- Reviewers are surprisingly pleased with the service and selection at chain favorites like Outback Steakhouse, Chili's, and T.G.I. Friday's
- Young, energetic Danish chefs return home after culinary school, and bring with them a unique, fresh perspective
- One author marks her trials and triumphs in birthday cake making over the years, including the dreaded Barbie cake (at right)
- On the hunt for a Chicken Canzanese recipe, circa 1969
- The taco truck controversy marches on
- A quintessential mint julep recipe, perfect for Derby-goers
Posts with tag BirthdayCake
The New York Times in 60 seconds: Chains, cakes and chicken canzanese
A birthday cake recipe that's a keeper
Being that I'm known in my circle of friends as something of a food lover and able cook, I often get called upon to bring contributions to communal meals or other food events. Nearly once a month, I get tapped to make a birthday dessert and so I'm always on the hunt for a quick, tasty birthday cake that doesn't come from a box. I have a go-to cake for the chocolate lovers but I've always been stymied by from scratch white cakes. They never come out quite right for me and so the search continued.
Until Saturday morning, that is. I needed to make a cake for my boyfriend's birthday party that night, and he had specifically asked for a white cake with chocolate frosting. Simple enough, right? My theory is that when you're working with such a classic combination, you have to do a really great job of it, or it's a let down. I flipped through at least six cookbooks, looking for a recipe that didn't use a pint of cream or require you to separate half a dozen eggs and beat the whites. What I ended up using was the All-Occasion Yellow Cake recipe from the Gourmet Cookbook. It is billed as being "incredibly simple" and it lived up to that promise. It came together quickly, baked up evenly, came out of the pan easily and tasted wonderful. This one is a keeper (and the recipe is after the jump).
Chocolate Outrageous Pie
The Perfect Pantry is a great blog, filled with tips for stocking your pantry or kitchen. As webmaster Lydia herself says, there's no such thing as a perfect pantry, but there are certainly things in there you need. And it's The Perfect Pantry's one-year birthday (well, it was yesterday), and Lydia made a Chocolate Outrageous Pie to celebrate. She found the recipe in a notebook filled with old recipes. Full recipe after the jump.
Berlin's KaDeWe celebrates centennial with megacake
What's a luxury department store to do when it hits the century mark? If it's Berlin's KaDeWe, or Kaufhaus des Westerns, the answer is simple. Let them eat cake, and lots of it. Yesterday the store served up an enormous 20-foot tall cake to celebrate its 100th birthday. As you can see here, the confection's lowest tier was adorned with a replica of the store, including marzipan customers, complete with shopping bags. An enormous cake is especially fitting for the luxe KaDaWe given that it has a renowned food hall. With 164,042 square feet of selling space, the store also happens to be Europe's largest.
Me and my sweet tooth are holding out for one of New York City's great retail destinations to whip up a similar cake for a special occasion.
[via Spluchster]
Slashfood's Birthday Cake Contest Reminder!
With only a few days to go until the deadline, you still have time to enter Slashfood's Birthday Cake Photo Contest. The deadline for entries is midnight on Wednesday, August 23rd, at which point the photos will be judged and we'll pick a couple of winners!
We're happy to report that we have some really fantastic entries up right now, so take a look at the Birthday Cake Contest Flickr group when you have a chance.
If you haven't entered yet, what are you waiting for? All you need is a camera (preferably a digital one) and some kind of birthday cake. You could even go to your favorite neighborhood restaurant and tell them it's your birthday so they'll stick a candle on top of your dessert for you. Just upload the photo before the deadline and you'll have a chance to win one of two great prizes. The winner will receive a copy of The Cake Book, and the runner up will get Crazy About Cupcakes.
Would you bake your own birthday cake?
I've told the
story to many a friend about how I appointed myself the birthday cake baker a few months into my first job out of
college. When I made the decision, there were only nine investment bankers in our group. Nine cakes a year?
Piece of, umm, an exhibit in an offering memorandum. No problem.
But soon our group was 27 strong and I was baking all the time, getting requests for special desserts, and generally kicking myself for stepping up. What should I do when my own birthday approached? I sucked it up and ate the cardboard-tasting grocery store cake that was the reason I'd decided to start baking for my co-workers in the first place.
Like Kelli, I'd much rather make my own birthday cake (and have, many a year). She fixed herself a delicious-sounding concoction of chocolate, hazelnut, ganache, genoise, mocha filling... yum. She provides general instructions, along with some links to recipes, if you'd like to recreate it for your own special day.
A fraking amazing Battlestar Galactica cake
Iced Tea 101
Pierogies + cheese + onions + kraut = Parmageddon!
