Special Full-Sized Feature: Ebinger's Blackout Cake

This week's post betrays the letter of this blog, but not the spirit; the chocolate cake I made last night is much larger than 4oz. But on Friday I came across this story on NPR's website about the noted Brooklyn dessert, Ebinger's Blackout Cake, the preparation of which the article claimed to be both "arduous" and "a big, fat pain in the butt." So I felt compelled to take up the challenge.

I was also drawn to this recipe because of its historical nature - recreating this cake (and then devouring it) would be like stepping back in time and going through the same process my grandmother might have taken to make a special dessert for her family. I was also encouraged when I skimmed the ingredient list and realized that the components to the recipe, though numerous, were fairly basic. In fact, the only item I didn't already have in my pantry was bittersweet chocolate, and that was only missing because it's been a particularly trying week at work and I've eaten my way through even the reserves of my chocolate-therapy supplies.

There are no pictures of the process to show you this time around, because when I started baking, I didn't plan on posting about this project since it didn't meet my self-declared size requirement. But after I finished, it was so pretty and I was so proud of myself, I couldn't resist sharing. It did turn out to feel like a more complicated recipe than many of the ones I've made recently. Like the article said, lots of pouring and whisking and waiting were called for. And twice, even though I followed the instructions exactly as they were printed, the ingredients did not behave the way they were supposed to, which led to some consternation (read: swearing) on my part. Specifically, it took 4 tablespoons of boiling water to bring the cocoa powder to a paste-like consistency instead of 2 for the first step, and the filling was runnier than I think it was supposed to be, which made it squish out the sides of the cake when I put the layers together. Besides those minor wrinkles, everything came together nicely. And this might be ruining the vintage feel of the recipe, but I think sprinkling a little bit of sea salt over the top after the cake crumbles are added would be a stellar addition.

Anyway, sorry for the lack of cake-in-the-making photos. Just glance over the recipe and mentally picture me sweating and grinning while I bounce around the kitchen doing all of those things. Also picture chocolate smears all over everything, because they were. When you're done imagining, look below to see how my final product turned out.

Ta-da! The result of 4 hours and 3/4 bottle of chardonnay. Not a bad Saturday night in my book.

I let the finished cake chill in the fridge overnight before taking these pictures the next morning (that's right - the good people of the world go to church on Sunday, while I stay home and take pictures of cake...oh, complacencies of the peignoir). After photographing, I commenced to totally throw off my metabolism for the rest of the day by eating a piece for breakfast.

Warning - do not eat this cake without a tall glass of milk by your side. It's the "melt-your-face" kind of rich.

Mocha Rum Brownies

On a recent trip to Nashville to reunite with some dear college friends, my old roommate and I were aimlessly browsing the aisles and shelves of a little shop in her adorable neighborhood near Vanderbilt University when she spotted a recipe book called Booze Cakes by Krystina Castella and Terry Lee Stone. Needless to say, we were immediately intrigued, and the book ended up coming home with us. Today's recipe is the first of what will certainly be many successful, tasty, and tipsy adaptations of recipes from Booze Cakes.

These Mocha Rum Brownies combine the depth of good espresso with spicy rum, and the next time I make them I might even add a pinch of cayenne pepper and/or cinnamon to the batter to introduce another element of warmth to the flavor combination. The frosting (which also called for rum...because when they say 'booze cakes', they really mean it) was probably my favorite part of the whole recipe. I've had rather inconsistent results with butter cream frostings in past projects, but the proportions here were perfect. I also added an extra tablespoon of rum to the frosting because I was feeling daring. The results weren't disappointing. 

Besides upping the alcohol content in the frosting, the only other adjustment this recipe got for my 4oz jars pertained to baking time. The original instructions called for 40-45 minutes in the oven, but 35 min. was plenty of time for my portions to be done (perhaps even too much?). Then again, I am a staunch proponent of the "gooier is better" camp when it comes to brownies, so my opinions here may be biased. 

Pre-baking ingredient assembly. Your eyes aren't deceiving you -- that is, indeed, a box of brownie mix. One of the perks of this recipe is that its execution is pretty fail-proof. The directions essentially say to "dump all ingredients into a bowl and stir", which is great for beginning chefs, young children (who should omit the rum component, obviously) and those in a hurry. 

I'm glad to have an excuse to use my Italian espresso maker. The recipe called for 1/4 c. of coffee, and this made almost the perfect amount. I happily finished off the left overs, and the caffeine boost propelled me through the rest of the afternoon.

My cookie sheet is pretty ugly. Please ignore that part of this picture. The jar-filling process took twice as long as the batter-mixing process for this recipe, which is a rare phenomenon. Also, if I really wanted these to be pretty, I would have wiped the edges of the jars more carefully after they were filled, but I knew the frosting was going to cover up my shameful drips, so I let 'em ride.

Mocha Rum Brownies all baked and cooling on their wire rack. My kitchen smelled pretty awesome at this point. While the brownies sat, I started on the frosting.

Frosting ingredient assembly. No cheating this time - we're making cocoa butter cream from scratch. Buckle up (or help yourself to some rum...)

Like I said, this frosting was very easy to work with. And delicious.

Mocha Rum Brownie with his topping applied and nicely swirled. There's just one thing missing...

Ah, the raspberry garnish makes all the difference. I think if I served these again I would add more than just one berry to each brownie. A nice trio might look appealing and deliver more flavor (but these matched the picture in the cookbook, so I stuck with just one this time around).

One last look at Mocha Rum Brownies cooling on the window sill. I hardly every have cut, fresh flowers in the house, so I felt the need to document my tulips in this photo too. And the succulent terrarium is another souvenir from my trip to Nashville, which seemed fitting. 

Pi(e) Day Treat: Sage-Infused Blueberry Pie (From the Archives)

I promise to break away from the herb+dessert posts soon, but this is one of the tastiest pie recipes I've come across, and today is Pi(e) Day, so I felt compelled to share. I originally piloted this sage-infused blueberry pie in February 2012. The one mistake I made that time around was opting for store-bought crust and canned blueberries. In my defense, I was inspired to make this recipe on a whim and in a tight time-frame, so that excuses the pre-made pie crust...partly...right? And at least my error reinforced the obvious fact that fresh is always better. All of this apologizing is not to say that the finished product wasn't delicious...it just could have been so much more so.

I'd recently received a mezzaluna as a gift, and this might have been the first time I put it to use. Those sage leaves didn't stand a chance.

My shameful, store-bought blueberries were much improved upon the addition of herbs. In hindsight, a squeeze of lemon wouldn't have hurt either. Next time I'll know better.

The lining and filling stages. I am perennially challenged by the crust-lining process when I make 4oz pies. Keeping the depth of the crust uniform is important for even baking, and I always seem to end up with thin spots. These two seem to be pretty okay. 

My crust tops, all cut out and ready to be set in place. Thank goodness Hobby Lobby exists to satisfy all of my tiny cookie cutting needs.

ProTip: Use the ring part of the jar lids to cut out a properly-sized top crust.

Fancy little blueberry sage guys ready to go in the oven. Except...

ProTip: Don't be like me and forget to give the crust an eggwash and generous sprinkling of coarse sugar before putting your pies in to bake.

This is the best-looking of my final 4oz pies. The rest seem to have been slightly overfilled, and the stars were deformed into decidedly un-cute, mostly unrecognizable blobs. Still tasty though! 

Chocolate Lavender Tartlets with Lemon Cardamom Crust

Whoa, you guys. That is a long title. And at first I was leery of so many flavors -- Chocolate AND Lemon...Lavender AND Cardamom (no one can live at that speed!) -- but after spending the money on high-quality chocolate, I felt financially committed to the project. This afternoon I tried it out, and it was, as they say in the movies, love at first taste. (PS - Happy Oscar Night!)

This recipe comes directly from Emily Hilliard's beyond-awesome pie blog, Nothing-in-the-House (link to the right). The specific recipe is here, and I highly recommend spending some quality time exploring her other posts. They are all delicious.

So, here is the story of my afternoon baking adventure:

First, the supplies.

These items will become the crust. When they were finished, the lemon flavor was much stronger than the cardamom, probably due to the lemon zest/lemon juice combo. And yes, that is a glorious dishful of butter going into these suckers, because it's the Oscars and you deserve it.

And these will become a chocolate-lavender ganache. Only I forgot to set out the butter and heavy cream for the picture, so please use your imagination. More importantly, you may be looking at those white dishes and thinking to yourself, "Why, those don't look like jam jars. This blog is a lie!" But it's okay. First of all, the 4-ounce thing is more of a loose motif, not a strict rule. Also, (and those of you who know how type-A I can be will be able to imagine how pleased I was when...) I did a volume comparison between the jam jars and these mini-tart dishes, and they're the same volume...almost. So everything is fine.

After combining and processing the crust ingredients, I wrapped up the dough ball and let it chill for about an hour. I've only had my food processor for a year or so, and, frankly, it's such a pain to clean I hardly every use it. Because of this, I'm still a little intimidated by how big and loud and strong it is. I hope to get more comfortable wielding its power in the future. Stay tuned for updates on that front.

 The dough was really easy to work with after it was chilled. I managed to fill five of my 4'' mini-tart dishes rather than one regular 9'' tart pan (Sidebar: thank your high school math teachers, kids. You will use that formula for area of a circle or volume of a cylinder later in life). Can you see that buttery sheen? Mmhmm. Yeah, you can. That's how you know this is going to be delicious.

A quarter cup of lavender buds feels like a lot when you're measuring it out, but in the pan this seems like a reasonable amount. In this picture the lavender/cream mixture is all warmed up and ready to steep for about 10 minutes.

Draining the lavender-infused cream to start the ganache-making process. In that bowl, under the cream is a pile of really high-quality chocolate. And magic is about to happen.

Same bowl, same ingredients, five minutes later: after setting and whisking, our chocolate lavender ganache is ready. The citrus tones in the lavender went really well with the lemon and cardamom in the crust. I'm so glad there are culinary geniuses out there to think of flavor combinations I'd never dream of.

Those buttery, lemony, cardamom...y tart crusts are out of the oven and ready for their filling. (Confession: I actually made six, but the last one was so thin that it broke apart while it cooled and I ate it like a cookie...because I needed strength to keep baking and documenting the rest of the recipe, of course; I ate it for you, you guys.)

Almost done! Two years from now, somebody remind me to make Olympic-ring-themed tarts to celebrate the games in Rio. I feel like this is such an unfortunate missed opportunity with the Sochi games just closing last week. Sigh.

Okay, here's the real finished product. Chocolate Lavender Tartlets with Lemon Cardamom Crust, dusted with coarse salt, fine sugar, and lavender buds. These desserts are a surprising balance of refinement and indulgence, delicacy and richness, yin and yang. And I'm having one for dinner.

From the Archives: Goat Cheese Cake with Blueberry Lavender Compote

Continuing my obsession with putting herbs in desserts established in the previous post, this recipe capitalizes on spicy ginger and aromatic lavender infusing crust and compote to balance out a bright, creamy goat cheese filling. I got the recipe for the cheesecake here, but the original topping idea didn't appeal to me, so I found something a little less cloying. This blueberry lavender compote created a more balanced final product. Plus, when your cheesecake is gone, you can mix it into yogurt or eat it over ice cream. It's the condiment that keeps on giving.



Ready to make some gingersnap cheesecake crust? This will be the base of the goat-cheese cake that I will top with a blueberry lavender compote. Buckle up!




Crumbling the cookies made my kitchen smell very gingery - perfect for the sunny June afternoon when I first made the recipe.




I made extra crust thinking I would need more than normal for all of my jars. This was a gross miscalculation; after filling 18 jars, I had enough left over to make a regular-sized 8-inch crust too. SO MUCH PIE!




Goat cheese + cream cheese in the bowl, along with the other ingredients for the cheesecake. See me trying to ease my conscience by using the light sour cream?




Bowl full o' dairy. Also, someone ought to scrape the edge of that bowl. Who's in charge of this kitchen?? On a serious note, the goat cheese blended really well with the regular cream cheese. I used a mix of plain and honey flavored goat cheese, and it was just the right amount of "zing" (to use the technical term).




Miraculously, there was exactly enough batter to fill all of my jars plus the extra pie crust. Again, I'd increased the crust recipe by 50%, so I have no idea why this worked out.




After more than an hour in the oven, everybody is looking good! I wish I could describe how gently they fell when I pierced each one with a toothpick. This is a very light cheesecake, which is nice in warmer weather.




The ginger crust was a good complement to the stronger flavor of the goat cheese in the filling.




This little guy is ready for his compote. The blueberry and lavender flavors blended very easily, and the subtle floral aroma underscored the spicy ginger in the crust and the sharpness of the goat cheese.




Ingredients for blueberry lavender compote ready to go into the pot. I promise I strained out the lemon seeds and pulp before pouring it in! (Sidenote: I had to run all over town looking for the lavender to use in this recipe. After Meijer AND World Market let me down, good ol' Target came though ftw)




The directions insisted that after mixing all the ingredients and adding heat, the berries would "give up their water." I had no idea what that meant, and frankly the phrasing made me feel slightly uncomfortable. Anyway, I had little to fear; this is how they looked when I first mixed everything together over a medium flame, and then, about 5 minutes later...




...this happened! The aroma of lavender and blueberry was so pleasant and interesting that I had to taste it, and it was actually refreshingly tart thanks to the 1/4 cup of lemon juice.




The finished product: Goat-cheese cake with ginger cookie crust and blueberry lavender compote. These are really tasty, you guys.

From the Archives: Rosemary Olive Oil Cake

I made this savory-sweet cake for the first time in October of 2011, and since then I've never quite stopped craving it. I am a fan of bringing herbs into baking whenever possible, and this dessert is a great introduction to the concept for those who may be a bit hesitant.

The specific recipe I used here was passed on to me by a friend the old-fashioned, non-electronic way, but a similar version can be found here. I had to adjust the cook time to be slightly shorter when I converted the recipe into jars, and knowing me I probably added twice as much chocolate as was called for. I also used a combination of bitter and dark chocolate.

Here are a few moments from the baking process, along with the finished 4oz product:


Rosemary Olive Oil Cake (with chocolate chunks) in its early stages. I'm a little ashamed to admit I'm using Meijer-brand olive oil. Please excuse my poor-girl's pantry.





Ready to go into the oven. Ignore the rim of oil around each jar. That's all part of the delicious fun. The cakes are topped with a mix of dark and bitter chocolate for more flavor contrast, along with a generous sprinkling of white sugar to balance out the bitterness and give a pleasant texture to the tops of the cakes when they're done.





The finished product! The crunchy sugar and melty chocolate on top are the perfect complement to the rich, earthy rosemary flavors in the cake. And olive oil is good for us, right? So these could be considered a health food...?





Once they were done, I was so enamored I couldn't stop taking pictures of them. I'd recently discovered the macro lens on my digital camera at the time these were baked, so please enjoy this extreme close-up. Can you taste the awesome?

Famous First Words

Welcome to My 4oz Kitchen! In this project, I take traditional dessert recipes and translate them into four-ounce versions of the originals. My pies and cakes are prepared in jam jars instead of baking pans, which makes for easy transportation and portion control (plus, novelty...because this is America, after all).

Baking has always been a creative outlet for me; hunting down and trying out a new recipe is one of my favorite ways to spend a Saturday afternoon, and what started out as a casual avocation when a box of a dozen canning jars happened to catch my eye at the grocery store one day has escalated into something of a mission. This whole thing began quite a while ago, but my previous 4-ounce creations never made it further than a facebook album. Now, after lying dormant for too many months, The 4oz Kitchen is getting a make-over and relocating to this site where there is room to stretch out and do some serious bite-sized baking. 

Check back often to watch my collection grow. I'll be starting out by migrating some previous projects in from the fb album. There may also be an herb-ful chocolate tart on the way very soon. Enjoy!