Best of Both Worlds

I consider myself somewhat of an expert on German Chocolate Cake, which may or may not be the case, but I did have my own throwdown between Bobby Flay's recipe and the Best of Show Cook's Illustrated recipe. If you recall, it was a split decision.

So for Katie's birthday cake, I decided to try combining my favorite parts of each recipe into one hands-down winner.



I used the Cook's Illustrated recipe for the cake itself, but for the filling, I used Bobby's cajeta filling recipe. That cajeta is so delicious that I like to eat it by itself. I've also served it atop chocolate or vanilla ice cream. When I started making this batch of cajeta, I accidentally let the caramel base get too dark. Knowing it would make the cajeta bitter, I decided to make a fresh batch, but I drizzled designs on wax paper with the burnt caramel to make some decor for the cake plate. Um, ye-ah, that kind of worked, but not really.

I also made Bobby's coconut whipped cream and some ganache. The change I made was serving both on the side. Bobby's recipe instructs you to put ganache and toasted coconut and pecans on top of the cake. The ganache topping drew some complaints last time, so I put all those elements on the side of the cake plate so people could control the chocolate distribution.



I thought the result was a winner. This was one of the best cakes I've ever eaten.

Happy Birthday

Remember when I became an aunt?



Now that baby is six months old and I can't believe it. Now I completely understand about everyone thinking their baby is the best, because Nancy Kay has all of us wrapped around her little finger. Katie is only just beginning to feed Nancy solid foods, but I secretly started sneaking her tastes of ice cream weeks ago.



Nancy is already cooking with me. That is, I hold her while I'm flipping pancakes or eggs or chicken or whatever, and she supervises expertly. I'm determined that this kid will grow up with excellent food taste. No children's menus for her, with boring chicken nuggets or pizza. Isn't that what raising kids is all about? Teaching them to be just as wonderful as you are.

Fadduh's Day

When you think of Father's Day, you probably don't think of hoity toity French brunch food. Heck, you probably don't think of food period. But to me, a good holiday requires good food. I do have other vices besides gluttony, but that one happens to be my favorite. This Father's Day, I decided to go with something besides steak or grilled meat.

Daddy and I recently watched an episode of Good Eats together called Age of Asparagus. Asparagus is probably my favorite vegetable. Alton's recipe for Roasted Asparagus was very similar to my standard method, but he added lemon zest and fresh grated nutmeg. Alton also suggested serving the asparagus with a fried egg on top. I'd served asparagus with hollandaise before but never with a plain egg.

I decided to work the recipe into the Father's Day menu. I made Croque Monsieur sandwiches (Croques Messieurs?), which are hot ham and cheese sandwiches, the cheese being Gruyère, and there's also a Mornay sauce involved. I used this recipe for Croque Madame, but put the fried egg on top of the asparagus instead of the sandwich.



For dessert, I tried a recipe that was new to me, Peach-Frangipane Tart. The markets are filled with glorious berries and stone fruit, and it makes me crave fresh fruit. I used a combination of yellow and white peaches for the tart. The tart has an almond base, peaches, and a peach preserve glaze. The hardest part is slicing the peaches thinly and cleanly. The rest of the recipe is a cinch.



I did a couple dozen white and dark chocolate-covered tuxedo strawberries, too. Steak and potatoes it wasn't, but this menu was fabulous. I ate too much today. I have a great dad and had lots of reason to celebrate!

Keep It Real

It's pretty sad that acquaintances identify food snobbery as my most dominant characteristic, but I guess I brought that on myself. I shouldn't be so condescending, but I feel that if people only knew how bad/gross/synthetic the food they're ingesting is, they'd soon change their ways.

Take store-bought ice cream for example. There's no excuse for buying most of that stuff. There are some premium brands that are very good, but even those don't compare with homemade.

I recently cleaned out my freezer, and I had peach ice cream left over from my Baked Alaska experiment. The stuff was past its prime (it was never that good anyway) and had to go.



I set the ice cream carton on the counter, thinking that it would be better for me to melt the ice cream and pour it down the drain, instead of tossing the whole thing in the garbage to leak onto my floor. So I set the carton on the counter and waited for it to melt. And waited. And waited.



I don't remember how long I left that carton on the counter. After seeing that it didn't melt after a couple of hours, I probably left it out for at least twenty-four, being fascinated at the non-melting properties of this Franken-ice cream. Yuck! That is not something I would eat again.

I saw this related horrifying 12-day Cool Whip experiment. My friends, Cool Whip is not whipped cream! Nasty, nasty stuff.

This also reminded me of the McDonald's hamburger purchased in 1996 that in 2008 looked exactly the same as the day it was purchased! I can't believe there are adults who regularly eat fast food or at all-you-can eat buffets. I'd suspect most employees who work at those "restaurants" don't know anything about cooking. I'm sure they have other life skills. This winner worked at Lin's Chinese Buffet.

I don't think I'm a food snob. This is a better way to live.

White Wedding

I dreamed that Betty White made a cameo (that woman is everywhere these days) at Wendy's wedding reception. She wore a pink dress suit that was perfectly accessorized. She looked great. Really, a visit from Betty White is the only thing that could have made Wendy's wedding any better.



There was a simple ceremony in the morning and a family dinner in the evening. I made the wedding cake and failed to fully consider the amount of time required to get my hair done, get myself into a fancy dress, and get to the church on time for pictures. The cake didn't get quite enough chill time in the fridge.

I sent one tier of the cake with my dad in Katie and Porter's car, I put one in my trunk, and I held the small tier in my right hand as I drove to the reception site. I drove super super slowly and took an alternate route to avoid a construction zone. Yeah, I know it's probably dangerous, but I transport cakes that way a lot. Guess what, when you live alone and are transporting a cake, sometimes you have to take risks. That's also pretty much the only time I drive at or below the speed limit. Apologies to the drivers behind me -



(That's not my car, but it's a brilliant idea.) The cake arrived safely. It didn't collapse on assembly, which was a relief since the frosting and filling were soft from the heat.



Wendy's Wedding Cake was a yellow cake with lemon curd filling and vanilla buttercream frosting dyed yellow, decorated with gum paste daisies.



Katie, Mom, and I had fun making the daisies. We simplified these instructions for Gum Paste Daisies from the King Arthur Flour Blog. I bought a package of pre-made gum paste. We rolled it out and cut out daisies with a daisy cutter. Then we added yellow paste food coloring to a smaller piece of gum paste and rolled it into small balls. We then flattened the balls and covered them in cornmeal. Voilà - pollen! Then we pasted the yellow centers on the flowers.



Another great cake. Another great brother-in-law joins the family. Another happy wedding!

Pork Is a Nice, Sweet Meat

I decided to try pescetarianism (eat seafood, but no mammals or birds) for awhile. A short while. Turned out to be only two weeks. The problem wasn't so much that I missed eating chicken or cheeseburgers. Or that I had gone about misspelling pescetarian as pescatarian. Alas, I began to experience heart palpitations, and since I am not in love that I know of, except perhaps with Lee Pace after my weekend Pushing Daisies marathon, I attributed the flutters to my change in diet.

So I decided to fall off the wagon with a pork salad, which created a gentle enough thud, being mostly tortilla, rice, beans, cilantro, lime, guacamole, dairy, and just a little of that sweet, sweet slow roasted pork.



I feel fine with the relapse.

Pull Yourself up by Your Apron Strings

Mike is my photography mentor. When we met, I possessed only a lowly Canon PowerShot A550, but my photography has improved under his tutelage. I am his foodie mentor. When I met him, he was a steak and potatoes kind of guy, whose favorite dessert was a chocolate-peanut butter no-bake cookie. He still loves all of those. You can't change a man.

I've entered a couple of cooking contests with Mike now. Neither of which we've won. If I can't even pull out a victory in his office cooking contests, I might as well hang up my apron.

First, there was a salsa and queso contest, in which we entered a Roasted Tomatillo Salsa and Queso Flameado.




Mike said I went overboard with the lime in the salsa, and I sadly agreed with him. After the judging, when our salsa and queso placed in the middle of the pack, he said that his office-mates prefer food out of a jar anyway, and I happily agreed with him.



The real blow came when I baked two identical white cakes with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream to enter in the office baking contest and charity auction. The top two awards were announced, and my cake was not named among the victors. Perhaps from now on, I should be the one to take pictures and not take the cake.

April Fool's

I made another pilgrimage to Cake this week. Their cupcakes are so delightful. On April 1st, they had April Fool's Day Cupcakes.

• Spaghetti and Meatballs (red velvet cake, Rocher hazelnut truffle for the meatball, and strawberry jelly for the sauce)
• Lox and Bagels (lemon poppy seed cake, and I think the bagel was a halved donut hole)

• Potatoes and Gravy (caramel cake)

I didn't eat or even sample all twelve cupcakes I bought, which I've actually done before. I only tried the lox and bagels cupcake. Very tasty! I ran into a friend in the store as I was leaving. She had never been to Cake before, and I'm sure she was embarrassed to be seen talking to me. I had twelve cupcakes in hand, and I was going on and on about how wonderful their cupcakes are, and naming and describing the flavors she just had to try. I've gotta stop hitting the desserts so hard.

Pithy Comments

I came home with lemon curd and meringue in my hair. As you can imagine, it was my kind of party. This one involved making lemon meringue cupcakes with my friend Catherine and her two young daughters, Hannah and Eve. We used Martha Stewart's recipe.



It was fun to cook with Hannah. We juiced and zested lemons together. I always like to ask Hannah questions. I had told her about zest of a fruit, how it's the colored part. Later I asked her about it again, "What was that stuff called? It started with a Z." She said, "Zebra?" I would hold Eve up high so she could see what was happening, too. After dinner, Hannah had ice cream for dessert. I asked Hannah, "How would you describe ice cream to someone who had never tasted it? What would you say to them?" She thought for a moment and simply said, "I would say, try it!" So pretty much kids always outsmart me.

I love those girls. After making cupcakes, I stayed to eat dinner with them. I brought a Panna Cotta covered with strawberries for dessert.



Strawberries are Hannah's favorite!

Almond Croissant

Behold, ye almond croissant.


Here's the simple recipe from Epicurious: Twice-Baked Almond Croissants. Start with day old croissants. At United, four smallish-sized croissants cost $4.99. At that price, I might have to start making my own, no matter how laborious the process. The recipe gives instructions for an orange-vanilla syrup and an almond filling, made of butter, sugar, almonds, almond paste, and egg.


Four steps to assembling the croissants for baking:

1. Slice croissants in half lengthwise.
2. Brush vanilla-orange syrup on both halves of croissants.
3. Spread almond filling on one half of each croissant, mounding filling high in the middle.
4. Spread filling on top of croissant, and press toasted almonds into filling.

I might have eaten one for dinner alongside strawberries and salted caramel hot chocolate. That soft almond filling oozes out on the first bite. Yum!