It's a well-known fact that writer-director John Hughes, who died Thursday at age 59, was a master of capturing teenage ennui (not to mention a master of setting too-high romantic expectations for a generation of women raised in the '80s.)
What's less remarked upon is his fascination with food and the way American culinary rituals define adolescence. There's the lunch scene in the detention hall of "The Breakfast Club," in which Molly Ringwald snottily articulates the concept of "sushi" to an incredulous Judd Nelson and "bad girl" Ally Sheedy demonstrates fantastic Coke can catching skills before creating a sandwich out of Pixy Stix, butter, bread and cereal -- which she proceeds to devour like a raptor.
We're stuck on a loop of John Hughes memories, but this photo of a different 16 candles -- a snapshot taken by a father of his rosy-cheeked son "caught in the glow of his 16th birthday cake" -- caught our eye.
It's a tribute to the maestro that any cake teeming with candles will always make us think of him. So to paraphrase one of his own characters, "May we admire you again today?"
I have a confession to make. This year, I did not bake Scott's birthday cake from scratch. It's the fourth birthday confection I've baked for him in the years we've known each other, and it's the first time I didn't start with raw ingredients and a recipe. Instead, I used two boxes of Naturally Nora's cake mix and saved myself a whole lot of prep time. No one at his party had any idea that I hadn't slaved over the cake, measuring flour, beating egg whites and creaming butter. I got a million compliments and as I received each one, I just smiled and said thanks (as I write this, I'm beginning to feel like a 1950's housewife), mentally forwarding them to Nora herself.
The thing is, I don't feel bad about passing off that cake as my own. I did bake it up in the big aluminum pan I inherited from my great-aunt and I sweated over the frosting. It's just not always possible to bake a cake from scratch, and it's awfully nice to know that there's a dependable, natural cake mix out there among all those chemical-laden ones that is just as easy and tastes really good.
So next time you have to make cupcakes for a school party and you find yourself running short on time, grab one of Nora's mixes (they come in five flavors) and let yourself off the hook.
My goddaughter turns 1 today and the topic of conversation around her parents' house in recent weeks has been the perfect cake for baby to celebrate her first birthday.
It got me to wondering how parents choose the right cake for that oh-so-special Kodak moment. If you have a kid named Madeline or Lady Baltimore, you can get away with serving an eponymous cake. The rest of us have to weigh taste with what will look best smeared on that beaming butter bean's face. Do you go small or big?
My friends chose to stick with tried and true recipes -- a white cake with raspberry filling, cupcakes and a cheesecake for the adults.
Upon first clapping my eyes upon the picture you see above, I found myself talking to the cake. There's something about it that telegraphs a sense of personality and individuality. It's the kind of cake that doesn't come around too frequently these days. However, it embodies everything a birthday cake should be (interesting, indulgent and chocolate-y).
As many of us here at Slashfood know geeks love to play with their food. And what geek doesn't love computers? Here's a birthday cake that combines the love of computers with that playful approach to food. It's a sugar-laden cartoony rendition of a motherboard. That Intel chip is an After Eight chocolate mint, and you can see that the gal who created this cake for her boyfriend also made liberal use of vanilla and chocolate wafer cookies. The circular gold things are Rolos. I haven't had one of them in years. Seeing the gold-foil wrapped treats has me wanting to run out and buy a pack.
I stumbled upon this sweet rendition of a motherboard on Geekcake, an entire site that's devoted to geeky cakes. What are some of the other cakes geeks are making you ask? Naturally, Star Wars is a common theme. There's a cool-looking Jabba-The-Hut wedding cake. And since nerds worship role-playing games, there's a cake fashioned after a 20-sided die. In high-school I played my fair share of D&D. But my favorite cake on the site is a Rubik's Cube cake. I'm guessing that's its not a fully functional Rubik's Cube. I'll bet it tastes good though.
As the resident cake baker in my circle of friends, I'm always trying to find something new and funky to make. I've been in a groove of no-cook fondant and marzipan figures, but this summer I got a challenge -- chocolate. Not being the biggest fan of chocolate cakes, I mostly stick to the many other flavors. However, my friend, she loves the dark and sinful treat. If she wanted chocolate, she was really going to get chocolate. Since she's also a skier, it would be served in a smooth, snowy package.
Death by Chocolate Cake, straight out of The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Chocolate, with white fondant, a marzipan skier, and some candles for wishing. Check out the gallery, peruse the recipe after the jump, and stay tuned for more information on the fondant and marzipan.
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).
As some of you who follow these sorts of things may know, Talk Like a Pirate Day is just two weeks (Sept. 19) away (what, you mean to tell me that this isn't a holiday you celebrate in your household?). I wasn't actually planning on posting about it here until I stumbled across the recipe and design instructions for a Pirate Ship Cake and realized that it was a match made in heaven. Now, I haven't made this recipe personally, so I have no idea how hard or easy it is to create at home, but from the picture it seems pretty darn cool.
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.
My birthday was this past Saturday, and I forgive all of you for not buying me a gift. I didn't even have any cake! Though the Mexican food and beer and wine I had more than made up for it.
Cake is something I don't eat much of, for both weight reasons and I'm not much of a baker and don't really think about buying one. But a good chocolate cake with a tall glass of cold milk is one of life's great pleasures, and AOL food has recipes for various birthday cakes (scroll down to "Great Cake Recipes") you can try. They go as far as to say that birthday cake has surpassed apple pie as America's greatest guilty pleasure.
I don't agree with that, but there are some good cakes here, including Chocolate Walnut Cake, Kentucky Butter Cake, Linzer Cake, Flourless Sponge Cake, and something called Kitty Litter Cake.
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]
When I was growing up, we begged my Mom to make her "Candy Cake", as she called it. I'm sure it was a trick on her part to get us to eat more oatmeal (something I wouldn't normally touch) but I could have cared less what was in it because it tasted so good.
This past weekend we were celebrating my brother's birthday and she made it again in lieu of a regular birthday cake. I had forgotten how much I loved it until I had the first bite. I'm not a huge dessert fan, but I have to admit that I had several pieces. It is super-easy to make, though you may have to adjust the cooking times slightly based on your altitude.
Bring 1 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of butter to a gentle boil. Remove from heat and add 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. vanilla, a dash of salt and 2 cups of oatmeal (oat flakes). Stir until blended and pour into a greased pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into squares and let cool.
Sometimes this cake will crumble, but if it does simply sprinkle over the top of ice cream or yogurt, or add some dried fruit/nuts and make some granola.
It looks like Hansel and Gretel aren't the only ones who tried to advantage of crumbs to lead them to where they wanted to go. The police in Sylva, North Carolina were able to use a very literal - not just literary - trail of cake crumbs to track down two thieves who attempted to break in to the police station last week.
The two suspects damaged the door of the station in their attempt to gain entry and, when they couldn't force the door, instead stole a sign, some flags and flagpoles before making their getaway. The door to the station was "smeared with cake and frosting" and a trail of the same sweets led along the main street, leading away from the station. It didn't take long before the detectives found their way to the two suspects, who "had cake all over them."
As you might expect from two people who smear themselves with cake and try to break into a police station, the pair had been drinking (heavily) at a birthday party in a nearby restaurant. Witnesses identified the suspects as having been serving the cake to partygoers, and then later also spotted them with the stolen goods.
What is a birthday party without a birthday cake? A disappointing celebration, that's what. Any dessert can be appropriate for a birthday if you stick a candle on top, but a lovely cake doesn't need candles to be appropriate - especially if the birthday boy/girl doesn't want to think about how many candles should be topping of that cake. This cake recipe is from Cooking Light and is a lovely, easy-to-make layer cake.
The cake itself is light and moist, and the frosting is fantastic. The brown sugar mix melts in your mouth and develops a slight crunch on the outside as it sets. I had to double the original recipe to make enough frosting to cover the cake and a tiny bit left over that was a great dip for some pretzel sticks. I would make the icing alone again and serve dipped pretzels as a salty-sweet snack food, but I wouldn't hesitate to make the whole cake again, either. I just need another occasion.
The Perfect Pantry
My birthday was this past Saturday, and I forgive all of you for not buying me a gift. I didn't even have any cake! Though the Mexican food and beer and wine I had more than made up for it.
What's a luxury department store to do when it hits 
When I was growing up, we begged my Mom to make her "Candy Cake", as she called it. I'm sure it was a trick on her part to get us to eat more oatmeal (something I wouldn't normally touch) but I could have cared less what was in it because it tasted so good. 
It looks like 
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