recipe

chocolate macaroon cake with orange buttercream

in , , ,

i spent some time this week with my old friend, mr. vibraphone! i snuck into the university of north dakota practice rooms, took off my shoes like the good old days, and started regaining my right big toe muscle, the one that ends up doing most of the vibe pedaling. (note to self: get a pedicure.) it was fun and it felt real good that i didn't completely forget everything about this opera that i'm playing in a few weeks and it brought back wonderful memories of when i played it last, at the very beginning of eggboy. oh yeah, i'm going to texas to play an opera in a few weeks!

(do you live in texas? do you enjoy contemporary opera? do you have a babysitter for your kiddos since there is more (fake) blood in this opera than i have ever seen in my entire life? come see me play music in this awesome dark thing! it is amazing!)

other than that, the big news is that from what i've been able to tell in the 1-2 times that i've left the house this week, spring is here! eggboy came in yesterday smelling like he does in the spring and summer, slightly sweaty and kind of dirty. not dirty, like unclean, but dirty like actual dirt on his face that makes him look like a raccoon. i think he's about to put seeds in the ground. i think. 

how kind of spring to show up right in time for passover and easter! i love a springtime holiday. even though it looks like our passover guests are going to be: mr. mumbles the stuffed penguin, mcnugget the stuffed sunny side up egg, ernie, and elijah. maybe elijah will bring a plus one? oh well, more brisket and an automatic afikoman win for me! 

and cake.

*of course*

i made this cake for my friend nina, who is turning 30 this weekend!!! i imagine that a passover birthday can be a little bit like a chrismukkah birthday. presents magically get combined into chrismukkah/birthday presents, birthday cakes on passover magically... don't happen? or are not good? or are actually a macaroon with a candle in it? ok this is kind of that, but a good macaroon. a danny macaroons-inspired macaroon. with a slathering of orange buttercream, because what's that tale about having an orange at your seder? i wanted to make nina a classy tasty cake for a very special birthday, because the person behind egg roll hamantaschen and taco hamantaschen deserves such a thing. and so do you!

happy birthday, nina!!!! 

chocolate macaroon cake with orange buttercream

makes one 8-inch cake

ingredients

cake:

2 14-oz bags sweetened shredded coconut

1 1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp kosher salt

4 large egg whites

4 tsp vanilla extract

2 14-oz cans sweetened condensed milk*

frosting:

2 c unsalted butter, softened*

4 c powdered sugar

a pinch of kosher salt

zest of one orange

2 tsp orange juice

assembly:

chocolate shavings

cocoa powder

orange slices

*if you're looking for dairy free/kosher alternatives, here is a recipe for condensed coconut milk and here is a recipe for homemade dairy condensed milk. i have not tested these, but i will let you know if i do! for the frosting, feel free to sub the butter for your preferred vegan butter.

clues

cake:

preheat oven to 350. grease four 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment. (it's ok if you don't have four pans, you can just bake the layers in batches.)

in a large bowl, mix together the coconut, cocoa powder, and salt. in a separate bowl, whisk together the egg whites, vanilla, and condensed milk. add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. spread one fourth of the batter into each cake pan (these will be very thin layers) and bake for about 18 minutes, until they're no longer shiny. let cool for 5-10 minutes in their pans and then turn onto a drying rack to cool fully.

frosting:

beat all frosting ingredients together until smooth.

assembly:

stack up your layers with a thin layer of frosting in between them and then frost the cake all over. decorate with chocolate shavings, cocoa powder, and oranges slices as desired.

enjoy!

-yeh!

pictured: cake stand // wooden utensils

chocolate peanut butter sprinkle cake

in

i skipped town for a few days last week and when i returned, our entire pantry had been ripped out. the pantry that egggrandpa built for egggrandma in the 60s, the one that was specially designed on an angle so that when one can of cream of mushroom soup was removed, another one rolled forward in its place. 

eggboy, what did you do!?!

his response, from under a cloud of sawdust, was something to the effect of how he could never find anything in this pantry, that there were a lot of moldy snacks congregating in the back, that he was planning to build me a new one, and that i shouldn't worry about all of the boxes of spices and tahini jars that covered our kitchen floor. they would be gone soon.

it was too late to argue, and maybe he was right. it might have been perfect for soup cans, but not so much for bulk dried chickpeas and oversized oatmeal jars. so i poured some riesling out for the cream of mushroom soup shelves and went to unpack. 

it's now been three days since i returned and there are still boxes of tahini jars all over our kitchen, but the spices have been moved into their new home, a homemade triangle-shaped spice rack that slides in and out of the pantry so that i can find all of my spices really easily. the bottom shelf even has a little area for all of those tiny almost-finished sacks of spices from the bulk bins. 

(this may be implied based on the fact that eggboy has been building things all weekend, but the boys haven't been planting. and we won't be having a two-harvest season :( :( it's ok, it was one of those things that sounded cool, but in reality i can only take so many harvest time pizza nights on the tractor before my bum gets sore from sitting on the armrest of the driver's seat.) 

with our pantry totally in ruins and with things like nutmeg and freeze dried chives nowhere to be seen, i've had to get a bit more creative in the kitchen. paprika dumplings instead of chive dumplings, long grain rice hotdish instead of short grain rice hotdish. but! i did discover a jar of peanut butter, and so i made a cake because i've been really really into peanut butter lately. i think that it's a delayed response to the fact that i could never have peanut butter growing up since mum is allergic, so now i'm making up for lost time and i'm excited about it because it's good shit and also a zillion times cheaper than almond butter. holy cow, the price of almond butter. 

this cake is outrageously peanut buttery and outrageously sprinkle-y. the sprinkles are not necessary, i promise. but if you do end up with a surplus of sprinkles and things like not being able to properly cover a cake in sprinkles keep you up at night, then by all means, do it.

chocolate peanut butter sprinkle cake

makes one 2-layer 8-inch cake

ingredients

cake:

1 3/4 c sugar

1 3/4 c all-purpose flour

3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp kosher salt

2 large eggs

1/2 c flavorless oil, like canola

1 c buttermilk

4 tsp vanilla extract

1 c creamy peanut butter*

3/4 c boiling water

frosting:

1 1/2 c unsalted butter, softened

1/2 c creamy peanut butter*

1 tb vanilla extract

4 c powdered sugar

assembly:

about 8 oz sprinkles (more if you're messy like me)

*the peanut butter that i use for this recipe only contains peanuts and salt, like smucker's natural and target's market pantry all natural. if you have unsalted peanut butter, i recommend adding 1/2 tsp more salt to the cake and a pinch of salt to the frosting. 

clues

cake:

preheat oven to 350.

grease two 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment.

in a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. in a medium bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients except for the boiling water. whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and then stir in the boiling water. pour into cake pans and bake until the tops are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. begin checking for doneness at 28 minutes.

let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, and then turn the cakes onto a lightly greased cooling rack.

frosting:

use an electric mixer to beat together the butter and peanut butter until combined. mix in the vanilla, and then gradually add the powdered sugar. 

assembly:

once your cakes are fully cooled, level them. place one layer on a cake board, spread a thick layer of frosting on top, and then place the other layer on top of that. use an offset spatula to frost the cake all over. don't worry about doing a crumb coat since all of the sprinkles will cover up any crumbs. 

working over a large sheet pan, use your hands (or gloved hands if you want to be clean) to press handfuls of sprinkles into the sides and top of your cake. 

enjoy!

-yeh!

p.s. i was nominated for a saveur blog award! i am very excited about this. thank you very very very much to those who nominated me, you are all invited for cake. if you are not already following all of the other wonderful humans that are nominated, i strongly suggest you go check them out. they are the bee's knees. you are the bee's knees. look at all these bee's knees. 

pictured: cake stand // linens // forks // plates // sprinkles // bowls // wooden spoon

no-knead bacon bread

in

ok! i made you a pot of bread and then i used the pot to make you some soup and i didn't even wash it in between. nose-to-tail pot. or something? i don't know. 

a little while back, i had a layover in chicago like i so often do because the amount of places that i can fly directly to from fargo is approximately not that many at all, and mum showed up to keep me company on my layover with this gorgeous breathtaking rustic loaf of bread that was crusty and chewy and perfect with a slathering of egg salad. i couldn't stop eating it and inspecting its cute oblong shape. above all though, it was so shocking because if you know mum (and me) you know that our breads are usually very doughy and pillowy soft. always a challah, never a boule. hold the crust, add more sugar.

but as i sat outside of baggage claim and stuffed my face, mum went on about how she will not be making any other kind of bread ever again. this is her new favorite bread and every other bread can suck it. (she didn't really say that second part.) she went on to explain the process: there's no kneading necessary, no eggs or sugar or butter or oil, just a lot of patience, bread flour, and a dutch oven. it sounded a lot like how you prepare pizza dough. a big big cake of pizza dough. 

(oh did somebody say cake?)

so i obviously rushed home to begin work on my version of mum's bread. it has bacon, chives, and a lot of black pepper. you can use any other kind of salty meat, like pancetta, prosciutto, salami... but if you're as big of a fan of alliteration as i am, you'll use bacon. and if you really want to up the decadence ante, you can reserve the bacon fat and use it in place of butter on a hot fresh bread slice. oooh yeah, baby.

it's true, this recipe does take time, but none of the steps require that much effort at all. a little mixing here, a heavy dusting of flour there. it's the perfect recipe if you're binge watching kimmy schmidt and you need an excuse to get up every few episodes and do one simple brainless activity at a time. 

no-knead bacon bread

makes one loaf

ingredients

approximately 4 1/2 c bread flour

1/2 tsp active dry yeast

2 tsp kosher salt

1 c + 6 tb warm water

8 oz bacon

2 tb chopped fresh chives

black pepper

clues

in a large bowl, combine 3 cups of the flour, the yeast, and the salt. stir in the water until combined. it will be very very very sticky. cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let it rise overnight, 12 hours or so. longer if you'd like. 

crisp up your bacon, pat off excess fat, and then give it a rough chop. sprinkle it into the bread dough, along with the chives and a heavy dose of black pepper. mix it a few times so that everything is generally incorporated (it doesn't need to be perfect, we just don't want too many bacon bits poking their heads out). lay down a clean kitchen towel on our counter and place a piece of parchment paper or a silpat on top of it. brush the parchment or silpat with a very thin layer of the bacon fat (or oil) and lay down a thick layer of flour, about 1/2-3/4 cup. scrape the dough onto the floured surface and use heavily floured hands to shape it into a round-ish blob. (again, it doesn't need to be perfect.) sprinkle the top with another thick layer of flour. brush another piece of parchment with oil, place it over the dough blob, and cover it all with another towel. let it sit for 1 1/2 hours.

during the last 1/2 hour of sitting time, preheat your oven to 450ºf, with a lidded dutch oven in it. (make sure your dutch oven and its lid are heat safe at 450ºf! also, i use a 2.75 qt dutch oven. you can certainly use a larger one, the loaf just won't be as tall as the one in these pictures since the dough will spread more.)

carefully remove the dutch oven from your oven and take off the lid. uncover the bread dough, stick your hand underneath it and flop it over into the dutch oven. (mum calls this step "scary and messy.") cover the dutch oven, stick it into your oven and bake for 30 minutes. remove the lid and then bake for another 15-20 minutes, until it is nicely browned on top. 

let it cool for about an hour, and then rip some off and dunk it into a bowl of soup.

a note on storing this: i get really paranoid about having meat things sitting out at room temperature for too long. so the way i've been storing this bread is that as soon as it cools, i slice it into single serving wedges, and put all of them in a ziplock bag in the freezer. i reheat it slice by slice briefly in the microwave, and then in the toaster or on the grill. it is *perfect* for avocado toast.

-yeh!

this bread is shown here with a great new thing: campbell's organic lentil soup! i really really like it for these reasons: it's very tasty, it doesn't require me to use my least favorite kitchen appliance (the can opener), and i know what all of the ingredients are without having to think hard or google anything. that is to say that there are no preservatives and it's made with organic ingredients. yes, this post is sponsored by campbell's, but truly, all of the soups in this new line that i've tried (there are six of them) have been wonderfully delicious and perfect with a slice of crusty bread. so go, put some bread dough in to rise and then run out to the store for some soup! 

tahini cupcakes with chocolate tahini frosting

in

good heavens, i was such a such a grown-up this weekend! i did laundry, ironed linens, filed taxes... i even improvised a creamed spinach recipe! oyoyoy i don't know how grownups do it. there is always some house thing to be done, and as soon as you think you've finished, suddenly another six soap dispensers are empty and you have to go around and refill them, and suddenly another meal time rolls around and you can't justify microwaving another frozen burrito. can't i just watch kimmy schmidt all day? do i need a dog to help keep the floor clean? maybe one of those roomba vacuums? 

(side note: i don't know how i went so long without creamed spinach. wow! creamed spinach is good.)

behind all of my kvetching, what i'm really saying is that for the first time in what feels like a very long while, eggboy and i had a nice normal weekend at home. even though i miss my camp friends and my schnitzel friends, it feels so good to be farm humans again, back around the eggs and frank underwood and my brunch club volleyball homies. i missed grand forks. 

and it doesn't hurt that it was effing 70 degrees out! this time last year we were hunkering down for a blizzard, but now eggboy and eggdad are getting the tractors ready for planting and the idea of a two-harvest season has been bouncing around, oh it makes me so excited. that's only happened once in the last 70 years, but if this outrageously early spring remains, maybe it could happen again??? i don't know anything. i probably just jinxed it. 

it occurred to me that i haven't made a cupcake in a few weeks, and i feared that my cupcake frosting muscle memory was fading. you too? ok, let's make cupcakes. here are some little guys that appear to be your basic chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, but they are more than that! they are nutty and tahini-y and moist and i swear if one of you can find me a synonym for moist, i will love you forever. the chocolate frosting is nice and fluffy, it plays very well with this super soft cake. this is not your average cupcake, this is a cupcake that says, happy tuesday, you sophisticated grownup! 

tahini cupcakes with chocolate tahini frosting

makes 24 cupcakes

ingredients

cupcakes:

2 c sugar

2 1/4 c flour

1 1/2 tsp each: baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 large eggs

1 c buttermilk

1 tb vanilla extract

2 tb flavorless oil, like canola

6 tb tahini

3/4 c water

frosting:

1 c unsalted butter, softened

3/4 c tahini

3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder

2 c powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

a pinch of kosher salt

a pinch of cinnamon

clues

make the cupcakes:

preheat oven to 350. line and grease two cupcake pans and set them aside.

in a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients. in a medium bowl, combine eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, oil, and tahini. add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix to combine. stir in the water. pour into cupcake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean. begin checking for doneness at 18 minutes.

let cool for a few minutes in the pans and then transfer to a wire rack to cool fully.

make the frosting:

beat together the butter and tahini. beat in the cocoa powder, and then the powdered sugar. add vanilla, salt, and cinnamon. taste and make adjustments as desired. 

frost your cupcakes, add sprinkles, and enjoy!

-yeh!

this post features goodies from one of my very favorite new stores, wilson and willy's! they're based in minneapolis and they sell the coolest, most beautiful american-made goodies, like those bowls and linens in the above photos, and a kickass hackwith + faribault line. i am so in love with this store and you guys should be too!