Sweet

I like to think of myself as a good cook.  I really love baking and deserts and challenging recipes and all that.  What I’m about to show you will probably intimidate the shit out of you…but read on.

That would be my Genoise layer cake with lemon curd   filling and French butter cream.  Pretty gorgeous no?

Here, Let me show you a detail shot.

Oh yeah, I sure did use a miniature rosebud to decorate it (a la Flying Monkey).

Right about now you are probably quaking in your inferior oven mitts.

Quake not.  It was a disaster.  You see, this cake was intended to be the dessert for a little dinner party friends were throwing. These particular friends live in Germantown…on Lincoln Drive.  If you know Philadelphia, you probably know Lincoln Drive as the fastest, curviest road in the city…and it is.  Let me break this down for you.  Jeep Cherokee + Lincoln Drive + lemon curd = seismic shift.

My charmingly rustic gateau slipped and slid all over the place.  It was not pretty. (There is no photographic evidence of the event…thank god.)

So there I was with one hell of an ugly cake at one hell of a terrific dinner party.  No matter, as long as it tastes good, who cares what it looks like.

I was able to comfort myself with this thought all the way through dinner.  Then I sliced the cake.  It was…stiff? Impenetrable?  Hmmm, what is the right word for a cake having the consistency of hardened foam rubber?

It was embarrassing.  My dear son said as kindly as possible that it tasted like a lemony eraser.

Ouch!

I just burned the crap out of my hand!

My son and I are making a cake together and I was trying to swipe one lone clove of garlic out of the oven, when DAMMIT, my hand hit the shelf.

We are making a poundcake inspired by the rose cupcakes the sell at Flying Monkey Pastry Shop.

I got the recipe for the Joy of Cooking cookbook, just their traditional poundcake. I followed it to a “t”…minus the mace that is.

The exciting part will be the frosting, I’m making a traditional buttercream, but I made an infusion of rosemary that I’m going to use to flavor it. We’ll see how it goes right?

Reading Terminal

So, tonight I’m having yet another dinner party…I’ve been on quite the entertaining kick lately.

I picked my menu:

Grilled squid salad (from the original FORK cookbook)

Lobster & cremini mushroom risotto with roasted tomatoes and asparagus

and for dessert:

Rosewater poundcake with a rosemary buttercream frosting.

Now, to make this happen, there is only one place in Philadelphia where I can get all of my ingredients in one fell-swoop. And that would be: Reading Terminal Market.

Normally I go there first thing in the morning because the crowds drive me nuts, but I slept-in a little this morning, so that was not to be.

I met my friend/accomplice Maria and we got to the market around 1:00. UGH. All of humanity was there.

First we stopped for lunch at Pearls. (Out of clams AND oysters???WTF???)

Then we pushed and bullied our way to the Spice Terminal. Of course they were out of the rice I needed which menat that we had to go to one of my least favorite vendors for it, ah well, life goes on.

One hour later I had everything I needed. Maria was a champ and schlepped the provisions (the girl is a true friend, she’s not even coming to dinner tonight at all! HA!)