick, then ate two.

Southern (Brooklyn) Coconut Cake with Silk Meringue Buttercream

Close-up on coconut. On a no-joke coconut cake. I've been making coconut cakes for Jessica's birthday for many years--usually with seven minute frosting, but this time around it went even sweeter and richer, with a gooey, coconut milk buttercream. Rose's Silk Meringue Buttercream continues to terrify me a bit--creme anglaise AND Italian meringue AND butter? As a friend at the birthday party who cooks professionally said:

"Katya, no disrespect, but this frosting is just coconut and butter, right?"  Um...not entirely...

The icing was fluffy, the cake was fluffier...I've gotten pretty good at this. And, even more importantly in my mind, I was able to transport the perfectly frosted cake without a blemish through nearly an hour of bus and walking and street  fairs, etc...

The only modifications that I made to the recipe were in the realm of extract--I subbed almond extract for coconut in both the cake and the creme anglaise. Because there was also coconut in flake and milk form, the almond complemented it instead of standing alone, just kind of deepening the flavors. I also ran out of coconut milk and used a little cream to finish off the creme anglaise.

No reactions from Matt, as he doesn't eat coconut, but the responses from partygoers ages 3-35 were enthusiastic. In fact, the three year old invited me to come sleep over at her house, an invitation that I have to assume was issued more or less on the strength of her piece of cake, or excitement at having a large pink ribbon.

Happy birthday, Jessica.

Heavenly Cake Bakers: Miette's Tomboy

Perhaps the most adorable cake in the whole Heavenly Cakes book--Miette's Tomboy is the signature cake of its eponymous bakery. It's also really really really good. It's an oil cake, made mostly with cocoa but also with one ounce of chocolate dissolved in boiling water. The cocoa I used was a very special dark cocoa that I got at Sahadi's--it's so black that it looks blue in the mixing bowl, and it makes a very very dark cake.

I actually made this cake for the first time a few weeks ago, when the rest of the group did, but I never got around to frosting it before we ate it. Since it was little (6 inches), I figured there was room to try again. Also, the first time I didn't really properly beat the egg (one egg doesn't beat so well in the large bowl of my old mixer, so this time I tried the smaller bowl), and so the cake sank dramatically in the middle. This time it had much more height, though there was still a dip. The mixer also can cause problems for making mousseline buttercream, as I often have problems getting the sugar syrup in without it crusting on the sides of the bowl. This time was a win, possibly the best and fluffiest mousseline I've ever made (tilting the bowl to get a better temperature read on the sugar was also wise). Matt had a slice (after a very dedicated photo session--he said it was fun to shoot) and said that it tasted very similar to an Oreo cookie. I haven't tried it yet, but based on various scrap samples, I'd agree. The piping--well, I got carried away by the leftovers and so the top wasn't flat. But it's pretty cute, no?

Heavenly Cake Bakers: Unadorned Simplicity

Is that an oxymoron?

I considered dressing up this cake for the camera, but I decided that its rigorous simplicity demanded simple presentation. We ate it just like this, and it was complete in itself. The Karmel Cake, which is also a caramel cake, is a butter cake made with a milk/brown-sugar caramel in the batter, which gives it a subtle depth of flavor and a crunchy brown crust.

I subbed some white sugar and molasses (my usual) for the brown sugar in the caramel. I also baked it in an 8" pan instead of a 9" (I don't have any 2" high 9" pans), which made it a little taller and increased the baking time (and the dome), but no matter. I wish I'd taken the caramel just a little bit farther into the dark side, but there will be other chances. It was supposed to cool entirely, which would have made for a bit of a stiffer batter, but even warm, it did just fine. Having had a terrible horrible experience with a large vat of chai caramel at work the other day (think shop filled with smoke, oven filled with goo, entire day's production thrown off), I decided to take this one easy. Sometimes cooking at home is just so peaceful.

Heavenly Cake Bakers: Orange Glow Chiffon Cake

This orange chiffon cake (shades of Passover upcoming), is lifted almost intact from Rose's earlier book, The Cake Bible. It owes its inclusion in the Heavenly Cakes book to a new technique that Rose and her assistant Woody worked out to make it as a layer cake. Chiffon cakes are evidently usually too delicate to bake properly without a tube pan, but with the strategic addition of all-purpose flour and a flower nail (the thing that gum-paste flowers are built on) acting as a tiny impromptu tube, they figured it out. Or so the book says, I lacked a flower nail and any reason to particularly need flat layers, so I made the tube version.
This is the same cake base that was used for the Bostini, so it was a familiar mix. As always, I enjoyed cooling the cake upside down on a wine bottle.

The background to the baking was even better than the cake--several hours of Grateful Dead bootlegs, shared by two once teenage tour followers on the twentieth anniversary of their first show. Such a night, followed directly by an evening watching John Darnielle do his transcendent thing, was a strange and bitter rejuvenation, a release, a good thing.

Heavenly Cake Bakers: Woody's Lemon Luxury Cake

Baking is the butchest thing I do. To an outsider, it might seem to be all fluffy buttercream and sugar and spice, but on a day to day basis, it's burns and heavy lifting, precision and speed. Well, sometimes. And sometimes I bake at home, where I do stare down the occasional smoking caramel, but on the whole it's a lighter endeavor. It's hardly disaster-free, though.

My late foray into this week's Free Choice Cake, Woody's Lemon Luxury, was somewhat marred by the dive taken by one of the layers. But not really. I have a container full of cake crumbs, and the slightly shorter cake is plenty rich and pretty.

Both the cake and the buttercream have white chocolate in them, which adds significantly to the richness of both. I have a bunch of leftover buttercream and lemon curd left, so maybe some cupcakes or something lie in the future.

Heavenly Cake Bakers: Trader Joe's Fail

Devil's Food Cake with Midnight Ganache.

Deep, dark, cocoa madness. Well, sort of. In an after-work haze, I forgot to buy cocoa one night at Sahadi's, my beloved Middle Eastern import store (which so doesn't even begin to describe it). The next night, attempting to save time, I opted for the Trader Joe's across the street from Sahadi's, as I had other business there. I picked up a tub of cocoa (so labeled, so it must be, right?) from next to the tea, and brought it home. I didn't expect it to be great quality, but I did expect it to be...well, cocoa.

It was not cocoa, which TJ's apparently also sells, but a hot chocolate mix. I didn't really realize this until the cakes were already in the oven and I was measuring it out for the ganache and saw the sugar crystals. Thus, the cake wasn't as dark and rich as it could have been, but it was still the right kind of gooey all-American cake. I'd actually made the cake component of this recipe once before, for Matt's father's birthday cake last summer. I paired it with a mocha Italian buttercream and some David Lebovitz style candied cherries (one of which betrayed me with pit fragments--grr). It's a very solid base cake for all kinds of shenanigans.

I have to get some more cocoa. Rose's Heavenly Cakes is nothing without cocoa.

Raz-Berry Ganache

The kind u can't find in a second hand store...

Can you guess what was playing in my head during the entire production and planning (and eating) of this wonderful cake? I amuse myself to a potentially unbearable degree.

This weekend we celebrated Miriam's birthday, and she was nice enough to pick the cake I'd already been assigned out of a (short) lineup. Leading the witness, of course, plus I know she likes raspberries.
In short: chocolate genoise, brushed with cocoa syrup, torted and filled with the best raspberry ganache ever, made with chocolate, cream, raspberry puree, and Portuguese cherry brandy.

This cake transcended the sum of its parts, melding into one good lump of soft intensity. Happy birthday, Miriam.

Sticky Sticky Toffee with Lemon Peel, Raisins, Dates, and Delicious

The dessert so nice, I blog about it twice.

The last time I brought up Sticky Toffee Pudding around here was back in 2009, when Miriam (then dubbed the 'reluctant foodie,' made David Lebovitz's recipe as a guest post. Time has passed, Miriam has gone from reluctant to as obsessive as the rest of us (she owns a cake stand and hosts several-course dinners), and Rose Levy Beranbaum is bringing sticky back.

Rose's version of Sticky Toffee Pudding, that extra-Brit dessert, begins by boiling a cup of stout, adding baking soda, and pouring the whole thing over a bunch of dates. When well soaked, everything is pureed. My dates were very old, so I was worried that they would be too dried out. That turned out to be only half the problem, as I only had about 2/3 of the amount that I needed for the recipe. The pantry came to the rescue, and in addition to my dry dates I added a few tablespoons each of lemon peel, orange peel, sultanas, and zante currants. Soft and gooey and lemony.