celebrating with chocolate peanut butter cake

A year ago this weekend, a cab driver told Zander that he'd be crazy not to go paddle boating with me.

We went to dinner at Zest Bistro, a delightful, delicious, intimate restaurant in a neighborhood that we don't visit often enough. We polished off a bottle of wine over dinner, and I remember thinking, "I'm lost in conversation," and getting back into whatever topic was at hand. I wore a pair of skinny jeans with black flats and a v-neck black top. Lordy, it was much warmer on that night in March than the same one this year.

After dinner, we walked down the street, past the lively bars and closing cafes, and Zander asked if I'd like another glass of wine before heading home. We stopped into one place or another, and we continued where the dinner conversation left off.

The cab driver that night took me home first. On the way I mentioned a few friends and I were going to try the paddle boats at the National Mall. We wanted to see the cherry blossoms from the water's point of view. I invited him, but he hesitated. He was remodeling his bathroom, and well, he needed the day to work on it. I hopped out of the cab, and he walked me to my door. We said goodnight with a hug.

A little downtrodden, unsure what I thought or what he thought or what I felt or what he felt - the usual way of those painful post-first date moments, I reached in my purse to find my phone to text a friend how it had gone. How had it gone? Before I could finish typing the message, my phone vibrated with a text. "Our cabbie said I'd be crazy not to go paddle boating with you, and I would. What time do I meet you?"  

To celebrate our one year this weekend, we spent the night in Charlottesville, Virginia. I've wanted to go, well, pretty much all year. It's more suburban and developed than I anticipated, but that didn't mar the beautiful bed and breakfast that Zan surprised me with, or the picturesque scenery on our way out to go wine tasting on Sunday. It was a weekend that I wish I could bubble wrap for safekeeping and take out every time I need to remember that time in our lives of cherry blossoms and new beginnings and the start of a Spring romance.

As part of my anniversary gift to Zan, I made a chocolate peanut butter cake that he has been drooling over ever since our friend Sarah tweeted about it. I don't like peanut butter because I'm a crazy person, but I gotta tell you - making a cake when you aren't even tempted to eat it is the best. All the joy of batter tasting without the guilt at over-indulging on the finished product.

Without further ado, the extremely time-intensive chocolate peanut butter cake, from Smitten Kitchen.

ingredients for the cake
Makes an 8-inch triple-layer cake (did you just say "holy hell?" because that's what i said!)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup canola oil
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

steps 

1. preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottoms and sides of three 8-inch-round cake pans. Line each with wax paper and grease the paper. 
2. whisk the dry ingredients - flour, sugar, cocoa power, baking soda, and salt in a large standing mixer bowl. 
3. whisk in the oil and sour cream. gradually mix in the water. blend in the vinegar and vanilla. next the eggs. make sure you're getting the bottom and sides of the bowl. 
4. divide among the three cake pans. it will be a light, runny batter! but delicious! 
5. bake 30-35 minutes (i baked 32 minutes, and it was perfect), until a toothpick comes out nearly clean. let the cakes cool in the pans for 20 minutes. 
6. invert the cakes onto wire racks, super carefully peeling off the wax paper (mine were still so soft that little bits came off). let them continue to cook. Deb suggested putting them in the freezer for 30 minutes to let them harden a little to make them easier to work with. yes. do this.)

ingredients for the peanut butter frosting
10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 cups (!!!) confectioners' sugar
2/3 cup smooth peanut butter (use a commercial brand so the oil doesn't separate)

steps

1. in the same large bowl that you made the cake batter and since cleaned (yay one bowl!), beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. 
2. beat in the confectioners' sugar 1 cup at a time (make sure to get the sides and bottom, as it'll stick)
3. beat for another 3-4 minutes just to make sure
4. add the peanut butter and blend thoroughly 

assemble and frost the cake 
build and frost the cake like a sandwich. place one layer of the cake (a sturdy one), flat side up, on a large serving plate, cake stand, or if you have neither of those, a pizza pan (for the win!). frost the top. place the next layer (your worst layer) on top next. frost the top of that one. place the final layer (hopefully your best) on top. now frost the top of that one and the sides. make sure you reserve a little of your frosting. let the cake chill (fridge/freezer) for 15-30 minutes until the frosting has set. then frost over your frosting with the remaining frosting (how many times can i say 'frost' in one sentence?!) to give it a more cohesive look. put your cake back in the freezer to let it set some more while you make the....

ingredients for the chocolate-peanut butter sauce
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter (optional)
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup half-and-half (optional)

steps
use a double-broiler, or set a bowl over simmering water. melt the chocolate, mixing in the peanut butter and corn syrup. if you don't want it overpoweringly peanut buttery, you could leave it out of this sauce, but i put it in. whisk it real good until it's all smooth and saucy. remove from the heat and whisk in the half-and-half. i forgot about this part, and mine still tasted delicious but wasn't as drippy and runny down the sides of the cake. use this while still warm.

final step
remove the cake from the freezer/fridge, and drizzle the warm chocolate sauce on top. make sure your cake is on a baking sheet to catch any runaway sauce. spread it evenly over the top just to the edges, so it's pretty when it runs down the sides. set it back in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to let the glaze and frosting set completely. remove 1 hour before serving. (i served it while the glaze was still warm, then let it set.)

this cake is delicious, but if you add up all the setting and baking times, you need to allow for 3-4 hours to make it. in summary? baking this beast is real love, yo.

I still have half a cake at my apartment. Who wants to come over for wine and dessert?

pi day | chocolate french silk

 Happy Pi π Day! 

My friend Melanie, the creative mind behind The Things They Made, linked me a few weeks ago to a delicious looking pie recipe that she intended to make for her company's "pi day" competition. March 14th, official "pi" day, makes for a natural celebration of the decadent baked good pie... and math, too. If that's your thing. But my thing is eating pie. 

My office, unfortunately, didn't have a competition - everything is better when you compete! - but I did opt to bring one in to spread the geeky cheer. I picked up my Smitten Kitchen cookbook, by now famous blogger Deb Perelman (you might have heard of her!) and flipped through until I landed on her chocolate silk pie. Decadent. Rich. Intense. Let's do it. 

I heard Deb speak at Politics and Prose, my favorite local bookstore in D.C., when her book was newly released. I was a fairly new reader of her blog, and I had only tried a single recipe. She charmed my socks off. She is a force of energy; she has a great laugh and a wonderful reading and speaking voice.  

She didn't read from her cookbook, that could have been strange (though I would have stayed to listen); instead she told a little about how she got to where she is now (published!) and answered questions. What was most remarkable to me about Deb is her humility and humor. She is as quick witted as she is dexterous in the kitchen. Pi Day gave me a perfect excuse to finally, finally, make a recipe straight from her book. 

Here are a few pics - find the recipe down below. 

 the crust

1.5 cups chocolate wafer crumbs (approximately 3/4 of a 9oz package of Famous Chocolate Wafers)

2 tablespoons sugar (I used a tiny bit less...)

pinch of salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (microwaved for 45 seconds)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Crumb the wafers - either put them in a ziploc bag and go to town beating them, or put them in a food processor broken up, like I did. Once crumbed, mix in the sugar and salt. Drizzle in the melted butter until it's even throughout. Using your hands (easiest), pat the crust into the bottom and on the sides of a 9-inch pie pan. Bake for 10 minutes and place in the fridge to cool. 

the filling 

12 tablespoons butter, room temperature (no joke.)

1 cup sugar (again, i tried to use a little less, but i like slightly-less-sweet things)

3oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled (i stuck my brick o'chocolate in a pan on the stove and stirred - melted in 2-3 minutes)

3 large eggs (you'll want organic, pasteurized, etc etc - the good stuff)

1 teaspoon vanilla (+ a few drops. always.)

in your stand mixer (or you could do it with a hand one), whip butter and sugar together until it's a pale and fluffy mixture. While still beating away, drizzle in the melted chocolate (my favorite part!). Add the eggs one at a time, beating each egg into the mixture for five minutes (seriously). Make sure you're scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add vanilla and blend well (a minute). Pour your delicious filling into the now cool crust and spread evenly. Allow the pie to chill for at least 6 hours.

the garnish

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon sugar

beat the cream and sugar until it "just holds soft peaks." this will take all of your life. plan to mix for at least 20-25 minutes. the whipped cream is kind of like falling in love - you'll know when you know (when it's done). spread on top of your pie, garnish with chocolate chips or bittersweet shavings, if you'd like, and devour.

chocolate chip banana bread

My mom and I have an on going, all-in-the-name-of-fun, feud over who makes the best brownies (::me). We make them from the same recipe, one that I believe her mother passed down to her, probably from her mother's mother. In truth, I have no idea where the recipe came from, but it's on a faded piece of fragile brown paper that we no longer touch. It sits in a cookbook, reverential, smeared with cocoa and butter, from all the times we've handled it mid-baking. We've never written it down anywhere else because we know it by heart. And when we hesitate on a step or an amount, we call the other, a mother-daughter ever-changing narrative of the perfect baked good.

 3 mashed bananas with 1/3 cup of butter // mix in 3/4 cup light brown sugar, one already beaten egg and a teaspoon of vanilla // be crazy and add a pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon

Although we use the same recipe, our brownies are very different. This family recipe has taught me a lot about baking. I've known it since I was about 7 years old, and I've never been afraid to experiment with it. I think I love to bake and understand my palette and what flavors work together because of this brownies recipe. You see, over the years, I've found that I like vanilla, a lot. My brownies always have a drop or two more vanilla than my mom's. Conversely, my mom likes chocolate, a lot. Her tablespoons of cocoa are always a little more heaping than mine. She also sprinkles chocolate chips in her batter. Hers are molten chocolate temptations, and mine lean towards a purist, lighter approach.

stir in one teaspoon of baking soda and a pinch of salt // 1/2 cups of flour, mixed in last // all with a wooden spoon and a single large mixing bowl

In the last five years or so, I've nearly stopped making them altogether, except for the occasional in a pinch, need a dessert that I can throw together without blinking, parties. I've stopped because gradually my palette has changed from enjoying heartier, chocolate desserts to lighter, fruit-based and less sweet options. Now I'm drawn towards recipes that call for light brown sugar instead of white and bananas and zucchini instead of cocoa. So when I came across Smitten Kitchen's Gone in 60 Seconds Banana Bread, I made it immediately and ate (a chunk of) it in 45 seconds.

stir in 1/2 cup chocolate chips (for good measure), tossed in a couple healthy pinches of flour

Desserts like this are my jam. Even as a first-timer with the recipe, I threw it together and had it in the over rising in less than 20 minutes. I made a few changes to the recipe -

• Deb (Smitten Kitchen author, extraordinaire), tosses in a tablespoon of bourbon. Swoon. I would have been on this like brown on rice if I had any. I didn't, so I skipped it. 
• next, I don't own bread pans. say what. so I utilized a smaller casserole pan and cut the baking time in half. it looks more like a banana cake. you won't find me complaining. 
• an extra drop of vanilla, always. 
• and finally, I added half a cup of chocolate chips. and, for good measure, drizzled about half a teaspoon of hot chocolate sauce over the top. my Mama would be proud.

 spread evenly in a greased bread pan, or whateva baking pan you prefer // pop in a pre-heated 350 degree oven // for a bread pan, bake for 50-60 minutes until the a toothpick comes out clean // for this kinda pan, 23-25 minutes'll do ya right

While I was baking, I thought of a few things I do without thought from all those years learning to perfect that old brownie recipe that I might share. If they're all like, "Duh!" then totally just ignore me and play today's google doodle. Here are a few of my general baking tips:

• always read the entire recipe first. i always forget something when i jump in without reading through every single step. (patience is not my best virtue.) 
• when using chocolate chips, toss them in a bowl first with a couple good pinches of flour. it'll keep them from sinking to the bottom. the only gooey mess will be in yo mouth! 
• simple, but: the deeper the dish you're baking in, the longer the baking time. if you switch up pants to a larger, flatter one, remember to cut the baking time. 
• your delicious baked good will continue to cook when you take it out of the oven, as it cools. with brownies, cookies and even this bread to some extent, take it out 2-3 minutes before it's 100% cooked. by the time it cools, it'll be extra moist. 
• if you're outta toothpicks (or never buy those, because who buys those?), the eating end of a chopstick works perfectly to check the doneness!

Smitten Kitchen's Gone in 60 Seconds Banana Bread

What are your baking tips? Do you have a family recipe you know by heart?