Friday, December 25, 2009

Doodoo 3


Doodoo 2


Hannukah Cake




My contribution to our holiday dinner was preparing a dessert with my cousin. We decided to make a chocolate almond cake from a Julia Child recipe. We doubled it so we could stack them. Here's the recipe:

REINE DE SABA (Chocolate and Almond Cake)CAKE:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoon granulated sugar
6 large eggs, separated
2 pinches salt
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted with 4 tablespoons brewed coffee
2/3 cup finely pulverized (ground) almonds
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour, returned to sifter

CHOCOLATE BUTTER ICING:2 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 tablespoons brewed coffee
6 tablespoons unsalted butter


Instead of buttering and flouring a cake pan, use parchment paper. Just line two 8-inch diameter cake pans that are at least 1 1/2 inches deep with the paper. This will make your life so much easier. I am never greasing a damn pan again. Martha Stewart would be proud. In a 3-quart mixing bowl, cream butter and 1 1/3 cups sugar together with an electric mixture for several minutes until mixture is fluffy and pale yellow. Beat in egg yolks until well blended. Beat egg whites and pinch of salt in medium bowl until soft peaks form. Add remaining 2 tablespoon sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold chocolate mixture into butter-sugar mixture, then stir in almonds and almond extract. Alternate folding in a portion of the egg whites and sifting some of the flour in until they're all together. Turn batter into prepared cake pan and bake on middle rack of a preheated 350-degree oven, about 25 minutes or until cake has puffed and 2 1/2 to 3 inches around the circumference are set so that a cake tester in that area comes out clean. That's how long the recipe says to bake it, but ours was done in more like 15 minutes. Julia says to melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pot of simmering water, but eff that noise. Pop that shit in the microwave. No problem. We actually ran out of chocolate, but as it happened, our G-Ma (we were cooking at her house) had some 20-year-old Hannukah gelt, so we mixed in what we needed. Beat butter into chocolate, a tablespoon at a time. Place the icing in the fridge to set up a little for spreading consistency.


We actually made a different icing for the center layer between the two cakes. This is it:

2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 stick softened butter
2 tbsp brewed coffee
1 tsp almond extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp cocoa, sweetened or not, whatever.
Just mix the shit together, and it will be ready for the middle layer.

Spread the middle icing on top of one cake, place the other cake on top, and trim the edges if you think it will make icing it easier. Spread the chocolate icing all over. We then placed sliced almonds all around the outside of the cake before placing it in the fridge to set. Leave it out for maybe an hour at room temp before serving. I individually placed the slices on the cake, while my cousin sort of threw them at the cake. The picture at the top of the post is my side, and the one below is hers. It looked. . . special, and certainly tasted no less delicious!

Happy Jesus Day



The Christmas texts have already begun. I got one from an ex that at least seems personalized. Although it's possible, and funny to imagine, he's probably not calling his mother handsome. Then I got a "Merry X-Mas" graphic mass text that was FWD:FWD:FWD:FWD:RE:FWD:FWD from an old booty call. Don't you wish you could remove your number from other people's phones? Anyway, my gift to you is this picture of a little chocolatier's caterpillar arm: