Tag Archive: baking

February 12, 2010

The Nommiest Dessert: Joan’s on Third’s Nutella Poundcake

Written by Caroline on Crack in Dining, Los Angeles, Recipes, Sweets
8 Comments
Nutella Poundcake by Joan's on Third

Nutella Poundcake by Joan's on Third

For World Nutella Day last week, Joan’s on Third made the yummiest poundcake I ever heard of: Nutella poundcake. Why didn’t anyone tell me that such a thing of beauty existed? Luckily I found out from Nastassia of Let Me Eat Cake, who happens to work at Joan’s and who was good enough to save me a loaf! Huzzah! I braved a torrential rainstorm and cross-town traffic during rush hour to pick it up. And twas sooo worth it.

Once I got it home I dug into it, nearly eating the whole thing in one sitting. Fortunately (or
unfortunately) I was able to remember to save some for my bf since I had been going on and on about it and he was good enough to drive me through a torrential rainstorm in rush-hour traffic to get it. Would have been rude if I didn’t at least save him…a sliver.

Hitting the Nutella motherload.

Hitting the Nutella motherload.

Anyway, the cake was so moist and OMG the ribbons of Nutella that ran through the cake were like crack, making it difficult to stop eating. Just when I was about to store the cake away, I’d bite into a motherload of that chocolate-hazelnut goodness and continued to nom away. I call this the Ben & Jerry’s effect. And the top of the loaf was a little denser than the rest of the cake, so I could break if off to enjoy like you would the edge of pie crusts.

I have no doubt that I could polish off a whole loaf all by myself.

In any case, you’ll be happy to know that this isn’t a once-a-year thing. Joan’s on Third will be making more Nutella poundcake for this Saturday but they’ll be sold as slices at $1.95 a slice.

However, if you’d like to make one for yourself, unfortunately and understandably, Joan is keeping that recipe to herself but Nastassia has some behind-the-scene coverage of the making of the cake. And I found this Food & Wine recipe for a Nutella Swirl Poundcake that you can take a stab at.

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December 8, 2009

Eat My Blog Blogger Bake Sale a $3,000 Success

Written by Caroline on Crack in Los Angeles, Recipes, Sweets
3 Comments

Chocolate Ganache for Sale

I had arrived too late! The Eat My Blog bake sale at Zeke’s Smokehouse in West Hollywood was scheduled to last from 10am to 4pm and I figured that if I got there around noon I’d still be able to get some of that bacon brownie goodness with bourbon caramel sauce that I kept reading about. But I was so wrong. By noon, most of everything was already sold out!

Cathy Danh, mastermind of Eat My Blog, by Caroline on Crack

Cathy Danh, mastermind of Eat My Blog

With over 40 blogger bakers — including founder of Eat My Blog and author of Gastronomy Blog Cathy Danh, Teenage Glutster‘s Javier Cabral, My Last Bite‘s Jo Stougaard and Mattatouille‘s Matthew Kang — and 600 baked goods that is quite a feat.

Thanks to great publicity and word of mouth via Twitter and blogs, there was never a quiet moment at the sale even though its location at the busy intersection of Santa Monica and La Brea wasn’t exactly the prime spot for foot traffic. It was, however, located right next door to a Beverages & More; bloggers do love their booze as was evident by all the after-bake-sale visits.

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf was generous enough to provide a coffee/hot chocolate station and a barista for the occasion while Zeke’s Smokehouse not only donated its patio but some tasty brownies for the sale.

By the time I got to the event, pickings were slim but I was still able to find some instant favorites like Mattatouilles’s rich butterscotch budino, Pete Eatemall‘s cinnamon chocolate mini bundt cake and Eating LA‘s dark chocolate walnut cookies. But still so sad about the bacon brownies. Le sigh.

Barista, H.C., Esther, Sam Kim.

In any case, the bake sale was a huge success with most everything selling out by 3pm and netting over $3,000 for the Los Angeles Foodbank!

“Eat My Blog was very excited to reach our fundraising goal and we hope to top it the next time around,” said Cathy. “Since this event was such a success we plan to do another one in Summer 2010.”

Score! Cathy had asked if I’d be interested in participating in next year’s sale but I told her I’d have to think about it. In any case I’m more an eater than a baker. Although, maybe I can make a bourbon-based something or other.

BTW, after the jump check out the recipe for Organic Spark’s tasty Maple Walnut Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting.

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December 2, 2009

Persimmons Crumble Recipe: So Easy, a Crackhead Can Do It

Written by Caroline on Crack in Other, Recipes, Sweets
9 Comments
Persimmons

Fuyu Persimmons

I love love love to eat but am not all that crazy about cooking up my own stuff. Lazy, ya see. But since my parents have a couple of persimmons trees, my last visit with them left me with two huge bags of Fuyu persimmons. What to do?

I wanted to make something desserty with it but it seemed that called for the other persimmon variety, Hachiya, which is softer and pulpier. Plus, as I said, I’m a stranger in my own kitchen. Fortunately my sister sent me the link for an easy peasy fruit crumble recipe. So easy that even I could do it. Apparently you can use this with any sort of fruit just as long as it’s not frozen fruit.

After the jump is my recipe that I’ve adapted since the original recipe called for the use of a 9-inch glass pan or 8x8x2 pan and I only had a 14(?)-inch-long pan.

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