Crater Cake (aka Birthday Cake)

Last year's birthday cake masterpiece, sadly, went undocumented on Foodphiles, so I want to post something about this year's cake for Lou's birthday even though I have mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand, I loved the way the stenciling turned out. I bought stencils and cut out the lettering in parchment paper (thanks to Heather for the stencilling consult), which I then positioned over the cake (with Lou's help) and dusted with powdered sugar. Cute, huh? I love the way the lettering looks uneven, off-centered and like a stamp.

On the other hand, something went seriously wrong with the cake while baking, and it did not turn out perfectly. The middle of the cake did not bake through fully. When I pulled the cake out of the oven--ten minutes beyond what was called for in the recipe--and released the sides of the pan, the center collapsed. So sad. The cake looked like it had a crater in the middle.

Fortunately, the cake still tasted pretty good. The outer rim was more dry and cake-like, while the center was moist and dense like a chocolate brownie. I made this cake last New Year's Eve, and it turned out very well. I remembered it being moist with a smooth, even surface. The secret ingredient--olive oil--guarantees moisture, but I wonder if it also makes it fickle.

I can think of a few reasons why things went wrong. One, I made the cake in stages, mixing the cocoa, vanilla extract and almond extract several hours before combining the rest of the cake. Maybe the chocolate hardened too much. I carefully warmed up the chocolate before mixing it with the other ingredients, but I fear that combining those ingredients so early screwed things up. Second, I followed a baking tip I read somewhere to place a baking sheet on the floor of the oven to help moderate the heat throughout the oven. Another mistake (note to self: don't experiment with baking technique when you're baking your boyfriend's birthday cake). I wonder if the baking sheet hindered, rather than helped, the even baking of the whole cake by throwing off the temperature in the oven. Lastly, rather than use a 8 and 1/2" springboard pan as called for in the recipe, I used a 9" pan instead. You'd think that the increased area would cause the cake to bake more thoroughly, but I guess not. Thoughts?

By the way, here's the recipe from this Fine Cooking publication.

Despite the imperfection of the baking, we finished off the entire cake in about twenty-four hours.

Moroccan Chicken for the Boys

I made a Morrocan Lemon Confit Chicken dish with preserved lemons and Calamata olives for our friends who came over for bridge last Wednesday night.

I came across this recipe in Food+Wine three years ago, and it immediately jumped out at me as something I wanted to try. I've made it three or four times since then, and I love the smell of the lemon and cinnamon in particular. I also like the way the sauce thickens up, and for that reason, it makes for wonderful leftovers.

Unfortunately, Lou doesn't care for it. I think the problem has been that I have usually substituted boneless chicken breasts for on-the-bone breasts, and the chicken has almost always turned out a little dry. I made the same mistake on Wednesday. We had a couple of boneless breasts in the fridge, and I bought two more to serve the four of us. Bad move. The chicken turned out dry again, and Lou didn't like it. If you make this recipe, be sure to brine the boneless chicken breasts or use either chicken on-the-bone with skin or chicken thighs.

I was most pleased with another Food +Wine recipe from 2004 for Fragrant Basmati Rice. I made the rice by cooking it along with two bay leaves, a cinnamon stick and four smashed cardamom pods. Delicious!

On Wood-burning Ovens

Olivia Wu has a story on personal wood-burning ovens in the food section of today's Chronicle.

I have my own fascination--obsession perhaps--with wood burning ovens. I love the flavors these ovens create, along with the look of food that has been baked or roasted in them. I suppose you could get the same crispy crust on pizza by baking it on a pizza stone in a gas oven and then burning the rim of the crust under the broiler, but that's not as fun as lighting a fire in a small oven, stoking the coals until the heat surpasses 600 degrees, watching the smoke billow out the door and carefully eyeing the pizza as it cooks, all the while turning it frequently to make sure the dough cooks and burns evenly. Perhaps I'm as amused by playing with fire as I am with eating good food.

I know of several restaurants in and around San Francisco that make regular use of their wood-burning ovens--Nopa, Chez Spencer, Zuni, A16, Pizzaiolo and Chez Panisse--and I know of at least one other personal wood-burning oven in San Francisco. The personal wood-burning ovens seem like a rarity and real luxury in the Bay Area, so it was a pleasure to read about cooks who have made good use of them. One of these days, I'll figure out a way to have one of my own.

I also noticed this story in a recent NYT Friday Escapes section about Mario Batali's vacation home on the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, which mentions his wood-burning oven. Batali said that he'll make up to 30 pizzas in an evening when friends come for dinner. Wow! I was reminded of my own experience frantically baking about that number of pizzas in my friend's oven.

Frank Bruni also wrote a great review of Franny's in Brooklyn a few weeks ago, making mention their wood-burning oven. On a future trip to New York City, I hope to sample the pizzas from their oven.

Strawberry, Kimchi and Granola? A Pre-Concert Meal In Three Parts

We cooked an exquisite dinner last night, if I do say so myself.

Amy and Heather came over for an early dinner before a concert at Davies Symphony Hall. We had tickets for the first of eight concerts Andras Schiff is giving in which he’ll play the full cycle of Beethoven piano sonatas. I have been very excited about the series, and I was able to convince the two of them to join us for the opening concert (it was fabulous).

Actually, my original plan had been to meet them for dinner at Zuni. I haven’t been there in a while, and I wanted to try it out again, but they could not guarantee us a table before the concert. I also tried to reserve a table at Absinthe, but that was also a no-go. So, I decided to cook at home. Or, rather, I decided to grill.

I marinated a little over two pounds of flank steak with olive oil and salt and pepper for about an hour. In the meantime, I thinly sliced five medium sized zucchini on a mandolin and then briefly marinated them with olive oil, salt and pepper as well. After grilling the zucchini for about eight minutes—they were very soft—I threw the steak on the grill. I cooked the steak for about four minutes per side, pulled it off to check on how cooked it was and put it back on the fire for about another two minutes. In all, the steak cooked for no more than ten minutes. It came off perfectly rare in some parts and medium rare throughout the rest.

While we chatted with the girls, Lou made his special sauce of Kimchi, crème fraiche and grated horseradish. He makes it by combining about a half a cup of crème fraiche with three or four spoonfuls of Kimchi and a healthy portion of freshly grated horseradish. It’s delicious, and it makes a wonderfully tangy, spicy, and creamy sauce, which is a perfect compliment for grilled steak. He is, by the way, the innovator in our kitchen. I’m much more inclined to follow a recipe, and I guess that’s what generally makes me a good baker. Lou is much more of a natural cook, willing to test—and trust—his taste buds to combine foods and flavors. Often times, he comes up with some amazingly good combinations, and the Kimchi, crème fraiche, horseradish sauce is a good example of his innovation (this was actually a reprise of this concoction for Amy!).

For wine, I opened a bottle of 2005 Vincent Dancer Pommard “Les Perriers.” The Pommard is a delicious Burgundian red from the biodynamic producer I discovered last March at Alinea. We were all struck by how light the initial taste of wine was, and we agreed that it tasted strongly of strawberries, with hints of raspberries, pepper, tobacco, vanilla and traces of violet or flowers. The color was also light strawberry red. It was a lovely wine, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Lou said he prefers the grassy boldness of the Oregon Pinot Noirs, especially Patty Green, but he agreed that it was a pleasingly complex wine.

Finally, for dessert, I made vanilla ice cream. I usually use the Ben and Jerry’s recipe that calls for 2 cups of heavy cream, 1 cup of milk, two eggs, 3/4 cup of sugar (I used the sugar we have flavored with the shell of a vanilla bean), 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract and the seeds of one vanilla bean. In this recipe, you beat the eggs for about a minute, whisk in the sugar, add the cream, milk, vanilla extract and vanilla bean and chill in the ice cream maker for 25 minutes. It could not be easier, and it comes out soft and perfect. We crumbled my friend Nick’s granola—-Cocoa Bliss—-on top. Nick has recently started his own raw foods company, Kaia Foods, and he’s come out with a small introductory line of raw granola snacks which he sells online as well as in several stores in San Francisco. Cocoa bliss tastes of cocoa and coconut, and it provided chewy counter textures and chocolatey sweetness that helped the vanilla ice cream stand out.

Salted Lavender Caramel Chocolates

Yes, I know it's been a VERY long time since I last posted. Several of you readers have gently reminded me that I do in fact own this blog and that I should get back to posting right away. Well, here goes. I have no good excuse for not writing for nearly two months. I took a break. I went on vacation. I made a couple of work trips. I happily ate my way up the East Coast and then around San Francisco. I will tell you about some of those meals soon.

In the meantime, I want to say a word about a surprise treat my friend, Wes, gave me last Saturday. He came to our swim team practice armed with a tupperware container of homemade salted lavender caramel chocolates. They were exquisite. The caramel tasted faintly of lavender. Actually, the caramel finished like a fine wine with hints of lavender lingering in my mouth long after I had swallowed. Dark chocolate wrapped the caramel, enriching it with cocoa bitterness, and large grains of salt delivered a savory counter note to the sweetness of the caramel and the bitterness of the chocolate. Each piece was beautifully styled as well.



I only learned after the fact that Wes used to be a pastry chef. I should not have been surprised--his confections rivaled in taste and beauty any of the best I've tried.

More, Wes, More!