Sticky

Every now and then, I stun myself with my talents. Even less frequently, I stun those around me. One such instance was not too long ago, when Justin decided to cook dinner for some of his and my friends while I was housesitting for my parents. I generously agreed to prepare dessert. I had bought some dates on a recent food buying spree, primarily on impulse (and since dates are delicious), but also with a hidden agenda. As every good South African knows, the best dessert to come out of the third world contains dates. Cape Brandy Pudding is truly a delight - albeit less of a rare treat now that one can purchase it in frozen form from one's local Whole Foods (note: this is not a plug for Whole Foods). But I digress. I ended up rounding off the culinarily thrilling evening with a delicious Toffee Cake. I spontaneously replicated this cake recently for my parental units, being that they are huge proponents of anything with the words "toffee" and "dentist" in the title. I really followed the recipe too:

Toffee Cake
From the Big Book of Baking

- 1 cup chopped dates (as luck would have it, my weird parents happened to have some dates lying around!)
- 3/4 cup boiling water
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter (it's a cake, use unsalted)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla (I even measured the vanilla this time!)
- 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour (do they even sell that in this country? Oy vey. Good thing I have an iPhone now!)

Toffee Sauce Part
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 3 tbsp butter (also unsalted)
- 2 tbsp milk (can use cream)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8x8 or so cake pan. Maybe 9x9.

Mix the dates, water and b.s. in a small saucepan. Heat gently for a few minutes without boiling (it will erupt) until dates are soft and separate from each other. Remove from heat. Use your Kitchenaid to cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and beat well. Pour in the date mixture and continue mixing with mixer. Gently beat in the flour just until combined. You will probably have to do a few mixes by hand with a spatula for full mixation (this is one flaw of the almost flawless kitchenaid. Such is life).

Pour the batter into greased pan. Instagram a photo of your kitchenaid (optional).

Bake  for about 30-40 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, work on the topping. Place the butter, brown sugar and milk/cream in a small saucepan. Heat until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture resembles a toffee glaze (about 5 minutes).

Once the cake comes out of the oven, poke holes all over the top. I recommend using a toothpick rather than a fork as fork holes tend to be very obvious and not so lovely looking, while toothpick holes are less visible. Pour the toffee mixture over the top of the cake. Let it cool somewhat, then unleash your family/friends upon it.

Dressing

Every once in a while, friends prove themselves to be more spectacular than the average human. My pseudo sister Cady is one such person. She not only has guided me through the nonsensical world of pre-medicine with grace and generosity, but she also is the person who taught my sheltered 9 year old self what "kicking it" means. Most recently, she brightened my week with a simple statement: she had a dresser for me. To fill in those who may not be familiar with my bedroom situation up until present, I moved in to my current home in november and have since been using a combination of a chair, a closet and a suitcase for housing my clothes (no comments, parents). Anyway, when Cady shared this news with me I was immensely grateful. She additionally offered her husband and his truck to transport aforementioned dresser to my humble lodgings. I almost cried. Instead of shedding tears, I embraced this moment as an opportunity to explore the world of gluten free baking. As it happens, Cady does not tolerate gluten well (or at all). Still, she and Joseph were bringing me a dresser and clearly needed to be compensated with cookies. And so I did this:

Gluten-less peanut butter cookies 
Adapted from the Internet

- 1 cup peanut butter (I used chunky but I doubt it matters)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

The recipes I looked at advised against using a stand mixer, so I left the kitchenaid out this time and went the old fashioned route. Mix the sugar and peanut butter until smooth. Add the egg and baking powder. Mix until one cohesive dough. Shape the dough into little balls. Place balls on a baking sheet. Flatten slightly (I used my fingers but you can use a fork if you're fancy). Sprinkle the dough balls with more sugar (the other name for these cookies is "Sugar and Peanut Butter Cookies"). Bake for about 10 minutes (mine went a little longer because I started playing bubble mania and temporarily exited the real world. It turned out ok).
Cool the cookies on a rack. Hide them from your hungry boyfriend. Gift them to your lovely and amazing friend-sister. Don't wait a week to put your clothes in your new dresser.

Upside Down

Some of you may recall my previous adventure with upside down cake. For those who do not, let's just say it was an adventure of the smoky, burning variety. Following my recent acquisition of my very own artisan (that's the fanciest one) kitchenaid standing mixer, I found myself inspired to redeem myself before the upside down cake gods. Kitchie is subletting a corner in my parents' kitchen, obliging me to concoct this cake in their residence. Lucky for me, they had a ripe mango just waiting to be experimented upon. I have made and tasted a variety of different upside down cakes, including pineapple, plum and apricot, and, I thought to myself, why should mango be any different? I requested permission from my father to use this mango in my endeavor.

"A mango upside down cake?" He asked dubiously. "You just made that up, didn't you."

"No!" I lied, unconvincingly.

He sighed. "Very well. Knock yourself out." I complied.

Based on some ongoing criticisms of my failure to follow exact recipes (and my lack of pineapple upside down cake recipe ingredients), I looked up a mango specific upside down cake recipe. This is not to say that I followed it to a tee (I did not), but I tried! Here's what happened:

Mango Upside Down Cake

adapted from Epicurious.com

Ingredients:

Top part:

- 1 mango (or two if you have a generous father)

- 1/2 stick butter, unsalted

- 1/2 cup sugar (preferably brown, but if your mother only stocks white sugar that will suffice in a pinch)

Cake part:

- 1 1/2 cups flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1 stick butter, softened and unsalted

- 1 cup sugar (white)

- 3 eggs

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1/2 cup orange juice (recipe called for mango nectar... if I knew that this was and how to procure it and were not lazy, I certainly would have used this, probably for a more delicious outcome. Orange juice, however, did the trick)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Make top part of the cake. Peel the mango and slice pieces off. Try not to eat it all. Melt the butter and sugar together in a small saucepan for about 1-2 minutes, or a little more if your sugar doesn't want to incorporate nicely. Pour the mixture into a greased round cake pan (9x2 inches, or something like it). Arrange mango slices on top of the mixture.

 

In a liquid cup measure or a small bowl, mix together the flour, b.p. and salt. Prepare your kitchenaid (if you have one. If not, I'm so sorry for you). Cream together the softened butter and sugar until very fluffy. Add one egg whole, and add the yolks of the other two. Reserve the whites in another bowl. Add the vanilla and beat until all combined. Next, use your fancy spill-prevention attachment to add half the flour mixture. Continue beating on low speed (don't overbeat your cake!). Pour in the orange or whatever juice and mix, then add the rest of the flour. Beat until all is just combined.

In the separate bowl, whisk the eggs whites until they reach stiff peaks. Once they are stiff, fold the whites into the cake batter. Be gentle. Pour the fluffy, pale batter over the mago slices and topping. Place cake in the oven and bake for about 1 hour. Lovingly wipe all the flour and batter of your kitchenaid.

Once the cake is done, serve it to your parents so they will support you going to baking school. Then have them go out of town so you can invite your friends over and feed them the cake so they will keep being your friends. One love.