Sharing stories of food stories we love.
This cake is improbably delicious. At first glance -- well, at first glance it looked good enough that I wanted to dive into the magazine page and take a bite. At second glance -- and upon reading the recipe -- I was confused about the texture. It has over a cup of ricotta cheese and 3 eggs, so is it a cheesecake? But it has over a cup of flour and butter, like a regular yellow cake.
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The best part of this chocolate cake was not the perfectly swirled frosting success (thank you Erin McDowell for all the lessons), or the very, very, very intense flavor that comes only from regular old Hershey's cocoa, or how good it tasted three days later at 1 AM when we ate some, tipsy, on the couch.
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Cake decorating can be a tricky skill to master -- too many piping bags required, and fondant scraps all over your kitchen, and food coloring stuck to your hands for days. It's easier than you might think to make a very impressive cake, without needing to have lots of decorating practice, and here are my favorite ways:
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I developed a serious key lime pie habit in college. I was living on Block Island for the summer, and working as a waitress in the evenings. After a long, exhausting shift in the restaurant, sweaty and tired from running in and out of a hot kitchen, I would take the longer route home so I could pass a tiny hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant. Perched above the harbor, the restaurant is run by a Maine native with a taste for excellent flat noodles, pad Thai, and oddly enough, key lime pie (a man after my own heart!). I'd order noodles and a huge slice of pie to go and cap off my meal with a handful of spicy, chewy ginger candies from a bowl on the hostess stand.
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Route 1 meanders through the Big Sur region of California, segmented into various state parks and state reserves. You pass a half-mile of densely wooded hills, sunlight blocked by the sequoiadendron giganteum, the coastal redwoods. A nondescript National Park kiosk heralds a change in scenery. The next half-mile is marked by motels, signs promising lower cabin rates and tent sites “right on the river!”
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