This is entry #1 for my new blog subseries called "Adventures in [fill-in-the-blank]", where I will be discussing my experiments in cooking. You see, life as a working girl trying to make it in this crazy world riddled with inflation and a recession has rendered me unable to dump loads of cash on eating out. In other words, I'm broke. But to every stormy cloud there is a silver lining; mine comes in the form of pots and pans.
My first adventure will be in BAKING because:
1) I've been baking since I was 10.
2) I have a killer sweet tooth. His name is Gobzilla, and he has a hunger for chocolate.
2.5) I studied pastry arts in culinary school for about 3 weeks. Then I dropped out.
My recipes were inspired by Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. If you're looking for the ultimate baking recipes, BUY THIS BOOK. If you're looking for traditional recipes with a modern twist, BUY THIS BOOK. If you don't own a single baking book, BUY THIS BOOK. I promise you they're not paying me to tell you this; I'm saying this for free.
Their recipes are very thorough and detailed, but sometimes they are straight up science experiments. To ease the process I created a few short cuts for myself.
Sweet & Salty Cake
A moist dark chocolate cake layered with salted caramel and rich dark chocolate caramel frosting, then sprinkled with cocoa dusted sea salts. Ever since I got this book I had been wanting to try out this recipe. But it was too overwhelming. It is basically 3 difficult recipes mushed together to make 1 ultramegadelicious cake.
But as luck would have it, I received a jar of dark chocolate frosting from Williams Sonoma as a birthday present. I knew it would be PERFECT for this cake. For the cake itself, I used Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge mix (a trick I learned from Alton Brown; it's not about the cake, but the frosting). The only thing I made from scratch was the salted caramel, some of which I whipped with the jarred frosting. Et voila, semi-homemade Sweet & Salty cake! Tip: Nuke it for 5-10 seconds. Eat. Lick plate. Enjoy.
Root Beer Fudge Cake
I deviated from the original recipe by using root beer concentrate instead of soda. This resulted in a much more flavorful cake that melds beautifully with the deep fudge-y fudge. The cake also ages like fine wine; the longer it sits in the fridge, the root beer flavor grows and intensifies. Like a mold. But more delicious.
I actually met the baking geniuses Matt & Renato at Disney's Food & Wine Festival in California Adventure. I can't begin to tell you how starstruck I was; to me these guys are like the *NSYNC of baking. I told them about my substitution for the root beer cake and they fell in love with the idea. Next time I'm in NY I have to visit their bakery in Brooklyn (also called Baked). Who knows, maybe I can talk them into opening a store here in California...
