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Well. I wound up working a double shift yesterday, so I actually wasn’t home at all to post for my first Guilty Pleasure Sundays, but I definitely did get to indulge in something absolutely guilt-ridden and pleasurable, oh my…

Fudge-Topped Brownie
One of the girls I work with over-heated a customer’s brownie yesterday, and the fudge topping go a little melty, so we treated ourselves to a little gooey brownie delectableness in the back room after she prepared a properly-warmed piece for the customer. Oh my gosh, was that brownie amazing.

I’m generally not much of a brownie person, but I’m generally not much of a many-things-my-bakery-makes person, and each of those things I’ve had so far has turned me into a I-like-x-but-only-from-my-bakery person. (Okay, that phrase and the hyphens have just reached their tolerance limit. ;P)

Our brownies are fudgey, as all good brownies are. I like cake. I like fudge. Brownies should be somewhere in between, but since they don’t get frosted like cake does, they must lean towards the fudgey side to be edible. The brownies we make have thick, chewy toothsomeness like fudge, but they still crumble a little with the slightest bit of cakey texture. The melted fudge on top of this supposed brownie failure really took it over-the-top, though. All of the incredibly deep and rich chocolate flavor combined with something to chew and liquidy love was obscenely delicious.

I have SO added a warmed La Bonne Boulangerie brownie coupled with icy-cold vanilla Häagen-Dazs ice cream to my list of “Foods Melody Must Eat in Order to Make Her Life Complete.”

4 Comments Categories: Chocolate · Desserts · Food Musings · Guilty Pleasure Sundays · No Photos

More than any other cookie, my sister loves what are called either rainbow cookies or six/seven-layer cookies. Considering that, I had the idea to make her a rainbow cookie cake for her birthday today. :)

Looking fabulous even without fancy decoration

If you’re ever going to make these cookies–either in actual cookie form or a cake–I have one piece of advice for you: make sure you’ve invested in a good electric mixer first. Between thoroughly blending the almond paste with the sugar, then creaming the sugar-almond mixture and butter, and then beating egg whites to stiff, glossy peaks, I spent all morning yesterday from 7am until nearly 11 baking the layers for this cake. Let me tell you, bakers from the pre-electricity days must’ve been forces to reckon with, and I’d never want to run into one on a bad day. I’m more sore today from all that manual work than I’ve ever been after even the most serious strength-training workout.

Not only did I have to endure hours of hard mixing and beating, but less than two minutes into the baking adventure, I was left with a battle wound from the sharp edge of the can lid from the almond paste. Damn, that stuff is TOUGH and doesn’t like to come out of the can in the least! At the same time, it’s incredibly tasty, and I might just have to get more to make other things with, since it’s on sale at Waldbaum’s this week and all. ;) Though, if I decide that what I’d really like is marzipan, I actually would just buy it instead of making it, despite what I said to a friend to the contrary recently. ;x After what I went through mixing the paste and sugar yesterday, I’ve decided it really is worth the extra twenty cents or so to pay for someone else to mix in the sugar and egg and corn syrup to make marzipan for me. I don’t need any more wounds anyway. ;P

Oooh, pretty colors :)

So after going out to dinner at Red Lobster with my family (I had their Dockside Shrimp and Chicken entrée, which was very yummy and satisfying after purposely skipping my usually-late lunch in order to be sure I had an appetite for what was supposed to be an unusually-early dinner), we came back to the apartment to have the cake. My mom had brought with her candles, since I’d previously told her we didn’t have any here, and these were the niftiest candles ever! They came attached to glow stick candle holders! Even before the candles were lit the cake was all fancy and glowing! It was pretty. :)

So yummy! I ate too much! XD

Because there were friends having cake with us that needed to catch a train in short order, the dessert was cut and served quickly, and I received many compliments. Most importantly, my sister absolutely loved it, even before tasting any she was thoroughly impressed by just the concept. :D I have to say that even I am really pleased–I normally am not a fan of the cookie version, I think because packaged ones are often too dry, a common problem with cakes of this type. European sponge cake has a tendency to get dry quickly, but since these layers are intentionally underbaked–and because I am clearly an excellent baker ;]–in order to preserve their color and not get browned, they stayed really moist.

The crumb was nice and dense from the weighting process (the assembled layers are refrigerated at least 8 hours with a weight on top), but since it was formed with a sponge cake, there was still a certain lightness to it. Of course there was an almond flavor, but despite having both almond paste and almond extract, it was rather mild. Just enough to be noticeable but not confuse you as to why you are eating almonds but finding no actual nuts. The recipe called for apricot preserves, but since the apricot only came in 10-ounce jars instead of the 12-ounce jar called for, I wasn’t about to buy a whole other ten ounces when I only needed two more, so I subbed peach preserves, which did come in a 12-ounce size. A less punchy flavor, yes, but along similar lines and color, so it worked. Maybe next time I’ll make a half-recipe as cookies and buy the actual apricot.

As for the chocolate on top, that’s usually my least favorite part of these cookies-turned-cake, despite being a chocolate fiend. Mostly because I don’t care much for the texture of a bar of chocolate coupled with cake layers. Chocolate chips, chocolate flakes, or other such small pieces of solid chocolate are okay, but whole sheets of it just doesn’t appeal to me on a cake. However, I’d mixed in a little butter when I melted the bars of Lindt semi-sweet surfin chocolate with the intention of it keeping the coating slightly soft and thus easy to cut through without cracking all over the place. My idea worked beautifully, and I actually enjoyed the slightly softened texture with the cake. It wound up with a consistency somewhere between ganache and solid chocolate, so it didn’t defer too much from the traditional cookie but at the same time was more functional for a cake topping and more palatable to me.

All in all, I’d say this cake marks another fabulous baking success to add to my collection. :D

0 Comments Categories: Cakes · Desserts · French · Photos

So I just attempted to make yakimochi like the one I had with Robyn in the City a couple of weeks ago, and I failed miserably. X/ It was highly disappointing because ever since I got a bag of adzuki beans at the local Oriental Grocery (Stony Brook has an abnormally massive Asian population, so it makes sense that we’d have a nearby supermarket brimming with awesome Asian foods, yum!), I’d had my heart set on having homemade yakimochi.

I cooked up the sweet red bean paste with the adzuki beans last night, and THAT came out fantastic. Of course, if it hadn’t, I’d have to seriously reconsider my goal of becoming a chef/baker of some sort, since it’s ridiculously simple. Soak beans, cook beans, drain, add sugar and oil, cook and mash until it becomes a paste. About the only thing you could do to mess it up would be to undercook the beans or something. :P

With that done, I’d planned on making the mochi to wrap the bean paste in and cooking it in a pan tonight. Well, apparently it must not be the sticky kind of mochi on the yakimochi I had because no matter what I did after I made the mochi, I couldn’t get it to cook into a wonderful doughy, slightly crusty shell. :( It just stayed gummy until it got burnt/caramelized on the outside. It didn’t taste HORRIBLE, but it wasn’t exactly what I’d consider edible either.

At least I only made a little bit of bean paste and mochi…

Anyway, I was hoping that maybe someone who reads this might be able to point me in the direction of a recipe that’s appropriate for making a yakimochi dough. I can’t seem to find one myself, and regular mochi clearly is not the way to go. XP

5 Comments Categories: Desserts · Food Musings · Japanese · No Photos

I had requested to do Thanksgiving dinner this year about a month ago. Starting after we returned from the diner on Wednesday night, I undertook making a complete meal from start to finish. On the menu was pumpkin bread for daytime nibbling, turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed sweet potatoes, mashed cauliflower, green beans, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. With an incredibly brief break for sleep in the wee hours of the morning, I was in the kitchen from about 10pm Wednesday until 4:20pm on Thanksgiving Day. I tend to do things a little on the slow side when it a) involves an unfamiliar recipe and b) involves any sort of cutting–my knife skills, while safe, are certainly not yet very efficient.

My preparation got underway with setting up the turkey to brine for several hours. I cooked up a nice brine in a huge stockpot, let it cool, put in the fresh turkey, and let it soak up all the flavors and get succulently moist. Once that was resting out in the garage, I put together the cranberry sauce because it had to chill overnight. After that was done cooking and set aside in the fridge to cool, it was time to prepare the crust for the pumpkin pie. That came together pretty quickly (as is necessary with pastry crusts), and next up was to bake some pumpkin bread for everyone to munch on for breakfast and throughout the day on Thursday while waiting for dinner.

A happy loaf of pumpkin bread

There was a recipe in my brand-new The Baking Handbook by Martha Stewart that looked fantastic, so I passed on baking my mom’s traditional recipe, which she does every year at both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Clearly, Martha knows what she’s doing and sometimes it’s definitely worth it to fix something that isn’t broken. While my mom’s bread hasn’t been labelled as “bad” in my book, it’s totally been knocked way down on the list in the face of this new recipe.

I simply had to try a piece as soon as it was cool enough!

Thanks to Martha, I’ve discovered the wondrousness and glory of a super-moist, super-tender, not-overly-sweet, very-pumpkiny-and-flavorful pumpkin bread. And I never considered my mom’s recipe terribly unhealthy until now–the Baking Handbook recipe uses one-sixth of the oil my mom’s does, and yet it’s still a bazillion times more moist. I’m going to attribute it to the buttermilk, because the red velvet caked I baked back in September had the same kind of moistness and also called for buttermilk. I have now decided that buttermilk is a Kitchen Essential and Makes Everything Better. Seriously, I think I’m going to be very critical of any cake-like recipe that doesn’t call for it from now on, and I’m going to continue experimenting with using it elsewhere (I’d tried it with oatmeal, and dude, does it make the best oatmeal EVER).

Consumption of that slice took place, the turkey was turned in the brine, and then I settled in to get some much-needed sleep for a couple of hours. After waking up a bit earlier than I had planned due to other people starting to make noise through the house, I got the turkey out of the brine and set up in the roasting pan to go in the oven later and put together the pie so it would be done and cooling all day and the oven could be devoted to the turkey.

While the pie was baking, I cut up the bread for the stuffing. I have to say, it’’s really ridiculous how difficult sourdough bread is to cut. Jesus. It took me an hour to cut it into pieces, and most of that time was spent just cutting the slices because it required so much effort! I actually had to take breaks to rest a couple of times!! While I loved the taste of the sourdough for stuffing, I don’t think I’ll be putting myself through all of that again. ;P The pie was done baking by the time the bread had succumbed to my will and sharp tool of doom, so I set that out to cool and toasted the bread cubes. Those were set aside until it was time to put the stuffing together, and I got to work chopping the aromatic veggies to stuff the turkey.

The turkey was stuffed and prepped for the oven and began cooking just about noon, right on time, woo! I set to work chopping up the seemingly massive amount of onions and celery and carrot for the stuffing, and then I started putting that together. I couldn’t help tasting after I browned the sausage, hee. Italian turkey sausage has been added near the top of the “Animal Proteins I Like” list. ;x Yum! :yum: The mountain of veggies were cooked down and stirred into the bread cubes, and that was set aside until the turkey came out of the oven and it could get finished.

Once I’d readied the stuffing, I took a brief sit-down break and then got working on the other side dishes. First was the green beans with pan-roasted red onions and balsamic glaze, then I cooked and mashed the sweet potatoes for the brûléed mashed sweet potatoes, and last was the beginnings of the prep work for my mashed cauliflower. All of the sides came together just in time for the turkey to come out at 3:30pm. It was set aside to rest while I gave the stuffing it’s final prep of pouring broth over it, putting it in some pans, and baking for 20 minutes. Around four, I started making the gravy, and by 4:30 we were sitting down to eat. Of course, not until I’d taken photos of everything…

All of the food set out to be served

Mmm…crisp grean beans and sweet red onion

Fruity, meaty, flavorful stuffing

Oh, the caramelized brown sugary goodness…

Smooth, creamy mashed cauliflower

That turkey tasted just as good as it looked!

Perfectly sweet-tart cranberry sauce

Everyone was getting impatient while I photographed everything. ;) As soon as I was done, my dad set to work carving the turkey, and soon we were all sitting around the table with our respective plates of food, ready to give thanks and dig in!

Waiting for everyone to be ready was torture!

I got compliments throughout the meal on how good everything was. My dad said that it was absolutely the best turkey he’d had in his life, and considering how many turkeys he’s had to compare it to–and the fact that it was the first turkey I ever cooked–I’m quite proud of myself for it. :) :) It was a very delicious turkey: incredibly moist but not undercooked, very flavorful, and gorgeously browned on the outside. As for the side dishes, the green beans were perfectly crisp-tender and very well complimented by the sweet red onions and light balsamic-brown sugar glaze; we polished off an entire dish of the stuffing during dinner and very little was left by the time I came back to school last night–we usually have apples in it, but I definitely like the pear so much better, and I already raved about that Italian sausage; my dad said that the mashed cauliflower really could almost pass for mashed potatoes, and it came out really good with chicken bouillon and a little milk and butter; the mashed sweet potatoes were definitely a welcome variation from the dessert-like sweet potato casserole we’ve always had; and the cranberry sauce was fantastic, garnering much approval from my grandma–and everyone else. ;D

Overall, dinner was an absolute success, and I’ve already been named Christmas Dinner Chef this year. :) Considering it’s only a month away, I can’t believe I already have to keep it in mind to plan the meal! I’ve become quite settled on doing a standing rib roast for the main dish. A bit more complicated to get right than a turkey, I think, but I have confidence my dad will be raving about it just as much as yesterday’s turkey. ;)

The crust was the best part

My mom, grandma, and myself cleaned up once everyone was done eating, and then we had dessert. To be honest, I don’t think I’ll use the same recipe for pumpkin pie again. While it had great texture, it wasn’t sweet enough. The crust was fantastic, though. The pecans were great, nuts make everything better. ;D My mom had also picked up a peach-praline pie from Stop and Shop, and that was quite good. It made up for the lack of sweetness in the pumpkin pie tenfold, heh. There was also some ice cream to have with the pie–Häagen-Dazs Light Dulce de Leche and Rum Raisin. Ohhh, boy. :D

We all rolled away from the table after that meal. And no one was averse to having leftovers the next day, either, it was all so good. :)

3 Comments Categories: Breads · Desserts · Main Meals · Photos · Side Dishes · Thanksgiving 2005 · Vegetables

After getting back to my parent’s house tonight, we all went out to dinner at the family favorite restaurant–the Terrace Diner in West Babylon. As diner’s go, this is definitely the best, in my opinion; the service is consistently good, the food is consistently good (I’ve never been at all disappointed by something I ordered), and the prices are average-or-better for this area.

Being a very small fan of fried/heavily sauced/otherwise loaded with fat meals, I generally only choose from a few items I know won’t send my GI tract into a violent storm of “you’ve loaded me with too much lipid, idiot!” convulsions–their vegetable wrap is one of my favorites. However, tonight I actually spotted something on the dinner specials list that seemed like something I’d enjoy: Pasta Angelica, a mélange of sautéed chicken breast, mushrooms, garlic, onion, and red pepper in olive oil and balsamic vinegar over penne. I asked for them to go light on the oil (which they did!), and lo! I was finally able to order a meal that included dessert for once!!

A lone little ball floating in my broth

My meal began with an appropriately diminutive bowl of matzoh ball soup. The matzoh was perfect souping consistency–firm enough to hold together in broth, tender enough to easily slice off bite-sized pieces with a my spoon. It was also lightly herbed, which was a pleasant addition to the normally plain dough. I was quite thoroughly pleased by the fact that the broth wasn’t too salty, and it was definitely well-developed, the chicken flavor was satisfyingly intense. :)

After the soup came a small, side-salad-size plate of the house Greek salad. I didn’t bother to photograph it because it was just your standard greens + cucumber + tomato + feta + olives salad with a little cup of the House dressing. My family goes to this diner primarily for this dressing, which really is unimpressive visually–it’s a cloyingly yellow, thick dressing almost reminiscent of custard. The taste, on the other hand, is remarkable: garlicky, smooth, and oh-so-tasty but not too rich. I never use all that they give you because of how flavorful it is; just a little bit goes a very long way.

Next up was my main event for the meal. Well, at least, what most, non-dessert-oriented people would consider the main event. ;)

The aroma of this dish was nirvana

What never ceases to amaze me about the Terrace Diner is how they always cook their chicken exactly right–it’s never underdone, and at the same time it’s never overcooked to the point of dry, stringy unappetizingness. I’ve tried a number of their chicken dishes, and each time it’s arrived in front of me at the perfect temperature and moist, tender, delicious. The Pasta Angelica’s chicken cubes had the benefit of being covered in balsamic vinegar and a teeny bit of olive oil. Everything in this dish was fantastically flavorful, and I’ve since become convinced that nothing goes with mushrooms like balsamic vinegar. Mmm! :yum:

Because I knew that I still had dessert coming to me, and while that pasta would be very hard to top, I had faith it would be the highlight of my dinner, so I deliberately only ate about a third of the main course. I asked our server to wrap up the rest, and after everyone else in my family had finished up their dinners, I took a short stroll over to the dessert cases and pondered my options. I was faced with the choices of rice pudding, chocolate pudding, Jello, chocolate cheesecake, plain cheesecake, strawberry-topped sugar-free cheesecake, apple pie, cherry pie, bluberry pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate layer cake, chocolate mousse cake, a streusel-topped apple tart, various small pastries and brownies and cookies, and the cake I wound up deciding on: carrot cake.

A moist, tender crumb sandwiched by cheesy frosting

On any given day, you’re bound to find me unable to pass up chocolate. I’m definitely a chocoholic. However, after such a filling meal as what preceded this dessert selection process, I wasn’t really up for the clearly decadent and heavy chocolate desserts (well, except for the pudding, but come on–who on earth in their right mind would select pudding of all things when faced with choices like the ones I had before me???). Besides, the cute little carrots on top were absolutely calling to me. I could here their squeaky little voices chirping my name as I thoughtfully considered all of my potential desserts.

And after all that consideration, the selection I settled on did not disappoint at all. The cake was splendidly most, with more than enough shredded carrot, walnut pieces, plumped raisins, and wintery spices to go around. Usually for me, cake is just an excuse to eat frosting, but I’d actually order this dessert with the intention of enjoying the cake in its own right the next time I go to Terrace. At the same time, this is not to downplay the glory of that frosting in any way, shape, or form.

The photo doesn’t do justice to that sweet topping

Seriously, this cream cheese frosting gets an A+++ in my book for Doing What Cheesecake Frosting is Supposed to Do. It perfectly balanced the spicy, carroty, tender cake with creamy, flavorful sweetness. It wasn’t so cream cheesey as to mislead me into thinking I’m eating a cheesecake when clearly I’m not, and at the same time it wasn’t so overly-sugared as to make my teeth hurt and my tongue go dry. It was Perfection. Except there should’ve been more; for the Queen of Frosting (i.e. me), there just simply wasn’t enough of this amazing concotion between and atop and around those cake layers. :P Alas, I really can’t complain too much in the face of the overal fantabulousness of my dessert.

Really, the cake in general was honestly the best carrot cake I’ve ever had. It’s inspired me to attempt my own carrot cake-baking endeavor, so not only can I have a wonderfully well-endowed cake with the epitome of greatness in the form of cream cheese frosting, but I can make sure there’s enough of said frosting. ;)

0 Comments Categories: Desserts · Italian · Main Meals · Pasta · Photos · Restaurant Ramblings

Yesterday I had the absolute pleasure of going on a gastronomical quest with Robyn! I don’t think I could have possibly created myself someone more enjoyable to roam the area near NYU/Bleeker Street/Astor Place with in search of baked goods and exotic treats sugar-loaded enough to get me fidgity. :D

Mmm…unfamiliar Japanese dessert goodies…

We started off by going to the newly-opened location of Cafe Zaiya somewhere near Astor Place (forgive me for my utter lack of awareness as to the location of ANY of these places because I was completely not paying attention how to get there–I was just letting Robyn be my tummy-delighting guide ;]), where I was introduced to the fabulousness that are Japanese baked goods! I tried to let price be my guide during the whole trip, since I wanted to eat things from a variety of places, so I picked something that was only $1.50. This also meant I wouldn’t feel as bad if I wound up not liking it, heh.

I would never think to put black sesame in a dessert

Not liking it wound up being completely a non-issue. ;) “Red bean” and “black sesame” are definitely not ingredients I ever would have thought to put in a sweet food, since to me beans go in things like rice and beans or baked beans or burritos, and sesame is used on breads and chicken, but oh. my. GOD do the Japanese know how to turn them into a delectable dessert.

Oooh…delicious red bean innards…

The flavor of the toasted sesame really rounded out the sweetness of the bun, which being grilled rice flour dough had a mild flavor and really nice chewy-toasty texture without being too crusty/bread-like. It encapsulated the bean paste, which had a really rich flavor without being at all heavy and was perfectly sweet. Yakimochi has so been added to my list of top desserts, yum! :d

The bees! The cuteness tantalizes me!

After Cafe Zaiya, we roamed some more until we came upon Black Hound Bakery, which we’d previously decided needed at least a stop-in if not tasting. After looking over the prices (too prohibitive for my budget), we settled on just oohing and aahhing at the cute-yummy-fabulous-looking cakes, desserts, bars, truffles, and cookies.

Eensy-weensy, itty-bitty cookiettes!

Speaking of their cookies, they had a display of all these tiny cookies that were absolutely the most adorable cookies EVAR. I was compelled to photograph what I am dubbing palmiettes–palmiers that FIT in the palm of your hand instead of being made with it, hee!! XD Too much cute in baked goodies!

After not eating anything from Black Hound, we walked back in the direction we came from to go to JAS Mart and check out their selection of Japanese snacks. Upon deciding I didn’t need a whole big bag of Kasugai gummies despite them being the best gummies on the face of the planet, I bought a small box of Meiji Yogurt Scotch–a yogurt butterscotch candy. Being accustomed to the American type of butterscotch, I was completely not expecting them to be hard candies, so it was quite a shock when I bit down on a piece only to CRUNCH on it. Heh. I did enjoy the balance of yogurty tanginess and butterscotch sweetness very much, though.

Next was a stop in at the downtown Whole Foods so Robyn could show me their assortment of chocolate and honey. I wasn’t interested in spending a ton of money on a chocolate bar or honey, but I definitely do need to expand my honey-tasting-experience well beyond “teddy bear clover from the supermarket.” :P BUT! I did find that Egyptian Licorice Tea–which I can’t find near me out on Long Island–so I was like MINE! MINE! MINE! And I bought it. Hee. :D

Some more ambling through the streets of New York City led us to Amy’s Bread because I was determined to include a cupcake in my eating endeavors of the night, and Robyn assured me they had some there. :) After ogling all of the very tempting baked goodies, I decided that a solitary cupcake was simply not going to do it, so I added on one of the biscotti I spotted on a shelf behind the cashwrap. ;)

A real cupcake! And biscotto!

I am definitely of the “crispy cookies are what it’s all about” school, so I have long been a fan of biscotti. While I like crispy cookies, I don’t like crumbly cookies, and too often are crispy cookies made thicker and thus crumbly and oh-so-unappealing. However, biscotti are always perfectly crispy-but-also-held-together-y. Yay! And this Anise Almond Biscotto was FANTABULOUS. Ever since trying Yogi Tea’s Egyptian Licorice Tea and being ecstatic over it, I’ve decided that maybe I’m not so repulsed by licorice as I thought and have resolved to try anise-flavored things when given the opportunity. This biscotto was so good, I’ve decided I need to get some anise to add to my spice collection–if only to make anise biscotti! The almonds were perfect as well: flavorful, fresh, and not overly-toasted.

This cupcake (their “Black and White” variety) successfully introduced me to the world of non-mixed-based, canned-frosting-decorated cupcakes, however disappointingly. I have to say the cake was not especially impressive; while the flavor was by far much more intense and well-rounded than cakes baked from a mix, it was very dry and crumbly. I am so not down with the crumbly cakes, nope nope. The frosting, though. Oh, the frosting… At the time I tasted this cupcake, I was in absolute frosting heaven. First of all, there was plenty of it. Thanks in part to the fact that I picked out the one that looked like it had the most, heh. ;) It was also so perfectly balanced between the butter and sugar–it didn’t at all taste like too much of one or the other, but it was still very sweet. Mmmm!

I also had a small taste of Robyn’s Monkey Cake. It’s a banana-walnut-pineapple layer cake with traditional cream cheese frosting. Like a kicked-up banana bread that’s been frosted. It was good. :]

Once we left Amy’s, we passed a couple of Italian bakeries–one had cupcakes that were oh-so-sadly ICED and not FROSTED. It was declared the So Not Cool Bakery, and we indignantly continued on our Cool Food search. It led us to Pasticceria Bruno with–*gasp*!–Pumpkin-Raisin-Walnut Biscotti summoning me from behind the storefront window. I could not pass that up, and we happily went inside. It was a little anxiety-inducing when I discovered from looking over all of their other dessert goodness that they seemed to price things by the pound. Oh, no! Could I be impeded from my squashy-spicey-fruity-nutty-indulgence by the fact that I would have to buy a GAZILLION all at once?? The horror! BUT. Thankfully, I was able to purchase a single biscotto, and Christ. It was sublime. Officially my Favorite Cookie in the History of the World. I need to find a recipe for such a cookie so I can enjoy this ambrosial treat more often.

Still not full (we are sugar-and-flour-consuming MACHINES, apparently), it was decided that more bakeries were in order! We ventured off and came to the Polka Dot Cake Studio. I wanted to at least check it out, and when I saw amazing-looking cupcakes at the counter, we agreed to split one. ;) Boy, am I glad we did because their Red Velvet Cupcake more than made up for the disappointment that was Amy’s crumbly cake. It was a very moist and delicious cake that was at least enjoyable in the face of my own red velvet cake, which is oh-so-much better, yes. But Polka Dot’s is good. The frosting really blew me over, though. My God. It was a classic frosting for red velvet cake, cream cheese buttercream, and it was done phenomenally. It didn’t taste quite like a full-blown cream cheese frosting or buttercream–it was somewhere between the two. I enjoyed it because straight buttercream tends to be quite plain, but the slight cream cheese flavor made it just plain perfect. Definitely worth another visit, especially considering the price–while Amy’s was $2.50 for a cupcake, this was just $1.50, and way better. Try it. Now.

Continuing on our way through the streets of the Big Apple, we finally stopped at Magnolia. A person in search of baked goods in New York has utterly failed if only for the sake of visiting Places to See if they haven’t checked out Magnolia, so we absolutely had to go there. At this point, I was definitely on a sugar rush and fidgity, so I really didn’t need any more sweet things, but after sampling a piece of a cupcake with maple buttercream on top, I couldn’t leave without buying something. Conveniently, they had boxes! I could safely take it with me to go home! Woo-hoo! A box was fetched and padded with tissue paper, a yellow cupcake with yellow buttercream and sprinkles was selected, a mini chocolate pecan toffee white chip cookie was also added to the box, and I was set to go. :)

At this point, it was after nine and we’d been adventuring for nearly four whole hours, so it was time for us to go in the direction of our respective homes. Good-byes were said, and I was off to the train. During the train ride, I came down from my sugar high and was too tempted by the memories of the goodness of the sample, and so needless to say, the Magnolia treats did not survive the trip home. ;) That cake is so perfect–the texture is moist and fluffy-but-dense, with a crispy-buttery top that is absolutely delightful, and the flavor is vanilla-y and buttery without being too rich. The frosting is more impressive with maple, though. Their plain buttercream is basically just SWEET. It’s certainly not bad, but I definitely prefer some sort of taste in my frosting beyond sweetness.

The cookie wasn’t crispy, so that was one small point against it. It wasn’t chewy either, though, so that was better. “Fudgy” is the best way to describe the texture, almost brownie-like, and I do like fudge and brownies, so I was okay with it. :) The flavor, on the other hand, was definitely delectable. The combination of chocolate cookie with pieces of toffee, chopped pecans, and white chocolate chips was so amazingly good. Definitely something I am going to make in crispy-cookie form, oh yes.

To wrap up this excessively long entry, my fooding adventures were a blazing success! Robyn and I enthusiastically agreed we will have to do it again sometime during the winter, and next time we’ll include “real” food and not just desserts. ;) Today, I am so not in the mood for sugary stuff, heh…

I absentmindedly wound up leaving my camera at my dorm room when I came home this weekend–d’oh!–so I used my camera phone. That explains the not-so-good quality of my photos and the lack of documentary after Amy’s (darn lack of memory…). For more photos, check out Robyn’s web site (linked in the first paragraph) and her Flickr gallery.

3 Comments Categories: Cakes · Chocolate · Desserts · Food Musings · Photos · Restaurant Ramblings

I have just had the ultimate pleasure of tasting a Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate with Marzipan bar for the first time in my life, and I’m basking in afterglow. To be honest, I purchased this bar earlier today plainly out of curiosity, having never had the opportunity before. After working for Lindt, I’ve become spoiled by quality chocolate, and my expectations were thus low. Especially since they make a dark chocolate-marzipan candy called Mozartkugeln that I absolutely love–or should I say loved?

Begging me to unwrap and devour it…

The Ritter Sport bar had been seductively calling my name ever since it came into my possession and took up residence in the bag I had with me at work today. I somehow managed to deny its siren song until the logical time of “after dinner,” and I’m thankful I did because it was a positively glorious way to close my day.

The chocolate and marzipan, it taunts.

After finally succumbing to temptation and unwrapping the bar, I broke off one of the rows of logo-imprinted perfect squares to reveal the contrast of decadently dark chocolate and milky white marzipan concealed within. It smelled deep and sweet, and every small, careful bite I took was absolutely divine.

Yes, I consumed the entire bar.

The fine snap of the bittersweet chocolate foiled against the pleasantly soft texture of the sugary almond marzipan was too persuasive, too irresistable. Allowing some bites to melt in my mouth and chewing some out of pure impatience to experience all of the flavor was a game I thoroughly enjoyed playing with this delectable treat.

Mozartkugeln truly pales in comparison to the Ritter Sport bar–literally and figuratively. While I absolutely adore nuts, especially almonds, and especially in the form of marzipan, the ratio of marzipan-to-chocolate in the Mozartkugeln is just far too great. In the Ritter Sport bar, neither one predominates, creating a confection of rich, subtly sweet chocolate sin complimented by just the right amount of nutty sweet paste.

Satiated, I am.

4 Comments Categories: Chocolate · Desserts · Food Musings · Photos

For a program I’m participating in, I created a recipe for tea-infused crème brûlée. My favorite site for buying tea, Adagio, runs another site, TeaChef, and through it I have the challenge of inventing a recipe using a different tea each month. This month, it was a jasmine oolong tea, and the dessert I put together with the tea is absolutely sinful! Even my sister, who was adamantly opposed to it since she doesn’t like jasmine teas, found it to be fabulous.

And considering the TeaChef program is a contest, I would muchly appreciate it if you voted for my recipe at the site! The voting starts on the 25th of the month, and there will be a link from the main page of the site to where you can vote.

(A photo of the prep and a recipe can be found on the second page.)

2 Comments Categories: Desserts · French · Photos · TeaChef

The real main event of my birthday party meal was, of course, the cake! And what a cake it was–it took me nearly the whole week to prepare between baking the layers, freezing and defrosting them, filling and sealing it, and then decorating it with fondant and icing. Since I had to make up my own recipe for the icing, it didn’t quite work out the way I was hoping, since I’m clearly not experienced enough at this just yet. However, it impressed my friends, and that’s what really counts!

I’m only including the recipe for the red velvet cake layers this time because the buttercream and icing were things I put together on the fly and I completely don’t remember what I did in any sort of detail. I bought the fondant from a craft store because I definitely didn’t want to mess that up–I’ll experiment with making my own sometime in the future.

(Photos of the prep and a recipe can be found on the second page.)

1 Comment Categories: 22nd Birthday Meal · Cakes · Chocolate · Desserts · Photos · Southern/Soul Food