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The Mad Genius of “Modernist Cuisine”: newyorker.com

Seth's 30th Birthday Cake

Seth's four layer, 30th birthday cake was a huge hit so I thought I'd post the recipe. I bake him this cake every year, just not with quite so many layers.

I cannot take credit for the recipe. One of my best friends, Elizabeth Leonard, is the creator. She's so brilliant she actually baked this cake for my 30th and Seth went nuts over it so it's been his birthday cake ever since. I will, however, take credit for the fresh berries.

This cake is made from a box! Purchase 1-2 boxes (depending on how many layers you want) of dark chocolate cake. Preheat oven to 350° (double check the box) so that you can pop it in the oven the minute it's mixed.

To the box mixture, add half a bag of melted dark chocolate chips, a splash of real vanilla and a few shakes of cinnamon. Don't overly stir and make sure you use fresh eggs!

Check your cake with a toothpick five minutes before it's finished. Do not overcook. Leave cake in pans only 2-3 minutes.

Frosting: Cover the bottom of a sauce pan about an inch high with dark chocolate chips. Cover chips with heavy cream and stir until melted and blended. For this four layer cake, I used two bags of chocolate chips and spread it between each layer. The cake was so high we had to use chop sticks to keep it from falling over.

Cover with fresh strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blue berries.

I have to give props to my mother and mother-in-law who kept this four layer cake from being "The Leaning Tower of Chocolate."

KSW

Barefoot in Paris

Seth & I had two of our favorite people, Chidi & Esther Achura over for dinner the other night. I felt inspired. I opened my "Barefoot in Paris" book my mom bought me for Christmas and found these delicious recipes.

We started dinner with an Endive, Pear, and Roquefort Salad. Our main course was Filet of Beaf au Poivre, and Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce.















































The salad dressing was amazing and was composed of champagne vinegar, mustard, egg yolk, salt, pepper & olive oil. The Hollandaise sauce was such a nice touch on the asparagus and the steak was cooked in beef broth and Cognac and topped with chopped shallots.

We enjoyed a bottle of Chateau Boisson Premieres Cotes De Bordeaux 2008 which went perfectly with the Filet of Beef au Poivre. I love a good dry Bourdeax with red meat. We finished the meal with fresh strawberries, bananas and dark chocolate sufflè.

Delicious!

KSW