Two weeks ago, we had the last night of beginners cake decorating at the Cake and Wedding Cottage.

The evening was bittersweet. The class was fantastic, and I had so much fun. It was great to meet the folks in the class, and I learned so much more than I ever expected. Although I may not do the over-the-top fancy decorating that we did for many of the cakes in the class all of the time, I learned so many tips that will make me a better decorator, even for simple cakes. I think I will take the second course in the series, just not right away. My weeks were more than a little bit crazy the first two months of the year with all of the baking required for class–so I need a chance to catch my breath before I go at it again!

But the evening was also bittersweet because we were working with chocolate icing for the first time. Amazing, super chocolatey icing, done up as a basket full of flowers. And since the evening had a chocolate theme, I decided to go chocolate all the way, with a triple chocolate fudge cake from the Sky High Cookbook. It made for a fantastic chocolate evening, with a delicious day to follow.

But before we get to the recipe, a note about basket weave. Of all the techniques we learned in class, it is hands down my favorite. In fact, I would go as far as saying I’m a little bit in love with basket weave. It’s easy to put on, it looks FANTASTIC, you can use it to cover less than perfect icing or cake surfaces, and–the best part–you can use it to apply the so called *dessert* icings, real butter buttercream and cream cheese. Two of my favorites!

Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake
Adapted from Sky High

This recipe makes a seriously HUGE cake–three super tall 8 inch layers. Since I knew we were going to be piling a ton of beautiful roses on top of the cake, I decided to only do two layers and make some cupcakes with the rest of the layers. I ended up with about a dozen cupcakes and two big layers of cake. So when you make this, be ready for a big cake with an awesome flavor. The cinnamon and coffee give this cake a different and unexpected twist that will please the chocolate lovers in any crowd.

Ingredients:

• 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 ¼ tsp baking soda
• 1 ¼ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 ½ ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup milk (I used skim)
• 1 ¼ cups hot, strongly brewed coffee
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mayonnaise (I used low fat with no effect on the cake)
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2 ¼ cups sugar

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 8 or 9 inch round cake pans. Line the base of each pan with parchment.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

Put the chopped chocolate in a large heatproof bowl. Bring the milk to a simmer over medium heat. Pour the hot coffee and milk over the chocolate. Let stand for a minute, then whisk until smooth. Let the liquid cool slightly.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the eggs, mayonnaise and vanilla until well blended. Beat in the sugar. Add the dry ingredients and mocha liquid alternately in 2 or 3 additions, beating until smooth and well blended. Make sure you have the shield on your blender when you do this, because it really makes a mess! Divide the batter among the prepared pans.

Bake for 25 to 28 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out almost clean. You want those few crumbs to cling, so the cake still has a fudgey character. Let the cakes cool in their pans for 10-15 minutes before turning onto a wire rack and carefully peeling off the paper. Leave to cool completely before icing.

Ice with your favorite chocolate icing. This is a death by chocolate cake, so no chocolate is too much!

Do you ever come across a recipe and think, “Now this is just too good to be true?”

That was the first thing that popped into my brain when I first read this recipe, on Wednesday, February 5, the fifth day of the Snowmageddon/Snoverkill lockdown. “Even Bittman can’t come up with a good, doesn’t-turn-into-a-rock-the-second-its-cool 100 percent whole wheat muffin,” was the second. You have to use some white flour to get a little lift. Or at least some vital wheat gluten. Or something else magic.

But I was intrigued enough that on Thursday, February 6, I was whipping these up for breakfast. What can I say, being snowed in for a sixth straight day gives you time to follow spontaneous muffin urges!

And you know what, Bittman was right! These WERE good. Like a white flour muffin, not overly sweet, with a good crumb. As I mulled my shock over a muffin, it hit me–there was a secret ingredient! Mashed or pureed fruit. Not to lend flavor or sweetness so much as to give these muffins that extra lift. I’m so used to using fruit to give flavor, that it hadn’t even occurred to me at first that these muffins used fruit for texture and moisture, with the flavor almost fully masked by the nutty goodness of whole wheat. That Mark Bittman, he is a clever man!

Whole Wheat Muffins
Adapted from Mark Bittman’s The Minimalist column in the New York Times

I’m really a little bit in love with these muffins now. They were so easy to make, they’re so tasty, and I’ve been happily snacking on them out of my freezer for almost a month now! I can’t wait until June, when the blueberries come in and I can mix a fresh pint into this batter–yes I’m already dreaming about the Farmer’s Market. It’s March now, and with only 8 weeks to go until opening weekend, I’m allowed!

Really, there’s no reason for you not to make these for breakfast this Saturday morning. Snow or not, they won’t disappoint.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 3/4 to 1 cup sugar, depending on sweetness of fruit (my experience was the muffins were a bit too sweet with 1 cup and pumpkin, so go easy on the sugar if you don’t want them too sweet!)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mashed or puréed banana, sweet potato, apple, zucchini, cooked or canned pumpkin, or other fruits or vegetables (this is a great way to use whatever you have around!)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup buttermilk or 1/2 cup skim milk with 1/2 tablespoon of white vinegar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray one 12 cup muffin pan or one 24 cup mini muffin pan. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, stir together the melted butter, your fruit or veggie of choice, egg and buttermilk. Fold wet mixture into dry mixture and stir until just combined. If the mixture seems too stiff (mine did) add a bit more milk.

Fill muffin pan; bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until muffins are golden and puffy. Serve immediately, with a bit of melted butter. If you have any leftovers, these freeze beautifully, especially the mini muffins, which will thaw in about 30 minutes on the countertop.

WARNING: This post contains no food. Not even a sad picture of the half squashed peanut butter sandwich I ate at the ruins. So for those of you coming here looking for food, I’m sorry, you might want to navigate away now. But if you have a minute, you might want to stay, and check out one of my favorite things from the Yucatan.

When a history major and an anthropology major marry, a certain theme emerges in their vacations. While others lounge on beaches and enjoy frosty drinks, they do strange things–like go to a concentration camp on their honeymoon, spend way too much time photographing places overrun by volcanoes, and photographing every segment of every roman wall, in every city they visit.

So is it any surprise, really, that as soon as the boat made it’s first dock on our caribbean cruise we were off, not to the beach, but rather on a two and half hour bus ride into the jungle to check out the best preserved Mayan ruins in the area? No, I’m afraid, it is not.

Kohunlich was a major Mayan city in the Classical period. Unlike some other Mayan sites, the city was an all purpose city, with housing, a palace, religious sites, and even a ball court. Archaeologists believe it was a major trading center on the Yucatan. The site is HUGE, even though only about 30 percent of the city is excavated. The rest of it is still covered with dense jungle, waiting for the Mexican government to find funds to excavate.

As we walked around the site, we really were amazed at how large it was and how complex the building structures were. To think that like all Mayan cities, this well developed city was simply abandoned for an unknown reason, is startling.

But the thing that really sets Kohunlich apart are the stone ceremonial masks, which are contained in the great temple at one edge of the complex.

These masks are each about six feet high, and there are six of them. Our guide explained to us that the faces depict the traditional Mayan concept of beauty in a warrior face.

Of the six masks, only four of them are in this pristine condition. One is still under stone covering, waiting for future excavations to uncover it. And one was destroyed by ruin robbers, who stripped the mask and sold it before the site was under the protection of the Mexican government. It’s sad that it takes an act of vandalism like this to get a country to protect its natural treasures, but I realize that compared to the US, Mexico is a relatively poor country and funds are limited.

Although we may not have all made it (nothing wrong with taking a break on the steps, people!) the view from the top is really amazing and (probably would have been) worth the climb. The jungle is so dense, you can barely tell there is a city down there.

The city even has a ball court, which was a little bit bigger than a tennis court and reminded me of a Roman amphitheatre. The Mayans played a type of war ball on this court, with the loser often losing his life. A little bit more intense than tennis, I say.

The site was really phenomenal to visit, and I really got that sense of wonder that I always get when I’m visiting sites from the ancient world. To think that the Mayans built all of this, without modern technology, is pretty amazing. Kohunlich is pretty centrally located in Quintana Roo state, so if you ever have the opportunity to visit, I would recommend it!

And I have to say thanks to The Native Choice the company that took us on our tour of the ruins. They are an independent operator–not affiliated with the cruise line–in the area and their whole business is taking cruise passengers on adventurous day trips out of the port of Costa Maya. They were wonderful guides to the area.

For more Wordless Wednesdays, go here.

On the last weekend of the month of February Noel, we had a party. And a party needs a cake. And since the party was for Noel’s 40th, it was a special cake! But really, do we make any other kind?

If you’re not from Maryland, you’re probably wondering what the heck a Smith Island Cake is. Well simply, the state dessert of my home state is a ten layer cake with boiled chocolate icing, traditionally made on a tiny island in the Chesapeake Bay that you can still only reach by ferry boat. Ten layers?! Yes, ten, individually baked, wafer thin layers.

But the thing that really elevates a Smith Island Cake–if something with ten layers NEEDS elevation!–and the thing that drew me to it for Noel’s birthday–is that the cake often features crushed candy, like Reese’s cups, between the layers. Taking something amazing to PHENOMENAL.

Thing is, I was drawn to this particular cake about 7 months ago, when I came across the recipe in the Washington Post recipe archives. I immediately sent it to Noel, who begged me to make it for his half birthday, and then for every holiday between August and February. My dad even made a good effort to get me to make it for his birthday in December, but I was firm. A cake this big deserved a big debut–so Noel’s birthday it was!

And it was phenomenal. It may not look like much coming together, but as we (Eileen came to help me out–I needed the moral support and the extra set of hands!) stacked up each layer, I had a feeling this cake was going to be something really special. And late on Saturday night when we cut into it, it really was. Yes ten layers are impressive on their own, but it tasted wonderful too. So wonderful, that Noel had two slices. And making the birthday boy happy once more in his special month, that’s really what counts, right?

Smith Island Cake
Adapted from the Washington Post

A Smith Island Cake seems like quite the challenge, but if you’re tempted to make your own version of this Maryland tradition, take heart, it’s actually not as hard as it looks. All you need is a couple of cake pans and some patience. We made our ten layers in three 8 inch pans, so it was four runs through the oven, with lifting out the layers and washing the pans in between. The best advice I can offer you is, grease those pans well and have a flexible spatula at the ready–you need to run it ALL THE WAY under each layer before you try to remove it from the pan. Unless you want this to happen.

Ingredients:

For the cake

• 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into chunks; plus more for greasing the pans
• 3 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup water

For the icing

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

For the cake: Preheat to 350 degrees. Use butter or non stick cooking spray to grease however many pans you are using, re-grease them as needed, between baking each layer.

Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder.

Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a mixer; beat on medium speed until light and creamy, at least three minutes. Add the eggs one at a time; beat until smooth. Reduce the speed to low and add the sifted dry ingredients 1 cup at a time; beat until incorporated. Still on low speed, add the evaporated milk, then the vanilla and water, beating until well combined.

Place 2/3 cup of batter in each pan; use the back of a spoon or a spatula to spread it evenly. Bake 2 or 3 layers at a time on the middle oven rack for 8 to 9 minutes. To tell if a layer is done, pull it out and hold it to your ear–if you hear it sizzle it’s not done, put it back in for another minute!

While the cakes are baking, make the icing: Combine the sugar and evaporated milk in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the chocolate and butter; warm through, stirring, until both have melted. Increase the heat to medium and cook–it will bubble–stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract, stirring to combine. The icing will be thin but will thicken as it cools. If at any point the icing gets too thick, or you think you’re going to run out, put it back on the stove and add a bit of evaporated milk to thin it out.

As the cake layers are done, run a spatula around the edge of the pan and under the layer, then ease it out of the pan. Let the layers cool. Place the bottom layer on a cake plate; spread 2 or 3 spoonfuls of icing on each layer. Don’t worry if a layer tears; no one will notice when the cake is finished. If you want, use crushed candy between the layers, we used Reeses cups and it was DELISH! Cover the top and sides of the cake with the remaining icing; push any icing that runs onto the plate back onto the cake.

Allow icing to set before serving. Share with special people, because this is some amazing cake!

And about this picture, I apologize for not having a picture of a whole slice–but the lighting in the restaurant was just so funky, none of my pictures were very pretty, and this half slice was all that made it home with us. So at least it’s something, and it’s still a beautiful piece of cake art!

I love when vacations are not only wonderful fun, but also wonderfully delicious.

I mean sunsets and beaches are nice and all…

…but a vacation isn’t something truly memorable unless there’s food. Lucky for me, the Caribbean was full of food, and most of it was fantastic.

From fine French in a dining room at sea…

…to Mexican shrimp fresh off the shrimp boat.

We had a food adventure at every turn–including an encounter with raw cacao beans!

And don’t even get me started on our port city–the beautiful–and eternally delicious–Big Easy!

All in all it made for one very happy food blogger, and one amazingly memorable vacation.

By the end, Noel had declared it the best birthday gift ever, and I knew that I had left a part of my heart in the Western Caribbean. Over the next couple of weeks I want to take you to those places to visit those pieces of my heart I left behind, but I had to start out with the food. Because food is what has brought us together, and it really was at the center of our journey. So enjoy the visual feast!

For more Wordless Wednesdays, go here.

When Beth first asked me to post a guest blog I thought I would get really creative and make a traditional Puerto Rican dish, pastelon, or possibly make a traditional Puerto Rican pastry, quesitos. (My husband is Puerto Rican.) However, in the past two weeks I’ve had some overwhelming family stuff going on, so I took the easy route and I’m writing about cake class!

Since Beth missed this week, it will even be helpful for her to learn our newest skill: The Rose! The equipment needed for this task is a flower nail and tip numbers 12 and 104. We also worked on drop flowers with the largest drop flower tip number 2D. We worked on roses in class and were sent home with the homework of making 20 roses and 25 large drop flowers for the final cake next week! Since Beth doesn’t get back until Monday, and the flowers need to be dried by the time we get to class, I took on the responsibility of making some for her too! By the time I finished 40 roses, I finally started getting good at it!

First you start using the number 12 tip to make a mound of icing that is one and a half times the height of the 104 tip. Then with the narrow end of the 104 tip up towards the ceiling and tilted slightly towards yourself, you make a teepee by starting at the very top of the mound and spinning the nail all the way around as you squeeze out the icing. Next, with the tip straight up and down you make the first 3 petals. As you squeeze the icing bag, move the tip slightly up and down and spin the nail. There should be 5 petals in the second row, and to make the rose look as though it’s blooming, tilt the narrow end of the tip away from you. Do this by rotating your wrist out. The final row is done the same way, and should have 7 petals around the base. And Viola! You have a beautiful rose!

These are the teacher’s of course:

But the rest are mine!

The drop flower is SO much easier than the rose! It practically falls out of the tip on its own! Touching the tip straight onto the wax paper at ninety degrees (or you can do these directly onto the cake, but it is easy to squish the icing if you are not careful) squeeze the decorating bag and rotate a quarter turn and then squeeze a bit more to fill out the petals. Relax your pressure and pull straight up. SO easy! Finish these off with a stamen using a number 3 tip and either yellow or white icing!

Well I hope this was a little bit helpful! As you can see, my kitchen is covered in flowers that are getting nice and crunchy hard to decorate our Basket Weave Cake for our final class next week! :) Can’t wait for Beth to get back, but I know they are having a blast climbing through Mayan ruins and whatnot!

~Be Well!

For more Wordless Wednesday, go here.

On my first date with Noel, way back in February of 2004, he took me to an Indian restaurant before we went to see a production of Sweeney Todd. Anxious to impress this guy that I knew I really, really liked, I didn’t have the nerve to tell him that I had never had Indian food before.

But I think my bluff that I *looooved* Indian food soon became apparent, when I clearly had no clue what anything on the menu was. So I ordered something with chicken and called it a night, and Noel and I were off on our whirlwind romance. Soon we were spending every spare second together, and ordering Indian takeout every chance we got. As my love for Noel grew, so did my love for Indian food.

Then came graduate school at Maryland. I was poor and the co-op was cheap, so I started eating their hot lunch whenever I was on campus. My favorite quickly became chana masala, a big dish of curried chickpeas. When my two years at Maryland were over, I was happy to discover a local restaurant (the now defunct) Mehek where I could get my chana masala fix. After Mehek closed, I was in a void. Where could I go to satisfy my need for curried chickpeas?

Finally, after nearly a year of searching, and much tasting of inferior dishes, a solution. Make it myself!

Chana Masala
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

When I saw that Deb posted a recipe for homemade chana masala, I did a little happy dance, then sent the recipe on to Noel who insisted we try it AT ONCE! This recipe is well spiced, with some nice heat. It’s easy and relatively quick to put together, and unlike takeout Indian, there are no puddles of oil floating on top! Serve with hot basmati rice and a spoonful of yogurt for a perfect mid-winter dinner.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 medium onions, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger or powdered ginger (we used powdered)
1 fresh, hot green chili pepper, minced (we used a jalapeno)
1 tablespoon ground coriander
4 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (you can adjust this to control the heat of the dish, use less if you want something less spicy)
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 cups tomatoes, chopped small or 1 15-ounce can of whole tomatoes with their juices, chopped small
2/3 cup water
4 cups cooked chickpeas (which are 2 cups dry–I cooked my dry ones in the crockpot on high for about three hours with just enough water to cover them) or 2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 teaspoon salt
juice from 1 lemon

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onion, garlic, ginger and pepper and sauté over medium heat until browned. Turn heat down to medium-low and add the coriander, cumin, cayenne, paprika and garam masala. Cook onion mixture with spices for a minute or two, then add the tomatoes and their juice. Add the water and chickpeas. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, then stir in salt and lemon juice.

Special thanks to Tony G for being guest photographer on this post!