Cake

Since today was my boyfriend's birthday, I decided to be awesome and make him a birthday cake using this recipe. It turned out great and was super easy to make, however it wasn't without drama.

My original plan had been to use both regular dark chocolate and some flavored with espresso for more of a dark and exotic taste. Going into Whole Foods, my standards for chocolate were high: obviously allergen-free, fair-trade, and organic if possible. A word to the wise, fair-trade and organic do not always mean safe. There is one company in particular I was looking for, Taza, because they meet all of the requirements and are also locally produced in Massachusetts. Alas, there was none to be seen. Every other bar of chocolate I looked at had soy or milk in it. I stood forlorn in the aisle, banging my head against the shelves looking for inspiration. Eventually I found a bag of Enjoy Life chocolate chips, which are made in a dedicated allergen-free facility, however I had to let go of my stipulation of the chocolate being fair-trade or organic. One down, one to go.

Next I looked for some cocoa to use. Once again, everything had soy lecithin in it. Everything. I ended up buying a canister of Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa, but decided against using it because it is made on the same equipment that makes soy products and is made in a facility that processes milk. So much for my dream of hot cocoa this winter.

What am I going to do with you? 

Then there was peripheral drama because I had no idea what to bake the cake in, considering that college students aren't in the habit of carrying tart tins to school. And then my boyfriend and I weren't able to get eggs this weekend, so my roommate saved the day by getting me six aluminum pie tins and a half-dozen eggs when she went home. I owe her big time. The pie tin worked out great because the cake got some nice scallopy edges on it!

Isn't it purdy? Om nom nom....

As for the actual cake making process, it went swimmingly. I substituted the butter with coconut oil, which adds a little extra flavor, and used almond milk instead of regular. Because I couldn't use the cocoa, I added a half cup of rice flour to thicken things up a bit. So technically, this wasn't a flourless chocolate cake. But whatever. I also never used any vanilla extract. I didn't want to buy a bottle because it gets pretty expensive and I don't think I'd use it for much else. I was tempted to go for the vanilla almond milk, but the "natural flavors" listed on the package turned me off. In the end, safety is safety when it comes to my boyfriend's diet and I figured that with the coconut flavor I could let it slide. I also didn't use the salt, but heck, it was only 1/4 teaspoon.

All in all, the cake was delicious and went fast. It packs a lot of flavor even though its only a couple inches high. If you have a 10 oz bag of chocolate chips laying around the house, I highly recommend that you give this a try!

Quit bashing my national dish

I'm tired of everyone bashing the haggis. Often when I Google the recipe, I come up with snarky sarcastic websites that give you the directions and then usually say something like "serve with a glass of whiskey so that you can actually eat the stuff!". Even Alton Brown, Food Network Chef and new darling of Concord Grape Juice, ends his recipe with "Serve with mashed turnips and potatoes, if you serve it at all!"

Well excuuuuuuuuse me!

What is haggis you may ask? In basic terms, a sausage. Albeit a large, football sized sausage, but a sausage none the less. However it gets a bad rap because the contents are a sheep's pluck (heart, liver, lungs, and tongue) and is cooked in the sheep's stomach. Sure, organ meat isn't everyone's cup of tea, but sausage is traditionally made from various "bits" of animals. Want to know what makes the casing of a sausage crisp when you cook it? That would be the small intestine that the filling is pressed into.

Haggis and other types of sausage were a great way to use up the nutritious organs of animals before they went bad (the pluck got it's name this way, because these organs were the first to be "plucked" from the carcass). They were a cheap way to make sure that  you were using all of the animal while getting a hearty meal.

I am determined that some day I will make haggis. In fact, I hope it will happen this year. There is a man at the farmer's market who sells sheep, lamb, and goat meat and I think sometime I'll ask if he could hold the pluck and stomach for me. There is a lot of prep time involved, because you have to soak the stomach overnight, cook the organs, and then boil the mixture in the stomach for three hours. However, apart from butchering the various organs (which I have minimal experience with), it's pretty much just waiting for it to be done. Plus, I think I can just use ground beef instead of suet, because for some reason suet seems to be extremely hard to come by in these modern times. I am so becoming a butcher's best friend in the future.

And if I decide to go all out Burns Supper, I am so reciting "Address to a Haggis" and ceremonially stabbing the haggis. It's hard to memorize poems with a Scottish accent, though.

(image from here)

Better late than....

Back in May, I emailed Larry and Luna's Coconut Bliss about the origin of the xanthan gum in some of their flavors like the chocolate almond brownie and ginger snap. I got a reply saying that they would look into the xanthan gum issue because they get their brownie and cookie base from another company. Alas, the xanthan gum is indeed made from corn. However, it is extremely comforting to know that my email was not lost in the void of customer questions. I had been wondering if I would get a response for a while, and just when I had given up hope the reply appeared in my inbox.

For anyone who still hasn't tried Coconut Bliss, please do so. It's amazing.