It's all about the cake.

Sure I'm happy that the new Baked is opening up in Charleston. But what makes me ever happier? This shot of the interior:



Look at those cakes...so beautiful!

To see more shots of the new location, check out the original post on DesignSponge

I am so behind with posting that I have no idea where to begin...

Somehow, I just plain forgot to take any pictures of last week's Cake Thursday cake. Though it did look like any old chocolate sheet cake with chocolate frosting, it was not—it contained a secret ingredient.

This was the invite I sent out:



I watched as everyone ate and tried to guess. After everything from beets and sweet potatoes to cyanide (?!) were called out, I paused, as the small crowd circled around me, and said...

"Sauerkraut."

A simultaneous gasp was emitted, followed by puzzled looks and laughter. You could absolutely not taste the sauerkraut, though it did add a little texture to the cake. And a very good cake it was: richly chocolaty, moist, and dense. Though the recipe I used came from Maida Heater's wonderful book, Cakes (now out-of-print, though available used online), a basic Google search reveals plenty of others to choose from should you be interested.
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My co-worker, Amy, recently celebrated a birthday. In honor of the occasion, I baked a Hummingbird Cake, one of her favorites. As a pretty spur-of-the-moment decorator, I used a color printout of a hummingbird taped to a coffee stirrer to personalize it for her.



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Last, but not least, I finally made it to the Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar.

The pastry chef, Christina Tosi (whom I recognized from reading this New York magazine interview), kindly let me take an action shot of her at work:



After fawning over her for a moment, (I'm a sucker for pastry chefs—they're like movie stars to me.) I bought a cereal milk and a slice of the Pistachio Cake. The milk was consumed on the spot. It tasted, well, exactly like its name. As a fan of such tastes, I loved it.

The cake was packed up in a box...



for the subway ride home with me. I finally dug into it later that evening.





It was quite good, moist and bright, though I will admit to it tasting a little like Fruity Pebbles...

Maybe cereal milk is her secret ingredient?

Cake Thursday: November 20th

THE INVITATION:


click to enlarge

*THE CAKE:

(Hint: Work-appropriate images of whips are hard to find on the web.)









*Whipped Cream Layer Cake with Caramel Whipped Cream Frosting