Quite Possibly the Most Epic Birthday Cake That Was Neither a Cake, Nor Eaten on a Birthday

So it was Roommate's birthday this past weekend and I wasn't here for it because I was in Boston for my little's college graduation. Luckily, this week's Feast was already a victory feast for my finishing finals, so we turned it into victory birthday feast. I made some fried chicken which came out undercooked (it wouldn't have if I had this awesome thing that Alton Brown says I should own) but the potatoes were tasty and we had broccoli and the first corn on the cob of the season. However, the key piece of the feast was the Robot Versus Ninja Chocolate-Raspberry Cornbread Cake.



Robot Versus Ninja Chocolate Raspberry Cornbread Cake
4 Cups of Corn Meal
4 Cups of Bread Flour (sifted I guess, but I don't have the tools for sifting and mine came out alright)
1 Cup of Sugar
1/4 Cup of Baking Powder
4 Teaspoons of Salt
1 Cup of Oil
4 Cups of Milk
4 Eggs, Beaten

The largest jar of Raspberry Jam you can find
Chocolate shell
I used unsweetened Baker's chocolate, but I don't recommend it, use the semi-sweetened version. The topping took approximately 6 1oz squares.
White Chocolate topping
I would have used Baker's chocolate, but Bravo didn't have any, so I just used some melted white chocolate chips, approximately 1/3 of a cup

Preheat oven to 425

Combine dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients. Add the wet to dry and mix until just combined.

The issue for me with working with such a high quantity of batter was that I had to use my lobster pot to hold it all so I ended up needing to use my electric mixer to get the batter started. Once most of it was combined I switched to a mixing spoon and the batter came out A-OK. I also like to froth the milk a little bit (just a couple of bubbles on top) It makes the cake a little airier, but it was hard to accomplish that working in such a high quantity.

Split the batter between two greased 10.5 x 3 inch springform pans, bake for approximately 27 minutes. The cakes are done when a toothpick comes out clean and the tops are a little brown.

Let the cakes cool completely, you are going to be beating the heck out of them with jam and toppings and you don't want the tops to rip.

Spread raspberry jam on the top of the bottom layer (got that?). Use ALL of the jam. I had a 12 oz jar and that was not nearly enough. The jam will not run if you add it slowly to the cake (two or three tablespoons at a time) and the top layer isn't so heavy that it will cause the jam to squish out the sides once you add it. So, once the jam is added, top it with the other cake.

Melt yer chocolate! I had this little cup with a spout in which I melted my bakers chocolate. This made it easy to pour onto the top of the cake and spread around the top and sides. If you melt it enough, you can work the chocolate like frosting. I put the cake in the freezer to harden the shell. Plus there wasn't enough room in the fridge.

Melt yer other chocolate! Melt down the white chocolate and add it to the top in the center. This was more so that I could add some decorations than enhancing taste. Actually it made it really hard to cut the cake, so this part is 100% optional. Stick it back in the freezer, once everything has set, cut it up or sing or whatever, and enjoy the tasty.

The cake went over pretty well but we still have most of it in the freezer because it is essentially four corn breads in one (if you quarter the recipe and use a 9-in cake pan you can make regular ole corn bread, time is reduced by approximately 5 minutes) and eating it all the time would make use extra fatties.

Feijoada

So I made Feijoda two weeks ago.


Meat Prep


Pot Full of Meat


End Product with Collard Greens and Rice

So yeah, Feijoada. It's the official dish of Brazil, I guess. It came out pretty good and we still have a bunch in the fridge... even after giving away about 1/3 of the leftovers.

When Life Hands Me Lemons, I Make Beef Stew

I made stew tonight for the first time! It came out pretty decently, I must say. I really should have cut up some potatoes but the fact that this is the most TENDER FRIGGIN STEW BEEF EVER makes up for that oversight. CHECK IT!



I followed this recipe from Food Network. I didn't have any Worcestershire Sauce so I substituted a tablespoon of soy sauce and some cayenne pepper and it came out pretty decent. Also: No cornstarch, so I had to substitute twice as much flour.

I should have picked up some crusty rolls while I was at Food World but oh well.

Epic Feast this week. Maybe I'll remember to take pictures and write about it.

Send To Phone

The Wednesday Feast is the New Sunday Dinner

I've started a tradition, I think. Or maybe its too early to call it a tradition and its more of a recurring event that is blossoming into a tradition. I'm talking about my nearly month old Wednesday Feast. Because my roommate and I don't get to spend all that much time hanging out between me being at school forever, he taking hours of capoeira and the both of us spending weekends with out significant others we had to find some time for us to sit down, chill out, and catch up. It started out on Monday nights for Heroes but then we got a TV that doesn't get NBC (its not poor reception it just cannot switch to channel 4). So our "roommate night" was bumped to Wednesdays once Lost started.

I made the decision this semester to cook dinner as often as possible because it will ultimately save a ton of money even if it takes a while longer. So we've been having nice, hearty meals almost every night. Early in the "roommate night" history, the meals I would make were a little nicer or a little more complex than the rest of the week but not by much - fresh veggies instead of frozen or I'd actually make potatoes instead of the insta-flakes. One night three weeks ago I had some steaks that I wanted to make, Zach had some tuna he wanted to make and so we resolved to have a feast the likes of which the apartment had never seen. And thus, Wednesday Feast was born. We had a copious amount meat and fish, in addition to corn and my specialty mashed potatoes. The next Wednesday, we added Kim to the feast and the three of us ate ribs, baked potatoes, and fresh cornbread (the cornbread isn't too big of a deal, I make a fresh batch once every two days or so).

I'm writing about the feast, primarily, so I can talk about last night's epic feast. I spent about 3 hours in the kitchen preparing and it was tiring, hard, and totally worth it. We enjoyed a veggie quiche in a savory crust, popovers, home fries, and a little bit of bacon with irish coffees with freshly whipped cream. The quiche was an ordeal in and of itself. I made the crust from scratch (thanks to Emeril/Food Network for the recipe) and it included a boatload of spices. I learned that I can flavor my crusts, so here comes the chocolate crust experiment the next time I make a berry pie. I didn't have a deep pie dish so everything was a little runny - especially the cheese - but it turned out really well and very flavorful. I wish I had popover cups for the popovers but the muffin tins turned out ok, and the popovers were delicious, especially once smothered in butter and honey. I burned the bacon a little (kudos to Zach for catching that for me) but the potatoes turned out rather well, I sauteed them in the bacon fat with peppers, onions, and the "Essence" from Emeril that was also in the crust of the pie. I highly recommend his spice blend as a good allspice on meat or chicken. The irish coffees were mediocre, its hard to make them when you don't have a real coffee pot (solo press FTL) but Zach did get tasty bourbon and Kim helped out and whipped the cream really well.

I'm looking forward to next week's meal, but I will not be making a quiche again for a long time.

zOMG! I gasped in the library when I saw this...

i am t3h_1337357!!

I'm totally ripping off FUCKYOUPENGUIN.

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT? No, seriously I'M FUCKING SCARED.



WHOA! Lookit that goat!

Wills and Trust Gem of the Day

Children's Rights under Intestate Succession

Non-Marital Children

Kinder to kids born out of wedlock now

Can inherit from mom, weird rules about dad

Basically have to show that dad is your dad and has been your dad in the sense of the dad word dad

... this must be truly funny only to me.