Chocolate Brown Sugar and Bourbon Cake

October 25, 2011 | by Ben 1

Sarah’s mom gave me Marcel Desaulnier’s Celebrate With Chocolate eons ago, and it has become my all-time favorite dessert cookbook. I’ve wanted to make “Bob’s Big-Ass Chocolate Brown Sugar and Bourbon Birthday Cake” since shortly after getting the book and finally got around to making a half-portion, as it was my birthday a little while ago.

There’s bourbon in both the cake (which largely cooks out) and in the frosting. The cake is a fairly light with distinct notes of molasses, maple syrup and bourbon. The buttercream frosting is rich and caramely with plenty of bourbon coming through: Sarah complained about a “burn” in her mouth after eating some.

The design is also innovative, essentially a giant “slice” of cake 10 inches tall and eight inches wide. It’s supposedly for Leos, who like things big. The rendition pictured above is only about 4 inches tall due to the halving and an overly large pan used in the baking.

This is definitely a cake for those who … continue reading

Four Years of Ice Cream

August 27, 2011 | by Ben 0

We’ve been a bit low on new content lately, so we’re posting a compendium of ice cream and sorbet recipes we’ve come up with over the years. Just click on an image for the recipe:

In case you don’t own an ice cream maker, David Lebovitz has an easy method for making it without a machine. They’re not expensive, though and definitely worth the investment.

We recently traveled to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and will be posting on restaurants there in the near future, after Jonathan finally starts school.

… continue reading