A Sweet Love Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken: Store-Bought Cakes

No matter how many gorgeous homemade cakes I try, no matter how many fancy pastries I sample, I will always have a lingering love for grocery store-bought birthday cake. 

I'm not talking about a fancy cake that you might buy at the bakery of an upscale store like Whole Foods. No. I am talking about the garishly frosted, probably not trans fat-free, gonna-leave-a-greasy-slick-on-your-tongue, packed in a plastic cake cover type of store bought cake that you'd see at national grocery store chains.

Now, I realize that on so many levels, they are an inferior product. They are not made with the care that goes into the cakes at most retail bakeries, nor are they made with the same caliber of ingredients. They don't look or taste as good.


And yet--in spite of these powerful arguments against them--sometimes nothing else will do. So what gives? 

Is it Nostalgia? Perhaps it can be blamed on growing up in the suburbs, where for every birthday party with a homemade cake, there were probably four with store-bought cakes? Perhaps somewhere in that combination of bright frosting in colors never found in nature, that inch-and-a-half slick of waxy-sweet frosting, and soft and spongy cake, it's all about trying to conjure up a simpler and sweeter time in life?

Or is it Simply Bad Taste? Or are these cakes like the relationship that you know is toxic but you just can't give up, because even while it's so bad, it's also so good? Is confessing a love of store-bought cake simply admitting that deep down, you've got bad (not to mention unrefined) taste?

Or perhaps it's a bit of both: sweet nostalgia and trashy taste? While I can't answer it definitively, I can say one thing for sure: grocery store-bought cake, I just can't quit you (and I don't want to, either).

What about you? Do you have a soft spot in your heart for store-bought cakes, or is CakeSpy simply guilty of bad taste?

Cake Byte: CakeSpy for All-Mighty!

Do you love cupcakes? Do you love dogs? Do you love cute?

Well then, my friends, prepare for the triple threat of awesome that is the new CakeSpy / All-Mighty.net collaboration!

All-Mighty is an online shop run by CakeSpy buddies Erica and Jen and their adorable Boston Terriers, Mighty and Stinky! Their shop features all sorts of adorable clothing for humans and their furry friends, and I have collaborated with them on several sets of pins which are now available for purchase in their shop.

First, there's the pack of "Paris Pins", which includes three adorable pins with scenes of Parisian puppies and pastries. They come on a nice thick postcard made of 100% recycled matte paper--and each set comes with a frame-able print on the back.

There's also a pack of "Big Apple Badges" which includes three pins portraying some sweet street scenes from the Big Apple; like the other sets, they come on a nice thick postcard made of 100% recycled matte paper--and each set comes with a frame-able print on the back.

They can be purchased (along with a lot of other cool stuff!) at all-mighty.net!

Babka Kebabs: Glorious Kebabka!

There is a deeply rooted belief here at CakeSpy that just about any food tastes better on a stick. I dare you to think of one that doesn't.

But as Rachel of Coconut & Lime recently lamented via twitter, while many desserts-on-a-stick are adorable and delicious, they can all too often be "too small to be satisfying". 

Happily, there is a food on a stick that will stick with you: delicious chunks of chocolate babka speared kebab style on a skewer--or, as I like to call it, kebabka.

Now, kebabka is not necessarily a cute food. It's not delicate, and it's not dainty. But it is rich, chocolatey, carbohydratey, and delicious--and when enjoyed several chunks at a time eaten directly off of a stick, it will not leave you hungry.

Here's how you do it.

Kebabka (based loosely on this recipe)

• For the babka
  
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
  
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
  
• 4 large egg yolks
  
• 1 (.25-ounce) package active dry yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons)
  
• 1/4 cup warm water
  
• 1 cup milk
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
  

For the topping (I kind of cheated here)

• 1/2 cup butter
  
• 1 big bar of chocolate (the jumbo sized ones at the grocery store--I used Hershey's Special dark chocolate)
  
• Small amount of whipping cream, just for texture
  

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and 1/2 cup sugar until smooth.
   
2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks until creamy (I saved the egg whites for an egg wash later)
   
3. Mix the yeast in warm water with the 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. When this mixture thickens, add it to the egg yolks along with the, milk, vanilla and salt.
   
4. Add the yeast mixture to the butter/sugar mixture and mix well. Slowly add the flour until a soft dough is formed. 
   
5. Turn dough out onto a floured work surface and knead until dough is no longer sticky.
   
6. Cover the dough and allow it to rise in a warm place until it doubles.
   
7. When it's looking pretty big, you might want to prepare the filling. To do so, you could put your butter and chocolate (broken up) in a double boiler to melt it, or you could do as I did and microwave it at 10 second intervals until it is melted. Add a touch of heavy cream (if you feel like it; I did) and mix until fully incorporated.
   
8. At this point, I put the dough on a floured silicone pastry mat and rolled it flat and long. I cut it into about 15 separate little chunks.
   
9. Then I rolled out each little chunk of dough and poured some chocolate filling in each one, then made it into a little roll and put each one into a cupcake cup.
   
   
10. Allow these little loaves to rise again for about 2 hours.
    
11. At this point you can either pour some of the leftover topping on top of the risen dough mounds or just, you know, eat it with a spoon (oh so rich!). 
    
12. I used some of the leftover egg whites to lightly brush on top of each little loaf to ensure a pleasing golden tone.
    
    
13. Place in a preheated 350*F (150*C) oven for 30 minutes or until done. Let cool completely.
    
    
14. Once cool, cut into either halves, or fourths; spear as many chunks as you'd like on kebab skewers, and eat yourself some food on a stick. If desired, serve with whipped cream for dipping (it's good!)

Refreshing and Sweet: Cupcake Royale Debuts the Raspberry-Lemonade Cupcake for August

Cupcake Royale has had a lot going on lately, what with the opening of their beautifully outfitted new location and owner Jody Hall speaking out about Health Care on NPR. But of course we can't forget the cupcakes, and this August they've got a refreshing new flavor: Raspberry Lemonade.

Per their site, the new flavor consists of "fresh, local, organic raspberries from Willie Green's organic farm in the cake, topped with tart and tangy, oh-so-summery lemon cream cheese frosting". I love that the flavor has the raspberries mixed into the cake rather than just as part of the frosting--it sounds so refreshing for the summer heat, but with a welcome bit of richness from the cream cheese frosting.

The new flavor will be available at all four Cupcake Royale locations through August 31st; for more information, visit cupcakeroyale.com; for instant updates, follow them on Twitter!

Edi-Mology: Cake

Edi-mology is a new featurette on CakeSpy, designed to explore the etymology and meanings of the terminology behind the baked goods we all love so much. One thing is for sure: this hunger for knowledge can sure give you an appetite for baked goods!

Today's lesson: CAKE

Definition:

Cake: [keyk] noun a sweet, baked, breadlike food, made with or without shortening, and usually containing flour, sugar, baking powder or soda, eggs, and liquid flavoring. (source: dictionary.com)

Etymology: 

This sweet term came to us circa the year 1230 from Old Norse kaka "cake," from the West Germanic "kokon-", from the Proto-Indo-European base "gag-" or "gog-", which meant "something round, lump of something." 

Surprise, surprise: Cake is not related to the Latin coquere ("to cook") as formerly supposed. Replaced its Olde English cognate (cognate = two words that have a common origin), coecel. 

Originally (until c.1420) it meant "a flat, round loaf of bread." (source: etymoline.com)

Of course, if you're wondering how it made the leap from referring to a flat, round loaf of bread to the delicious confection that we call cake today, here's a little excerpt from Foodtimeline.org:

According to the food historians, the precursors of modern cakes (round ones with icing) were first baked in Europe sometime in the mid-17th century. This is due to primarily to advances in technology (more reliable ovens, manufacture/availability of food molds) and ingredient availability (refined sugar)....The first icing were usually a boiled composition of the finest available sugar, egg whites and [sometimes] flavorings...It was not until the middle of the 19th century that cake as we know it today (made with extra refined white flour and baking powder instead of yeast) arrived on the scene...Butter-cream frostings (using butter, cream, confectioners [powdered] sugar and flavorings) began replacing traditional boiled icings in first few decades 20th century. In France, Antonin Careme [1784-1833] is considered THE premier historic chef of the modern pastry/cake world. You will find references to him in French culinary history books.

(Note: if you're interested in more Cake Lore, you might also want to check out Leslie F. Miller's book Let Me Eat Cake)

First known publication: 

"What man, I trow ye raue, Wolde ye bothe eate your cake and haue your cake?" ["The Proverbs & Epigrams of John Heywood," 1562] (source: etymonline.com)

Idioms: 

A piece of cake: something easily done: She thought her first solo flight was a piece of cake.
Take the cake: a. to surpass all others, esp. in some undesirable quality; be extraordinary or unusual: His arrogance takes the cake.
b. to win first prize.

Let them eat cake: this is from Rousseau's "Confessions," in reference to an incident c.1740, when it was already proverbial, long before Marie Antoinette. The "cake" in question was not a confection, but a poor man's food. (source for these idioms: etymonline.com)

(CakeSpy Tip: If you're into idioms, bet you'll love Chocolate & Zucchini's "Edible Idiom" series!)