Maybe this blog should be called The Epicurious Cake Blog, because this is the third post in a row featuring a cake recipe from the site.

It actually wouldn’t be such a bad idea–blogging through Epicurious’s cakes Julie Powell-style.  In fact, I’m adding it to our list of future blogs, along with Stalking George Washington (in which Alex and I record our visits to George Washington sites across the nation) and Dinner Salads (self-explanatory).

This was yet another birthday cake, and yet another roaring success.  The toasted coconut was just subtle enough and the texture was so creamy and soft.  The fresh strawberries added both refreshment and flavor.  And the crust?  Oh my goodness!  Adding coconut to a graham cracker crust is positively brilliant.

Speaking of brilliant, you may notice that the style of two of our photos today (the solo slice shots) are slightly different than what we usually post.  This is because our (not-so) humble cheesecake had the honor of being photographed by renowned photojournalist Peter van Agtmael, who is also our roommate/my cousin.  That puts our blog right up there with the New York Times Magazine for publications featuring Peter’s photos this weekend.  TFA + NYT = sames.

So again, here’s the recipe, reposted with our baby modifications below.

Ingredients:
(crust)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted, cooled
1/4 cup sugar

(filling)
3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 tablespoons cornstarch
4 large eggs
1 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (we used Coco López as recommended)
1/4 cup coconut rum (we used Malibu as recommended)

(topping)
1/4 cup seedless strawberry jam
2 tablespoons water
1-pint containers strawberries, stemmed, sliced

One ridiculously delicious cake, which we finished today, we’d been meaning to bake for precisely 1 year and 360 days–since Epicurious.com Editor-in-Chief Tanya Steel told me in an interview that it is among her favorite recipes on the site.

The other ridiculously delicious cake, which we concocted last weekend, we very proudly invented.

Let’s begin with the more recent.  This Double Chocolate Layer Cake has over 1350 reviews on Epicurious, and nearly all of them are raving.  Understandably, as this cake is soft, chewy, chocolately, satiny, rich, spongy, dense, and completely delightful.  The chocolate ganache frosting provides a smooth and glossy finish that’s makes the cake just the right amount indulgent.  I’m reposting the recipe below with our very, very minor tweaks.

Ingredients:
(cake)
3 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee (we used hazelnut, and recommend that or a similar flavor)
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs at room temperature
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

(frosting)
1 pound semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease pans, line bottoms with rounds of wax paper and grease paper.  Combine chocolate and hot coffee in a bowl, and stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

In a large bowl, sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl, use an electric mixer beat eggs for about 5 minutes until thickened slightly and lemon colored. Slowly beat in oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate until combined. Add sugar mixture slowly and beat on medium speed until just combined (do not overbeat). Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a toothpick comes out clean, about an hour. Cool layers completely in pans on racks (we cooled them overnight) before frosting.

To make the frosting bring cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil in a saucepan over moderately low heat, whisking until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, whisking until chocolate is melted. Cut butter into pieces and add to frosting, whisking until smooth. Transfer frosting to a bowl and cool until spreadable, or refrigerate covered and bring to room temperature before spreading

Spread frosting between cake layers and over top and sides, serve and enjoy!

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Now for the second–the Mint Chocolate Chip Oreo Ice Cream Cake.  This is a recipe that we invented for my cousin’s birthday last week, we’re so smug that we’ll tell you how freakishly delicious it was until your ears get toxic epidermal necrolysis and fall off kind of (but not really) like in Alex’s dermatology class slides (p.s. don’t Google that).  Yum!

What I love second most about this cake, after its eyes-roll-t0-the-back-of-your-head sweet creaminess, is the fact that the layers look the same, but are in fact different: fresh mint chocolate ice cream looks just like frozen whipped topping with Oreo cookie crumble.  As a result, the cake looks stunning cohesive, but still features delicious and complementary layers.

If you are going to make this cake and you have an ice cream machine available, we highly recommend making fresh mint ice cream.  We based ours off a recipe from the amazing Simply Recipes blog, and we absolutely swooned over the mojito-like flavor of the ice cream.  Here is the recipe on the blog (we doubled it for our purposes), and our entire cake recipe is posted below (note: it can take several days to assemble, so plan accordingly!).

Ingredients:
(mint chocolate chip ice cream from Simply Recipes)
6 cups of fresh mint leaves (not stems), rinsed, drained, packed
2 cup milk
4 cups heavy cream (divided, 2 cups and 2 cups)
1 1/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
12 egg yolks
12 oz.  dark chocolate, very finely chopped

(Oreo cookie crumble)
1 box Oreos
1/2 stick butter, melted

(whipped topping)
10 oreos
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp sugar

Instructions:
Make ice cream.  Heat mint leaves, 1 cup milk, and 1 cup cream in heavy saucepan until steaming.  Then remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 30 minutes. While the mixture is steaming, place the remaining 2 cups of cream in a bowl in an ice bath and set aside.  Reheat the mixture until steaming, remove from heat and let stand for 15 more minutes.  Strain the mixture into a bowl (pressing on leaves), and return it to the saucepan. Add sugar and salt to the mixture. Heat until just steaming again, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat.  Whisk the egg yolks in a medium sized bowl. Slowly pour the heated milk cream mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not cook, then scrape the mixture back into the saucepan.  Stir the mixture over medium heat with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens enough to coat the spoon (about 10 minutes).  Pour this mixture through a strainer into the cold cream that you set aside.  Chill thoroughly (in an ice bath or overnight in the refrigerator), divide mixture in half, and cook in according to ice cream machine instructions in two batches.

Once your ice cream is made and you are ready to start assembling the cake, make the cookie crumble.  In a large bowl, smash 1 box Oreos into coarse crumble.  Add melted butter, and stir to combine.  Divide cookie crumble in half.

Spread half of cookie crumble in the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan.  Press crumble down pat with a spatula.  Add half of the ice cream, slightly softened, and freeze until hardened (several hours).  Add second layer of cookie crumble, followed by second half of the the ice cream, softened, and freeze again until hardened (several hours).

To make whipped topping, beat together cream and sugar until soft peaks form.  Crush the remaining 10 oreos, and gently fold them into the whipped cream.  Spread whipped topping on top of the cake, and freeze again for several more hours until the topping is also hard.  Let stand for about 15 minutes before serving, and enjoy!

~~

Finally, finally, finally, just because we are actually posting recipes, it doesn’t mean I will neglect my promise of posting our weekly menu as well.  Here’s what’s up this week:

Monday:
Paprika-roasted chicken
Baked Japanese yams
Peas

Tuesday:
Spinach salad with roasted portobello mushrooms, goat cheese, and toasted walnuts with a lemon vinaigrette

Wednesday:
Salmon with soy ginger sauce over soba noodle salad (we are making our own soy ginger sauce) from Whole Foods

Thursday:
Chicken tortilla soup from Serious Eats

And phewf, that’s all folks.

So clearly, we’re not great at posting recipes during the winter.

I’ve realized that this is because we end up making most of our food when it is dark outside, and we really dislike posting pictures taken in artificial light.

In light of this realization, I’ve decided that until the days stretch out a bit, I’ll try to post our weekly menus.  We began menu planning at the beginning of this school year, and it has easily doubled (maybe even tripled) our eating/cooking happiness.  I pick meals for the week on Saturday, Alex makes the grocery list, and we shop together for the week’s ingredients on Sunday mornings.  So far, we’ve been eating amazing meals without the stress of having to shop and throw them together at the last minute.

Here’s this week’s meal plan:
Sunday:
Quick and Easy Cioppino

Monday:
Spinach and Lentil Soup from Padma Lakshmi’s “Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet”

Tuesday:
Salmon with Spinach, Olives and Golden Raisins and Couscous

Wednesday:
Salad with Tofu, Broccoli, and Miso-Tahni Dressing

Thursday:
Banh Mi

Now that I’ve said we never post during the winter, here are some beautiful Red Velvet cupcakes that we made today in the light of day/dusk.  Hence, the lovely photographs.  They’re not for Valentine’s Day.  Just like these weren’t.

The recipe for the cake is from Magnolia Bakery, found here.

The icing recipe is from Simply Recipes, found here.  We added about 3 1/2 cups of confectioner’s sugar (compared to the recipe’s 2-3) because we love thick frosting.

When we originally conceptualized this gingerbread house, we planned to create it in the image of Mount Vernon.  It just so happens, we are major GW dweebs.  I mean, have you seen this?

In the end, it was less George Washington than we imagined, and significantly more . . . glitz.  Though we did stay true to original by replicating the rounded driveway.  And there’s always next year to cut original molds for archways and weather vanes.

The house took three days to complete.  Day 1: making dough from this epicurious recipe (it’s not super sweet, but it holds up beautifully).  Day 2: making icing and gluing molds together.  Day 3: decoration.

Ginger GW and Martha felt quite at home.

Dipping noodles in sauce is the most marvelous idea.

If you, like me, are what Alex calls a “butter,” (short for butterfingers, but meaning generally spastic) sauce dribbles down your chin and splatters across your shirt and a solidly good mess ensues.  Nothing makes me feel two again like struggling to get a mound of wet noodles into my mouth.

Fortunately, the preparation of soba with dipping sauce is not as challenging as the consumption, but it is just as much fun.  This was our first attempt at home-cooked soba, though we’ve had some delicious versions at great places around the city.  To repeat myself, that’s home-cooked, not homemade, for we are not yet that skilled nor unoccupied.  Cooking soba noodles at home basically involves boiling water, throwing in noodles, and concocting a dressing. It’s easier than making just about anything, other than plain boiled pasta.  We fixed up some toppings, but you can go as minimalist as you desire.

Ingredients (serves 2-4)
8 oz. soba noodles
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
1 scallion, finely chopped
1 daikon radish, shredded
1 cup shitaki mushrooms, steamed in a bit of water and soy sauce

Instructions:
Boil water and salt it for soba noodles.  Combine stock, mirin and soy sauce, divide into bowls for dipping.  Cook soba noodles according to package instructions, and rinse with cold water.  Assemble soba noodles on plates, and top with scallion, radish and mushrooms.

He said that people develop hobbies like cooking and photography because they present opportunities to produce something tangible.  So many people’s work lives, he continued, are spent working on things that produce nothing (See, e.g., Alanna K., Why I’d Rather Watch True Blood Than Read Copyright Law, 1 J. Law & Procrastination 624, (2009)).

It got me thinking.  When Alex and I worked for our daily college paper, I loved waking up each morning knowing that I could physically pick up the product of my previous day’s work.  We started cooking seriously right after our tenures at the paper ended, and while I always thought that interest served to fill the time void, I hadn’t considered that maybe it fills a more psychological gap as well.  (See Alanna K., Why We Continue to Cook When We Have No Time Again, 1 J. Law & Procrastination 945 (2009)).

More than anything, baking bread gives me a sense of productivity.  It doesn’t require much effort (other than some pulses in the food processor and getting up from our desks every few hours to excitedly poke the rising dough for a bit and ooh over its size), but I feel like we’ve created something magnificent.  Professors: they are usually right.

It’s been a while since we baked bread, so we picked a simple recipe to ease us into it.  This oatmeal walnut bread is fresh, warm, and soft with a crispy finish.  With a slather of nutella, it is heavenly.  We took the recipe from a great book called The Best Bread Ever, and made only a few minor adjustments that are posted below (and a major one: we used all-purpose flour instead of bread flour because it was in the cabinet).  Also, note that the book called for baking the loaves on pizza stones, but we used pyrex baking dishes.  If you have a stone, you are lucky, and should use it.

Ingredients:
(oatmeal)
1/2 cup steel-cut oats (this stuff works)
3/4 cup uncooked oatmeal
1 cup water

(bread)
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp salt
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 cup plus 3 tbsp water (the 1 cup should warm water)
1 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Instructions:
To make oatmeal, combine both oats and water in a pot.  Cover, bring to a boil, then uncover and reduce heat to low.  Stir and cook until water is been absorbed, about 5-8 minutes.  Let cool.  Add flour, salt and yeast to the food processor, then add cooled oatmeal.  With the machine running, pour the 1 cup warm water through the feed tube and process until dough comes together into a visible ball, adding more flour or water if necessary.  Remove the dough from the food processor and knead in walnuts.  Transfer dough to a large ungreased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for about three hours.  Scrape dough onto a floured surface, divide into two equal pieces, and shape into two football-sized loves by folding pieces in half and pinching ends together.  Sprinkle a baking sheet with oatmeal, and place loves on sheet.

One hour before baking, preheat oven to 475 degrees.  Place a pan for water on the bottom rack.  Transfer loaves to pyrex containers, brush loaves with water, and sprinkle with more uncooked oatmeal.  Dust surfaces with flour, and use a knife to make a long slash along the length of each loaf.  Pour 1 cup warm water into the pan to create steam, put the bread in the oven, and turn heat to 450 degrees.  After two minutes, open the oven and quickly add another cup of water to the pan for more steam.  Bake for 30-35 minutes, until crust is golden.  Remove loaves, and let cool before serving.

Yesterday morning, we packed up half of the kitchen and headed to the Union Square Greenmarket to do a cooking demo/promotion for our lovely new cookbook.

The demo went swimmingly — we cooked a delicious eggplant pasta recipe from the book three times in row, and served samples to 300 people (a record for us!).  Fact: Nothing garners a crowd like the aroma of sauteed garlic.

After the event, we came home and used our leftover ingredients to cook the eggplant pasta a fourth time for friends joining us for dinner.  We’re now pretty good at the recipe, so it’s too bad we’re suffering a bit of post-traumatic stress over the idea of it.  In all likelihood, we’ll be frantically chopping eggplants in our dreams for the next few weeks.

So hopefully you understand why we’re not blogging the pasta, despite the fact that it’s incredible fall dish that everyone should make.  Also, we forgot the camera and have no pictures.  (Quick shameless self-promotion:  If you would like the recipe, it’s in the book).

Now, for the main blogging event: pesto hummus — the appetizer to our eggplant pasta supper last night.  We decided to make this dip simply because it utilized ingredients that we had hanging out in our fridge and cabinets.  We were completely shocked by the delightful flavors that resulted.  We scraped the bowl completely clean, and I had even scraped the food processor clean earlier in the afternoon while making the dip.  Though it’s called a pesto hummus, there’s no tahini — so this really ends up tasting more like a pesto bean dip.  We recommend it for any party, to spread on sandwiches, or just for snacking with carrots and crackers.

This recipe should really be adjusted to taste, so please use our recipe as a guideline to create your own delicious masterpiece!

Ingredients (serves 8-10):
2 16-oz. cans chickpeas (drained, liquid reserved)
1 cup packed basil leaves
1/2 clove garlic, chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tsp balsamic vinegar
3 tsp soy sauce
juice of 1 1/2 lemons
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Combine chickpeas, garlic and basil in the food processor.  Pulse several times.  Add olive oil, vinegar, soy sauce and lemon juice, and pulse (you can add more of these ingredients or less, to taste).  Add reserved chickpea liquid and continue process until mixture is desired consistency (we aimed for the consistency of hummus).  Season with salt and pepper, and serve with raw veggies, crackers, or spread over bread.

After not having tortellini for maybe 10 years, I have them on the brain.  It’s kind of like when you learn a word, and then see it everywhere.  I rediscovered tortellini, and now I see and crave them constantly.  (Me:  What?  Has our local grocery store been selling tortellini all this time and I never noticed?!  Alex:  Yes.)

Alex is currently studying the brain for his Brain and Behavior class, yet he has been usless in helping me to determine why I cannot get enough tortellini.  Perhaps it is because his primary study tool is this video?

In any case, it seems as though the only cure for tortellini brain is more tortellini.  We conjured up this soup recently, and it has served as a sufficient antidote for about a week (though I can feel the urges kicking in again: flashes of tortellini, visions of pasta, etc.).  The recipe is adapted from one in Eating Well magazine.  The original recipe uses ravioli and suggests tortellini as an alternative.  I don’t just suggest it; I strongly urge it.   We made some other tweaks, and our version is posted below.

Enjoy, and don’t blame us if you catch the tortellini brain.  I hear it’s contagious.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 bell peppers, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 28-ounce can fire-roasted crushed tomatoes
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp dried basil
1 9 oz. package fresh tortellini
2 cups zucchini, dices
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Heat oil over medium-high heat large soup pot.  Add onions, and cook for about two minutes until glistening.  Add peppers and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes until onions and peppers are soft.  Stir in crushed red pepper, then add tomatoes, broth and basil and bring to a simmer.  Let simmer for about 15 minutes.  Add tortellini and cook for 3 to 5 minutes less than package instructions.  Add zucchini and cook until it is tender, about 5 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper, then serve.

When I asked Alex what we should say about this soothingly refreshing beverage, he responded that we should call it a “delicious summer treat.”

But for Al, everything is a delicious summer treat.  I might have gotten the same response if I’d inquired about beer or grilled salmon.  He loves all foods and beverages Summer.  Who doesn’t?

Me, for one.  I’m not categorically opposed to summer drinks, but they are second fiddle to the winter drinks of my heart: mulled cider, brewed chocolate with mint, hot lattes.

Predictably, this Green Tea Mint Lemonade is the exception.  The exceptional exception, excepting the exacting exercise of extracting juice from lemons (though if you have a juicer, you’re exempted).  Yes, squeezing is such a pain, but its worth it for this cooling beverage that’s not too sweet, and offers a uniquely refreshing blend of fresh seasonal flavors.

Ingredients (serves 6-8):
1/2 cup packed fresh mint
1 cup sugar
2 cups water, divided
1 cup fresh lemon juice
8 cups iced green tea (or other iced tea)

Instructions:
Combine mint leaves, sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan, then bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Turn off heat and let cool.  Once cool, remove mint leaves and combine with lemon juice.  In a large pitcher, combine iced tea and remaining 1 cup water, then pour the lemon mixture into it.  Serve chilled or over ice, with mint leaves for garnish.

Lately, I’ve been hooked on Trader Joe’s Chocolate Decadence Cereal.

I eat it by the handful or with milk, and it’s sublime over Greek Yogurt.  I go through it so furiously that I figured it might be cost-effective to create homemade Granola with some of the same ingredients: chocolate, almonds, oats, crunch, crunch, crunch.  Not to replace it, of course, just to supplement and slow my consumption of the TJ’s variety.

This recipe isn’t a replication of the TJ’s version, but it’s a similar beast — a platinum to its white gold?  Our granola is definitely not too sweet, but it has a strong honey flavor and a perfectly clustery consistency.  The recipe is inspired by this one from Orangette, with a few tweaks here and there.  We’re already planning to use ours for parfaits later this week, and surely for lots of snacking.

Ingredients:
6 cups rolled oats
1 cup raw almonds, chopped
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
3/4 cup honey
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  In a large bowl, stir together oats, almonds and coconut.  In a small saucepan, heat honey and oil over low, whisking occasionally, until the honey is loose, about four minutes.  Pour honey mixture over dry ingredients and stir until coated.  Spread mixture evenly over two foil-covered baking sheets.  Bake for 10 minutes, stir, and then bake for an additional 10 minutes until golden.  Remove granola, let cool slightly, then stir in chocolate and serve or store in an airtight container, like a plastic bag.