Celebration Cake

Celebrate! 

It's my one month unemployment anniversary!  I'm not sure if that's reason for celebration and cake, but why not, I had all sorts of time to bake this past month.  Time is totally necessary if you are looking to make a Milkbar cake.  I'm also trying to be positive about my situation and cake helps to cheer things up.

Making this cake is quite the process.  Though it is one of the easier cakes to make from the Milkbar cookbook.  It requires you to make the cake, frosting and a birthday cake crumb.  I was able to make this cake over the course of two days, though you can finish it in one if you have all of the ingredients and tools on hand day one.  (I was waiting on amazon.com to deliver my cake collars)

There is a lot of down time when making this cake too.  I used that down time to apply for jobs and do some LinkedIn networking.  Speaking of which...  anyone out there work at a pharmaceutical company and need a medicinal chemist?  Just checking...  By now I have my resume and research summary all updated, I even have a few interviews.  Here's hoping I hear from a few more companies and that I find a place that feels like a good place to work.

Getting back to the cake (that is what this post is supposed to be about, right?), I really enjoyed the look of this cake once it was finished.  It's so cute and clean looking once you peel of the cake collars.  Who says you need frosting all over the outside of the cake?  When I took a class at the Williamsburg Milk bar location a few months ago, Tosi actually made this cake for us!  She said she preferred her cakes like this because you could see what was going on inside.  Why cover up all those layers?  I have to agree.  I'm also terrible at frosting cakes...

To celebrate my one month unemployment anniversary I had a single piece of this cake.  It's good, but not one of the best cakes I've ever made.  It does taste like a classic white birthday cake from a box.  The frosting even tastes like it's straight out of the can.  And yes, that is exactly the flavor that Tosi was going for. I believe she said it was that 'fake' flavor that she wanted.

Personally, I think I might use this cake making method for another combination of ingredients.

Banana Bread French Toast

I can't believe that it's been months since I shared a breakfast recipe!

I know exactly who is to blame, Boyfriend.  Okay, and me.  The guy I live with doesn't really care for breakfast and we usually spend our weekends at the Starbucks downtown.  Or the Panera around the corner.  Or if we're in a hurry, the Dunkin' Donuts two minutes from our apartment.  Rarely do I spend a Saturday morning frying up eggs, flipping pancakes and pouring tall glasses of orange juice.

The one positive with not having a job right now is being able to enjoy a delicious breakfast on a Tuesday morning!  Sure, I ate this French toast by myself while watching Charmed and sitting on the couch in my PJs, but that doesn't bother me!  At some point in the day I managed to take a shower and put on some real pants.  Then I had a second serving of French toast for lunch.

As long as I am unemployed, I think I'll enjoy making myself fancy breakfasts!

Moroccan Vegetable M'Hancha

Let the Moroccan food parade begin!  Today we're starting off with an appetizer, the M'hancha, or vegetable pastilla.  During our time in Marrakech, boyfriend and I signed up for a Moroccan cooking class, to learn the ways of tagine and couscous.  First we had to locate the riad within the twisting maze of the medina.  Located just off the main place, at the end of a small alley, Riad Monceau boasts a heavy door with multiple locks and a beautiful central pool.

 We were joined at the riad by two couples from the Netherlands and eight Parisian women.  There was a lot of gabbing in multiple languages going on.  I even got to practice my french a bit!  Luckily everyone spoke impeccable english while helping to teach me a little bit of culinary french and dutch.

We were in for a long day of chopping, shredding, cooking, sauteing and tangining.  Is that a word?  Maybe not an english word.  One of the most dangerous thing we cooked all day was the m'hancha, because of all the shredding involved and those dangerous box graters!  (When making this at home, the food processor is much more finger friendly.)

The m'hancha came together pretty quickly, probably because all we had to do was shred vegetables, then roll up the coils.  Our chef/instructor took care of sauteing the vegetables and baking the finished m'hanchas. It may be a whole other story when I go to make these again in my own kitchen!  Give these a try, they were deilcious!