I was looking around Zoe Francois’ website one day and I saw this recipe for Blackout Cake.  I had never heard of Blackout Cake before, but once I read the description, I was intrigued.  A blackout cake is a devil's food cake filled with chocolate pudding.  

This is a great recipe.  Her devil's food cake is not the run-of-the-mill chocolate cake.  It is made with coffee and rum which cuts down on the sweetness of the pudding and the frosting and adds some complexity to the flavor of the cake.

I can't wait to make it for my friends at my next dinner party.

Zoe Francois’ Recipe for Blackout Cake

I celebrated my birthday this year by baking myself a cake.  I’ve always liked strawberry cake, but for some reason I couldn’t find a good recipe.  I tried one recipe I found on the internet--but when I took it out of the oven, it was heavy as a brick.  Since I couldn’t find a good recipe, I had to improvise. 

Fortunately, I stumbled upon Zoe Francois’ website.  I’m not sure why I’ve never been to the site before since it’s a great resource for baking recipes.  On her website, I found a recipe for a genoise cake as well as strawberry ice cream made with roasted strawberries.  Genoise cake is extremely dry so I figured it might be a good cake to add fruit puree to.   I took a leap and combined the two recipes.  I roasted a pound of strawberries with a little balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon of sugar for a half-hour at 300 degrees Fahrenheit.  Then I pureed the strawberries and folded the puree into the genoise batter at the end.  I had a to add an extra ¼ cup of flour to the recipe because my first attempt didn’t have enough structure and fell apart when I tried to take it out of the pan.

I then frosted the cake with Magnolia Bakery’s creamy vanilla frosting.  The next time I make the cake, I will probably fill it with pastry cream. That will be good!

 I was listening to Dinner Party Download on NPR yesterday on my way to lunch with my family.  Brendan was at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market talking to David Karp who had just written an article for the LA Times on a newly available Japanese variety of orange, called the Dekopon orange.  Apparently, these oranges have to be hand-picked because they are so delicate.  In addition, when the fruit is first harvested, the fruit is extremely high in acidity.  These oranges must be stored in a certain way so that the sugar content of the orange rises and the tartness of the fruit mellows.  The way David Karp described the fruit was intriguing to me, and it stuck in my mind as something that I would like to try one day. 

Fortunately, I was at Marukai in West LA today and I saw them there.  I immediately picked up a crate of them. 

I finally got home and was excited to try them.  The first thing I noticed is that they are incredibly easy to peel.  The thin skin sits very loosely on the flesh of the fruit.  The other great thing is that the oranges are seedless.  The flesh is also very tender.  Perhaps the best part of eating the fruit is the flavor.  It's very sweet, but it also has the intense citrus flavor of a tangerine.  I highly recommend these oranges. In fact, I've eaten three while writing this blog entry.

On my last trip to London, I was lucky enough to happen upon Bea's of Bloomsbury.  Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to do the full-blown afternoon tea when I was in London, but the scones at Bea's definitely made up for it.   I was so excited to try the scones there that I ran to the grocery store to buy some marmalade and clotted cream.  The crumb was so soft that the scones tasted like cake with the clotted cream.  The crust was perfectly brown and added a nutty flavor which contrasted perfectly with the delicate interior.

The owner of Bea's of Bloomsbury also just came out with a cookbook.  I think I'm going to buy it just so that I can get the scone recipe.

Bea's of Bloomsbury

44 Theobald's Road

London WC1X 8NW 

 I can't think of a better way to spend Valentine's Day than frying up some chicken.  My house still smells like fried chicken the day after.

Due to unexpectedly high demand, we have just sold out of Caramour.  Thanks everyone for trying out our new Valentine's Day Flavor!