in watermelon sugar ... cake

*photo credit, slang editorial

I've been out of town with some friends, but absence makes the heart grow fonder -- and I have missed my kitchen dearly.

A great person once told me that inspiration is born from desperation. Actually, that person might have been Bill Watterson, but I still think he's pretty great, right? Anyway, in consideration of the sentiment, I'd like to add that (on occasion) love can also serve as great source of inspiration. Not my own -- that's gross -- but that of my best pals Siri and Alex. These are the facts: Alex, being a member of previously linked band, has been gone. Siri has missed him. Alex loves watermelons. Siri wants to surprise Alex on his return home with something nice, delicious, and brightly colored.

Thus we have: "In Watermelon Sugar ... The Cake." TA-DA! Probably the most colorful piece of food that I've ever contributed to. Getting the right shade of red was a little tricky, so I'm including this excellent reference for making rainbow cakes -- it will help you maintain a good pigment to flavor ratio.



Funnily enough, the general internet consensus seems to be that recipes like this are best made from boxed ingredients. I feel slightly less bad now about posting something that calls for five out of five pre-packaged ingredients and calling it a "recipe."

In Watermelon Sugar Cake

You Will Need:
basic white cake (store-bought or made from scratch)
red and green decorating gel (betty crocker makes an excellent one)
1 jar of raspberry jam
1 bag chocolate chips
(it's that easy)
Dark green frosting (store-bought or make your own)

To Make:

Prepare the cake mix according to instructions, then stir in chocolate chips to preference. It's good to make sure there's enough that they show up in the batter, but not so many that they overwhelm the flavor and natural texture of the cake. Pour the batter into two, greased 9" round cake pans. Bake and set out to cool. Once the cakes are about room temperature, gently remove them from the cake pans. Slice the rounded top off one of the cakes and slather the surface with raspberry jam. Set the the other cake on top of the exposed/jam-covered surface, and place in fridge until raspberry jam sets (about 20 minutes).

Remove double-layered cake from fridge. Cover in one layer of dark green frosting, then return to fridge. This is known as the "crumb layer" -- and it doesn't matter if it looks messy. This exists just to "hold" the crumbs that will flake off the top of the cake while spreading frosting, allowing you to have an even and beautiful outermost layer. Once the crumb layer has set, spread another layer -- making sure to use even, steady strokes.

Slice open and serve. Oooh and aaah! You've just made Watermelon Cake!

reality bites: a mail-order snackfood company

i've just launched a project on Kickstarter.com for Reality Bites, my very own mail-order snack food company. limited-edition release 001: the handmade-to-order Fig Bar, a fig&walnut stuffed cookie delight. i know you THOUGHT i couldn't take my obsessive-level love for fig bars any further, but you were wrong!!

:) <-- yep, i'm so pleased that i went and made a smiley face. aaaah!

check out my project here. the possibility of homemade treats awaits!

never enough pretzels

Awhile ago I made pretzels. Then...I made them again.





And don't forget the soundtrack:

All Tied Up in Knots

What's cool about cooking is that you can make-up entire recipes on a whim just because you feel like eating all of your favorite ingredients in one dish. Or -- as is the case with stuffed pretzels -- in one bite. In no small part inspired by the opening of the East Village pretzel shop Sigmund (apparently, not worth it, though, thanks for the forewarning Alex), these tiny pretzel bites are great because the recipe warns you "cheese may ooze" during the baking process. Uhhh.... yes please.



Cheddar and Green Apple Pretzel Bites (adapted from Gourmet)

You Will Need:

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon packed light brown sugar, divided
1/4 cup warm water (110–115ºF)
1 cup warm milk (110–115ºF)
2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup finely chopped Granny Smith green apple, divided
1/3 cup finely chopped sharp Cheddar, divided
6 cups water
4 teaspoons baking soda

To Make:

Stir together yeast, 1 tsp brown sugar, and warm water in a large bowl and let stand until foamy, 5 to 8 minutes. (If mixture doesn’t foam, start over with new yeast.) In a separate bowl, stir remaining 2 Tbsp brown sugar into warm milk until dissolved.
Add 2 1/2 cups flour and milk mixture to yeast mixture and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until a soft dough forms, adding up to 1/2 cup additional flour, a little at a time, if necessary. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead a few times to form a smooth ball. Transfer to a clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled and bubbles appear on surface, about 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400ºF with rack in upper and lower thirds. Line two 4-sided sheet pans with parchment paper.
Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and cut into 4 equal pieces. Lightly dust your hands with flour, then gently roll and stretch 1 piece of dough to form a 12-inch-long rope. Flatten dough and arrange so a long side is nearest you, then roll out to a roughly 12- by 4-inch rectangle with a lightly floured rolling pin. Gently press one fourth of apples and cheese into lower third of rectangle, leaving a 1/2-inch border along bottom edge. Stretch bottom edge of dough up over filling and press tightly to seal, then roll up as tightly as possible to form a rope. Cut rope into 12 pieces and transfer to a sheet pan. Make 3 more ropes with remaining dough, ham, and cheese and cut into pieces, transferring to sheet pans. Let rest at room temperature, uncovered, 30 minutes (dough will rise slightly).

Bring water (6 cups) to a boil in a 4- to 5-qt saucepan. Reduce heat and stir in baking soda. Cook pretzel bites in batches in gently simmering water, turning once, until slightly puffed, about 20 seconds. Transfer with a slotted spoon to sheet pans.
Bake until puffed and golden-brown, about 15 minutes (cheese may ooze slightly).

Brush warm pretzel bites with butter and sprinkle with pretzel salt. Serve warm or at room temperature with jalapeño mustard for dipping.

absolute favorites: 1:41 pm Thursday afternoon edition

The new Milk Made flavor: Double Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookie. Described as "fair trade dark chocolate ice cream with chocolate shavings and underbaked peanut butter cookie." Use of the phrase "underbaked" in this context makes my knees tremble.



Vegan chili with grilled tofu hunks from Brooklyn Label. I could care less about my meat and dairy content, but this is a.) served in a huge coffee mug (I've previously discussed my love for this) and b.) totally effin' delicious.

Sigh! Fall....

boozie pie, or: Siri gets us drunk on Ben's Chest

"You have pie on your face," Siri says when I tell her that I Iove her pie. Of course I have pie on my face. I'm drunk. The pie is full of bourbon. But you'd be a fool to turn down a piece of pie from Siri. Even one booby-trapped with hard liquor, three eggs, and a bath of heavy cream. Siri makes the best pie I've ever had in the history of the world. Not just because she a.) serves it immediately following an impeccably prepared dinner of goat-cheese-squash-lasagna with salad b.) makes the crust from scratch and c.) whips the cream while the pie is still cooling, but because she somehow infuses everything she makes with that special feeling of "home-ness" which makes home-cooking so ... well ... exactly what it sounds like.

FYI, Epicurious has provided me with the following pertinent information on this particular recipe: "Pumpkin pies have long been favored in New England; there is a recipe for a "pompkin" pie in Amelia Simmons's 1796 American Cookery. New England colonists, in spite of their puritanical reputation, were known to enjoy a tot of rum now and then. And if the liquor was hidden in a pie, even the ladies were able to indulge."

1796, eh? Old chum! Here's one for the ladies. And Happy Halloween!


(Dinner, pre-pie)

Siri's Pompkin Boozie-Pie c/o Epicurious

Crust
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 tablespoons chilled vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

Filling
1 16-ounce can solid pack pumpkin
1/2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground mace
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3 large eggs
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup dark rum
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
print a shopping list for this recipe



To Make:

Crust:
Mix flour and salt in processor. Add butter and shortening; process until mixture resembles coarse meal. With machine running, add ice water 1 tablespoonful at a time and process until moist clumps form. Gather into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; chill 30 minutes. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.)





Roll out pastry on lightly floured surface to 13-inch round. Transfer pastry to 10-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Fold edge under and crimp. Pierce pastry all over with fork. Freeze pastry 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450°F. Bake crust until pale golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F.


Filling:

Whisk first 10 ingredients in large bowl until smooth. Whisk in all remaining ingredients. Pour filling into crust.

Bake pie 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F. Bake until filling no longer moves in center when dish is shaken, about 30 minutes longer. Transfer pie to rack and cool completely. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Bring to room temperature before serving.)

wish-list things

NPR's All Cakes Considered: A Year's Worth of Weekly Recipes Tasted, Tested, and Approved by the Staff of All Things Considered, by Melissa Gray.




"I love watching our staff — all of these incredibly competent, brilliant people — taken back to being like 8 years old, and having that little joy: 'Oh, there's cake!' " Gray says. 'I love that because it makes you remember that people at their core are still human beings.'"

My favorite part is when she describes staff preferences. It seems so strangely intimate; all these radio personalities that I've been pleasantly estranged from as physical beings my entire life...suddenly laid bare by the revelation of their favorite sweets. What a thing!

"'Michele Norris is very easy to please,' Gray says, 'but she does not eat coconut. Robert Siegel claims he does not eat cake, Gray says, but she says she has seen him take cookies. Melissa Block likes fried pie, brown sugar pound cake and bittersweet chocolate frosted layer cake. Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep is a butterscotch guy. Film critic Bob Mondello loves coconut cake, and news analyst Dan Schorr is partial to frosting.'"

and then, the best part:

"'He likes cake as a delivery system for frosting,' Gray says."

This is exactly how I feel about peanut butter. As far as I'm concerned, essentially anything will serve as a plausible vehicle for peanut butter.

Missy G's Sweet Potato Poundcake recipe here.