DEVIL'S FOOD CHOCOLATE CAKE

LET THEM EAT CAKE


I don’t lay claim to queen-like qualities, even if I do believe that I was Madame de Pompadour in a former life (long story and yes I know she was not a Queen, only a mistress… but what power!), but I often say “Let them eat cake”. Nothing in the fridge? Eat cake! Nothing for dinner? Eat cake! Whether the best of times or the worst of times, there is always cake in this house. My shopping carts are always filled to bursting with bags of flour, boxes of sugar, sachets of yeast and baking powder. Bottles of vanilla extract and maple syrup line my pantry shelves next to the colored sprinkles and cocoa powder. Plastic containers carefully stacked are packed with bars of baking chocolate and dark brown sugar, nuts and chocolate chips. Dozens of eggs and sticks of butter take up too much room in my refrigerator. But food? Food, as in lunch and dinner, food? Sometimes but not always. Off with ye to the market if ye be hungry…


Well, maybe I do harbor princess-like tendencies. I crave luxury and want to be pampered. Bubble baths and flutes of champagne, boxes of chocolates and help in the house, someone else to walk the dog and wash the dishes. The blending, stirring of cake batter is true luxury, so silky and smooth. I want my home filled with the scent of cinnamon and chocolate, the warmth of a hot oven. I love the sensuality of kneading soft, sweet dough and rolling it out, shaping it and filling it with mounds of caramelized fruit or showers of cinnamon-sugar and chocolate chips. Spreading frosting is a guilty little pleasure, sometimes the reason behind the making of the cake, swirling and swagging sensuously.


The mood strikes and I wander the house, tapping on bedroom doors, blocking the tv screen with my body, and announce my desire to bake a cake. What flavor shall it be? Husband asks “Isn’t there already enough to eat?” Older son shrugs his shoulders and, if pressed, turns on me and claims abuse “You bake too much. We can’t and don’t want to eat everything you bake!” or else he rolls his eyes and says “Why do you even ask? Just bake it and you know I’ll eat it!” Younger son chastises me for even considering making anything other than the 3 cakes he knows and loves. And if I press, maybe suggesting a new recipe or hite layers instead of chocolate, he’ll turn on me and say “well, how about if I just say that I won’t eat it at all! Okay? I won’t eat any of it! So you make what you’ll eat!” Princess or not, those around me do not give me the adulation I deserve.


But some of my wonderful food blogger friends have! (Oh, just joking!). I have made a dense, fudgy chocolate cake with our favorite chocolate buttercream frosting and I would love to share this cake with at least two of you who have recently honored me (and my queenly service to the world of food bloggers – see the royal wave?) with awards.


Rebecca of Chow and Chatter has presented me with the Meme Award. I have recently gotten to know Rebecca and not only does she have great recipes on her blog – so many exotic recipes, foreign cuisines, all so easy to prepare (and healthy to boot) – and a beautiful daughter, but she is such a wonderful, lovely person and I now consider her a great friend. I am honored that she presented me with this award.

The requirement for this award is to list 7 things about your personality and then pass the award on to 7 other bloggers. Funny thing is, when I read Rebecca’s list about her personality, I was struck by how much alike we are! No wonder we get along so well! So here goes:

1. I am a great friend and the one people turn to for a shoulder, an ear, advice or a kind word. I go out of my way for my friends. My husband once told me that maybe my role in life was “to be lovely for others”. Friends and family are the most important thing to me.

2. I get itchy every few years to move. I crave new places and new situations, discovering new cultures. I fall into place quickly and adapt. And I need to keep moving.

3. I procrastinate. I put things off until I can’t anymore, whether mailing out gifts, making a doctor’s appointment, anything and everything. Keeping a blog has helped me in this respect. I’ve learned a little bit how to get things done on time.

4. I worry. About everything.

5. I am funny in my own odd way. As serious as I often am when need be, I love to joke and tease – you may have noticed that on comments I’ve left on blogs – and love to laugh and hope others laugh with me and don’t misread my odd, dry sense of humor. I also deal with hurt and sadness with humor; that is a family trait.

6. I am overly sensitive, taking too many things personally. When husband wants to tease me or force me to look at things a bit clearer, he says “Oh, I’m sure so-and-so hates you!” On the flip side, I am too naïve and trusting, always believing the best in people even when they are blatantly bad, I still try and believe.

7. I am friendly and love nothing more than breaking down barriers, false societal codes, etc. I love to talk with people and have the knack of getting people to let down their hair, open up and start talking about what they have locked up inside, or making them laugh and become friendly and familiar even when it isn’t their way.

I would now like to pass on this award to some great friends and fabulous food bloggers:

Nanette aka Ms Gourmet of Gourmet Worrier
Rachael of La Fuji Mama
Barbara of Barbara Bakes
Meeta of What’s For Lunch, Honey?
Mary of One Perfect Bite
Deb of Italian Food Forever
Renee of Flamingo Musings


Sophie of Sophie’s Foodiefiles awarded me the One Lovely Blog Award. I love Sophie’s blog. She, too, has wonderful, creative food and recipes on her blog that you must check out. She does have One Lovely Blog and I am thrilled that she thought to pass this award on to me.

I would like to give the One Lovely Blog Award to two food bloggers – and friends – who both indeed have very lovely blogs: incredible recipes and stunning photography. So worth a trip to visit their blogs.

Deeba of Passionate about Baking
Mowie of Mowielicious

This is truly the icing on the food blogging cake!

So back to the grind, back to trying to convince my men that one more slice of cake is good for them, better than bread, or when I proclaim that dense, dark and chocolate will soothe the soul, lift the spirits, and keep away the maddening crowd. I know that sometimes they want off with my head when they are clamoring for a meal and all I offer is a slice of something sweet, my loyal subjects no longer quite so loyal when they find me aproned, sweeps of flour kissing my cheek, licking dabs of chocolate from my dainty fingers. They do not smile when I inform them that with a little patience they can indeed have their cake and eat it, too.

"Just finish your Lambretta so you can take me away from all this madness!"

I have two favorite chocolate cake recipes, one light and airy, smooth and silky, the other dense and incredibly moist, decadent to the point of sinful. I decided to turn to my King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion and try a Devil’s Food Cake. It came out wonderfully dense and chewy, a delightful change to my others. As you can see, the baking was uneven, the results of an oven much too small, so I had to continually flip and switch the cakes around. Next time I will bake one layer at a time to avoid this. But even if it looks uneven it came out delicious. Eating this cake I tasted no difference. It was wonderful.

I frosted the cake with a double quantity of our favorite easy chocolate buttercream.


DEVIL’S FOOD CAKE
Makes a double-layer 9” cake or triple layer 8” cake or a 9 x 13” sheet cake

12 Tbs (1 ½ sticks, 175 g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
1 ¾ cups (350 g) sugar
½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking soda
2 tsps vanilla
2 cups (240 g) flour
¾ cup (65 g) cocoa powder
4 large eggs
1 ½ cups (375 ml) milk


Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter and line the baking pans.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the softened butter, the sugar, salt, baking soda and the vanilla until fluffy, about 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and cocoa making sure no lumps remain, sifting if need be.


Beat in the eggs to the butter mixture, one egg at a time, beating well after each addition. Slowly blend 1/3 of the flour mixture into the creamed mixture, then half the milk and so on until all the dry ingredients and the milk have been beaten in., scraping the sides as needed.


Divide the batter evenly between the pans and smooth.


Bake the cakes in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes (a bit longer for the sheet pan, a bit shorter for the 8” pans) until set in the center and the sides of the cake just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for 5 to 10 minutes before turning out onto cooling racks. Cool completely before frosting.

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IT ALL HAPPENS AT ONCE, DOESN’T IT?

And a wonderful award

We have had more activity, more socializing, more going on this past month than ever before. Or at least for a long time. Weekend in Brest, drive down to Albi to spend a couple of days with in-laws, visitors for this weekend from Paris, lunch out at JP’s colleague’s apartment, and the Giants came to town. We tend to spend our time alone, hanging out, cooking, watching films or dining out, strolling through town or walks with Marty in the vineyards or forests around Nantes. JP and I, as I have said in a recent post, have our own zip code, we live on our own private island, so 3 weeks packed with activities and friends throws us into such a spin that we get dizzy! But the friends are great, the food is great and you should’ve seen the Royale Deluxe Giants!

The Little Giant

Her Uncle, the Diver

Fresco of The Seven Deadly Sins in the Cathéral Sainte-Cécile in Albi

And then along came Carole. Carole has a wonderful, funny food blog called, appropriately Hey Mom, What's for Dinner Tonight? (Great food with a side of humor from a Lazy Home Cook). The photography is beautiful, the food great, the writing brilliant and she is just simply great to hang around with! And this month, Carole has sent me an award! Queen of ALLL Things award (Awe-Summm!!!) Me? The Queen of all things? Yay! I now have the award to prove it to all those Doubting Thomas’s. I mean, haven’t I been saying this all along?


Seriously, Carole, it is so thrilling to get this award from you, and I thank you very much from the bottom of my heart! I am so happy that there are people who enjoy my blog! Now, kindly bow down before your Queen…. Oops, no, didn’t really mean it. I think it is just going to my head!

Do I finally get to wear this?

And now it is my turn to pass the Queen of ALLL Things Award to a deserving food blogger. This is so difficult for me as there are so many amazing, wonderful food bloggers out there, so many great blogs that I visit over and over again. I have decided to award this to 3 food bloggers who each in their own way have inspired me in my baking and have pushed me to overcome my fear of all things yeast through their challenges (Zorra’s Bread Baking Day and Susan’s Yeastspotting) and by their own bread and yeast creations. This Award goes to (drum roll please…)

Susan of Wild Yeast

Zorra of Kochtopf

Elra of Elra’s Baking

Stand up and take a bow! You all 3 really do deserve this award for your Awe-Summm!!! blogs. And thank you for inspiring and motivating me to yeast it up!

This past weekend, Ruth, Guy and their daughter Esther (gentle, joyous and lovely like the Queen) hopped over from Paris to see us. A good time was had by all (except sons who had to give up their beds and spent 2 days grumbling). Sunday morning we went on our quest to find and follow the Giants, which were as astonishing as usual. And Ruth and Guy were so lovely as to offer me two cookbooks, The Desperate Housewives Cookbook (dubbed in French, as I say) and La Cuisine de la Diaspora (80 recettes autour des fêtes juives), The Cooking of the Diaspora (80 recipes from the Jewish holidays).


We wound up these few hectic weeks tired yet happy. Yesterday we drove to Carquefou where we picked up our packing cartons for the move.

Tonight I was inspired by the Jewish cookbook offered by Guy and Ruth to make harira and moufleta for dinner. Recipes and photos tomorrow.

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GIRLFRIENDS: THIS ONE’S FOR YOU!

ONE LOVELY BLOG AWARD RECEIVED, 10 GIVEN AWAY, 0 RECIPES

Make new friends,
But keep the old,
One is silver and
The other gold.

Remember this song, that old Girl Scout stand-by, sung sitting around the campfire at the end of the day, stars shining overhead, or at the end of each meeting, girl’s bonding, crafts made and in hand, ready to be shown proudly to mom and dad, good times shared, friends made, friends kept.

NOT!

"Another glorious night sleeping on the hard ground and tree roots and waking up in a damp sleeping bag! Oh, joy!"

I followed my older sister into the Girl Scouts and hated every second of those 3 long years.3 years of meetings, feeling totally silly in that green outfit, legs bared, beret pulled on and worn at just the right angle, weekend camp-outs, August away at sleep-away camp. I hated it all. I hated sleeping in a tent, rain dripping onto my forehead and seeping into the sleeping bag, the dirty showers, the outdoor activities. The prude in me hated when one group of girls (and there was always one) would pull you kicking and screaming out of the shower into the middle of the campground, the goody-two-shoes in me hated the practical jokes, the hoisting of someone’s underwear up the flagpole. I hated when the counselors took our candy away at camp and locked it up in the kitchen under the pretense that it attracted bugs and when they tried to teach us how to get by in worst-case scenario situations by playing tricks on us.

"Do I really have to know how to do this? When do we eat?"

Okay, I admit that I was one part goody-two-shoes, one part Miss Practical. I hated forced activities (“It’ll be fun”, “It’s good for you”), I never really made friends with any of my co-Scouts, I never really had much in common with any of them. And camping has always been, and still is, a scourge.

Lunch with the Girl Scouts; okay, this I didn't really mind."

I do admit that there were things I loved about the Scouts. S’mores – skip right over the toasted marshmallows and take me straight to the S’Mores! Pork sausages, that forbidden fruit in our Jewish home, roasted over the campfire, served sizzling and hot, dripping with grease in all its salty glory. And Girl Scout cookies! But did I really need to suffer all the rest just for the food?


But I truly didn’t need Girl Scouts to make friends. Girlfriends have always been important to me, a crutch to lean on in rough times, partners in crime (and the not so criminal activities), sources of gossip and laughter, emotional outlets, understanding. Smart, funny, clever, I found my friends by accident, at school or in clubs, as I chose, attracted to a personality and bonded by something deeper than tying knots and earning badges. My life is now rich in friends, old friends from grade school or youth group, friends found along the way. Friends I trust and rely on, friends I turn to when I need to chat, need a laugh or need a shoulder to cry on.

Girlfriends just hanging out together! Oh so elegant!

In this new Cyber Age, I, like so many others, have created a Cyber World of friends, women I have yet to meet face-to-face, yet women with whom I feel an incredibly strong bond. Women spread all around the planet, coming together on Facebook or Mudflats or food blogs.

Girlfriends just having fun together! Doing what girls do!

Connie is one such friend. I met Connie through Mudflats and immediately was attracted to her exceedingly clever, funny, tongue-in-cheek comments posted on various threads. Whatever the subject, she had an experience to recount, a tale to tell, an opinion to give, each one funnier than the next, yet often with a thought-provoking message behind the humor. And behind the jokes and the jabs hid the heart of a true friend, kind, caring and generous. She captured our attention and held it.

I soon discovered her wonderful blog W. Va. Fur and Root; she regales us with stories from her childhood, stories from her garden, stories about pets and plants, friends and family. Simple and heart-warming, prose or poetry, funny or serious, always food for thought. She is truly a gifted writer. Add to that simply stunning photos of her flowers, her home, her country and you have a blog worth visiting.


She recently was the recipient of the Bella Award for “One lovely blog” and she has chosen to pass this award on to me (among other worthy recipients). I thank you, Connie, with all my heart, and I hope that I am worthy of the honor you bestow (wink!). It is now my turn to dance and twirl, preen and flaunt, brag and crow.

And now that that is done, it is now my turn to pass the Bella “One Lovely Blog” Award on to others, and I have decided to gather round me a few women that I have come to know in Cyberia, as Connie so aptly puts it (though a warmer, cozier place I have yet to come across), and honor them in turn. This group of women, friends one and all, are each the mother, so to speak, of a wonderful blog. This group of talented, clever, funny women come over to my cyber place often, hang out with me in my cyber kitchen, and welcome me into theirs, offering kind words, funny stories, thought-provoking discussions, sometimes recipes and good things to eat.

I thank them one and all for supporting me, supporting my blog – the sign of a true friend – and offering me a place to come to for a good time, a laugh, loads of things to both talk and think about. I truly now have a great group of girlfriends out there, clever, funny, smart, kind and generous. Here is to you!

(Note: there were so many on my list that deserved this award, and you know who you are, but I wanted to offer this, my second blog award, to people who I had not passed the first blog award on to. And there were a few deserving mudflatters who received this award directly from Connie. I hope you all understand.)

The Bella Award can be passed on to up to 15 fellow bloggers :

The first two on my list are fellow Mudflatters :

Minna at The World According to MEH. Minna has truly become “dah girlfriend”. Behind her tough gal talk, she is a beautiful, smart, generous friend, wildly fun to chat with, always stirring things up. Her blog is an intriguing mix of personal stories, politics, movie reviews and musings and opinions on life and society. Often edgy, sometimes controversial, at times (dare I say it?) ballsy and irreverent (okay, okay, she says what we all are thinking anyway but don’t have the guts to say in public!), her blog posts are the only I have ever come across that make me grab for my keyboard and start typing away furiously; she pushes her readers to think and react. Minna is a brilliant writer and ain’t afraid to stir it up. She’s always on her toes and knows her subjects back and forth. Warning! She is extremely pro-Obama (both of them!) and most things Democrat, even more anti-GWB and cronies, and in love with a certain British actor, so be prepared!

Erin at Mamadance. Erin’s wonderful little blog is a powerful voice on politics, Alaskan politics, motherhood and our general daily grind of job, money, husband, kids and pets. And all the rest. Her posts are short and sweet and right to the point, but if you aren’t smiling or shaking your head or taking notes or reacting in some way when you finish reading, then you haven’t opened your eyes or you have no heart. A truly beautiful blog.

And my food blog girlfriends:

Ashley at Culinary Wannabe

Laura at The Cooking Photographer

Maryann at Finding La Dolce Vita

Adrienne at Gastroanthropology

Susan at Wild Yeast

Carole at Hey Mom, What’s for Dinner Tonight?

Sara at Sara’s Kitchen

Bethany of Dirty Kitchen Secrets

(I was going to award this to Heather at Girlichef except that I see someone else beat me to it!).

Each of these food blogs is as unique, as different as each one of these women, yet all are informative, the food is fab, the posts are fun and interesting, and each one truly worth the trip.

Girls just cooking and eating together! That's what friends are for!

So here you go, ladies, now go forth and award this to up to 15 worthy bloggers. You don’t need to stick to women bloggers, but this is my way of saying thank you to a great group of girls who I like to think of as friends, friends who inspire, friends who support, friends who make me love what I am doing. And all without the Scouts! Yay!

I say, we all make a heap of S’Mores and celebrate!


(No food here, post is too long….but over the next few days I’ll be serving up Yassa Chicken as well as a Broccoli-Crab Soup with Blue Cheese Croutons). And something for dessert.

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AN HONOR AND A NOMINATION

Two wonderful things happened this week! A wonderful reader of my blog nominated me for a Blogger's Choice Award in the category (surprise! surprise!) Favorite Food Blog!

If you enjoy my food blog, you can make this blogger very happy by hopping over to Blogger's Choice Awards, find my blog and vote for me for Favorite Food Blog! First time nominated, my hopes are humble, but my appreciation is great!

The second honor, and what an honor! is receiving a shout out from my favorite political blog The Mudflats, a brilliant blog written by a brilliant Alaskan. I have mentioned her before and follow her blog faithfully, so what a surprise and a thrill it was to see my blog, well, my profiteroles, used as a backdrop for a recent post with a nod to me at the end.

AKM, it truly was a thrill and an honor and I thank you with all my heart. The Mudflats is still an important part of my daily life, a place to learn what's going on in my home country politically, a place to air my opinions, laugh quite a bit at the wit and humor and a place to meet up with the very close friends I have made thanks to you.

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BITTERSWEET

BITTERSWEET


A Trip to New York and a Food Blog Award


As all of my wonderful friends and readers know, I was off to New York for almost two weeks, but as only a few of you know, I didn’t go on vacation; I went to visit and help out my dear and sadly ailing brother. A truly bittersweet trip. I thank all of you for the friendship and well wishes you have sent to me, it was truly felt. And I thank all of you for popping in and checking up to see if I had returned. I am back home and back blogging. I have so much catching up to do!

A run down of my trip :

BITTER : Seeing my brother, once so incredibly strong and healthy, so active and multi-talented, stricken down by this unforgiving, unrelenting disease, his world reduced to his immediate surroundings and the comfort and limited activities that it can offer.

SWEET : Having been able to spend two weeks with him, laughing with him at jokes on tv, old photos and silly observances. Knowing that I helped him as best I could in such a short time, organizing, explaining, communicating to others on his behalf, showing him my love and support.

BITTER : Being away from home and family. Coming home to a mountain of ironing and a basically empty fridge, having had my delicates washed on not-so delicate (though it was sweet of them to try), ten days or so away from my blog, having to make up time on house-hunting, waking this morning to a sink-full of last night’s dishes, pots and pans, finding that my baking shelf in the pantry was rearranged, everything shoved somewhere else so I had to scavenge through all the shelves looking for each item.

SWEET, BUT OH-SO SWEET : Being back in my husband’s arms, Marty excited to see me and my waking this morning to the usual routine of him running to my bedside and showing his enthusiasm, the boys pleased with the meager gifts I could manage to bring back from New York for them, Simon asking me to bake a banana bread and Clem showing me his incredible, fantastic grade on his second Interior Architecture project, knowing all of my men actually got along for almost two weeks in my absence!

Coming home to a fabulous Daube de Boeuf aux Carottes (Beef with Carrots Stew) made by my favorite Frenchman and oh-so-fab cook JP. Very sweet, indeed!

AND THE CHERRY ON THE TOP : Sam of My Carolina Kitchen surprising me with the Fabulous Food Blog Award! What a wonderful, wonderful surprise! And little did Sam know, but it came at the perfect time, just when I needed something to make me smile and feel so appreciated!


The first rule of this award is to pass the Fabulous Food Blog award on to five fellow bloggers who I believe deserve this distinction. I follow many wonderful blogs, but the five I have chosen are special. These are each amazing, fun to read and inspiring (inspiring me to cook!) food blogs that I turn to almost daily. And Kate, Antonella, Kevin, Maryann and Rania are bloggers whom I have come to consider real friends now; I so love to visit their blogs and I am thrilled whenever I see that they have popped over to visit mine.

1. Kate in the Kitchen
2. Croce e Delizia
3. Closet Cooking
4. Finding la Dolce Vita
5. Yumeezy

These five blogs are invited to pass along the “Fabulous Food Blog Award.” The rules aren’t mine, they came with the award. You must pass it on to five other Fabulous Bloggers in a post. You may find their email addresses on their Profile page or, if not available, post as a "Comment" to their latest post.

You must include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them. You must list five of your “Fabulous Addictions” in the post.
You must copy and paste these rules in the post.
Right click the award icon and save to your computer; then post with your own awards. To my way of thinking, this is a nice tribute and it widens the reading audience.

Along with passing the award along, the rules say you must list five of your “Fabulous Addictions.” Here are mine :

1. Food (how obvious is that?) - whether “fine dining”, local fare, street food or homemade
2. Books (cookbooks mostly but police and murder mysteries as well)
3. Really fine, usually Italian, leather shoes and handbags
4. Baking (I am truly addicted)
5. Computer – sadly, I have become addicted to Mudflats, Facebook and food blogs as well as the writing of and preparation of my own blog

Now, that is as close as I get to putting together a list of addictions.

I leave you here with a great big “I AM BACK” and an extra thank you and a great big virtual hug to Sam of My Carolina Kitchen for giving me this much appreciated award!

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