Cupcake Therapy

The plan was laid out - take the little one to GranMaMahs for NYE and have an adult dessert - Tiramisu. I spent a nice chunk of the day gathering the ingredients to make even the ladyfingers from scratch. Then, the plan fell through. The little one stayed home and the dessert plan changed to a more brat friendly option - cupcakes. Not, I repeat, Not my thing. In fact, I find them to be a major pain in the tail. The recipe was fine, vanilla cupcakes from Billy Reece on Martha Stewarts website. I like the one bowl concept, even though it worked out to be 2 bowls for me.












But I just don't like all the fuss, the icing, the pastry bags, the overflow of cupcake batter. What a mess.

Now the little one thought the whole project was just a joy.

And I don't blame her one bit - she didnt have to clean up - all she had to do was eat em up!


So they turned out OKAY as far as I'm concerned. I much prefer a more sophisticated treat - like the Tiramisu I originally had on my mind. But who can resist putting a smile on a kids face?... and filling her mouth at the same time so I don't have to hear any whining about not going to GranMaMahs. I guess in the end, cupcake therapy worked out for both of us. :)

The Josephine Baker Story

The cake of the week is banana chocolate chip, which I have decided to call the Josephine Baker cake - it's rich, it's sexy, it's fun, and very classy - and Miss Josephine was definitely a chocolate sista who was very well known for her way of rockin' that skirt of bananas. My inspiration for this cake is the banana chocolate chip layer cake I so loved at Cafe Intermezzo in Atlanta - Lord how I miss that place. I called and got the "desert concierge" to describe the cake to me, and I went on my own from there. What I came up with... 4 layers of moist banana cake resting comfortably between blankets of fresh bananas and dark chocolate ganache - then covered in more ganache and a million mini chocolate chip morsels. Delicious, although not yet flawless.
The pros - finally a banana cake that's not too dense and perfectly moist. The cons - its hard to find good mini chips - the Nestle ones are so bad I couldn't eat them - just for decoration. Also, the layers are too thick - next time it will be 6 thin layers. This will really make for a beautiful and statuesque cake, much like its namesake. This is probably my 5th attempt at getting this cake right. My husband agrees I'm getting close. Overall, I'm at the doorstep of chocolate banana heaven.