It has become a tradition in my apartment to bake a cake, of the birthday girl's choice, for each birthday. In mid-August, when two birthdays have fallen within days of each other, there is a lot of cake to go around! However, the tradition got off to a shaky start.
Last summer, I made Bekah a Mexican chocolate cake. The recipe, which she had used for Cinqo de Mayo parties in Brooklyn, turned out well, with plenty of leftover cinnamon-cocoa frosting. Bekah and Jess, on the other hand, attempted a rather complicated chocolate-mint fudge cake for me. The three-part recipe called for mint chocolate batter, mint cream, and chocolate frosting. For some reason, only the mint cream went as planned. The batter recipe called for potato flour, but said that mashed potatoes would be an acceptable substitute. One mashed potato and 400 degrees later, we ended up with a dense, brick-sized and -textured item. The butter in the frosting refused to incorporate with the other ingredients...
...so as much "cake" as possible was covered in mint cream, which was originally intended for between the layers. Note the discrepancy between the finished product and the cookbook's illustration (top picture on page):
On the evening of my birthday, we sawed the finished product into individual slices. We hoped that it would taste better than it looked, and that some vestige of chocolate and/or mint would assert itself against the packed sawdust created by our oven.
All hope was in vain, and there was nothing we could do but laugh hysterically at the dessert disaster in front of us. A few tastes and gags later, the Birthday Brick was unceremoniously dumped into the garbage. Yes, it was awful, but due to its sheer ridiculousness and unexpected humor value, it has become my favorite memory of that birthday.
2008's birthday baking was much more successful. I found a delicious lemon cake recipe per Bekah's request, courtesy of Barefoot Contessa's Ina Garten. (I am partial to any cook affiliated with Stonewall Kitchen, whose jams, sauces, soup mixes etc are to die for.) What makes this recipe special? Well, the batter requires the zest, and juice, of 6 lemons. You drizzle a warm sauce of sugar dissolved in lemon juice over the warm cake, and let it soak in. You then coat the cake in a crisp white glaze made of more lemon juice and confectioner's sugar. I particularly love the strong flavor added by the sauce and glaze. The final product is robustly lemon-y, yet light enough for breakfast or dessert on a hot summer's day, and perfect with chilled iced tea. I look forward to my next opportunity to bake this cake.
A few days later, determined to show the Birthday Brick who's boss, I requested a second chocolate-mint cake. The new recipe used basic ingredients - no curveballs like potato flour or ganache - and this year's finished product was infinitely preferable to the last, even if 3 times the recipe's amount of butter was accidentally added to the batter. (It sure was smooth and creamy, and I couldn't tell that something was "wrong" with it!) The cake itself was flavored with baker's chocolate and mint extract; the mint taste was light and refreshing. The homemade frosting, of course, was delicious, with subtle hints of cocoa and mint. I can safely say that this cake was not thrown in the trash, and it even passed the breakfast test, with slices consumed in the morning and evening. Thanks to Bekah and Laura for a delicious birthday treat!
Sigh. It is now 1.5 weeks post-birthdays. What shall I have for dessert now that all the cakes are gone?
1 comment:
I'm glad the infamous dessert disaster has been preserved in time through your blog - it is a day that will remain with all who have heard the story forever.
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