sometime (again, my memory is pretty much shot) after my final review, carrie wanted to make coq au vin from the latest issue of cook's illustrated. i offered to make dessert, and then cast about thinking of a winter dessert that would be suitable. i wanted something white, and something that didn't involve chocolate. so i thought a spice cake would do. i had a vision of a white cake (specifically, a bundt cake) that was spiced. to make it a little less predictable - the idea of a white spice cake seems kind of stuffy and overdone, for some reason - i wanted to somehow accent the cake with orange, to make it a little brighter and fresher. i think i might have a recipe for the exact cake i wanted in a cookbook at home, but i was in studio, so instead i consulted epicurious. the result of my search was a spice cake with a molasses cream cheese frosting.
i don't know why i didn't realize it wasn't going to be a white cake, but one of those applesauce-oil-based cakes that are light brown, but it ended up not being a problem. the easiest way to make any cake look really fancy is to split it into more layers; this also gives you a more favorable, easier-to-eat frosting to cake ratio. i ended up putting orange oil (a rather large amount of it) in the frosting and adding a layer of mandarin oranges on top of one of the layers of frosting. unfortunately, i didn't put a layer of frosting on top of the oranges before i put on the last cake layer, so the top cake layer didn't stick and also got pretty soaked with mandarin orange moisture (despite draining and drying them thoroughly). whoops. i would say that the orange layer was a good idea, in general, though.
so this cake is a pretty mild spice cake, in a good way. i think perhaps i would have liked a non-oil-based cake better, but this is the easiest cake to put together ever: throw together the wet ingredients, throw together the dry ingredients, mix and bake. doesn't even bake for overly long - 25 minutes - and it cools fast in the cold winter air. combined with a kicked-up frosting, it gets even better. and...eaten somewhat furtively out of the refrigerator the next day is really the best way to eat this cake.
in other cake news, i took a cake my mother made for my grandmother's birthday, split it into four layers, spread the bottom and top layers with raspberry jam, filled the middle with chocolate ganache, and filled the remaining two layers with a gelatin-stabilized white chocolate "mousse." i say "mousse" because a real mousse is made with beaten egg whites, and a "mousse" is made with whipped cream and melted chocolate. unfortunately, i put slightly too little gelatin in the "mousse," or perhaps i didn't let it set for long enough, but it tasted good and looked good, so that's really all that matters for a family birthday cake. oh, and it was covered with a thin layer of ganache. this is probably the best birthday cake i've made so far for my grandmother. mmm. wish we had the leftovers with us.
orange-scented spice cake
cake
2c flour
1 1/4c sugar
1t baking soda
1t cinnamon
1/2t allspice
1/2t salt
1c applesauce or apple butter
3/4c buttermilk
1/2c veg oil
3 eggs
2T molasses
frosting
1 1/2 lbs cream cheese, softened
2c powdered sugar
1-2T orange oil or zest of 1 orange
1/4c (1/2 stick) butter, softened
optional: 1 can mandarin oranges, drained and patted dry
directions:
1. preheat oven to 350F. butter and flour 2 9" cake pans.
2. combine first 6 ingredients in large bowl.
3. whisk together applesauce, buttermilk, oil, eggs, and molasses in a medium bowl.
4. stir applesauce mixture into dry ingredients. pour into prepared pans and bake until tester comes out clean, ~25 minutes.
5. cool cake layers, then make frosting: beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth, then beat in powdered sugar. beat in orange oil or zest.
6. split each cake layer (level as needed) into two layers. put the bottom layer on a large plate and spread a layer of frosting (since there are four layers, you only need a 1/8" to 3/16" thick layer of frosting) on top. add two more layers of cake and frosting. top this layer with the mandarin oranges. spread a layer of frosting on the bottom of the top layer, then place on top of mandarin oranges, frosting side down. spread remaining frosting on top and sides of cake. chill and serve.
[serves 8-12]
note: i like this best when it's cold, but it can also be served at room temperature.
26 décembre 2006
review: chocolate lounge @ mariposa
also several weeks ago, i had enough time (!!!) to go with carrie to the chocolate lounge at mariposa. on thursdays at 7pm, a mini-enterprise takes over the space at mariposa and it becomes a short ode to chocolate. because who wouldn't be excited by a chocolate lounge? yeah, that's what i'm talking about.
the chocolate lounge is fun, but is a little limited. there are some different types of hot chocolate, then a series of desserts and chocolate flights. the desserts are pretty standard: a chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, etc. i had the milk cake with chocolate sauce; the edges were really quite delectable, with the sugar-crunchy crust, but the cake was a bit dry for the amount of chocolate sauce (which was perfectly fine) that was poured on top of it. i may have also been expecting something different despite the accurate description by our waitress, since long ago at lmf, luis used to make a tres leches cake that was essentially a vanilla cake soaked with a mixture of milk, condensed milk, and evaporated milk. god that was good.
the most interesting thing about the chocolate lounge is the flights of chocolate. unfortunately, i didn't have one. chocolate flights are a curious thing, because you have to really be a chocolate buff to pay $8 for a flight of chocolate. chocolate is so compact that the american value of getting as much bang for your buck doesn't apply correctly here; yet it governed my choice to not get a flight, anyway. there's the fear that you don't know where the chocolate is coming from; the fear that you don't know if your palate is sensitive enough to taste the difference between various chocolates, etc.
sidebar:
that said, flights of chocolate are not absent from my life. i got a free ticket a few weeks back to a chocolate tasting of richart chocolate (located in copley) by the lab for chocolate science and mit-france. i went with celina, and of course, like in all lectures, i fell asleep for most of the lecture. but i had a nice nap, and i pretty much knew all of the information in the lecture anyway. the best part of the whole thing was the smell of a room full of chocolate. if you haven't yet experienced this, you should. because it's amazing. the chocolate tasting was quite fun as well - if you haven't had a good milk chocolate (the "upscale" symphony bar is not an example of a good milk chocolate) the richart one is pretty darn good.
back to the chocolate lounge. i would say that in general, it's a fun thing to do, but still kind of expensive. in an area full of students, i think that a menu of little $4-5 treats is the best way to go, with coffee and tea in addition to the chocolate (this may actuall exist already, but i don't remember).
the chocolate lounge is fun, but is a little limited. there are some different types of hot chocolate, then a series of desserts and chocolate flights. the desserts are pretty standard: a chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, etc. i had the milk cake with chocolate sauce; the edges were really quite delectable, with the sugar-crunchy crust, but the cake was a bit dry for the amount of chocolate sauce (which was perfectly fine) that was poured on top of it. i may have also been expecting something different despite the accurate description by our waitress, since long ago at lmf, luis used to make a tres leches cake that was essentially a vanilla cake soaked with a mixture of milk, condensed milk, and evaporated milk. god that was good.
the most interesting thing about the chocolate lounge is the flights of chocolate. unfortunately, i didn't have one. chocolate flights are a curious thing, because you have to really be a chocolate buff to pay $8 for a flight of chocolate. chocolate is so compact that the american value of getting as much bang for your buck doesn't apply correctly here; yet it governed my choice to not get a flight, anyway. there's the fear that you don't know where the chocolate is coming from; the fear that you don't know if your palate is sensitive enough to taste the difference between various chocolates, etc.
sidebar:
that said, flights of chocolate are not absent from my life. i got a free ticket a few weeks back to a chocolate tasting of richart chocolate (located in copley) by the lab for chocolate science and mit-france. i went with celina, and of course, like in all lectures, i fell asleep for most of the lecture. but i had a nice nap, and i pretty much knew all of the information in the lecture anyway. the best part of the whole thing was the smell of a room full of chocolate. if you haven't yet experienced this, you should. because it's amazing. the chocolate tasting was quite fun as well - if you haven't had a good milk chocolate (the "upscale" symphony bar is not an example of a good milk chocolate) the richart one is pretty darn good.
back to the chocolate lounge. i would say that in general, it's a fun thing to do, but still kind of expensive. in an area full of students, i think that a menu of little $4-5 treats is the best way to go, with coffee and tea in addition to the chocolate (this may actuall exist already, but i don't remember).
review: restaurant pava
restaurant pava / 1229 centre street / newton ma / 617-965-0905 / m-sat 11:30-2:30 + 5:30-10pm, sun 11-2:30 + 5:30-10pm / reservations accepted (and recommended, by me) / entrees moderately expensive ($18-25)
yes yes, i know i've been remiss in updating foodlust. but in repentance, i will now add several posts (or, as many as my almost-completely-shot memory will offer up). i've been meaning to write a review of restaurant pava for several weeks now, especially given that i was there on nov 18 - more than a month ago.
i found restaurant pava through the boston globe restaurant reviews. i was initially attracted to the restaurant by the globe's review of its bread, which consists of three different types: a small chewy roll studded (cliched word nowadays, huh?) with caraway seeds and golden raisins; a french bread with a supersoft inside and a supercrispy crust; and a crispy flat "bread" that was somewhere between potato chip and bread, whose main ingredients i tried in vain to guess. all this comes with a dish of extremely green, extremely excellent olive oil. back to my initial thoughts: it is almost always true that any restaurant that does its bread so well is probably not going to disappoint. cold butter can sometimes be forgiven in the case of very good food, but mediocre bread is not a good way to start any meal.
restaurant pava is actually a companion restaurant to the Tess clothing store - by which i mean that it's located next to the clothing store in newton and it shares the same general decor. the decor is minimalist with overtones of boston - ie new york, but friendly. the interior is white, with black wooden tables and green accents. we were seated next to the front plate glass window, which i thought was going to be cold, but turned out to be just fine. this place is pretty small - seats maybe 20-30 - and the waitstaff is accordingly small, and thus friendlier. the menus are sheets of paper tucked under a band of green elastic that is attached to a heavy matte plastic board. the menus are kind of heavy because of this aforementioned plastic board, but i suppose i can forgive and forget.
because the food is pretty amazing. the chef is lydia shire, formerly of biba, and is known for being pretty adventurous. the food here is billed as "mediterranean" but is really the all-encompassing "new american," which is better described as "upscale cuisine (not "food") from any culture." we started with scallops and a small pizza; i've now forgotten exactly what the scallops came with, but i believe it might have been lobster sweetbreads (richer than normal sweetbreads) with some sort of crackery bread. mostly i just remember the scallops being very good. i liked the pizza better, though, which had smoked tomatoes and housemade pepperoni on it. 99% of the time, i despise pepperoni because it tastes like spiced plastic, but this pepperoni could do no evil - it was smoky, meaty rather than plasticky, and all together quite amazing.
when it came to entrees, i had a truly difficult time picking what i wanted, so let me give you a list of all of the things that sounded good: beet chitarra (short rib, candied ginger & blossoms); tagliatelle alla bolognese (which always looks really good to me, and which i need to make before my craving for it overtakes my life); pasta pyramids (fresh ricotta, pea shoots & pancetta); sole bianco (riso nero); chestnut crusted lamb (chestnut polenta and red russian kale); heritage berkshire pork (honeycrisp apple ravioli); wood oven chicken (black truffle, lovage, celery). so you can see that i had a serious dilemma here; usually i don't have this much trouble picking something.
i picked the chicken. and let me tell you: forget about hammersley's bistro. nothing could possibly be better than this chicken. the chicken is roasted and is superbly cooked. ok, it's on the verge of being too tender, but luckily it doesn't quite go there. i didn't think the black truffle was necessarily needed, but the addition of celery is amazing. celery, in the world of marissa, is having quite a comeback these days. the celery was in a cream sauce that came with the chicken, and it was divine. i don't think i can properly express how good chicken is with celery. it has a delicately vegetal flavor that makes the chicken taste like spring. one could argue that, it being fall, this is the wrong message for a chicken to give, but that's just sour grapes on the part of anyone who has not had this chicken. yes, it seemed more french to me than mediterranean, but in a good way. this is a chicken worthy of your daydreams.
to top it all off, we decided not to have dessert because my mother had made a cake - but tess, the owner (who dresses not like an owner but like a server), told us we should have brought it, because they would have served it for us. and there you have it: it looks like a new york restaurant, but it's definitely boston.
p.s. so now my top restaurants (for nice restaurants) in the boston/cambridge area are: 1. craigie street bistrot; 2. restaurant pava; 3. pigalle. yes, it's that good. i wish it was located in boston, but what can you do.
yes yes, i know i've been remiss in updating foodlust. but in repentance, i will now add several posts (or, as many as my almost-completely-shot memory will offer up). i've been meaning to write a review of restaurant pava for several weeks now, especially given that i was there on nov 18 - more than a month ago.
i found restaurant pava through the boston globe restaurant reviews. i was initially attracted to the restaurant by the globe's review of its bread, which consists of three different types: a small chewy roll studded (cliched word nowadays, huh?) with caraway seeds and golden raisins; a french bread with a supersoft inside and a supercrispy crust; and a crispy flat "bread" that was somewhere between potato chip and bread, whose main ingredients i tried in vain to guess. all this comes with a dish of extremely green, extremely excellent olive oil. back to my initial thoughts: it is almost always true that any restaurant that does its bread so well is probably not going to disappoint. cold butter can sometimes be forgiven in the case of very good food, but mediocre bread is not a good way to start any meal.
restaurant pava is actually a companion restaurant to the Tess clothing store - by which i mean that it's located next to the clothing store in newton and it shares the same general decor. the decor is minimalist with overtones of boston - ie new york, but friendly. the interior is white, with black wooden tables and green accents. we were seated next to the front plate glass window, which i thought was going to be cold, but turned out to be just fine. this place is pretty small - seats maybe 20-30 - and the waitstaff is accordingly small, and thus friendlier. the menus are sheets of paper tucked under a band of green elastic that is attached to a heavy matte plastic board. the menus are kind of heavy because of this aforementioned plastic board, but i suppose i can forgive and forget.
because the food is pretty amazing. the chef is lydia shire, formerly of biba, and is known for being pretty adventurous. the food here is billed as "mediterranean" but is really the all-encompassing "new american," which is better described as "upscale cuisine (not "food") from any culture." we started with scallops and a small pizza; i've now forgotten exactly what the scallops came with, but i believe it might have been lobster sweetbreads (richer than normal sweetbreads) with some sort of crackery bread. mostly i just remember the scallops being very good. i liked the pizza better, though, which had smoked tomatoes and housemade pepperoni on it. 99% of the time, i despise pepperoni because it tastes like spiced plastic, but this pepperoni could do no evil - it was smoky, meaty rather than plasticky, and all together quite amazing.
when it came to entrees, i had a truly difficult time picking what i wanted, so let me give you a list of all of the things that sounded good: beet chitarra (short rib, candied ginger & blossoms); tagliatelle alla bolognese (which always looks really good to me, and which i need to make before my craving for it overtakes my life); pasta pyramids (fresh ricotta, pea shoots & pancetta); sole bianco (riso nero); chestnut crusted lamb (chestnut polenta and red russian kale); heritage berkshire pork (honeycrisp apple ravioli); wood oven chicken (black truffle, lovage, celery). so you can see that i had a serious dilemma here; usually i don't have this much trouble picking something.
i picked the chicken. and let me tell you: forget about hammersley's bistro. nothing could possibly be better than this chicken. the chicken is roasted and is superbly cooked. ok, it's on the verge of being too tender, but luckily it doesn't quite go there. i didn't think the black truffle was necessarily needed, but the addition of celery is amazing. celery, in the world of marissa, is having quite a comeback these days. the celery was in a cream sauce that came with the chicken, and it was divine. i don't think i can properly express how good chicken is with celery. it has a delicately vegetal flavor that makes the chicken taste like spring. one could argue that, it being fall, this is the wrong message for a chicken to give, but that's just sour grapes on the part of anyone who has not had this chicken. yes, it seemed more french to me than mediterranean, but in a good way. this is a chicken worthy of your daydreams.
to top it all off, we decided not to have dessert because my mother had made a cake - but tess, the owner (who dresses not like an owner but like a server), told us we should have brought it, because they would have served it for us. and there you have it: it looks like a new york restaurant, but it's definitely boston.
p.s. so now my top restaurants (for nice restaurants) in the boston/cambridge area are: 1. craigie street bistrot; 2. restaurant pava; 3. pigalle. yes, it's that good. i wish it was located in boston, but what can you do.
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