Cinnamon Chocolate Sunken Souffle Cake with Sparkling Cranberries

This is a cake that I made last week for our department holiday party. I went back and forth about whether or not I wanted to share it here on the blog, since I only had time to snap one quick photo of it before having to cart it off to the party where it was promptly demolished without any further photo ops. But then I thought, if the world ends tomorrow, I would want you to go out having this recipe, because it's one of my favorite flourless chocolate cake recipes, and because it's even awesomer when topped with a high pile of crunchy, tart, sugared cranberries for a decadent sparkle to the cake. I like to call it the "Richness of the Base" cake, which is kind of a really lame linguistics pun (and yes, I like my puns in baked form). But really, this is one of my go-to flourless chocolate cake recipes ever since I developed it for the chocolate issue of sated. While I find most flourless chocolate cakes far too dense, this one is the perfect balance between being richly chocolate and still light enough to feel like you're eating cake rather than eating a melted-down bar of chocolate. The coconut oil and cinnamon in this version add a touch of extra special punch to the cake, making it perfect for holiday parties. Also! sugared cranberries are just wonderful little bursts of fruit--this is my first time making them, and I probably ate most of the cranberries before they even made it onto the cake. Oops! :)

I also decided today that if the world does end, I wanted to at least see one last sunset at the Pacific Ocean. So I just dropped everything and went. The sun and the trusty Pacific did not disappoint!

It's been sort of an insane past week, filled with a family friend's funeral and bad news and horrible people doing horrible things, and all of this oddly punctuated by good, fun, sweet, heart-warming moments in a way that's just... life being life. Even if the world doesn't end tomorrow, I keep getting the feeling that I want to hug everyone a little tighter from here on out.


Read on for recipe....

Apple Cider Donuts

Sometimes I feel as if my East Coast friends delight in going out of their way to point out all of the awesome and cool things we're missing here in California, as if to make up for the fact that we do have (relatively) mild weather and access to an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables all year round. "The blueberries are better!" I'll hear, or "The corn is far superior." Or "You don't have seasons here." (Actually, we do. Just subtle ones, and you have to have lived here for a long time to perceive them, but that's part of the charm.) And sure, every place has what it's good at, what makes it special, and that's what's neat about it--that's why I love traveling, so there's no need to go about rubbing it all in anyone else's faces, people! Harumph.

Rant aside, enter apple cider donuts.  I first heard of these beauts last year, during one of my friend's "California doesn't have x" conversations. Then, this year, another friend based in NYC instagrammed a photo of apple cider donuts about to be devoured (Ah! You foodies on Instagram and Twitter torture me so!) and Jackie, a fellow tortured foodie/photographer, and I decided that something must be done about this situation. So we set out on our own apple cider donut -making adventure! (If this were a movie, cue the montage of hilariously random escapades on the Quest for the Cider Donut.)

These donuts! were yummy--crispy fried outsides, with cinnamon sugar crunch, and fluffy, cake insides. mmmmmm. They don't really taste much like apple, to my surprise--though I'm told they aren't actually supposed to--but they are nice and cinnamon-y and spicy. Jackie and I took to dipping ours in our mugs of hot apple cider (something my grandpa taught me to do with Chinese donuts and sweet soy milk), which made these donuts even more delicious. ...or coffee! they are good with a hot cup of dark roast, too.

Then we took to photographing our creations! It is so much fun to watch another photographer in action, and it's amazing to see how different people perceive the exact same subject in such drastically different ways: it's a wonderful reminder of how diversity makes this world a much more interesting and exciting place. Sure, you could attribute the differences in our images to cameras or lenses, but when it comes down to it, I'd like to think that a lot of it is about the photographer, our individual experiences, how we see and interpret the world. Such fun to remember that not everyone has the same set of eyes, or heads and hearts behind them!

Jackie also managed to capture some rare photos of my kitchen in action, so if you've ever wondered what behind-the-scenes desserts for breakfast headquarters looks like, please go check out her post about our donut adventure! Somehow, she's managed to magically make my perpetually messy kitchen look dreamy. :-D

P.S. If you remember, Jackie and I went traipsing around Hakone Gardens together in the summer. Check out our posts from that afternoon here and here!

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Simplicity: Seckel pear with vanilla sugar

Two words: Thanksgiving detox.  Okay, make that four words: Halloween and Thanksgiving detox.  After a month of nonstop candy and another month of lavish, rich dinners, I just crave something incredibly simple.

Seckel pear with vanilla sugar

"Simple" is actually a term that my roommate has pretty much banned me from using in the kitchen, namely because she argues that my definition and idea of "simplicity" is a far cry from anyone else's.  Especially after doing dessert catering jobs, whipping up a spontaneous pie (pie crust from scratch.  ALWAYS.) or a batch of chocolates or a stack of pancakes on the weekends is simple to me.  But I guess her argument is that that's not simple for the average college/graduate student.  So hence the Stephanie-specific ban on using "simple."

I think this dessert here would most definitely fit under my roommates idea of "simple" because it's nothing but a juicy, ripe pear and lightly flavored vanilla sugar.  And sometimes, that's all you need.  The vanilla sugar adds the perfect hint of crispy sweetness and fragrance to an already-incredibly-flavorful fresh pear, which is surprisingly elegant in its pure simplicity and cleanliness of flavors.

Trust me, this is the perfect antidote to the past two months of total overeating overload.  What's more, I think I've earned the right to use the word "simple" again.

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Crabby Candied Apples

What's more Americana Halloween than the good ol' candied apple?

pick your poison, Snow White?

For a while now, I've wanted to make candied crabapples because everything is cuter in miniature!  But in years past, I hadn't been able to find a good, reliable, and reasonably priced (and I say reasonably priced because this is important to a grad student who has a kitchen/baking obsession) source for crabapples.  Until I happened to waltz into Whole Foods this past weekend and lo and behold-- a stand of the cutest little apples ever.  :-D  Yippee!

I've also been a little obsessed with the spooky candied apples that I first saw on mattbites.com a few weeks ago and have since been popping up everywhere.  I mean, the black is just downright creepy.

(poor red apple...)

Candied apples are super simple and easy to make.  And, crabapples make for the perfect candied apples.  Not only are they small so that you can actually manage to sink your teeth into them but also they come with a built in stem, so no need to go about forcing twigs or sticks into your apple cores.

Oh--and one more thing.  Here's what I did with the leftover melted sugar:

Black candy corn lollipops!  :-D  Can you say, sugar high?

Anyways, I have to apologize for the terseness of this post!  I've been extremely swamped at work so blogging and baking have been relegated to very late-night tasks.  Tomorrow will be a whole day of more Halloween party-prep, so I'll see everyone back here tomorrow night for another round of Halloween treats!

Read on for recipe...