TWD Devil's Food White-Out Cake

Finished

Mmm
Peeking in the oven

Getting ready to bake

This week's recipe for Tuesday's with Dorie is Devil's Food White-Out Cake. It was fun to make! Baked the cakes on Sunday afternoon. The boo-boos were I forgot to put the melted chocolate into the batter before pouring into the pans. So, I just drizzled it over the top of the batter in the pans. Then I forgot to put the cut out parchment into the bottom of the pans before pouring in the batter! The cakes came out of the pans no problem, even without the parchment. The drizzled melted chocolate looked a little interesting on the baked cakes. The frosting was fairly srtaightforward. Adding the crumbled cake slice was interesting. The melted chocolate drizzle on the top of the cake was a problem when I crumbled it up. I didn't realize that the chunks were so big with the drizzled chocolate holding them together. Oh, well it will still taste good!

Sneaking food into the cinema

When you were in high school, college, other did you sneak food into the cinema? My brother, and soon to be sister-in-law used to sneak in food. Faith had a oversized purse she kept in the car for just this reason! We would buy bags of chips, cans of soda, etc and fill the bag. Once the lights went down out came our goodies at much lower prices.

Fast forward about thirty years. My friend Joyce had mentioned that she was going to attend a Live HD broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera at a local cinema. She asked me if I was intersted and I said sure. She also told me that she often put a peanutbutter sandwich in her purse for a little something for the long operas. Well, look at the photo. This is a sample of what I sneak inside a small knapsack for our opera picnics! This is what I made for Orfeo ed Euridice. It was better than the picnic for La Rondine, which was better than the one for Thaiis. So I think if the trend continues, then the picnic for Madama Butterfly, La Sonnambula, and La Cenerentola will be even bette.

To check out information on the Met Opera Live HD broadcasts go to http://www.metoperafamily.org/

Double Chocolate Sunday with Greenspan and Keller

So, I was working on the TWD project of World Peace Cookies as well as trying bouchons. Let's just say the World Peace Cookies should be served at the UN. They rock! My first attempt at Bouchons... well they need more work. For the cookies, the chocolate I usually use E. Guittard bittersweet 72% cocao was out of stock! So I substituted with Ghirardelli baking chips bittersweet 60% cacao. Not bad. Only challenge is the chips still need to be chopped a bit. Also found out that the cookies need to set when they first come out of the oven or they will crumble. Thank you Dorie for a great recipe!

Now, Thomas Keller, you have given me a challenge. The namesake bouchons of the cookbook titled Bouchon. Mmm, it will definately take a second try. Let's just say that my bouchons (French for cork) didn't look as smart as they were supposed to. I ended up with quite a butter leakage out of the top of the molds, the baking sheet and onto the floor of the oven. Two days later I still smell it when I turn the oven on. The good news was finding Vosges haut chocolat Red Fire Bar. Keller recommended Valrhona Equatoriale 55% bittersweet, but no luck finding it. The Vosges was really nice and the product info sounds cool.

Better luck next weekend!

Also, took 5 pounds of onions and just carmelized the heck out of them. Delicious! Great on steaks for dinner on Sunday and also a little snack Tuesday night as I am baking of the remainders of both chocolate recipies!