Cake Thursday: October23rd

THE INVITATION:

Adjective

Function:
noun
Date:
14th century

A word belonging to one of the major form classes in any of numerous languages and typically serving as a modifier of a noun to denote a quality of the thing named, to indicate its quantity or extent, or to specify a thing as distinct from something else.

Example sentence usage:

Today's Cake Thursday cake is a creamy, tangy, intense yet plain-as-day cheesecake on top of a gooey, sticky ginger base.
____________________

Taste the adjectives today at 4 PM, the Pit.


THE CAKE:



CLOSE-UP:



Recipe from dependable Dorrie, Baking from My Home to Yours

Q: What's highly addictive, snowy white, and mind-numbing?

A: The Coconut Cake I made to celebrate my lovely boss Lynn's birthday.



What, were you thinking of something else?

Halloween

...is the one and only holiday that my company holds a party for. A little weird, right? Even weirder is the fact that it's a really crazy party during the work day with costumes, decorations, and kegs of beer.

This year they are having a "Deadly and Delicious Dessert Contest" which I, for one, am far more excited about than anything else.

Anyway, I mention all this because I saw a cake up on marthastewart.com:



I wish I had the time to do such a thing as, it is, without a doubt, an ass-kicking cake.

Cake Thursday: October 9th

GRASS




HOPPER





CAKE

Portraits of a Miniture Yellow Layer Cake with Maple Brown Sugar Buttercream

that was baked in a 14oz tin can.
Recipe from the book Small Batch Baking.

Fresh Apple Cake

made from the lovely Cortlands my co-worker Ali brought me from her apple picking trip last weekend.

Before:



After:

There's a chill in the air,

the smell of dying leaves, and every-day-earlier dusk.

Oh, how I love this time of year. Cooler weather, scarves, and sweaters. Eating soup makes sense again and, blissfully, I no longer need be afraid to turn on the oven for fear of making the apartment even hotter— and myself even crankier (let's just say I'm not a summer person).

Baking season has begun, and I dove in with a vengeance. Along with baking almost daily a non-cake thing (Focaccia, bread, muffins, pizza crust), I've been experimenting with a few simple cakes these past few weeks...

First up:

Vanilla-Rum Pound Cake with Lemon Zest for Kicks

Cake Thursday: September 25th

I had every intention of posting this on Tuesday (when I started it)...and every day since then. I kept thinking I'd wait until I was near the book from which the recipe came in order to add it to the post, but I seem to be out more than home these days.

So, two things:

1) I'm just gonna go for it and post the damn thing already. If you'd like the recipe and don't have the book, feel free to drop me a note and I'll shoot it off to you.

2) Though I love alliteration, I'm doing away with the whole "Tuesday on Cake Thursday" thing, and will just post about the previous week's Cake Thursday as soon as time allows during the week following.

Now that official business is out of the way...

Rum-Scented Marble Bundt Cake.



Look at that swoosh!

The recipe is from the new Nick Malgieri book, The Modern Baker (which I've posted about a few times already), and made a superb cake—moist and subtle and comforting. Everyone seemed to love it. Some even said it was their favorite I've baked for CT so far, which just confirms my belief that, though a stunning and complex cake is always impressive, it's the simple, old-fashioned ones that always render people mute with drowsy happiness.

One to Add to the To-Bake List

Harvest Cake with Goat Cheese Frosting at The Kitchen

Addictions.

I have many. These include (but are certainly not limited to) cake, baking things other than cake, cooking, design, cardigan sweaters, coffee, and books. I really love books. Especially books that are about any of my other addictions (or at least the first few on the list).

To illustrate, this is my calendar at work:



I get so excited for new books that I tape postage stamp-sized covers on the date of release for specific titles. And October is no exception as its chock-full of baking books—but not just any baking books. I am so excited about these, I'm considering pre-ordering them.

Baked



Ok, Baked is already out and on its way to me as I type this. That said, it's from my favorite bakery in Brooklyn and happens to sell the cake that started it all.

For more Baked goodness, check out this recent interview and cookie demo on Design Sponge

The Sweeter Side of Amy's Bread



I've posted about her Black and White cake before and have lamented the fact that I just could not figure out how to make a chocolate cake that tasted quite like hers. Imagine my excitement when I saw that the cake of my dreams is shown on the cover! With the recipe finally in my hands, my cocoa costs should go down considerably.

Last but not least is...

BakeWise



This is Shirley O. Corriher's follow-up to her splendid CookWise. She reminds me of a ridiculously smart, down-to-earth aunt and I would love to spend a day in a kitchen with her. I suppose the book will just have to do. For now (hey, you never know).