Cooking

Lately the weekend has been all about cooking. I'm not going to say I am on a diet because in reality I am just eating healthy (healthily?). Unfortunately to do that food has become my sole obsession. It's funny because the last time I successfully shed significant pounds I had to remove myself from the world of food. No more restaurants, Gourmet magazine, Food Network or Balducci's. No more entertaining, dinner parties or Super Bowl Sundays. Now to obtain the same end I am taking a completely opposite approach. I spend hours researching healthy recipes, analyzing nutritional content, and planning what I am going to eat. My i-Phone is HOT...not just because it is the sharpest toy ever made but because it is constantly on as I log menus, assign point values and tally every meal's calorie-fat-sodium-carb-cholesterol content. It is taking a lot of effort to lead a normal life while eating low calorie, salt-free (thus homemade) foods. Another attempt to improve the state of my state. We'll see how this one goes!

Finishing Off The Work Week

Yes, thank God it's Thursday...the end of MY work week. I finally got around to baking off the mini cupcakes I've been planning since Christmas so my work mates got a sweet treat to help 'em to Friday. It's a crazy good recipe from Birnbaum's Cake Bible but nearly not worth the trouble...NEARLY.

I start off with the All American Chocolate Butter Cake. This part is not too difficult and really, really yummy. Reminiscent of a Devil Dog (kicked up a whole bunch of notches) this super chocolaty, melt-in-your-mouth cake gets it's strong flavor from Dutch-processed cocoa. Seemingly a bit dry (like the Drake's Dog) when you first take a bite, the butter in the cake literally begins to melt releasing a great fudgey flavor.

The tedious element to this confection is a Caramel Silk Butter Cream filling. I have never tried any other recipe for this but I think another could be satisfactorily substituted. I use this because I had never seen a caramel flavored frosting, which in my opinion is what puts this cake over the top. Birnbaum's recipe is made in 3 separate steps - first you make a creme anglais, then a silk meringue. The 2 come together when whipped with a significant amount of pure sweet creamery butter. The process is long and precise and I never have luck with the 'from scratch" caramel syrup. It always goes to hard ball/crackle stage before I can get it incorporated so I have to do some fancy footwork to make it happen. I have recently found a more conventional butter cream recipe with the caramel flavor so I might try using that one next time.

I top the cake off with a lovely, rich smooth ganache. With a very noticeable flavoring of Cognac, it is too die for.

I made the cake in two 9" layers and used a very small biscuit cutter to make little rounds. They didn't hold together as well as I had hoped but as Grandma used to say: "It doesn't matter - it will look worse than that when it gets where it's going!"

So au revoir to mes amis at Variety...until Monday! Have a good weekend.