Happy Birthday Dad

It's my Dad's birthday this week - and thus cake time.

Ever since I saw Martha's Birthday Cake in her Baking Handbook I have wanted to make a domed cake. But hers is almond with meringue, and my family is just not keen on almond and meringue.

So here's what I did instead:

1. Prepare a batter for a regular 9 inch layer cake. (I used a recipe from Cook's Illustrated, but honestly you could use a mix or whatever you like. Although the Cook's Illustrated "Old Fashoned Layer Cake" was seriously excellent.)

2. Bake the cake in a stainless steel bowl (greased and floured) that is 9 inches in diameter and about 4-5 inches deep. The recipe I followed had a baking time of 35-40 mins. In the bowl it took 1 hour and 30 mins - not quite 3 times the original cooking length. I started checking it after an hour though. Let it cool for about 10 mins in the bowl, then let cool on a rack.


3. Slice the cake into 3 or 4 layers - it really depends on how tall your cake is and how good you are at slicing. I used my bread knife to do this and I knew I couldn't make the slices quite level, so I drew a line with icing on the side of the cake. Then when I reassembled I used the line to reposition the layers correctly.


I filled the cake with kahlua butter cream icing. I reduced the kahlua first to intensify the coffee taste and cook out a little of the alcohol. I then covered the cake with chocolate ganache. Overall, while the entire process was time consuming, it was not very difficult. I think this domed shape would also work well for children's parties - you could decorate the dome to look like turtle or a hedgehog.

(Paul took this picture with his new camera.)

The cake was a huge hit - everyone liked it better than the one I made a couple weeks ago. The one thing I would do different next time is not used a poured icing. Once the cake was assembled it wasn't quite smooth so it wasn't quite as fantastic looking as one might like.

Roasted Mushooms

Below, you see a photo of my Saturday night dinner.


On my plate I have an assortment of roasted foods: sausage, onion, mini-potatoes and mushrooms. (On the side are some steamed asparagus). However, of all these roasted foods I wish to talk briefly on the roasted mushrooms. Seriously, they are the greatest thing ever. EVER! A couple weeks ago my mother threw some mushrooms in with whatever else she was roasted for Sunday night dinner and they were a huge hit. My family had never eaten mushrooms like this before - and we loved them. They were the most mushroomy mushrooms ever. I fully recommend doing this. The fact that it is dead easy doesn't hurt.

Roasted Mushrooms

some mushrooms, preferably the "brown" ones
a little olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Toss the mushrooms with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast on a parchment lined baking sheet at 425 F for 15mins.

Ice-Cream

Ice-cream is my favourite dessert. Invariably, come summer, I make assorted friends trek about the city to whatever ice-cream place is my current favourite. But my new favourite place is my own tiny kitchen. I followed this David Libowitz recipe from Orangette's blog. But I left out the mint - and the mint infusing step - and mixed in about a tbsp of this fabulous vanilla extract that Paul's mom lent me as the custard cools. This vanilla is anything but plain.



For reference here is the mix I used for the creme anglaise base.

5 egg yolks
1 1/3 cups 2% milk
1 2/3 cups whipping cream
2/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt

Something simple

Last night's dinner:
Pesto chicken
Asparagus risotto
Sliced Tomatoes

The pesto chicken was just baked chicken thighs with pesto spread under the skin. I used about a tsp of pesto per thigh - and I think I could have even doubled it.

This was my second attempt at making risotto. I tried last year and produced something gray and inedible. But I watched Mario Batali make it three times in the Times Minimalist video and felt ready to try myself. I skipped the asparagus puree step - I thought it would make too many dirty dishes. The risotto was quite tasty - but I still think some more practice might be in order.

it's all about the baking

It was my brother's birthday this weekend. I made one of Ina's cakes, with a chocolate cream cheese icing. I made one substitution in the cake - using a mix of plain yogurt and a little milk instead of buttermilk.

As you can see I'm not the tidiest baker.

Additionally, the cake was a little hard to work with: the top was a bit sticky. You can see it got stuck to my hand when I took it out of the pan. I found the texture and airy crumb of the cake very much like a Duncan Hines mix.

The icing turned out fairly well, but needs a little fine tuning.
I got some ghirardelli cocoa powder and I found it to be nicer than the cheap no name cocoa I usually use - but as always I found the cake not chocolaty enough. I prefer the chocolaty flavour and dense texture of this bundt cake. But for my little brother only a layer cake would do. I would use this recipe again for a chocolate layer cake.

Sloppy Joe's

I don't remember eating Sloppy Joes much as a kid. I have an impression of it being something uniquely American. I recall spending a large amount of time trying to identify the "Manwich" from "A sandwich is a sandwich, but a Manwich is a meal" and finally realizing that the terrifying gooey sandwich the boy was eating was full of sloppy joes.


Happily, this recipe is a little more high brow that opening a can of sloppy joe sauce - only a little though. Note the liberal use of ketchup. This recipe is from Nigel Slater's "real fast food". As soon as I read it I knew I had to make it. I knew combination of beef and mushroom and Worcester was going to have a delicious umami-ness. This was the most delicious and satisfying thing I have made in a long time.

Sloppy Joes
(adapted from Nigel Slater's "real fast food")

1 lb ground beef
1 onion, diced
4-5 white mushrooms, sliced
4-5 chrimini mushrooms, sliced
1-2 small tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp Worcester sauce
3 tbsp ketchup (and honestly, you could use a little more)

1. Brown beef if a large pan or dutch oven. Drain excess fat and add the onions. Cook about 5 mins until onions are slightly softened.
2. Add everything else. Cover and cook 15-20mins stirring occasionally.

Serve on grilled baguette. I put some olive oil on on the baguettes, then rubbed it with some garlic and found it to be especially delicious.