Baby, Let’s Bundt
Who are you calling crummy? Oh, me. Yes, yes I am.
Um, hello. Nothing I love more than chocolate cake.
No, really, really love. Since I’ve known how to say it, chocolate has been my friend. And I love it most as cake. Soft, crummy, iced perfection. Not too sweet, but with a depth of character that I aspire to… beautiful. I could go on all day talking about chocolate cake.
When I was quite small, turning 5 in fact, my mother was hospitalized on my birthday. Her best friend stepped in and tried to make it better by baking my favorite cake. Chocolate. I was so, so heart broken at being abandoned by my mother on my birthday (I was five, and already irrational) that I could not bring myself to eat it. I was just too distraught. Big tears streaming down my little face, I could only sob when asked what the matter was, “I love Lemon cake best.”
That was a lie. Though, I do love a good lemon cake. I was just too upset to actually eat the cake and at five, I didn’t really know how to express that properly. It was the only time in my memory that I’ve ever, ever turned down chocolate cake. I typically eat far more than my fair share, in fact. Standing in the darkness of a 3 am kitchen, silently savoring just one more piece.
It’s not an addiction really, it’s a love affair. Don’t judge us.
Anyhow, I baked an Earl Grey Chocolate cake a few weeks back. I loved the recipe, but I didn’t grease my pan well enough and it would not come out of the bundt pan in one piece. Mounds of crumpled cake is license to sin boldly and start eating, bit by bit. Most of it was gone before dinner. It didn’t even get any icing (though I think IZ did whip up a bit of chocolate fondue the next day. He’s not jealous of my devotion.)
This time I greased the bejezzus out that pan. What’s a few more grams of fat, anyhow? And I also decided that while I like Earl Grey, it was too subtle for me. I probably didn’t steep my tea long enough, just the same I substituted espresso this go around. Chocolate and coffee are amazing together, so much so they have their own couple name: Mocha. With just two full strength shots of the Holy Spirit you get something beyond divine.
Trust me.
You probably want a recipe? Jump, jump. (below the fold.)
Just Beet It
Oh, ‘fess up, if you’re going to be stuck with an ear worm all day, Michael Jackson is a good choice!
Our CSA box arrived with beets in it. BEETS! I have a long history of detesting this particular root vegetable—straight back to infancy where I was famous for spitting them spray style at any person brave enough to feed them to me. You’d think after one such assault people would wise up and switch to sweet potatoes or something.
So, I need your help, big time. Redeem this pretty, though much maligned, root for me? Post your fabulous beet recipes (or links to them!) in the comments. Because the only thing I can think to do with them is to boil them into dye. And IZ says we’re supposed to eat the contents of the CSA box not do crafts with them. Prove him right, people!
