Parmesan Crusted Chicken {A Recipe}

I just ate a bite of this straight from the fridge, and it was so good I was prompted to come sit down and write down the recipe right this minute, so I can do it exactly the same way next time - and of course, share it with you.  This has always been one of my favorite dishes to eat, but it took me a few tries to get the formula down for my ideal crust, and even longer to remember to measure everything out!

For some reason, I had a hard time figuring out the right amount of salt.  It takes more than you would think, and it really makes a huge difference.  I use both flour and crumbs to form a nice crisp coating that won't slide off the chicken, and I like to add just enough cayenne or chile powder to wake it up a little.

I made this batch the other night as a special treat for James, who just ran his first half marathon on Sunday!   We ate it with a simple salad of arugula and tomato dressed with lemon juice and olive oil.  It's a little bit of a project, with the assembly line and the frying and all (another reason it's an every-once-in-a-while thing!)  But it's pretty well worth it - especially if you make enough for leftovers.  Which, by the way - did I mention? - are fantastic cold.  :)

Parmesan Crusted Chicken

Ingredients:

3-4 pounds of boneless and skinless chicken pieces (I used 2 thighs, 4 breasts + 4 tenderloins)

dry mix:

2 cups fine breadcrumbs

2/3 cup flour

2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt or kosher salt

1 cup (loosely packed) finely shredded fresh parmesan cheese

1 tsp cayenne or hot chile powder

a few grinds of pepper

2 Tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

wet mix:

4-5 eggs

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

a splash of milk

2 cups vegetable oil for frying*

cut lemon for squeezing and more salt for sprinkling

Method:

Place dry ingredients in a medium-sized shallow bowl and toss with a fork to blend.

Crack eggs into a large bowl and add mustard and a splash of milk - blend with a whisk or hand blender to thoroughly incorporate the mustard.

Set up a work area with a plastic cutting board, a 2 foot long piece of saran wrap and whatever you use to pound meat. If you don't have a special tool, a flat bottomed heavy glass or small saucepan will work. (I use this and I absolutely love it, it's also great for cracking spices and smashing garlic cloves, etc.)  Cut your breast meat into halves off center, since they are thicker on one end.  Lay each piece in the middle of the saran wrap and fold the wrap over with a generous overlap (one piece should last you the whole batch.)  Lightly pound each cutlet from the center outward just a couple of times in each direction - until each piece is uniformly just a little less than 1/2 inch thick.  (Be gentle with the tenderloins, they will probably just need one very light tap.)  As you finish pounding the cutlets, put them in the bowl with the egg/mustard mixture to marinate.  They can stay there for an hour or so at room temperature and even longer in the fridge.

When you are ready to fry, pour vegetable oil to about half an inch deep in a large heavy frying pan or cast iron skillet.  Heat frying pan over medium-high heat and line a baking sheet or large platter with a double layer of paper towels.  If you plan to hold the cutlets before serving, turn the oven on to 250 degrees.

Set up your work station like an assembly line - with the bowl of cutlets and egg on one end, the crumb mixture next, then they frying pan, and the paper towel lined tray on the opposite side.  Place your cut lemon and a little dish of salt by the tray.

To fry, pluck your first piece of chicken out of the egg mixture with one hand and lay it in the crumb mixture. Using the OTHER hand, toss crumbs and flour over the chicken to coat, and flip and pat it couple of times to get the coating to stick. (If you use the same hand for both, your fingers will soon have more coating on them than the cutlets.)  Lift the first cutlet by one end and dip a tiny corner into the oil.  If it sizzles, lay it down gently in the oil.  If it doesn't - put it back in the flour and wait a couple more minutes until it does.  Dip and coat two or three more pieces, as many as will comfortably fit, and set them gently in the oil too, making sure it sizzles but isn't burning or smoking.   Let the pieces get nice and brown around the edges before flipping - they should cook quite a bit longer on the first side than the second.  Using tongs, gently flip them once. When they are well browned on all sides, lay them on the paper towels to drain.  Squirt with a little lemon juice and sprinkle with a tiny bit of salt.

Turn the oven down to 200, and keep warm in the oven until ready to serve.

Serves about six - or fewer, with leftovers.  :)

* optimally, if you are going to fry more than 3 batches, you should really change your oil - it will get lots of burnt bits in it and start to taste funny after that.  I pushed it and did four, but that was definitely the limit.

Osteria Mozza - Los Angeles

Have you ever heard of anything so wondrous as a mozzarella bar? At Osteria Mozza, the more expensive and slightly more formal big sister to Pizzeria Mozza, the long marble counter wraps around a corner in the center of the room, giving patrons a birds eye view of their mozzarella-based crostini and small plates being prepared. Before visiting the Osteria, I thought the pizza bar at Pizzeria Mozza was fabulous, but truly, it's got nothing on this.

We were a party of five, and thus unable to sit at the bar, but we made sure to order a few things off the mozzarella bar section of the menu. This was the amuse bouche that arrived first. Crostini with fresh, creamy ricotta cheese and tapenade with basil chiffonade. When I tasted it I knew we were in for a treat.

Most of the mozzarella bar menu items are composed crostini, with layers of savory and sweet ingredients and some form of fresh cheese, such as burrata, burricota, fior di latte, bufala mozzarella or sweet fresh ricotta.

I have a feeling it's difficult to go wrong, but the two we ordered to share were amazing. We had the burrata with leeks vinaigrette & bacon, pictured above, and...

The burricotta with braised artichokes, pine nuts, currants & mint pesto. Each one was meticulously designed so that each ingredient complimented the others. I couldn't begin to tell you which one was my favorite, but I do know I want to go back and try everything on that menu, pronto.

For my next course I chose the Santa Barbara Spot Prawns. These are a local, seasonal specialty, with a sweet flesh reminiscent of lobster. I may or may not have moaned when I tasted the meat, after pulling it out of the tail and swiping it through the mint pesto butter on the plate.

James chose the roasted octopus on our server's recommendation. So often this type of octopus preparation is rubbery and tough or overly charred, but this was delightfully tender and flavorful.

The best dish of the evening though (and it had some competition, let me tell you) was James' Sweetbreads Picatta. This dish was a stunner. Everything on the plate was perfectly harmonious, from the slightly crisp but tender sweetbreads to the tangy and rich (but not too much so) lemon butter sauce.

My gnocchi with duck ragu standing alone would have been wonderful - but it paled by comparison with the other dishes on the table. One friend had the grilled beef Tagliata with rucola - sliced flank steak with arugula salad - which featured a tender and flavorful piece of meat, and another ordered the Orecchiette with Sausage and Swiss Chard, which our server said was one of their most popular dishes. It was simple - just the orecchiette and a sausage ragu with chard chopped up in the sauce - but so delicious I couldn't stop eating it.

We shared these dishes so everyone could try everything, and by the end of the meal we were far too stuffed for dessert. Our server let us in on a little secret though - we could buy the butterscotch budino (aka pudding) in little pre-packed to-go cups at their Mozza 2 Go shop to eat later. I was curious to see the place, so we walked around the corner. There was a class in session at the Scuola di Pizza, where they teach pizza classes (for a cool $150. per person) on Monday nights, and offer dinners and Sunday lunches for $75.00 per person.

The tiny little shop next door is outfitted with a few Italian specialty items, a bakery counter and a refrigerated case for the salads and budino cups, pictured below.

We walked out with two budinos and a bag of bakery items, and loved each one more than the last. The mini Torta della Nonna was my favorite (eaten out of hand after coming home from a concert at 2 AM.) I found the recipe online and I'm looking forward to trying it out. The budino is also every bit as swoonworthy out of a plastic cup as it is in the restaurant - they even include thecaramel sauce and  little dollop of sweetened creme fraiche on the top.  It gets a little smashed by the lid, but it doesn't matter - since you're not sitting in the middle of a restaurant, you can just lick it right off! 

Osteria Mozza

6602 Melrose Ave

Los Angeles, CA

323.297.0100

recommendations: Anything from the Mozzarella bar, the Sweetbreads Piccatta, Orecchiete with Sausage and Swiss Chard, Torta della Nonna, butterscotch budino and pastries from the Mozza to Go shop.

A few more photos can be viewed here.

Read my recent post about Pizzeria Mozza here.

A Pilgrimage to Chez Panisse - Berkeley

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to eat at Chez Panisse. When I moved to the Bay Area, in October, 1995, I actually drove by the restaurant, just to check it out. I found a bakery nearby that I liked, and from then on, every once in a while, I would go over there to get cookies and goggle at the menu in the glass case out front. (The original Peet's location is also just around the corner on Vine.)

The downstairs restaurant was a little out of my reach at the time, and the Cafe didn't take reservations. I remember driving the 45 minutes or so at least once to try my luck for a table, but never made it. I did frequent Cafe Fanny though, for beignets, mochas and poached eggs on toast, and the downstairs Cafe at Oliveto was my favorite lunch spot. I'm not sure if I knew at the time that Paul Bertolli, the chef and owner of Oliveto was a Chez Panisse alum. Other Chez Panisse alumni have become successful in their own right. Jeremiah Tower had Stars for a time, and Judy Rogers has the Zuni Cafe - which is wildly successful to this day. Lindsay Shere - the longtime pastry chef and co-owner of the restaurant opened the Downtown Bakery and Creamery right on the square in Healdsburg.

Chez Panisse has the feel of a magical place - it has the mythology, certainly, but there's something about the building itself and the aesthetic that has a fairy tale quality. It's welcoming, the lighting is just right, the noise level has just the right murmur. The service has just the right tone. Every detail - though not necessarily perfect - is just right. At least for me. I loved walking in, up the stairs past the dining room with it's wild flower arrangements, to the copper toned bar with the marble counter - then past the wooden bar laden with the evening's desserts, to a booth just opposite the kitchen. (We snagged a last minute reservation in the Cafe - no luck on the dining room.)

When we were seated, we were immediately presented with a plate of Acme bread, some amazing butter and a carafe of eau de Chez Panisse. The restaurant has repudiated bottled water, and serves filtered tap water in elegant, etched carafes.

The menu changes daily, and on this particular evening there happened to be so many good choices we had trouble deciding among them. While sharing a bottle of "Vigne di Alice" Prosecco, we elected to try two starters, the fresh mozzarella with tapenade, asparagus salad and prosciutto, and a toast topped with cardoon, kale, egg and anchovies.

You already know that everything at Chez Panisse is perfectly fresh and responsibly raised, but that isn't always a guarantee of delightful flavor. A little originality and composition is always appreciated when it works well, and in these dishes it worked perfectly.

For main courses, both Tommy and James chose the Pork Milanesa with Celery Root Remoulade and Little Potatoes, while I picked the pizza of the day - spicy squid with tomato sauce and aioli. Yes, Aioli on a pizza. It may sound a little strange, but it was genius. The crust was light and crisp, the squid perfectly cooked with just the right amount of spice.

The Pork Milanese was crisp and juicy, and combined with the celery root remoulade to create a perfectly balanced dish in terms of both flavor and texture. The celery root has a juicy almost apple-like texture, but isn't as sweet. A bit of mustard in the dressing, watercress, capers and a squeeze of lemon rounded out the dish.

The dessert list was tempting but deceptively simple. Both of the options we chose provided more satisfaction than I expected based on their descriptions. Tommy chose the white and dark chocolate ice creams with chocolate sauce, and I had the blood orange upside down cake with cardamom cream. James opted for a cheese plate - which offered three small servings he very much enjoyed.

The ice cream was silken and smooth, like frozen chocolate mousse, and the cake was buttery and dense - topped with a layer of caramelized blood oranges. It's something I've never thought about trying at home, but I'm pretty sure it could be done. The cardamom spiked whipped cream alongside was lovely, and it was all fabulous with the little pot of their own Blue Bottle coffee that I had ordered.

I can see how one might become frustrated with Alice Waters and her idealistic philosophies, decide the restaurant couldn't possibly live up to the hype, or simply look for a way to find fault to be contrarian, but there was no temptation to do any of that, at least for me. The restaurant has lofty ideals, but it's the tradition of excellence, simplicity and attention to detail that has kept them in business for nearly 40 years. It's both inspiring and encouraging to see that tradition being carried on - not just by David Tanis and his crew - but by all of the restauranteurs, chefs and eaters who have been informed and influenced over the years by Alice and her little house on Shattuck Avenue.

Chez Panisse

1517 Shattuck Avenue

Berkeley, California 94709

The Cafe is open 7 days a week, lunch and dinner. Prices range from $10-$30

The downstairs restaurant is open 7 days a week, dinner only - prix fixe. $60. on Mondays, $75 most other nights, $95 Fri and Sat.

Reservations are recommended and are taken one month to the day before dining.

The Devil's Food Duel

For a long time now, I've been wanting to make a chocolate cake from scratch. I have a bit of an aversion to baking cakes, pies and other "one piece" desserts, because I can't test them before serving them to friends and family. Sometimes things go well, but then again, sometimes they don't.

The excuse for this baking frenzy was not this just month's Sugar High Friday #27 (theme: Chocolate by Brand) but a meeting of my monthly supper club. It's supposed to be a Cooking Light supper club, but nobody seems to mind too much if the dessert isn't exactly low fat. After looking online and poring over several of the cookbooks on my shelves, I came up with two radically different recipes, one from a fun little cookbook I picked up last week called "Birthday Cakes" by Kathryn Kleinman, and one from Epicurious. Though they both claimed to make devil's food cakes, the Epicurious recipe used butter, semisweet chocolate and cocoa powder and called for far less baking soda and baking powder. The "cookbook" recipe called for twice as much cocoa powder, double the amount of baking powder and soda, but only half a cup of oil and half as many eggs.

I could hardly believe that two dissimilar formulas would lead to the same result, but I couldn't tell from the recipes exactly what I would get from each one. As you may have already figured out, I decided to try them both. I stuck with the flavors called for in the original recipes, since I figured they would be compatible, but I added a ganache filling to the Epicurious cake, and I used a different frosting recipe from the Birthday Cakes cookbook - the one on the cover to be exact - I really wanted those thick swirls of fudgy buttercream!

"Birthday Cakes" is a cute book with lots of pictures and a wide variety of recipes from the "who's who" of pastry-chefdom, including Maida Heatter, James Beard, Alice Medrich, Alice Waters, Emily Luchetti, Julia Child, Lindsay Shere, Flo Braker and our very own David Lebovitz (who also happens to be the host of this month's Sugar High Friday!) I like that it includes pictures of all of the cakes and gives you a recipe for a finished product, rather than forcing you to guess what will go with what. As a bonus, most recipes include a little story from the chefs as to why the cake is special to them.

On the downside, the recipes aren't quite detailed or specific enough about methods and times - for example, not telling you what attachment to use with the standing mixer, or how long to beat the frosting to get it to thicken properly - but a moderately experienced baker would probably be able to cope with these shortcomings.

To comply with the Sugar High Friday theme, I must tell you a bit about the brands of chocolate that I used and why. I used two different cocoa powders, Valrhona and Scharffenberger, in an effort to test their properties in finished baked goods. The difference between them in their raw form is strikingly apparent. The Scharffenberger (pictured above in the front) is much lighter and reddish in color, and smells good, like actual chocolate. The Valrhona, which is "dutched" is deep brown and smells a bit bitter. It turns out that the "dutching" process involves washing the cocoa with an alkaline, which raises its' pH level and affects both the flavor and how it behaves when added to baked goods. What I have read online indicates that you are not supposed to substitute one for the other. Apparently it can affect whether the cake rises properly, becasue the cocoa interacts with the baking soda and baking powder. Dutched cocoa will not react with baking soda, and requires that baking powder be added in order for the cake to rise. I used the natural Scharffenberger cocoa in the cake that called for more baking soda and powder, and dutched cocoa in the other cake (along with melted chocolate), which would seem counterintuitive. Both of them rose just fine, but the cooking methods were dissimilar which may account for the difference. One (the Scharffenberger) was dissolved in water first, and the other was simply whisked into the flour.

I was really impressed with the color and flavor of the Scharffenberger cocoa. It wasn't cheap - I found it at Vons for $9.50 for a six ounce can - but it just smells and looks better than ordinary cocoa. To help offset the expense I used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao bars for the semisweet chocolate, which cost 1/4 as much as the comparable amount of Scharffenberger (except in the ganache, where I used Valrhona 55% that I had on hand.) I find that the Ghirardelli 60% chocolate bars and chocolate chips are widely available, always fresh in the store and far less expensive than Scharffenberger or Valrhona.

Ultimately, I found that the cookbook recipe - flavored only with cocoa and containing no butter - produced what I think of as a true devils' food cake. The Epicurious cake had more of a brownie-like flavor and texture. It certainly wasn't bad, but wasn't quite what I was going for. It also had a lighter color and though moist, was a bit crumbly. If I do make this recipe again I would consider using some unsweetened chocolate to deepen the flavor, and I would moisten the layers with simple syrup.

The fillings turned out great. The orange ganache and the fudgy buttercream frosting on the Epicurious cake were spot on - and the whipped cream, banana and peanut butter with the devils' food cake was quick, simple and tasty. They were both popular at the supper club and it was interesting to hear which version people preferred and why. It was about evenly split, with some people preferring the dark moist crumb of the devil's food, and others preferring the dense richness of the Epicurious cake. Either would make a spectacular birthday cake.

Without further ado, here are the recipes:

The "Epicurious" Cake:
Chocolate Orange Ganache Torte with Espresso Crunch and Buttercream Frosting

Cake:
(adapted from Epicurious):
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I'd recommend 70% cacao or over)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups (packed) golden brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 large eggs

Ganache:
4 oz good quality semisweet chocolate (I used Valrhona Equatoriale 55%)
8 oz heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp Grand Marnier or other orange liquer
1 tbsp brandy
4 drops of orange oil, or 1 tsp of finely grated fresh orange zest

Crushed espresso crunch candy (I bought mine at a baking supply store - you could also just crush some hard coffee candies)

Buttercream Frosting:
(adapted from Emily Luchetti's recipe for Bittersweet Chocolate Frosting appearing in Kathryn Kleiman's "Birthday Cakes")
4 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used Ghirardelli 60%)
8 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped (I used Scharffenberger)
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
3 cups confectioners sugar
pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp milk

Chopped candied orange peel

For the cakes:
Preheat to 325°F. Butter and flour two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Line bottoms of pans with parchment paper rounds. Stir chocolate in top of double boiler set over simmering water until smooth. Remove from over water. Cool to barely lukewarm.

Sift flour and next 4 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat brown sugar and butter in large bowl until smooth. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in melted chocolate until smooth. Mix in dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk in 3 additions each. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans (if you have one, a scale is great for this).

Bake cakes until tester inserted into centers comes out nearly clean, about 30 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks 15 minutes. Turn cakes out onto racks; remove parchment and cool completely.

At this point, Cakes can be refrigerated overnight, well wrapped in plastic.

If desired, you can brush the cakes with a bit of simple syrup before using. It will help keep them fresh longer and make the cake a bit easier to cut and serve. To make, boil equal parts sugar and water (about a half cup of each) and cool - add a bit of liquer or extract for flavor. Flip the cakes upside down and brush liberally with the syrup before filling with ganache.

For the Ganache:
When you are ready to assemble the cake, finely chop the chocolate and place in a heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to a boil in a small saucepan and strain into the chocolate through a wire mesh sieve. Allow to stand for a few seconds and gently whisk by hand to blend. Add the orange oil or zest and liquers and whisk just to blend. Place the ganache in the refrigerator and allow to cool for about forty minutes, stirring once or twice during the chilling (don't allow it to harden).When it is cooled, place it in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and beat just until thickened and fluffy. Be sure not to overbeat it, or it will become grainy. Do not chill it again before putting it on the cake (like I did, and had to heat it over a double boiler to bring it back to spreadable consistency!)

Immediately spread the ganache over the bottom layer of the cake and sprinkle with the espresso crunch. (I flipped the cakes upside down so that the flat side was facing up.) Add the top layer of the cake and press down firmly - using plastic wrap to keep the cake from sticking to your hands.

For the Frosting:
Melt chocolates and butter together in a double boiler, remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. Sift the confectioners' sugar and salt together into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. In a small bowl, combine the vanilla and milk. Whisk the milk mixture into the confections sugar to form a paste. With the mixer running on low speed, drizzle the melted chocolate and butter mixture into the bowl. Turn the mixer up to medium speed, and whisk at high speed just until thickened to the desired consistency. Do not overbeat the mixture, or it might "break" or start to separate. Use immediately to frost the cake.

To make candied orange peel, boil thin strips of orange peel (the orange part only - remove the pith) in simple syrup (1/2 cup of water and 1/2 of sugar) for thirty to forty five minutes, until most of the bitterness is cooked out. Lay the strips on a paper towel in the refrigerator to cool and dry, then chop finely and sprinkle on the cake.

The finished cake will keep for a day or two unrefrigerated - if refrigerated, bring to room temperature before serving and protect any cut edges from drying out with saran wrap or parchment. Cut the cake with a sharp knife dipped in hot water.

The "Cookbook Cake":
Elvis Cake
Adapted from a recipe by Maria Bruscino Sanchez in Kathryn Kleinman's "Birthday Cakes" in honor of of the King's favorite sandwich - fried peanut butter and banana

(this cake should not be assembled more than a couple of hours before serving because it contains fresh banana and whipped cream - on the plus side, it is really quick and easy to put together.)

Devil's Food Cake:
1 cup boiling water
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup of whipping cream
3 tbsp confectioners sugar

1 jar of smooth, sweetened peanut butter, such as Skippy
2 ripe bananas

For the cake:
Preheat the oven to 325. Grease and flour two nine inch cake pans and line them with parchment paper. Pour the boiling water over the cocoa powder and whisk to dissolve. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix on low speed. Add the eggs and cocoa mixture and blend on low speed for one minute. Scrape down the bowl and add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Beat on low speed for one minute. Scrape down the bowl and beat on medium speed for one to two minutes, or until smooth.

Pour the batter evenly into the pans and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a tester comes out with a moist crumb. Let the cakes cool on wire racks in the pans for ten to fifteen minutes, then turn out onto wire racks to cool. Remove parchment paper and let cool completely before frosting. Cakes can be stored overnight in the refrigerator wrapped in plastic.

To assemble, chill bowl and whisk of electric mixer in the freezer for fifteen minutes. Whip cream to soft peaks in the mixer, then added powdered sugar. Resume beating and whip just until stiff.

Slice banana slightly diagonally and place bottom layer of cake on serving platter. Spread bottom layer with thick layer of whipped cream leaving about 1/2 to 3/4 inch around the edge, and dot liberally with sliced banana and small dollops of peanut butter. Spread with a little more whipped cream and top with second layer of cake. Press down lightly on top of cake, just until whipped cream reaches the edges. Spread top of cake liberally with whipped cream, and garnish around the edges of the cake with slices of banana topped with a dollop of peanut butter so that each slice will have one. Dust the top with cocoa if you have some on hand - I forgot mine. You may also notice that I have only half of a cake pictured above. I lost a layer to breakage. (I probably could have saved it, but I decided to eat it instead!)

Ultimately, I myself preferred the devil's food cake, and I was surprised at how easy and delicious the peanut butter/banana/whipped cream combo was. Then again, I also really liked the orange ganache and buttercream combo. I was also just glad that both cakes turned out well given the experimental nature of the project. It gave me the confidence to sign on to make the cake for my friend Susan's birthday party coming up in a couple of weeks. She has specially requested an almond cake, and I think I have just the thing (the cake part) with a little almond extract to boost the flavor. We'll see how it turns out.

To see the rest of the Sugar High Friday entries, toddle on over to David Lebovitz' blog - it promises to be a doozy!