Made | Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Here's something I've noticed as I get older: not everybody grew up thinking birthdays were the bee's knees. Isn't that crazy? I've also noticed that I take it as my responsibility to reveal to them how awesome—and delicious—birthdays can be. Let's start with Mike. 

Cyndi made this cake to celebrate her and Zander's anniversary, so I luckily had a firsthand account of what it's like to make this. I have a bit of anxiety when it comes to making cakes from scratch. They always look better in the pictures! But I knew Deb wouldn't let me down; her recipes are always on par with her awesome pictures. So after much hemming and hawing, I buttered my pans, lined them with parchment paper, and lined them again! (Note: The recipe calls for three layers, but I have only two pretty deep cake pans, so I went with that. It turned out great and there was no spillage.) Then I gathered my ingredients.

I'm usually a spontaneous baker, so gathering my ingredients beforehand and buttering the pans as directed was a huge step in the right direction for me, and it shone through in the cake. They baked up in 35 minutes and I let them cool for a good 20 minutes before even thinking about touching them. After 20 minutes, I turned them over onto more parchment paper on top of my wire rack.  

Then I froze them while I made the peanut butter icing. I made this on a beautiful warm day, so freezing them to make them easier to handle was a no-brainer.

And I assembled my peanut butter icing ingredients. 

And proceeded to make a big mess. Powdered sugar and hand mixers aren't friends.

I pulled out my frozen layers and assembled! What you see below is a crumb layer of peanut butter frosting. I then chilled the whole thing and applied the rest of the frosting. 

While that chilled in the fridge (and after a good 15 minutes trying to rearrange everything to fit a cake pan in there), I assembled my chocolate ganache ingredients (not pictured: peanut butter!).

I was all excited about using my new baking scale for this recipe, but alas all of the ingredients were in volume measurements. But you bet I jumped at the chance to measure out 8 ounces of chocolate from the Trader Joe's pound of chocolate I bought for the occasion. 

Chop, chop!

Combine the corn syrup, chocolate, and peanut butter in a double boiler (or your preferred chocolate melting method; I just bought this handy boiler insert from IKEA recently), and stir until melted. Remove it all from the heat and mix in your half and half.

It glistens!

Dump all of that glistening chocolate ganache on top of your finished cake with peanut butter icing and you've just raised the stakes.

Spread it out until it runs down the sides. (Note: My ganache didn't turn out as liquidy and oozy as Deb's did, which I attribute to my boiler being too close to the bottom of the pot when I melted it. Slower melting is better and makes for a more even ganache.)

But still, no complaints.

Pop that sucker in the fridge until you're ready to serve or for at least 30 minutes to let the icing set. Throw some birthday candles in there and get your friend with a sprained ankle boot on to carry it into the living room. 

Watch birthdays become magical again.

Recipe after the jump.

Flashback | Atlantis

The whole week has been calling for rain, so I find myself combing through photos from our cruise more often. We took a long walk to the park last night before the big rains came last night, and I'm planning to read to the sound of it tonight. A long day at work and gray skies call for a reminder of places we've been, don't you think?

Made | Super secret steak kabobs & the camping season begins!

One of my favorite memories of living in Saipan when I was a kid was walking over to this little shack in a parking lot in front of a convenience store near my grandma's house. From afar, it was a tiny hut hardly big enough for two people to stand in, mouthwatering smoke coming out the vent in the roof. There was always one guy in there, barbecuing the most tender and tasty meat kabobs you've ever had. He had chicken, but we always went for the steak. When I was home in April, I asked my mom and my sister if they remembered that guy, and my mom laughed and said, "Of course, Mel! I even got his secret recipe for the marinade." Be still my beating heart. This past weekend we put the recipe (below) to the test.

Even at 8 AM on a Monday morning, the sight of those kabobs makes my mouth water. We went camping at Burlingame State Park in Rhode Island this weekend to celebrate Mike's birthday. Our friend Nicole drove over from Philly to join us on Saturday, and we had quite the feast that night. Nothing washes down steak and veggies like s'mores (peanut butter cups & dark chocolate & caramel bars squished in there). 

Meat-on-a-Stick

What you'll need:

1.5 lbs steak (cut into cubes or long strips)

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup Asian Ginger marinade (we use Ken's brand in the salad dressing aisle, but any soy ginger sauce will do)

2 tablespoons white vinegar

A couple dashes of hot sauce

Salt & pepper to taste

And the secret ingredient...

7 UP! (We used Sprite because it was cheaper)

1. Combine everything except the steak and 7 UP in a medium bowl. Once mixed, taste with your finger or a spoon to be sure it's the right spice for you. 

2. Add a splash or two of the soda, tasting until it's the right amount of sweetness for you. 

3. When the flavor is perfect, add your cubes or strips of steak. Cover the bowl tightly, or if you're going camping, put the meat and marinade in a sealable plastic bag and place it over ice. 

Grill to your preference and serve alongside a coal cooked potato, corn, and veggies. 

What's your favorite camping food? We always make kabobs when we're camping out.

Five good things | 2

1. This list from Eva Black Design. I've been getting more and more interested in design lately, and I have a feeling I'll be using this resource a lot.

2. Whether you've had any experience with depression or not, this is an enlightening read.

3. These culinary drawings from Lucy Engelman are the perfect ode to one of my favorite hobbies.

4. This argument for buying and using a baking scale. I read this and three days later I bought this one.

5. This cake, which renewed my hope that I can make delicious cakes from scratch.

And one bonus: The grammar police really do exist!

Mike turns 26!

It was this guy's birthday yesterday! He turned the big two-six, and I spent the week before wrapping little presents and planning our camping trip this weekend. Making birthday cards always makes me reminisce about the year since the last birthday, and I can't believe I've known this kid for over two years. He came out of nowhere at a New Year's party in Saratoga Springs and we've been inseparable ever since. Even a mere hour drive (or two hour bus ride) to where he used to live didn't keep us apart, and I'm so thankful that we've lived in the same zip code for almost a full year now.  

We've been all over New England together, down to Georgia to visit my family (and the set of Walking Dead, of course), to Texas, Canada, and all over the ocean heading to the Bahamas. He pushes me to be a little more spontaneous and decisive and to turn every little thing into a song. Happy birthday my main main!

Went | Harvard Square Mayfair 2013 + Cinco de Mayo

Since moving to Cambridge last year, Mike has had no trouble finding his favorite events around the city. There's the twice-annual Harvard Bookstore Warehouse Sale, and then there's Harvard Mayfair. 

Because Mayfair (held on the first Sunday in May each year) fell on Cinco de Mayo this year, there was a competing event right down the street from our house: the Taza Chocolate Factory's Cinco de Mayo block party. We stopped there on our way to Mayfair and were pleasantly surprised by dueling taco trucks, Brooklyn beer samples, smoky margarita samples, Taza chocolate samples, and free batch ice cream. 

Can I just say that all of my favorite sentences include the phrase free ice cream in them? I'd never heard of this brand before, but everything pointed to a winner: it's locally sourced and made in Massachusetts and they have a salted caramel flavor. Not to mention, I loved their branding. 

And I'm not talking those little to go sauce cups sized samples. These were real, full scoop samples, complete with a Taza topping cart nearby.

The ice cream held us over on our walk to Harvard Square for the main event. The salted caramel was my favorite of the two we tried; Mike preferred the cinnamon with chocolate bits. 

Let me just say that Mike will love any event that involves eating food out of trucks/booths/carts/stands. And I'm a fan of any place where I can sample multiple cuisines without committing to one big plate of food or price. As such, we partook in spring rolls, potstickers, chicken on a stick, pad thai, a mozarella + tomato + basil + balsamic panini, and soft serve ice cream + an elephant ear for dessert. Needless to say, we walked the long way home.

OH, and how could I forget my $2 freshly shucked oyster from Russell House's tent? It was cold and refreshing with a little bit of lemon juice and Tabasco. Mike looked on in horror, but I'll get him to try them one day. 

Mayfair is the perfect way to start off the outdoor season. The past few years it's managed to be sunny with a slight chill in the breeze to keep you comfortable while you sample all that Cambridge has to offer. It's a great reintroduction to our city after a long winter inside. How do you celebrate the start of Spring?

Made | Homemade bagels.

My old roommate pronounced bagel bag-uhl (rather than bay-guhl), and it drove me a little bit crazy. Maybe that's what held me back from trying to make bagels from scratch? Probably not. Either way, when my turn to supply bagels for Bagel Monday at the office came around again, I took the chance and made these babies from scratch. 

Apparently the trick to chewy, dense bagel is the boiling step. 

I used the base of the bagel recipe from A Beautiful Mess, and came up with my own mix-ins for four varieties: cinnamon raisin, chocolate chip, blackberry, and everything. I won't go into the recipe here as Emma does a great job explaining the how-tos, but I will share some things I learned for my next bagel-making experience.

1. Have all of your ingredients ready to go.
This seems like a no-brainer, but with something as fast-moving as bagels, I found myself scurrying to whisk the egg with the water and locate my cinnamon and raisins and something to scoop the bagels out of the boiling water with. As with most recipes, read through it at least once, make sure you have everything, and go!

2. Don't be afraid to make a mess.
I'm one of those bakers who likes to tidy up as I go along, but with something as messy as bagels (particularly the mix-in step), you kind of have to just move forward and plan to sweep all the flour up when you're done.

3. Get creative!

I was serving these to my coworkers, so I didn't want to show up with a bunch of just one kind of bagel. During the first kneading step (before allowing the dough to rise), I separated the dough into four different sections. I then kneaded each section, incorporating the different ingredients as I did. 

4. Do the blackberries last.

If you decide to make a berry bagel, I recommend doing this one last. I did it second after the cinnamon raisin dough, and I had to wash my cutting board and start all over afterwards. This is probably another no-brainer, but kneading berries into dough makes for a lot of juice squirting. 

I had a lot of fun making these, but they are a little more labor intensive than your average no nonsense bread. I'm excited to try more of Emma's bagel recipes and to come up with some of my own.