Cake #1 & Cake #2 - Cambridge edition

This is my baking pantry at the beginning of this project. I intend to just pick up the pieces we need along the way as the recipes call for them. Not sure where I am going to put them, but I'll deal with that later.

I was excited to get going on the project and with our friend Jenny Gold coming for a farewell dinner, I thought it a perfect time to whip up my first cake. Of the 30 cakes, I am excited about some, interested in others and only down on about 2 of them. This Cherry Cornmeal Upside Down Cake was definitely one I had no interest in making. The picture did not look very good, it sounded like it would be corn bread with cherry cobbler/bucklesque, in a word, "eh".

BUT, it was the end of summer and really really the end of cherry season. And it was hot outside, so I had no choice. And this is where I dub it the "$29 Cherry Cake" as it will herein after be called.
You see, these luscious luscious looking fresh cherries were no small feat to find. First I went to the Farmer's Market in SoWa to try for local (do they even grow in MA?), fresh cherries. Nothing. And, only 20 minutes past my usual grocery store, so 40 minutes round trip. At least I picked up some other fruits and veggies for the week. Then on to Trader Joes where I like to do my main shopping. Hmmm, no cherries there either, but I remember I have a jar of their Morello Cherries in my pantry from an old Cook's Illustrated recipe. But then I see that they have frozen cherries in the freezer. I need 4 cups. I buy 2 bags just in case I cannot find cherries at Whole Foods, where I will stop on my way home - since it turns out, TJs does not carry cornmeal.

Whole Foods has fresh cherries! Only $4.99 / lb and packaged in bags that look like I will need 2 to get 4 cups. I buy 2 bags and and happily surprised for the first time in my life at Whole Foods by a LOW price. A huge thing of cornmeal was only $1.19. Score! And then I hit the checkout. WHOOPS! I just paid $18.98 for my cherries. I hate the pre-packaged bags now. I didn't bother to weigh them. I am in it now, I just pay and leave. I don't even want to make this stupid expensive cake now.

At home, Ben reports he tried to buy me a cherry pitter at the hardware store, which surprisingly usually has them, but was sold out due to cherry-season. I set out to pit the cherries with a knife while swatting Elliot & Ben away before they eat all the cherries I need for this cake. Turns out they could have eaten an entire bag of them - one bag would have been plenty. But, for the record, they were amazing.

Make the cake, mix the cake. Hey this sauteing cherries with butter, sugar and Balsamic(!) is fantastically fun. I want to do this again. And here is the result:




The photos really do not do it justice. This cake was nothing short of a surprise hit of summer. Fantastic! The cake was moist and perfect, and nothing at all like cornbread. The cherries were super tasty and gorgeous, despite how it looks here. We did have Christina's Cream Ice Cream with it - it was the perfect compliment and we all agreed it would have been missing something without a side of a la mode.

Despite the price tag (counting all the cherries I over-bought and frozen and jarred I did not ned to buy after all) - this cake is a keeper. Make it at the Beach next year when all those luscious cherries flow free.


And now, on to cake # 2. Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting. If it was not one of the 30, I would not be making this cake. A while ago, in LA, I set out to make the perfect Red Velvet. Of course, what is the perfect red velvet? I wouldn't know. I love ordering it, I love(d) making it, but really its just cake with a whole lotta food coloring in it. So after 5 previous recipes I hung up my gloves and turned my back on red velvet. But, the project prevails, so I make this one. Mostly because Mindy picked it and fresh berries were still in season. And it is fine. Good, not great. Nothing to get excited about for us. Red Velvet #6 is definitely going to be my last red for a while. I have to admit my bias is against cake with berries in the middle layer, so I am sure that is playing into it. I don't know. Its just a thing of mine.

The cream cheese frosting was very good, and worth using again.



It was fun having Elliot-sous apply painstaking detail to the berries in the middle layer of the cake. She is quite a able helper.

Voila! The finished cake. Note to me...red velvet is best photographed from a cut piece where you see the middle.