Berry Cake

One of Matt's most endearing qualities is his tendency to get fixated on things. We've been talking about doing cake tastings for our weddings, with a particular mind to our favorite Whole Food's cake, Berry Chantilly Cream. Then our friend Erin texts us a picture of a white berry cake that she made. And we're fixated. We originally thought we'd make a king cake for Carnivale/Mardi Gras. Then we remembered that king cakes aren't really that tasty. So the berry cream fixation came back up.

We've been working our way through tasty recipes in our new Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (amazing!) And it turns out there is a strawberry cream cake recipe! Score.


In other news, I bought some excellent knobs from Anthropologie on discount. I frequently wander the store looking at the bizarre collection of knobs, knick-knacks, and dishware. So a sale rack was hard to resist. I thought I'd make a rack to hang my numerous necklaces on so that I could use the top of my dresses for something other than a pile of necklaces. And I finally got around to it. I got a foot of baseboard for a buck at Home Depot and sanded it to make it look weathered. You know, cause that's in.


Strawberry Cream Cake
from Cook's Illustrated

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 5 large eggs (2 whole and 3 separated), room temp
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 Tbsp water
• 2 tsp vanilla
• pinch cream of tartar

1. Grease a 9-inch cake pan or springform pan, line with a parchment paper cut to fit the bottom and grease the parchment. Reserve 3 Tbsp sugar. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and remaining sugar in a medium bowl. Whisk in 2 whole eggs and 3 egg yolks, butter, water, and vanilla until smooth.
2. Whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy on medium-low. Increase speed to medium-high and whip whites until soft and billowy. Add the reserved 3 Tbsp sugar and whip until soft peaks form (about 1-2 minutes). Stir one third of the whites into the batter, and gently fold in the rest.
   
3. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 30-40 minutes. Let cake cool 10 minutes, then invert and let cool completely out of pan, about 2 hours.

• 2 pounds strawberries (or other berries)
  
• 4-6 Tbsp sugar (depends on sweetness of berries)
  
• 2 Tbsp kirsch
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 cups heavy cream, chilled.

1. For the filling, halve 24 of the strawberries for garnish and mix the remainder in a bowl with 4-6 Tbsp sugar. Let sit one hour. Strain juices and reserve. Pulse the berries briefly in blender or food processor. Simmer reserved juices and kirsch over medium-high until reduced to 3 Tbsps (3-5 minutes). Pour reduced syrup over berries, add salt and toss.
2. For the whipped cream frosting, whip cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Ad heavy cream slowly while mixing and ship on medium-high until stiff peaks form.
   
3. To assemble, cut the cake horizontally into three layers.
4. Place one layer on a plate, place a ring of 20 strawberry halves around the outside (tops out) and fill with half of the filling. Frost is 1/3 of the whipped cream. Repeat with the second layer. After placing the third layer, frost the remaining cream on top and garnish with remaining berry halves.
   

By the way, the frosting is the best ever.

Ultimate and balls

Ultimate season is here. I played ultimate several days a week all through college, and only sparingly since. I definitely hadn't gone to a practice since 2008. On moving to Colorado for grad school, I thought maybe my ultimate days were over. I know so many people who have been seriously hurt playing. And there are so many other things to do here, right? I didn't miss it until I started playing again. Now I don't think I can stop.

Playing ultimate is one of the only situations in life where I feel like I can be my crazy self with people I hardly know. I'm usually super shy until I know someone for a month or so. Maybe its because I learned the sport with my best friends. Maybe it's just because I'm good at it. Either way, I am happier during ultimate season. And I like myself more. Which rocks.


In other news, I defend my PhD thesis proposal in front of my committee today. Wish me luck! I can hardly believe I'm actually doing this crazy thing.

When I was a small child, I used to eat cake in a most appalling way. I would mush the frosting and cake together into a sweet goopy paste. I did the same thing with a lot of food. Everything is homogenous and even. And it's not gross, because it gets like that in our tummy anyway. Or something. I think I've always been a little obsessed with ratios in my food. Even now, I can't eat lucky charms because I have to worry about having the exact same ratio of marshmallows to cereal bits in each spoon.

Potting soil? Biosolids? Or cake bits?

Anyway, this recipe enables me to connect with my inner cake-mushing self. I used a store-bought chocolate cake mix, because I was feeling lazy and made dulce de leche for the frosting. On that note, I love dulce de leche. It's like magic. Condensed milk into pot; 2 hours later, dulce de leche out. For dipping, I used a package of that funny white candy coating stuff. I didn't look at the ingredients for fear of being creeped out. Sprinkles help too.

Cake Balls
adapted from seemingly everywhere these days

• one 13x9 baked cake, any flavor (from a box or otherwise)
• one batch cake frosting (homemade or store-bought)
• one package candy coating (or tempered chocolate if you're good at that. I'm not)

1. Bake the cake however you like and let it cool completely.
   
2. Mush the cake in a bowl a little bit at a time. Add the frosting and mix.
3. Form the cake goo into little balls of your favorite size and place on a cookies sheet. Stick them in the freezer for a couple of hours.
4. Melt the coating or chocolate over a double boiler. Take your frozen cake balls out and dip them.
   
5. These keep best in the fridge.
   

Snowpocalypse

No, there is still no snow in Boulder, but the mountains are getting hammered. 2.5 feet in Crested Butte. In one day. How is that possible? We were up for an epic weekend at Vail and ABasin. Previous trips to Vail have been pretty frumpy, but we paid to park in the garage to avoid waiting and hour for the stupid bus, and were glad that we did. The back bowls were big, epic, and very fluffy. I think a day like that on my birthday excuses us from not having snow this Christmas. Matt and I both forgot our alpines at home, so we got a serious thigh workout (on my new fat teles!) Looks to be a good season ahead.


Even though the weather hasn't been festive down here, we're been having a lovely time making ornaments, baking cookies, and being with friends. I had a group of ladies over for a cookie baking party, and was pretty impressed with our output. Cornflake wreaths were the most photogenic, though the mint-frosted red velvets were lovely too. We've recently become enamored of a four-person board game called Blokus, which consistently challenges our spatial skills and our friendships. Somehow, we got the hairbrained idea that we should try to fit all the pieces on the board following the game rules. The boys were enthralled for about an hour until we got this final result:

Pooped from exertion

I'll admit, I'm not really into Christmas. I love spending time with family, but the materialism really gets to me, and the religious appeal blows right by me. It does usually mean empty slopes. We've been trying our hardest to get people to NOT get us presents because our 700 sq. ft. apartment has about reached is carrying capacity. Our tree (which lives in a box of rocks because we don't have a tree stand) adds to the festivity, but it will be alone for Christmas. Off to Australia tonight! We're hitting Tasmania for some backpacking, Cairns for some diving, and Sydney for city culture. And food. Packing camping equipment into two small backpacks has eluded us, so we'll be taking the huge ones. We're bringing 10 pounds of dried foods (hooray for the bulk aisle), as we'll be arriving on Christmas and are not confident that we'll find fuel before we hit the trail.

I've been sending family delicious things in lieu of more formal gifts this year. I've always thought fruitcake was kind of gross, but my sister and dad think its heavenly, so I made a batch to send Amanda for finals week. Even though I'm not usually a fan, I found this recipe pretty delicious (maybe because I accidentally doubled the sugar. . .). Have a lovely holiday.


Fruitcake

• 1 (8 oz) tub candied cherries
• 1 (8 oz) tub candied citron
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup delicious booze of your choice (brandy, rum, etc.)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup almond meal (or grind your own almonds)
  
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
  
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses
  
• 5 cups pecans

1. Preheat oven to 275F
2. Grease two 9x5 loaf pans and line with parchment paper. Grease the paper too.
   
3. Soaks fruits in your booze and let sit overnight or longer.
4. Mix together flour, almond meal, powder, salt, and spices. Pour onto fruit and mix in until coated.
5. Beat eggs until frothy and beat in the sugar and molasses. Add to the dry mixture and stir until incorporated.
   
6. Stir in the pecans.
7. Spoon into the prepared pans and bake for 1.5 hours.
   

Finally the season for our plates,
though we use them all year round.

Fun with fondant

I've been neglectful. And my excuses are lame. I went up to my friend Jen's house last night and learned to make arepas (Venuzuelan corn cake/sandwich things) while she photographed and blogged it. So here I am, inspired.

Life has been a little rough, as I try to get my PhD project started while not really having a good reason to do one in the first place. Whatever. I'm here, I'm having fun and learning. What else do I need? Sometimes, all I need is an attitude adjustment. Or baking therapy. In the meantime, I've been playing video games, sightseeing Denver, elk bugling listening in Rocky Mountain National Park, and running with a group of lovely ladies.

My awesome running pals, post-half

I made some fondant in August, and it's been sitting in my freezer pondering its fate for the last two months. The original plan was to make a "wedding cake" for our first anniversary of Colorado life, a la common-law marriage, but that didn't happen. AP is having a birthday potluck tomorrow, so I figured the time is now. For fondant, that is, not weddings.

I asked AP what kind of cake she was into, and she said "all kinds." So I consulted my ridiculous baking book by Marcy Goldman which has absurdly decadent recipes. Perfect for sharing with a house-full of party-minded people. Flipping through, I was entranced by her Italian Cream Wedding Cake. Maybe it was the long name with the pleasant associations. Italy. Wedding. Cream. Maybe it was the pastry cream, which I am particularly partial too. Actually, this is a fake-out. My co-baker and I decided that the fluffy, divine creamy layers wouldn't stand up to the abuse of fondant, so we changed to chocolate layer cake. You can make this with just frosting, or top it with fondant afterwards.
Chocolate Layer Cake
adapted from A Passion for Baking

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 3/4 cup sour cream

1. Preheat to 350F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.
   
2. Cream butter and sugar. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Whisk together dry ingredients in separate bowl and add alternately with buttermilk and sour cream. Blend together until incorporated. Pour into pans
3. Bake 35-40 minutes. Cool in pan
4. When cool, frost decorate

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• milk as needed for consistency

1. Mix everything together, and adjust consistency with milk and powdered sugar.
2. Frost middle, sides, and tops of layer cake.
   

if looked really nasty before the fondant went on. eiw.
but better after, if a little baby-showerish.

The most ridiculous cake you've ever seen.

I'm in the middle of nowhere at a lab in Illinois for a relatively lame conference that is causing me to miss yet another summer weekend in Colorado. On a scale of 1 to excited, I'd say I'm hovering around a -2. The security is pretty stupid and they have to escort cabs into the premises with these fancy official black escort cars. And we need to have a badge and photo id at all time. Oh, the things we do for funding. I did get to see some cool stuff though, including an electron microscope with 1/2 angstrom (10^-12) resolution and a supercomputer with 5 petabytes of disc drives and 160,000 processors. Scientists get the coolest toys.

Last week was my first week back and work. Things went really fast. The postdoc who was partly in charge of me left for good, so I spent some time frantically figuring out what she got done in the past 2 months while I was away. Colorado is still beautiful, and I got out on my bike a few times to enjoy the (somehow still green) scenery. And I can now get my puppy fix as someone with a dog moved in with my friends.

My friend E e-mailed me this recipe last week, and I was immediately convinced that we needed to make it. Soon. I had planned to go to a band concert on Monday night, but when we got an invite to T and E's for dinner, I decided to bail on the concert and make this cake instead. And what a good decision that was. E was even borrowing a super fancy Nikon from a friend, so I got to play with taking fun pictures of the cake and of everyone eating it.

It's pretty much a flourless chocolate cake topped with hazelnut and chocolate studded meringue. I don't know why I haven't though of that before. Yum.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

from Tartelette

• 10 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 6 large eggs, separated
• 12 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted over double boiler
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 Tbsp rum
• 1/4 tsp salt

• 4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup hazelnuts, toasted, skinned, and roughly chopped
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 4 egg whites
• 3/4 cup sugar

1. Toast hazelnuts in oven for 10 minutes at 350 and rub when cool to remove skins. Chop the skinned nuts. Melt chocolate over boiling water in double boiler or metal bowl placed over a saucepan.
2. Preheat oven to 350. Butter sides and bottom of a 9" springform pan. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper. Butter the paper too.
3. Whip butter and brown sugar in stand mixer until pale and smooth (3 minutes). Add 6 egg yolks one at a time and beat until smooth. Add melted chocolate, rum, vanilla, and salt. Beat until combined.
4. Carefully clean the mixer bowl to ensure not fat particles remain. Beat the 6 egg white until soft peaks form. Fold a third of the whites into the chocolate mixture. Fold in remaining whites.
5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes.
6. Beat egg whites on medium until frothy. Increase to high and slowly add sugar. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form (about 4 minutes). Don't overbeat!
7. Combine chopped chocolate, hazelnuts, and cornstarch in a bowl. Fold into beaten egg whites.
8. Remove cake from oven. Spread meringue mixture atop warm cake, being careful not to deflate it. Bake for another 25 minutes.
9. Transfer pan to cooling rack and let sit for 10 minutes. Remove the outside ring of the pan. Let cool another 30 minutes before cutting.

A little bit of spring in the renewed winter weather.

Winter came back with a vengeance yesterday as rain/snow fell most of the day in most of the state. We were up in the mountains in the morning and had planned to go skiing, but after seeing how windy and snowy it was, we decided to just stay in. We're so spoiled. I'm out of town most weekends for the rest of the season, so I may not get many more ski days.


At Matt's work, they run a shindig called "Cafe Chopin" on Thursdays, where every week, someone brings in a tasty snack to share. I always get unreasonably excited when Matt is signed up to bring something because it means I can make something amazing and decadent and not have to eat it all myself. I've seen a lot of pictures of citrus upside-down cakes and they're so pretty, I decided we had to make one. Plus, I've been madly eating citrus this month because it's been so good.

• 

Upside-Down Orange Spice Cake
adapted from David Lebovitz

• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 medium navel oranges, peeled and sliced into 1/4" slices
• 1/3 tsp ground nutmeg

• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 8 Tbsp butter, at room temp
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup milk or half&half
• 1 tsp vanilla
• zest of one orange

1. Preheat: 350F
   
2. For the topping, melt the butter with the brown sugar and nutmeg in a 12-inch cast-iron skillet (The original recipe is for a 10-inch). When all melted and smooth, set aside to set.
3. Layer the orange slices in some pretty manner atop the caramel topping.
4. Mix the flour, salt, baking powder, and nutmeg together in a bowl.
   
5. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl. Add the eggs one at a time.
   
6. Combine the milk, vanilla, and orange zest in another container.
7. Add half the dry ingredients to the sugar/butter, then add the wet. Add the rest of the dry and mix until combined.
8. Spoon batter over the orange slices and bake for 5 minutes at 350.
9. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes, then invert onto a plate.

Supposedly it's best warm, but it was still darn good the day after.

• 
  

Thanks Vancouver

About the only times that I feel like I need cable TV is during the olympics and the world cup. We gave in and bought basic cable for the month of February, and as of last week, we even have a cable splitter, so we can watch TV and use the internet at the same time. Welcome to the 21st century, Ali.

Watching the men's 50K nordic race this morning was the ultimate end to a fantastic olypmics (no, I'm not an ice hockey fan.) The frantic start, the early leads, the formation of the leading group, and the epic ending embodied the excitement of these olypmics. (Did you know that nordic skiiers have a higher capillary concentration than any other type of athlete?) Favorites have to include the Norwegian curling team's pants, the success of Asian figure skaters, and the comeback of US alpine skiings not-so-has-beens.

The olympics even inspired me to bake an olympic rings cake out of brioche dough, though my frosting was way too runny. Continuing the family tradition of over-milking your icing.