Thanksgiving Top Chef Cook-off with Chocolate-Cayenne Cocktail Cookies on the 50th Day

  Page 164 in the November 2011 issue of Food and Wine: Chocolate-Cayenne Cocktail Cookies! This blog has reached the 50th day half-way point with these snappy little treasures. While the Top Chef prize went to a pumpkin cheesecake baker with a beautiful singing voice, which I think certainly swayed the judges, this unusual pastry was really in a class by itself: salty-sweet hors d'oeuvre cookies.  Can't wait to make these again!

Days 48 and 49, Boston Cream Pie

    

     What's the best layer cake for Boston Cream Pie?  Well, that all depends. 
     If you feel there's never enough chocolate in your world, Michele's Sin City Chocolate Cake layers will get you there, to a more-chocolate universe. We loved that. 
      If you're a BCP purist like my friend L., make Michele's One Two Three Four Golden Layers,  page 156 in  150 Chocolate Cakes.  We  loved that too, as did L. and her family.   Both times I used Jurgen's Chocolate Glaze - again from Michele's book.  This is a superb, delicious, shiny glaze.  And both times the essential cream was New Basics pastry cream, page 653 in The New Basics Cookbook, an especially rich and gooey filling.

Day 47, Whereupon the Freeze-and-Ship Chronicles Continue. Sin City Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting Really Does Travel.

Perfect day and time for mailing cakes...

   Baked a new one and shipped it south hoping the weather holds and the USPS maintains its recent 3-day delivery trend.
   Here is a way to ship a frosted single-layer cake in the mail.  Use those 8 x8 inch recycled disposable aluminum pans with plastic covers.  Bake your cake, and freeze it.  Make a full batch of Michele's Beginner's Buttercream. Pop the little cake out of its pan, and apply frosting liberally to the bottom inside of the pan so the cake stays put in there.  Return the cake to its home pan, and liberally ice the top. Snap on the plastic cover, and freeze it again.  Retrieve from the freezer and wrap generously with plastic wrap and tape.  This way it's less likely to lose moisture.  Place the entire thing in a huge Ziploc freezer bag in case it's stranded somewhere hot.  You don't want melted buttercream oozing all out in the mail truck.  Place a frozen cold pack - the kind you would put in a lunchbox - in a sealed baggy on the bottom of the cake pan.  Tape that in place.  Shove the whole thing in an insulated shopping bag.  This will fit in a medium-sized USPS flat rate box and mail for about $10.  Mark your box "This side up".  Know the pickup times for your Post Office, and send your frozen cake right before the truck comes.


   Reportedly, the cake arrived in beautiful, delicious condition on the third day,  buttercream only slightly smooshed on one end.

Sin City Chocolate Cake on Days 45 and 46



Sin City Chocolate Cake in Two Layers With Chocolate Buttercream Frosting



  Recently a fellow traveller and chocolate enthusiast asked me for a simple but great chocolate cake recipe.  I had to pick this one.  Dense and intense, making 3 generous layers in one batch, rising enough for respectable layer cake, Michelle Urvater's Sin City Chocolate Cake Layers recipe is the clear choice.  I return to it over and over.  Page 150, Chocolate Cake.

   Two layers went to an office potluck with my first husband, slathered in chocolate buttercream frosting. (The cake, not the man, was slathered.) Reportedly, it was loved and immediately, entirely consumed.



   That third layer now waits in my freezer.  Today it will get its thick coat of icing, be boxed, and return to the freezer, and tomorrow it will embark on it's postal trip to the capital of a large southern state.  My sister, the chocolate cake book-buying benefactor, should find it in her mail this week. May cooler weather prevail.   If the frosting is disheveled, she can serve it with whipped cream and Wilderness pie cherries.  Maybe she should do that anyway.

   Uh-oh.  As soon as the little single layer Sin City Chocolate Cake was frosted, somebody (somebodies) ate it. 

    If an 8"cake is travelling or for some other reason being served from the pan, so all it needs is frosting on top, this recipe is just enough.  For a more elegant presentation ( if elegance can happen with a disposable aluminum pan), shave contrasting chocolate generously over the top.



Just Enough Buttercream

4 ounces unsalted butter (1/2 stick) at summer room temperature

1/4  cup confectioners'  sugar (If there's no powdered sugar, granulated sugar can be ground up in a             blender.  This may lend your frosting a gritty, interesting texture.)

3 ounces Ghirardelli white chocolate - broken, melted, cooled

1 tsp orange liqueur



Cream the butter with the sugar.  Add the chocolate, and beat thoroughly.  Sprinkle in liqeur, and beat one more time until the texture pleases you.





Day 44: Yet More Snow-Flecked Brownies in the Mail



Baker's Assistant


HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY, CALEB!
I hope this kind and diligent college student agrees with me that late is truly better than never, because these brownies, now frozen and mailed, are probably not going to get there on his birthday. Caleb insists this is his favorite brownie, so perhaps a little delinquency can be tolerated.  They are en route to the most progressive city in the state and quite possibly the most liberal place in the noncoastal American West.  It's not far. Maybe he'll receive them Tuesday.

Day 43 - Ashley's Symphony Brownies

  Oh, my God, these are good.   These brownies are fast and decadently delicious.  You can ship these babies out,  cooked and ready-to-eat or as ready-to-bake components.  (That way your recipient can enjoy them hot from his oven.)
   The amazing Ashley gave me this recipe, and she's not just phenomenal for brownies.  You'd never guess to look at her, but this petite, brilliant fireball can deadlift 225 pounds.  She once retrieved a tiny but really important piece of jewelery off the bottom of  the cold and fast Comal River with the help of two good girlfriends and toy snorkel mask.   Here's her recipe, which she got from her mama, who thinks she probably snipped it from a San Antonio newspaper years ago.

Symphony Brownies
2 boxes Ghirardelli Brownie Mix (Double Chocolate or Chocolate Walnut)
3 extra-large (7ounce) Hersey's Symphony Milk Chocolate Bars...with almonds and toffee if available

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare 2 batches of Ghirardelli's Brownie mix as directed on the package, in separate bowls.  Spread 1 prepared bowl of mix into a greased 9 X 13 pan.  Top batter with candy bars.  Pour on the second bowl of brownie mix.  Bake  for  40 minutes - NO LONGER. Keep a close eye on these so they don't overcook.  Cool completely before you slice them. Makes 24 servings.

If you don't know what a deadlift is, just like I didn't, you can be educated on YouTube, Kat 225 deadlift at 96-98 pounds.

Hersey's Sugar Free Chocolate Chip Cookies - Day 42

   While Walmart gives way too much money to the Republican party for me to ever enjoy shopping there, it is in fact the closest grocery store to my house, and it stocks the largest variety of chocolate for many miles, outdoing Kroger, Albertson and Safeway by far.  Walmart sells Hersey's chocolate, oh-so-preferable to Nestle.  This box store stocks  sugar free chocolate chips, a rare find anywhere.  Sometimes I have to buy chocolate at Walmart.  The cookie recipe on back of Hersey's Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips works perfectly, makes a surprisingly tasty cookie, and delighted my parents when they received their batch in the mail.

Caramel Pecan Chocolate Brownies - Day 41

   Salted Caramel Latte.  Can the world ever hold enough of this magical stuff, and whatever did we do for comfort before there was Starbucks?   Inspired by the transformative taste of salted caramel, this chocolatista set out to find the perfect brownie with a layer of caramel at center.  The quest continues, but Epicurious offers the best so far:  Turtle Brownie. 

Still More Brownies and the Last Easy Mountain - Day 40

   Arguably the most beautiful Sunday of the year,  a perfect time to share Nigella's Snow-Flecked Brownies on top of  14,014 foot mountain with both friends and strangers.  There are no more class 1 fourteeners left in this state for me to climb because I just did the very last one.  Late September, 2011.

Day 37: Bacon Bourbon Brownies with Pecans

    Spice of Life, an Ingredients Emporium, is a fantastic place to shop for  culinary items in a quaint, small neighboring city.  I love to drink coffee there and buy olives and Stilton cheeses.  They do not, however stock  baking chocolate.  I did not hesitate to point out this shortcoming.  As soon as he heard my intent to  bake Bacon Bourbon Brownies, the owner/manager/baker/clerk disappeared into the back.  He emerged with a bag of truly wonderful semisweet chocolate buttons, the kind real pros use. While selling me about 12 ounces of these rare and wonderful morsels, he confided that he makes hot chocolate with bacon syrup when cocoa weather comes.  I'll be back.
     I wish I could say I shared the brownies with this generous, helpful, imaginative man, but I couldn't because they disappeared right after they came out of the oven.  Go figure.  Make some yourself if you are so inclined.  Recipe's in Food and Wine, August 2011, page 80.

Chocolate Toffee Graham Fingers and a Birthday - Day 39

September 8, 2011

   The doctor flinched, struggled, had the appearance of a man trying to catch a fish barehanded in midair.  The baby I thought might stay in forever flew into the world, changing things from that moment forward.  As his father would pronounce, "One second we were regular people, and the next we were parents."  Twenty-one years later that boy rushes beween physics and organic chem lab to check his mail.  And lo, the chocolate toffee graham birthday cookies have indeed arrived.

    When you want to make someone really happy, Chocolate Toffee Graham Fingers are an excellent bet.   Heirloom Baking, page 278:  simple, rich, delicious, and oh-so-easy-to-ship in cool weather.

Day 38 - Wandering the Black Forest

   After considerable sleuthing, after asking lots of friends who wished they had done it, I have found my benefactor.  The mysterious copy of Chocolate Cake, 150 Recipes from Simple to Sublime by Michelle Urvater, that appeared in my PO box months ago came from.... (drum roll)  my baby sister J.L.!  Again, I truly am wild with gratitude for this magical gift and plan to send something chocolate J.L.'s way as soon as the temperature in the large southern state where she lives stabilizes to 2-digit numbers. It's been the hottest summer on record in her part of the universe, but fall weather will come.  Someday.
    There's a plethora of recipes and techniques for Black Forest Cake.  I started out with the one in Michelle's book but quickly strayed as you will soon see.  Chocolate Butter Sponge Cake Layers, page 187 in Chocolate Cake was my first attempt at foam cake. There is a great deal of room for me to improve.  Adjusting for altitude and tweaking for two round 8 1/2 inch cake pans, I produced two chocolate pancakes. 
   Longing for a tall and sumptuous layer cake, I awoke at 4:00am the following morning and made my grandmother's Chocolate Prize Cake.  This made three 8 1/2 inch rounds.  With again, altitude adjustments, these layers were considerably taller. 
   Never one to leave well enough alone, I assembled all five layers into a leaning, towering, much-too-tall cake.  The filling was Chocolate Ganache, Michelle's book page 324, along with canned cherry pie filling.  Frosted with whipped cream and decorated with  more cherry pie filling on top and with about a quarter pound of grated milk chocolate, this skyscraper of  a confection was too high to fit in the covered cake carrier.  It arrived at lunch with friends a little squashed.  Luckily, these are terrific friends, truly.  They have discriminating culinary tastes, but they are generous of spirit, willing to provide this particular baker with an easy audience.  Thank goodness.
   This cake taught me  volumes about confectionery baking.  One lesson learned is: foam cake takes practice.  The next time there's call for Black Forest cake, I plan to do it this way.

Black Forest Cake

First bake my grandmother's Prize Chocolate Cake. 

For this recipe, I thank my middle sister, J.E., who took notes from our grandmother.  She (Mom, our grandmother) called this a "good, light cake".  She thought the original recipe came from  Better Homes and Gardens, but she never made any cake according to the recipe.  Always she had some permutation, some plan in mind to bake something better.  Here's Mom's version.

1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate - or cocoa powder if that's what you have on hand
5 eggs
1 teaspoon of soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/4 cups cake flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour two 8 inch pans.  (I always add a round of parchment in the bottom of the pans and grease and flour that, too.)

Stir shortening to soften, add sugar gradually, creaming with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Blend in the vanilla and cooled chocolate (or cocoa).  Add the eggs, 1 at a time beating well after each .  Sift the dry ingredients. Add to creamed mixture alternating with buttermilk. 

Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes until the top is springy and a toothpick comes out clean.

Ingredients you'll need after the layers cool: 
Cassis or cherry brandy
Wilderness brand MoreFruit Cherry Pie Filling
Batch of Michelle's Chocolate Ganache,
   as well as a batch of her Beginner's Buttercream, page 309, but without the coffee
Whipped cream for decorating the top
Milk or semisweet chocolate, grated

The next day or after the layers are completely cool, brush them with a little creme de cassis liqueur or cherry brandy.

Fill between the layers with Chocolate Ganache and  cherry pie filling, saving a few cherries to garnish the caketop.

Assemble the layers and ice with Michelle's Beginner's Buttercream frosting, page 309, but leave out the coffee .

Decorate the top with whipped cream, the last few cherries, and the amount of grated milk chocolate that seems right to you.

It's best served the day it's assembled, but will keep for 2 days refrigerated, especially if the whipped cream is dolloped onto each individual serving, rather than applied to the entire caketop.

Chocolate Decadence with Chef M. and her Flan and Phenomenal Caramel Nests - Day 36

   How daunting is it to bring your  amateur cake to dinner at a real chef's house? Extremely daunting, it's like sticking your little colored pencil sketches of house plants on the museum wall next to a Paul Klee.  Or like deciding to sing in public with Cindy Lauper.  It's dancing salsa in Puerto Rican bars with men who've been salseros their whole entire lives.  I was out of my depth, but I made this cake and took it to dinner anyway. 
   Packing in from the jeep to Chef M.'s front door, my companion and cake-carrier tripped, sliding his hand right through the Chocolate Decadence Cake.  His action gave my cake an artistic but not particularly appetizing  look.  Chef M. saved the day, for she was of course not without a dessert of her own:  a smooth, delicious flan and delicate caramel nests.  She plopped out scoops of cake from the untouched edges with a melon-baller, placed a ball of cake on each lovely round of flan, and topped every one of those with an inverted caramel nest dome. 
   There being tons of similar recipes for more or less this same cake, and there being many cakes not even close but having the same title, I am just compelled to share this recipe.  It's bits and pieces of many different versions, an almost flourless,  dense but not quite gooey,  intensely chocolate chocolate cake.

36th Day Chocolate Decadence Cake 

6 ounces bittersweet and
2 ounces unsweetened quality chocolate, melted together and cooled
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup extremely strong coffee
2 tablespoons good Mexican vanilla
6 large cage free eggs, separated
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white granulated sugar
1/3cup sifted flour

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees, set an insulated cookie sheet on the middle rack in the oven, and generously butter a 10 inch springform pan.  Mix chocolate, butter, coffee, and vanilla thoroughly and set aside.

Vigorously and thoroughly beat the egg yolks and both sugars together with an electric mixer. Carefully fold this into the chocolate mixture by hand with a rubber spatula. Fold in the flour.

Using a completely clean and dry electric mixer and bowl, whip the egg whites like Julia Child: fast the first few seconds, then slower and speeding up.  Stop when the eggs form stiff, shiny peaks which point down a little at the tips.*  Be careful not to over beat the eggs. Using your rubber spatula again, fold a little egg white into the batter.  Then fold in the rest. Tenderly pour into your prepared pan and set this gently into the oven atop the cookie sheet.  If your altitude is less than 6,000 feet, turn down the oven heat to 350 degrees.

Bake until the center is not so jiggly, and a cake tester comes out with only a little batter on it.  Start checking at 35 minutes.  It will most likely be ready in 45, but you don't want it to overcook and dry out.  Expect this cake to come out of the oven puffy and then fall.

Cool to room temperature and de-pan to serve same day.  If you'll serve it the next day, leave it in the pan, wrap tightly with plastic wrap and store at room temp.

* Julia's Kitchen Wisdom, by Julia Child, page 100

Days 34 and 35: Failed Compote Followed by Wildy Successful Southern Comfort Ice Cream

   Mmmm...berry season.  Knowing an intense unfrosted dark chocolate cake was headed for a dinner party in a large mile high neighboring city  this late July weekend, I made my first fruit compote ever in life, Very Berry Compote, Michelle Urvater's Chocolate Cake, page 372.  This recipe is simple to make. But if your berries, any of them, are even the tiniest bit over ripe, oh, no!  My raspberries fell apart, ruining not the taste but certainly the appearance of this lovely seasonal delight.  It was still wonderful at home on toast, topping yogurt, etc., but there was no way to take this to  dinner Friday night.  Win, win; eat the failed compote at my house and make ice cream to escort the cake to dinner.

   Three women climb hard all day,  scramble up White Ridge and add an extra peak - Mt. Sherman - just for fun.  Those girls are more than ready for a treat. The Silver Scoop in Fairplay is completely ready to provide it.  That's where I learned that Jack Daniels Chocolate Chip ice cream might just be as good as it gets.  If you follow this blog, you know already that the only flavor even close to good whiskey alongside chocolate is the "whiskey-like liqueur", Southern Comfort.  (Background music here is of course Janis Joplin singing "Piece of My Heart".)  This is how to make Southern Comfort Ice Cream, which when served next to a great flourless chocolate cake, is believed by some to be even better than Jack Daniels Chocolate Chip.

Southern Comfort Ice Cream

6 large cage free egg yolks
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon good Mexican Vanilla
infinitesimal dash of salt
generous shot of Southern Comfort

First, make your custard.  Cream the eggs and sugar.  Add the milk and heavy cream.  Pour it all into a microwave safe bowl and zap it for 1 minute.  Take it out and whip it with an electric mixer.  Do this over and over until your custard thickens.  It may take a while, depending on your microwave.  When you can dip a spoon in the custard, and it adheres smoothly to the back of that spoon, it has cooked enough. 

Cool to room temperature.  Refrigerate covered for hours, until it's cold.  Stir in vanilla extract and salt.  Add half the Southern Comfort, stir and sample.  Add the amount of liqueur that tastes just right to you.  Freeze according to your ice cream maker's directions. 

Go to You Tube - Janis Joplin Piece of My Heart.  Southern Comfort Ice Cream is incomplete without this step.  Do it now.

Days 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 - Brownies Go Climbing




Claims she's an underwear model,
but I don't believe her.  I do know she's
holding what's left of a pan of
Snow-Flecked Brownies.

     You sit on a slab of sun-warmed granite and bite into a smooth, rich brownie, rife with butter and laced with white chocolate chunks.  In that moment, you are certain this is nirvana.  Cumulous clouds in the distance remind you weather is shifting.  You may soon sprint for treeline to stay alive.   For this second, however, life is perfect.
    Summer hiking is the best, and I do so love to go with people who know where we are and how to get back to the car.  Chocolate sustains trekkers when they hike and climb.  Aside from that, the right chocolate will influence a hike leader to include you, make the baker essential and welcome on any hike.  There is always a place on the trip for "that woman who always brings chocolate". 
   Determined to be "that woman" and to go places I'd never ever find on my own,  I rose extremely early and whipped up brownies on several occasions this summer.  Brownies are so very portable, so easy to carry in your pack, nearly smush-proof.  Usually  Nigella Lawson's Snow Flecked Brownies ( page 46, Feast ) were staples.  Climbing companions, 20-something-year-old men, kept asking for these specifically, "that gooey brownie, the one with the white chocolate chips",  so they just kept turning up in the top of the backpack.  With minor adjustment for altitude, I make them just like Nigella says. 
    Except when I don't.  This time of year, I find myself competing  with hummingbirds for every last teaspoon of white granulated sugar in my pantry.  Some person keeps making all my sugar into syrup for the birds, tiny beings, but together they sure can eat a lot.  One morning brown sugar  brownies had to do, and nobody seemed to notice or care.  This recipe makes lots of brownies; they went up Eagle Peak and down the Arkansas in the same week, along the east ridge of Pacific Peak, up Handies Peak and Mount Rosa other days.
   Winthrop Beach Brownies from Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters, page 201, went out climbing when a man asked for brownies with cream cheese.  With the first batch, the bottom layer was fine, and the cream cheese layer was good, but the chocolate batter on top was stiff going on.  Consequently, the top layer's thickness was inconsistent, and cream cheese bubbled through in spots.  Nobody complained, and the flavor was wonderful, of course, but I wanted defined brownie vs. cream cheese layers.  In their beautiful and oh-so-fun-to-read  cookbook, Marilynn and Sheila Brass show these looking almost like little layer cakes.  Second try, the top layer batter again too stiff, I tried adding a little milk.  Don't do this, 'cause your brownies will be  too squigy.  For this baker, the best cream cheese brownie solution is as follows.  Make the Brass girls' Winthrop Beach Brownie batter, doubling the cream cheese filling.  Using a 9 x 13 inch pan, put all the firm, strong brownie batter on the bottom.    Spread the cream cheese layer over, as the Brass sisters describe.  Then get out your New Basics Cookbook, the one by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins.  Quickly do up a batch of  batter for Baby Brownies, page 655, which will be more liquidy, and pour them over the cream cheese filling layer.   Bake a little longer than directed by either recipe, for you have double the batch.  BUT keep an eye on things, you don't want these overbaked.  This is a convoluted route, but it is completely worth the rich, decadent, and clearly stratified little gems you have in the end. 
    Those Baby Brownies are outstanding on their own, too.  They were my go-to brownie before I revealed my fickle character and went over to the white chocolate chip side.

Cakes 26 and 27 - Nigella's Chocolate Truffle Meringue Cake Twice

This shows the gorgeous dinner which preceded
the chocolate cake.  My talented bro-in law made
this meal, and it was every bit as tasty as it looks.

      If you want to make a delicious, beautiful, and elegant dessert, grab a copy of Nigella Lawson's Feast, page 294.  The first one delighted a bunch of my girlfriends a at a summer luncheon.  N. commented, "It truly does taste just like a truffle!"
      The second  assault on this project occurred when my sweet middle sister and I were together in my large southern home state on a particularly sultry summer day.  We truly longed to make chocolate cake, but it had to be one with a minimum of actual baking; the day was just too hot.  For Truffle Meringue Chocolate Cake only the meringue  has to bake, so that was our clear choice.  We did Nigella's cake, but we did the large southern state version of the meringue:  crunchier and much larger.  Like ladies hair in that particular state during my upbringing, this meringue was enormous, airy, and fluffy, reminiscent of thunderclouds or cotton candy. My sister and I thought this extra meringue was a premium idea.  When we enjoyed this version of truffle cake after the excellent  meal her husband prepared for us, her family agreed: more meringue = good!
   This is my sister's recipe for making all this meringue, and I'm not sure where she got it, but she sometimes serves this as a cookie, by itself.

Joan's Amazing Meringue

3 egg whites at room temperature

1 tsp good Mexican vanilla
1 cup sugar
1 pinch of salt
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
Beat the egg whites and all ingredients except sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until they form soft peaks.  Gradually add sugar and vanilla, still beating.  Stop when the mixture forms stiff peaks, careful not to overbeat.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Day 25 - Emergency Chocolate Ice Cream

   Not at all cake, but certainly chocolate!  A Cuisinart ice cream maker bucket  in the freezer saves many a summer evening, and on this particular occasion we would have been completely dessertless without it.  Here's my recipe.

Emergency Chocolate Ice Cream

1 pint  half and half

8 ounces good semisweet chocolate melted and cooled

1/2 cup sugar

1 shot orange liqueur

Mix briefly and freeze according to the instructions with your ice cream maker.

#24: Wacky Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting, David's Cake

     David turned 20 today, June 10, so a quick cake needed to move in his direction.  This little cake took only 12 minutes to assemble; you mix right in the pan. I used one of those aluminum pans you get at the grocery, the kind with the plastic lid to survive the ride.  The Wacky Chocolate Cake is on page 63 in Michelle Urvater's amazing book, but as she notes this recipe appears under various aliases elsewhere. The frosting was pretty much a recipe rewrite, since there was such a press for time and since no cream in the house and only crunchy peanut butter.  Butter and skimmed milk substituted for cream, then extra peanut butter and confectioner's sugar to firm up the texture, and voila!  A lovely little chocolate cake is frosted and tasting like Reese's Peanutbutter Cups!

   Here is the recipe for my version of Crunchy Peanut Butter Chocolate Frosting.  Bring 3/4 cup Adam's 100% Natural CRUNCHY Peanut Butter, 1/2 stick unsalted butter, and 1/2 cup of milk to room temperature. Sift 2 1/2 cups  confectioner's sugar with 1/2 cup Hersey's Special Dark (100% cacoa) Cocoa. In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer of any kind, blend the peanut butter, butter, and milk with at least 2 tsp good Mexican vanilla.  Add the sugar and cocoa, and beat vigorously.  Play with the texture if it is less than perfect.  Add a little milk if it's too stiff or a little sugar and peanut butter  if it's too thin.

  While this is no buttercream frosting in the same way that Dan Quayle is no John F. Kennedy, it is so delicious that I would eat it on almost anything.

Days 23 - Margie's Cowboy Cookies Go Down the Arkansas River

    This is the amazing Cowboy Cookie for which Margie Lapanja is famous, and righteously so.  She graciously, generously revealed her recipe in Goddess in the Kitchen: 201 Heavenly Recipes, Spirited Stories, and Saucy Secrets. If you are reading this blog right now, and you have somehow never read Goddess in the Kitchen, switch off your computer immediately.  Tear off down to your local library or a bookstore near you, and lay hand on a copy, for it is a superbly entertaining read. 
   I've been baking Margie's cookies since 2000 when I was on a quest for the ultimate cookie recipe.  When my family tasted this one, we knew the search was over.  Since then both children and adults ask for this cookie by name.  My sisters refer to it as THE cookie, like this:  "I'll be out to see you next week.  Will you be making THE cookie?" 
   My favorite river rat asked for Cowboy Cookies, arguably the ultimate high energy snack with all that coconut, oatmeal, and chocolate. It's blasphemous to change this particular recipe, but I still adjust it slightly for altitude .  My family loves coconut, so all the nuts are coconut when I make these.  Watch these vigilantly so they don't burn.  The old Whirlpool bakes them to perfection in about 8 minutes.
   In conclusion Margie's Cowboy Cookies were a hit on the Arkansas.  People who normally won't eat carbs, especially sugar, indulged and were glad they did.

Day 22: Chocolate Blitz Torte

   Awake at 2:00am for not special reason, possibly because of weirdness at work, could be the snoring dachshund or unsettled summer plans, might be that extra Arnold Palmer with a shot of Southern Comfort at the end of my evening - who knows why?  Regardless of what wakes you, the wee hours of  morning can be the best time for baking cake layers, such a cool and quiet part of the day.  Except for using the darkest cocoa I could find and adjusting for altitude, I made Michelle Urvater's Chocolate Blitz Torte exactly by the precise recipe.  It's on page 160 in 150 Chocolate Cakes.  This one piqued my interest because Michelle marked it as a favorite and because I felt like making layer cake.  Layers cooling on the rack, back to sleep for the baker. 
  Later that morning, looking at these layers with rested eyes and fresh perspective - the meringue tops are lovely.  Already it's easy to see how this might be a favorite.
  Rather than following Michelle's recommendation for filling and frosting, I went for Wicked Chocolate Frosting, p. 298, which is really a buttercream on chocolate steroids.   To make sure it was thick and sturdy enough, I skimped on milk. Once the between-the-layers filling was applied, I whipped in more milk to ice the sides thinly, leaving the gorgeous meringue top uncovered.   My home-from-college-for-summer son said it was the most beautiful cake he'd ever seen.  My dear friend and cooking cohort was a little under the weather, she ate some Chocolate Blitz Torte, and she recovered almost instantly due to the recuperative powers of extreme chocolate.
   Rich with eggs and butter, the torte must be stored in the fridge.  To me it's much more delicious @ room temperature, but  two men I know prefer it straight out of the icebox.

Cakes 19 and 20: Michelle's Pound Cake in Nigella's Trifle Goes to the Wedding Shower

   "Is there alcohol in the dessert?"
   "Would you want it any other way?"
   Who on earth ever knew flight attendants aren't supposed to have alcohol, even the scant two teaspoons or so in a serving of Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Cherry Trifle (page 406, Feast)?  I wonder whether that rule applies pilots and air traffic controllers.  Neurosurgeons?   Good thing Michelle Urvater's Marbled Chocolate Pound Cake affords such an abundance of leftover cake, even after the trifle is assembled, that plain cake can be offered right alongside the uber decadent, creamy, brandy-laced trifle.   This recipe makes 4 pounds of  cake, and one of those pounds is pure unsalted butter (page 108, 150 Chocolate Cakes).  This is pretty cake, too, with the marbling effect, although next time I might up the contrast by skipping the cocoa powder in the light batter.  Oooh,  what  would this be like if  the light batter were white chocolate pound cake?  Just one way to find out....

The Miracle and Cakes 18 and 21

Tropical Chocolate Cake
with White Chocolate Ganache Frosting
 and Coconut on Top

   Mysteriously, miraculously my very own copy of 150 Chocolate Cakes has appeared in my mailbox!  Couldn't be more pleased or more grateful.  I have no idea who did me this gigantic kindness, but whoever you are, thank you very, very much.
    We had Rastafarian Friday at work, so I made Nigella Lawson's Tropical Chocolate Cake, page 284, in her Feast book.  The book is incidentally an excellently superb resource to have on one's shelf, supplying ideas and recipes for just about any occasion.  Nigella flavors her delightful chocolate cake with rum, but making it for work, fruit juice had to do instead.  She describes the cake as flat, so I added an extra egg.  And I decided to make cupcakes this time, just because.  The pineapple in this cake gives it a moist, fresh flavor that I love. The frosting was a little out of my depth.  Although I made it twice, the texture remained a little on the runny side, a frosting-maker's skill issue, to be sure.  Even so, no one complained, and Chocolate Cake #18 went well with Reggae music and a sweet island menu including jerk chicken wings, coconut bread, pineapple upside down cake, and a red hibiscus drink. Overall, a good day to show up in the break room.
  Cake # 21 - Tropical Chocolate Cake, again, because I just can't quite leave this one alone.  This time I did include the coconut flavored rum just like Nigella, and like Nigella, I thought it was a great ingredient.  This is definitely a make-again recipe.  For the frosting, this time it was Michelle Urvater's White Chocolate Ganache sprinkled with coconut, which worked well for me on the first try.    I'm soft for a frosting with a butter or cream base and can't wait to make this cake again  and ice it just this way.  It's the perfect confection when you are longing for the tropics.

Cake 17, Whereupon Lent Ends, and the Library Wants Its Book Back.

     It had to happen.  After two rechecks and nine total weeks the  book, Chocolate Cake, 150 Recipes from Simple to Sublime, was due back at the library. Or else.  During Lent I had learned that sugar outside of chocolate cake is  pretty much a waste of calories.  I  learned to value explicit, clear, specific directions  in a recipe. Since end of February I had made 14 cakes in 9 weeks, definitely a lifetime record.  Now it was one more cake,  maybe two, and then give up the book to which I had developed such attachment.
     Last Christmas an exquisite Red Velvet cake arrived in the mail , beautifully boxed and with a sqeeze-bottle of cream cheese frosting.  First husband's thoughtful, generous first cousin had sent this treasure, and skimming Michelle Urvater's book brought that cake to mind, page 173. 
    Red-tinted chocolate cake layers slathered in white, cream cheese frosting, the lovely confection held its own in company with many delicious and decadent homemade desserts. A man I know took it to a potluck at his office, and not a crumb was left by day's end.

Cake 15: Macaroon Cake, page 246

  If you love Almond Joy candy bars, then this is the layer cake for you.  This was my first attempt slicing a rectangular sheet cake to make layers, and the final product could have been a little more level, but all who ate agreed: it was scrumptious. 

Day 14 - Tunnel of Fudge

   My mother made this cake, and I remember bringing it to school, a small gift for my formidable 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Bailey.  Whether bribe or treat, it was extremely well-received.  The original, the one Mother made excellently and many times, was a Pillsbury Bake-Off contest winner;  I wonder who created that recipe.  It requires at least one ingredient no longer on the market, but Michelle Urvater's Chocolate Cake has an updated version.  I couldn't resist giving it a try.
   Following the directions as exactly as possible, I hit a couple of snags.  Michelle tells us to prepare the pudding according to directions on the box, but she also says to use 1 1/2 cups of milk and not the 2 cups on the box.  If you do use 2 cups of milk, it's trouble.  You have more pudding than can fit.  You don't want pudding touching the sides of the pan, ruining the tunnel effect and making strata of fudge instead; with pudding overload this can happen.  SO stick with the book directions, a little less milk.  If you still have excess pudding (and who knew there could be such a thing?), spoon it into ramekins and put it in the fridge for other adventures.  There are lots of things in life worse than an extra bowl of chocolate pudding in the refrigerator.
   There was a little of the strata effect when I attempted this one.  It was not the perfect tunnel my mom always accomplished,  so this cake received the stunning White Chocolate Glaze before I let it out of the house.  Good stuff that glaze on page 331; it  hides mistakes well.  The cake went to a luncheon honoring a plague scientist on a nearby Army base where people devoured it with great relish, at least so I'm told.  

More Troubleshooting and Principles

8. Go darker.  Of course, it just depends, but consider dark cocoa powder.  Hersey makes one that sometimes appears on the shelves of regular grocery stores, and it's good stuff.
9.  Adjust for altitude.  Try the recipe as is the first time, and you may find it works perfectly.  If there's room for improvement though, try tweeking for better rise.  I slightly reduce sugar and baking powder, up the liquid a little, and toss in an extra egg.  If you're going to adjust for altitude yourself, however, it's worth your while to visit the CSU Extension website for more precise advice.
10. Practice makes perfect.  People are usually quite happy to eat your mistakes, but when it needs to be the best cake ever, do a recipe you've made wonderfully before.

Chocolate Cake Disaster Strikes - Day 10

   It's not the cake's fault, nor is it a flaw in the recipe, so I won't even say what cake this is.  I will say this:  pay attention to what you are doing.  Be mindful as you move through life.  Don't go cleaning your caked-up kitchen and talking on the phone while the mixer whips the frosting all by itself.  Turn off the mixer is you must go chase an errant dachsund back into the yard or a black bear off the deck.  Practice salsa dancing spins after your cake is frosted.  Your stand mixer can and will overwhip the cream to butter, and as Michelle explains in her "Note on Whipping Cream" there's just no going back.  Throw it out, and start over for it is ruined.   If you think you can put this oddly textured butter-separated-from-cream concoction on your otherwise lovely cake and hide the mistake with chocolate curls, you are wrong.

Day 11 - Sin City Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

   Thanks to Pampered Chef and to a really good friend, I own an excellent pan for mini-cupcakes.  It's a good thing, too, because salsa dancers don't spend a lot of time standing around eating huge servings of cake, even  beautifully plated cake slices.  The tiny cupcakes are perfect for on-the-go snackers, and this recipe affords enough batter for 24 little cupcakes and two 8 1/2inch cake layers. Tiny cupcakes were a hit with the dancers, especially the salsero who requested "cream cheese frosting with chocolate in it".  Layer cake was well-received by a teacher-artist friend to whom I owe  many, many favors both before and still, after the cake.  While I myself can't ever quite get past my attachment to buttercream frosting, this Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting is lovely to play with as you spread it over the cake layers or dip the tops of cupcake after cupcake.  It goes on smoothly and stays just where you put it.  

# 9 - Chocolate Apricot Upside-Down Cake

   What to do when you need a tasty and beautiful cake for lunch with friends, health conscious people who may rather eat a simpler cake without a whole lot of alchol, coffee, or butter in it?  Michelle Urvater's Chocolate Apricot Upside-Down Cake, page 134, really really fills the bill. All right, it does have over a stick of butter, but with all that fruit as well, it's practically health food. 

Days 7, 13, and 16: No Cake for Children, Pecan Bourbon Chocolate Cake Permutations

  The first  Pecan Bourbon Chocolate Cake came around Fat Tuesday, at the onset of Lent.  Although certainly not Catholic, I love Lent.  I love the idea that you can give up something for a while with an option to maybe pick it up later. If you can get along without it for 40 days and 40 nights, do you really need it at all?  One year someone I know applied this principle to her soon-to-be-ex husband.  This year friends gave up alcohol, chocolate, even coffee.  I went without all sugar except that associated with chocolate cake.
   If you enjoy bourbon and chocolate, this may be your favorite cake.  It's one of mine.  The first cake went as exactly to Michelle Urvater's recipe as possible.  It was phenomenal: intense, rich, overtly smelling of bourbon both during the baking and after.  It was jaw-droppingly expensive to make, requiring 2 cups of "good bourbon" and a full pound of pecans.  This recipe also uses 2 pounds of brown sugar, so it is, as you have guessed, a huge cake.  I adjusted baking time and made it in my bundt pan with cupcakes on the side, but this is no cake for kids.
   Cake # 13 - Another night, another version of  Pecan Bourbon Chocolate Cake.  On this sloshy, cold and wet, almost spring night, I set off for home anticipating the warm comfort of baking.  My first husband asked for  "that bourbon cake", which seems to be his favorite, and I thought the ingredients were in the house, so why not? 
   Arriving home and beginning baking, I immediately saw some ingredients were a little short.  I was down to my last cup of bourbon. Where did that stuff go?  Also the pecan stash had dwindled to 5 ounces.  Therefore, cake #13 deviates wildly from the original recipe.  For the second cup of bourbon I used Petron brand orange liqueur.  To fill in for missing pecans, 10.5 ounces of Ghirrardelle's 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips.  Again, an enormous amount of cake batter, plenty for a bundt  and two snack sized cakes.  The snack cakes went by mail to my son in that dark coastal city and to my dad in a large southern state, who appreciates good bourbon and loves cake.  I'm very fond of this new version, and so were the many people who got to eat it because there was so much of it.  Even my mom, who has no interest whatsoever in sweets, said it was really good cake.
   Cake #16, third bourbon cake, whereupon I learn this is not bourbon.  Again baked by request;  used second version entirely, with one small change.  What if this cake could be more about chocolate and alcohol and less about sugar?  Used 1 1/2 pounds of sugar rather than the prescribed 2.  This is my preferred version of Pecan Bourbon Chocolate Cake.
   Except there's no bourbon in mine.  I thought Southern Comfort was a bourbon whiskey.  So did the liquor store man. A former bartender with a business degree, who usually knows everything about everything alcoholic, he did sell me Southern Comfort when I asked for "good bourbon".  Until the 100 cake project, I rarely had occasion to purchase any whiskey, bourbon or otherwise, and  when I did buy bourbon, I always chose Southern Comfort in tribute to Janus Joplin.  Turns out, according to  meticulous internet research,  Southern Comfort is not bourbon at all.  Southern Comfort is a liqueur similar to whiskey,  created by M.W. Heron in New Orleans over 100 years ago.  So these bourbon cakes, when I make them, are not bourbon cakes at all.  They are Southern Comfort Pecan Chocolate Cakes.

Day 6, Day 8, and Day 12: Return of the Chile Chocolate Torte

  Can't leave this cake alone.  The sumptuous smell filling my home, the exotic flavor of chiles with chocolate, the endless possible variations....
  Day 6 - the work torte.  Like a lot of employers, mine has a food culture thing going that includes somebody bringing treats every Friday.  When I brought this cake, made just like before with pecans and a little bit of cayenne, it vanished immediately from the break room - always a good sign. 
   Day 8 - frosted chile pecan torte. A man I know suggested this cake needs frosting.  Not really seeing how this perfect little confection needs anything at all, but always willing to experiment, this time the cake received a little buttercream on top and down the sides.  Strangely, I prefer this cake without the beloved buttercream.  Frosting detracts from the trademark chile flavor, and I won't ice this cake again.  It's still fine to serve it with a little ice cream or whipped cream, however.
   Day 12 - nonlethal version.  My dear friend A. is a Spanish teacher, artist, extraordinary gardener, and quite possibly the most meticulously straight forward and ethical human being I know.  She's also allergic to nuts. She quipped, "You're making all these cakes, and we haven't gotten even one.  We're Hispanic, and ours better have chile."  Or something like that; it's paraphrasing. 
   SO I found a way to make my version of Michelle's wonderful Chile Chocolate Torte without nuts, since I so very much prefer A. enjoy it and still live.  Here's how it went.  Dried cherries, the snack kind that are slightly sweetened and surprisingly have a tiny bit of oil on them, soaked overnight in kirsch, replaced the nuts.  As with all chile chocolate cakes, this smelled outrageously delicious baking. Dropped the Chile Chocolate Torte with Cherries onto A.'s kitchen table while the family was out celebrating her daughter's 22nd birthday.  Didn't actually taste this particular cake, but I hear it was good. "¡maravillo-el pastel!"

Quintessential French Chocolate Cake Goes to Orchid

   Suddenly realizing it's my turn to bring, and needing something quick to make with ingredients on hand, I chose  this cake for its single star degree of difficulty and  country French appeal.  It went together efficiently with Michelle Urvater's stellar directions, and by 10:00am on this cold, windy Saturday, I was on my way to the orchid club meeting with a lovely, warm chocolate cake.  It was extremely well received.

Cake #5: Deep Dish Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting

   Ever wonder what becomes of those goth teenagers when they hit 30?  The goth girl of my aquaintance ( And she will tell you, "Once a goth, always a goth.") became a brilliant, compassionate, and inspired adult who still wears a lot of earrings and black nail polish. T. is a rock.
  We work together.  She's the kind of person who will listen, encourage, create, argue, and pull you right back from the edge of that metaphorical cliff.  The next recipient had to be T.  A family woman, she needed something easy to transport back home, something that would hold up if she froze it, a cake suitable for children. 
   Page 113, Michelle Urvater's Deep-Dish Chocolate Cake leaped off the page and into my oven.  The only change I made was to go with buttercream, rather than the  suggested sour cream frosting.  My high-mileage Toyota  Matrix (great gas economy, flimsy body) once sat in T.'s driveway while we went traveling. When we returned from our coastal adventure, T.'s husband B. had washed and waxed that  old Toyota.  B. loves buttercream frosting, and a man like that deserves buttercream.
   This recipe makes a lot of cake, and I did a snack sized one  to test the flavor.  It is, as Michelle says, a "perfect...moist, sweet cake...".  Upon tasting this, B. asked my friend what she did to warrant chocolate cake.  T. told B. she had no clue.   B. said he hoped whatever it was, she'd keep right on doing it.
 
    

Orange and Chocolate Bundt Cake in a Box

   Last Christmas  kind and thoughtful in-laws sent us a truly gorgeous and delicious professionally made red velevet cake with to-die-for cream cheese frosting.  We absolutely loved it.  Still I am schlepping cakes everywhere in the perfect-for-cake-of-course packing box.  There is nothing quite like being surprised with an excellent cake in the mail.
    My son studies cellular and molecular biology in a far away, damp, dark, cloudy, coastal town, near (By near I mean geographically and spiritually near.) the hometown of Curt Cobain.  Even the boy's fine laying hens, Twinkie and Cupcake, grow tired of the relentless overcast and wet weather, and they complain loudly.  It's understandable.  A good cheerful shipping cake was clearly needed in February. Orange and Chocolate Bundt Cake, page 122, turned out to be just the ticket. If you slice this cake and wrap it in plastic wrap, you can get a lot of it into one of those small post office boxes that ship for the same rate regardless of weight.  He received his cake in 4 days and was delighted.  Mailing this cake is like sending sunshine in a box.

Trouble Shooting and General Principles

    People have taught me tons of valuable ideas, and I've figured out a few things that greatly improved my baking and my life. Those are good things, too, because to live more than 50 years and learn just nothing would be sad, wouldn't it?   Fortunately for the reader, only a few are appearing today in this blog:

1.  Cook when you can enjoy it; eat fruit with cheese or leftovers when you can't.  Cook with good friends whenever possible.
2.  Double the vanilla.  Use real vanilla, of course, Mexican vanilla when you can get it.
3.  Check, check, check your cake once it's in the oven!  Every oven is different, and a slightly gooey cake is always better than a dried-out or burnt one.  Throw a huge sheet of aluminum foil over a cake that threatens to burn on top.  Gently rotate your cake if you suspect the oven heats unevenly.
4.  Use an oven thermometer to check your oven temp.  My ancient Whirlpool electric checks pretty close to the dial set temperature, but still it somehow almost always cooks faster than recipe cooking times suggest.
5. Play.  If you think the ingredient you have in mind would suit your taste better than the one in the recipe, try it.
6.  It's okay to throw out a baking disaster.  You really don't have to eat that.
7.  Cake has a short quality life-span.  It should be eaten right away.  Never hoard; always share.

Day 2: Chile Changes Everything

   Because chocolate candy with chiles is delicious, because I adore flourless chocolate cakes and also because of the movie Chocolat, the next cake had to be page 238, Chile Chocolate Peanut Torte. Remaining true to the Michelle's recipe except for 3 deviations, this is my new Favorite Thing in the World.  Switching pecans for peanuts, bumping 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon to 1 full teaspoon, and  adding 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne to the oncho chile worked for me.  An extra egg also went into the batter, but that was only because this box of large eggs seemed on the small side.
   During a wet snow near the end of a far too long winter, there's nothing like baking to soothe the winter-weary soul.  The smell of this cake  - the nuts, the chocolate, especially the chiles - permeated the house like the essence of comfort.

First Actual Cake

     Like most jobs, my work is fraught with dull, dreary, unneeded meetings.  A man I know says if this weren't the case, those work days wouldn't be work, they'd be  vacation.  Faced with a particularly daunting upcoming work meeting, the only way to make it bearable was to bring chocolate cake, a pretty one with layers.
   Michelle Urvater's Chocolate Cake offers so many superb choices.  Concentrating on the single star (least complicated) recipes, I picked Silky Chocolate Cake, page 150, and decided to make it with  pastry cream filling and whipped ganache frosting  just like Michelle suggests. 
   Clearly the reason so many potlucks and party cakes turn out to be sheet cakes served right in the pan is the extra time it takes, skill even, to produce layer cake.  A pan of cake with frosting on top will be lovely no matter what, but layer cake can lean to one side or just generally show flaws you wouldn't notice in pan cake.  BUT copious frosting can often hide lots of mistakes!  And that thought gave me the courage to proceed.
   One reason I love Michelle's book is the surgically precise directions.  For example, she encourages the baker to weigh ingredients rather than just measuring volume with a measuring cup.  She tells you  exactly how long to beat the mixtures in minutes instead of assuming this baker will know what "until creamy" might mean.  I find all these exact details for what to do comforting, a source of hope.
   My grandmother was a baker extraordinaire (more on that later).  Never was there anything left on beaters or bowl to really taste because she meticulously spatulaed it into the baking pan.  I however like to leave some batter, filling, frosting in the bowl for tasting.  To me this practice enhances the process, and since I did not live through the Great Depression, I always do that.  Having never before in my life made pastry cream, I expected it to be like Bavarian cream filling in donuts and found the bowl taste slightly dry-ish maybe because it's made with a little cornstarch.  But when it's sandwiched between cake layers, this is fabulous stuff!  The excellent ganache frosting avoids too much sweetness and makes the cake oober rich.  Next time, I plan to make the altitude adjustment so the layers will rise a bit more; they were a little flat-ish.
   Chocolate cake has transformative powers, and as hoped, it vastly improved the long, long  meeting. People were surprised, happy, pleased .  Even the  dieters and the health-oriented had nothing but good things to say, particularly about the pastry cream filling.  Since there were 6 of us collaborating that day, and this decadent cake serves 12 to 14, it also brought bliss to the lounge.  People who didn't even have to sit through a single meeting that day could could enjoy the benefits of chocolate cake.

The Plan

   Could chocolate cake ever make life less joyful?  Not likely, so the plan will be to try a few new recipes to generate bliss and to lighten things up a little within reasonable parameters.  I will make chocolate cake and share it with people, and those people will enjoy the cake.  There will be rules.  1) Odd outlier-type confections  count as cake - like a brownie or maybe an occasional cookie or cheesecake.  If it's cake to me, then it's cake.  2) Cakes have to be doable with equipment presently in the house, and no stocking up on stuff and gadgets.  The 30-year-old Whirlpool electric oven that came with the house will have to do, and so will the hodgepodge of assorted baking pans already in the kitchen.  Fortunately there is an outstanding state of the art KitchenAid standing mixer, far superior to the oven.  Then there are guiding thoughts that aren't exactly rules.  Recipes will be tried in my kitchen at 8,000 feet elevation.  First try on each recipe will be as close to the exact author's instructions as possible, without altitude adjustments, at least at first.  I have not written and probably never will write a recipe but can sometimes alter, tweak, screw up or revise an existing one. When true creators of recipes are known, I will certainly give them credit. Chocolate cake recipes from anywhere can be tried, but the first ones will come from Michelle Urvater's Chocolate Cake, which I'll use as long as the library lets me. Finally, I plan to have big fun baking these cakes for 100 not necessarily consecutive days and to blog them in more or less chronological order unless the plan changes.

The Start

   On a damp February evening I stopped by my neighborhood library to bring back a late movie.  Exhausted, cold and in no mood to browse, I approached the counter to make my return.  Alone on that counter sat a large and beautiful, possibly life-changing book: Chocolate Cake, 150 Recipes from the Simple to the Sublime by Michelle Urvater. 
   "150 chocolate cakes," I marvelled. 
   "Please, take it," responded  our librarian.  "The shelf where it goes is full, and we really have no place for it." 
   How could I not?
   What's more fun than chocolate cake, and who needed fun more than I, here almost at the end of a particularly dark winter? I checked out the book, took it  home and began to plan.