Lora Brody's Bête Noire (Intense Chocolate Cake) - 1983

So I was having a little bit of a problem. The book was so big, that I was feeling overwhelmed. With over a thousand recipes, and just one me, I was just kind of blindly landing on recipes in the book, and cooking them. Which works, but doesn't have very much direction. There were also recipes that I would come upon that I would think: "I should make that for my sister! Or that one for my cousin! or that one my mom!" 


So I got a pack of small post its, and went to town on the book.  The pink, orange and yellow recipes were ones that I thought "hey, that looks good!" when flipping through the chapter.  The green are ones that I want to make for others (with their name written on it, so I remember). 


All of this leads to Lora Brody's Bête Noire. When I read the recipe, my hand immediately reached for the green post-its, so I could write my friend Lisa's name on it.  She loves all, deep, intense chocolate desserts- Molten chocolate cakes, dark chocolate mousse, If it is dark, and chocolatey, and awesome, she's there.  I knew I had to make it for her. 

Chocolate cake with My friend Bryan's Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

So we were all getting together to watch Steel Magnolias, and Katie and Lisa were making pizzas. (Oh, MAN Lisa's pizzas are great)  I thought it would be a good opportunity to make this cake (and also flat and chewy chocolate chip cookies, which I'll be writing about later). 

When you look at this recipe, it can seem intimidating. It involves a candy thermometer,  and cooking sugar, and whipping lots of eggs. Do not be afraid! It is not as hard as it seems.  You cook sugar and water until it reaches 220 degrees. Then you mix in chopped chocolate (a combo of unsweetened and semisweet) and stir until the chocolate is melted. (The recipe says that it might seize here, but that's okay, mine did not seize though, so woo!)  after that, you mix in butter, slowly, until all the butter is melted.  It is at this point, when I began to hum in the kitchen (I always seem to be humming to myself when a recipe is going well)  I went over to my trusty stand mixer, and began to whisk the eggs, (and some more sugar) until they had tripled in size. I slowly added the chocolate mixture to the eggs, and then took it out  of the mixer and stirred it by hand until it was all incorporated. 

I put it into a parchment lined, buttered cake pan, that was set in my cast iron skillet, poured boiling water around it, and baked it for a half hour. 

I got my stuff together, and got into my car to drive to my friends' house. The cake smelled so delicious, that I was seriously tempted to rummage around and find a fork and dig in right there on the highway.  I should have put it in the trunk. 

Just before it was time to serve the cake, I stuck it into a 200 degree oven for ten minutes to warm it up, and served it along with my friend Bryan's awesome strawberry cheesecake ice cream (he also had blueberry).  The cake was amazing. Not too dense, but truly chocolatey, and dark.  The recipe said serves 6 to 8, and I cut it into eight pieces,  and even then, the slices were a little too big. The cake is so rich, that it would have easily been enough with half of the size slice I had. (not that that stopped me from eating most of it) 

So good. 

If you want to impress the chocolate lover in your life- make this, right now. 

Salted and Deviled Almonds- 1987

I am a fan of easy party snacks that you can have out to nibble when you are having a drink before dinner.  I mean, who isn't?  People who don't like snacks? I don't want to know these people.  Anyway.... These are extremely quick and easy almonds- you melt some butter, toss the almonds in, and then when they are nice and toasted, sprinkle with salt and cayenne. ( I mixed my salt and cayenne together, because I was afraid of the pepper clumping and becoming overwhelming)  I was kind of expecting these to be super hot, which I was okay with, but they did not turn out that way! Just enough heat that hits you at the end. 

Classic Rum Punch - 1984

When I was looking through the cookbook for things to make for the dinner party that I was having, I was looking for a simple cocktail that I could serve. As I flipped through the chapter, I paused on many things, but decided that Rum Punch looked pretty delicious. With four ingredients, it is certainly easy to put together.  You start by putting a cube of ice in a glass, some demera sugar, the juice of half a lime, and two ounces of rum. You stir and then drink. The sugar does not melt right away, so as you're drinking, it has this delicious quality of being a bit overly rummy at the beginning, but as you drink, and stir, it becomes sweeter, and more limey, somehow, so when you are at the end, all you can think about is how you want another. 


Have you guys seen the scene Mary Poppins where she's giving the kids the medicine after they got caught in the rain, and hers is rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrum punch?  That's how I say rum punch in my head. And now that I've tasted one ...(or three), I believe that Mary Poppins might have been a bit of an alcoholic.  That's okay though, I don't imagine it's easy to be a nanny, you might need a couple of these after a long hard day minding children in London. 

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrum  Punch! 

Mrs. Raymond Schenk's Pumpkin Cake - 1980

This time of year I have pumpkin on the brain.  Sweet, spiced pumpkin.  I really liked this cake because it was simple, easy to put together, and tasty.  It wasn't too sweet, and had a nice crumb.  I subbed out crasin for the raisins in the recipe, because I didn't have any raisins on hand, and I think I would definitely do it that way again (I might also add some chocolate chips)

I don't know who Mrs. Schenk is, but she sure makes a delicious cake.  This recipe calls for a tube or bundt pan, but lacking one of those (I need to seriously start hitting some thrift stores to get baking supplies) I made mine in two loaf pans. That worked out though, because I brought one to work, and one to my theater company, so they could both enjoy some pumpkin goodness.

I think this would be a nice addition to thanksgiving dinner- especially for those people who like a more mellow dessert- this isn't too sweet, and is good with a cup of coffee.