Pretty In Pink (Eye)

Today was our friend Lisa’s birthday.  You may remember the coconut cake I made for her last year (from a previous posting), but this time around I wanted to give her exactly what she wanted…rhubarb, and since it’s just as hard to find this November as it was last November, I went for the second best thing I could think of….chocolate.  Oh so sweet, delicious and decadent chocolate.

While I was looking through the “Baked” cookbook (where I found the Whoopie Pie recipe) I came across a little gem called the Sweet and Salty Cake.  Immediately I was intrigued and read through the recipe.  Almost everyone I know loves the pairing of sweet and savory items together in one bite…like peanut butter and jelly, bacon wrapped dates or a good aged Parmesan cheese with honey.  Why not do it with cake?  According to the book, it’s one of their most popular cakes, and now having baked and eaten it, I can see why.  Martha Stewart has the recipe posted to her site:  http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/sweet-and-salty-cake 

The fleur de sel is what makes the whole thing.  Our friend Jonathan, who happens to be a pilot, flew back from Nice with some of the expensive delicacy in tow…of course in France it’s only a couple of bucks, whereas in the States it’s more like twenty.  The thing about this salt is it elevates everything it touches to a whole new level.  Fried eggs with fleur de sel, pepper and catsup are heavenly (I’m sure some dead person is France is rolling over in their grave right now).  


Anyway, this cake is three layers tall, made of a dense, dark chocolate cake held together with a salted caramel filling topped with the magical French salt and chocolate caramel ganache frosting.  The richness nearly makes your eyes roll back in your head.  Perfect. In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit to burning one batch of caramel before getting it right. If your instant read thermometer isn't working properly, cook until the liquid is golden/bordering on amber color...another 30 seconds and it will be mahogany/burnt.

Lisa loves France, Paris to be exact.  The cute little cobble-lined streets, the food, the shopping…really all the things everyone loves about Paris.  It’s just so darned French.  I still stand by a Nutella crepe I had in Montmarte as being a near perfect food, but I just have to say I don’t find that Nutella contributes to a healthy part of any meal, breakfast or otherwise (if you have seen the commercial then you know exactly what I’m talking about).  The fleur de sel in the cake seemed a perfect tie-in to this romantic locale, and the chocolate I chose originated from Costa Rica where we vacationed several years back.  All in all the ingredients made for a cake of international proportions.

The day turned out to be a beauty.  The rains last night brought down many of the golden, orange, and crispy brown leaves to the ground, covering yards and lining the sides of the road.  We had a wonderful brunch at a place called Xaviar’s on the Hudson http://www.xaviars.com/yonkers/index.html



The views were gorgeous and we could see stands of fall colored trees winding up the hills on the opposite side of the river.  The sun began to peek out around 3:30pm on the drive home. The old Victorians and brick structures along the road were bathed in golden light.  It was all just as magical a birthday as the fleur de sel promised it would be, except for one thing…Lisa’s eye.

Poor Lisa.  Unfortunately she had scratched her cornea and it was making her miserable.  It was a tad pink and watery which is never any fun.  Certainly it’s not the most pleasant way to spend your birthday, but you have to make the most of it when these sorts of things happen.  You can try very hard to plan a perfect day for your friends, but life has a way of changing things up.  She wasn’t able to stay long at the party, long enough for presents and cake, but we could tell she really needed to go home and rest her eye(s). 

In a previous conversation Lisa told us she likes to give baskets of chocolate to people who aren’t feeling well or have had something go wrong in their personal life.  My birthday gift to her and her eye was the healing properties of a chocolate cake.  It’s just who I am.