Meet the Doke

This weekend wasn't great. The hard drive on my computer suddenly died. And even though I had backed it up about 3 months ago, I feel this strange sense of loss about it. As far as I can tell, all I really lost was our Christmas photos (backup all of your photos to the cloud right now!), but it's just unsettling when you are reminded how reliant you are on machines.

Ok, so rather than bringing you a Smart and Good recipe today, I'm bringing you a Dumb and Ridiculous recipe, which is a little bit how I feel about grieving my hard drive.

Two years ago I started the tradition of attempting a crazy dessert-inside-a-dessert on Superbowl Sunday. It began with Pake (pie inside a cake) and then came Pookie (pie inside a cookie - from the Cakespy cookbook), so this year I attempted Doke...donuts inside a cake.

But before I take you through the Doke, I want to say that I also made these Mathematically Perfect Nachos and while they were awesome, I'm pretty sure you could achieve the same thing in less than half the time with Tostitos Scoops.

Now back to dessert. In previous years, I had a recipe. This year, I just dreamt the creation up with the help of some of my Facebook friends.

It started with donuts and a cake mix. Sure, I considered making both from scratch, but artful cooking isn't really the point of this annual tradition.

(Btw, I'm sure you could make this whole thing gluten and dairy free, but...there's probably a better thing for you to make if that's what you want to do.)

I made the cake batter as directed on the box and then I poured it into my angel food cake pan because I had a stroke of genius: Make the donut-cake IN THE SHAPE OF A DONUT!

I poured the batter in the pan with the intention of standing the donuts up on their sides, but there wasn't enough batter to cover them up that way...

So I shoved the donuts in as so (I fit 5 in there). We debated face up or face down and decided on face down thinking we'd flip the cake out of the pan at the end.

 I had to do some shaking, but the batter eventually covered all the donuts.

I baked it for 45 minutes, as the box said, but the batter above the donuts stayed wet, while the spaces between the donuts started getting crispy...I baked it for another 10 minutes or so before deciding it would be better to risk part of it being soft rather than burning it beyond recognition. It wasn't so pretty.

It got even less pretty when I tipped it out of the pan. The poor cake couldn't really set with all those giant donuts in its way, so it was a bit crumbly. But look! Doke!

I made my own buttercream frosting before we started. Had I not made it ahead of time, I would have skipped it because clearly there was no good way to ice this thing. However, I was still maintaining the hope of making it look like a giant donut, so I decided to try piping it on (despite the fact that it was still too warm).

Ta-da! It's Doke! Melty, lopsided, falling apart doke, but doke nonetheless.

How did it taste? Pretty good, actually. The donuts didn't even appear to notice they had been baked for another 55 minutes and the cake and frosting were yummy. I think a different pan and possibly mini donuts rather than the full-size model could produce a more cohesive (literally) dish.

So happy Superbowl and sugar rush to you! Tomorrow we get back on the moderation wagon.

Let's Start with Dessert

Welcome to my blog. It's a new adventure for me (and you!), and like all good adventures, this one starts with dessert.

Dessert is one of my favorite things to do. Eating it, talking about it, baking it, thinking about it. So with it being New Year's Eve and all, I figured it was a good excuse to reminisce about the desserts I ate in 2012. Ok, not all the desserts, just the highlights of the ones I remember. Between kids and work, I usually don't even know what day it is, so it's entirely possible that I'm leaving out something fabulous. Sorry about that.

It seemed fitting to start with a photo from Las Vegas. Vegas is my happy place. If I thought I could get there more than once or twice a year, this blog would basically just be called "Another Thing I Love About Las Vegas." This photo is of a Chocolate Bouchon from the amazing Bouchon Bakery.  It was tiny and perfect. And I ate it while listening to the sweet sound of slot machines. Good times.

The best dessert in Minneapolis is the salted butter and caramel crespelle at Bar La Grassa. You're welcome to challenge me and I will gladly eat whatever you claim is better, but I doubt that anything else will elicit the euphoria I get with the first bite of this amazingly simple butter sauce. I'm on a mission to make sure everyone I know goes there and eats it. It's life changing. (Full disclosure: I swiped this photo from Pinterest. I don't think I've ever taken a picture of my own crespelle. I was probably too busy licking my plate.)

I had to throw this one in quick, as I didn't want you to think I was a dessert snob or anything.  This is a peppermint shake from none other than Arby's. Not only was it the perfect Christmastime treat, but it reminded me of the peppermint sundaes that McDonald's used to sell back when I was in elementary school. I wish I could get them to bring them back, but I'm scared that if I dig too deeply, I'll find out they disappeared due to some scary health condition associated with the thick red peppermint goo.  Delicious goo.

Just in case that last one didn't convince you that I'm not fastidious when it comes to dessert, please meet the Pookie. It's a pie inside a cookie! This was taken in my kitchen, where we made an apple pie/butterscotch chip Pookie for SuperBowl Sunday. I know it looks scary, but it was really delicious. The recipe came from the Cakespy cookbook, which I recommend you buy at once because dessert lovers need to support each other.

Pretty, yes? It's really just fondue at The Melting Pot, but it was a special day because my mom and my boys came to have lunch with me at work. I recently returned to work at the corporation I quit 7 yeas ago, and one of the perks is that I work downtown again. The lunch selection downtown is far superior to the suburbs or my house, both of which I'd been working in for several years. Oh, and "lunch" in this case was chocolate fondue.

This is the butterscotch budino at 112 Eatery. It was my BFF Rachel's birthday.  This dessert is definitely giving the crespelle mentioned earlier a run for the money, but whereas this one is so rich I could probably only eat it once a month, I think I could have a crespelle every day (if calories did not exist). 

These weren't really in any order, but I put this one at the end because it is such a thing of beauty. My 35th birthday party was a "cupluck," where guests all brought cupcakes from a local bakery and everyone then tried everything and voted on a winning bakery...purely or informational purposes. I think there was a winning tie this year between Sweets Bakeshop and Cupcake, but I don't think anyone was a loser. 

I traveled to Puerto Vallarta, Boston, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, New York and Philly this year, so I can assure you that this list leaves several things out, but I think it's a good place to start. I'll explain that 40 by 40 list over to the right in my next post.

Thanks for reading. Happy New Year!