if you could have any kind of cake for your birthday, what would it be? what is your favorite kind of cake?

Tia misu cake with black cherries.

In Missouri it's Terra Mizzou after the University here, but in Aruba, it's Tira Misous or something close, and without the black cherries. Also like French Silk or Mississippi Black Bottom Pie, terribly chocolate and nearly sinful. No more candles here.

tiramisu is very tasty. I love it loads and loads. But I'm also getting really fond of this vegan carrot cake I found...

Cheesecake,I'd kill for it.

Oh...yum. I remember once I made cheesecake with salt instead of sugar by accident for my mother's birthday...I felt so bad.

Cheese cake, just plain or with strawberries or something, I like Marblized Cheese cake, you know, black and white, actually its more sorta brown and white

i'd love a chocolate cake with raspberry filling and a hard chocolate shell. isn't that a torte? or a lemon merengue pie.

Oh...raspberries. Raspberries=instant Isolde lovin'

i suppose i should start thinking of this. i don't really eat cake. maybe a pizza with mole sauce would be more interesting

I don't eat cake either, now. I used to be a big cake fan. Not anymore. My favourite dessert is probably tea, fruit, or some vegan chocolate. Especially with raspberries in it...yum. I had really good stuff with hazelnuts the other day, though, made by Tropical Source. Good stuff.

Chocolate. With chocolate hunks (thats hunks of chocolate not chocolate coated spunky men - although that wouldnt be to bad heh). And chocolate sauce. Cause eating it hot would be mmmmmmm.

i couple months ago i made a pineapple carrot cake for my friend Ashby's birthday. heavier on the pineapple than the carrot, and it didn't have your typical carrot cake coloring or that gross frosting that people like to put on carrot cakes. it was a sheet cake. the cake was, incredibly, a smash hit. more than i expected. i guess it was really tasty. something about it... maybe the brown sugar, i don't know. my other friends all said that when it was their birthdays they wanted me to bake that exact cake for them. but it goes against my grain to just keep doing the same thing over and over again. so now i'm in a position of having to find something better than that cake. i've thought about chocolate, but it just seems too obvious. i was thinking about something with raspberries and maybe a pecan crumble topping. but i'm open to other ideas. it has to be a cake though. no pie or cheesecakes. well... maybe i could make a sheet cheesecake. that's not a bad idea actually. double or triple the ingredients. i have a good recipe for peanut butter and chocolate layered cheesecake. fuck. just saying it is getting me all hot and bothered.

http://members.tripod.com/RumeryP/mycookbook/pebuchch.html this is the one.

my birthday is in a few months. i have a danish cookbook. i want either the blackberry jam cake (brombaerkage) or the kolding beer cake (olkage fra kolding).

oooh! gimme the recipes, droopy. gimme gimme. please?

i used to drizzle hot fudge & hot caramel over slices of german chocolate cake. yum. i don't eat sugar or refined flour anymore, so that's right out. but i'd recommend it. it's kind of a massive sugar blowout. hell, put the whole thing on a scoop of hand-dipped ice cream & add whipped cream & chocolate sprinkles. about three million calories per serving, every one of them delicious.

while i'm waiting for some stuff to disinfect, here's the blackberry jam cake *1/2 cup soft butter *1 cup brown sugar, packed down tight *3 egg yolks, beaten *1 1/2 cups flour *1 tsp baking soda *1 tsp nutmeg *1 tsp cinnamon *3 tbsp sour milk (or buttermilk) *1 cup blackberry jam (raspberry would work, too) *flour *3/4 cup raisins, chopped (optional or substitute something) *3 egg whites cream butter and sugar. add egg yolks and mix well. sift dry ingredients together. combine sour(butter)milk and jam with dry ingredients and blend thoroughly with butter-sugar-yolk mixture. flour raisins lightly and add. beat egg whites until stiff and fold in. bake in 2 buttered and lightly floured 8-inch layer-cake pans 25 to 30 minutes in a preheated 375 oven. frost as follows: *1/2 cup brown sugar *1/2 cup white sugar *1/2 tsp cream of tartar *1/4 cup water *2 tbsp strong coffee *vanilla *2 egg whites boil sugars, cream of tartar, water, coffee and salt together without stirring until the syrup spins a thread. remove from flame stir in vanilla. beat the egg whites until stiff. add syrup slowly to egg whites, beating until the frosting will hold its shape and spread easily around the sides and over the top of the cake.

actually, this is the beer cake i meant. chokoladkage (chocolate beer cake) *1/3 soft butter *1 cupr sugar 2 egg yolks *2 squares unsweetened chocolate *1 3/4 cups flour *1 tsp baking powder *1/2 tsp baking soda *1/2 tsp salt *3/4 cup cold beer *2 egg whites under no circumstances use budweiser or any kind of american lager. i personally think stout would work well with this. cream butter, add sugar slowly and beat well. add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. add the chocolate which has been melted over low heat and cooled. beat until smooth. sift together three times the flour, baking powder, soda and salt. add to the butter alternately with the beer, a little at a time, and blend well. beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry and fold in. bake in a buttered loaf pan (9x5x3) about 30 minutes in a preheated 375 oven. serve plain or with light frosting.

thank you droopy! yummmmmmy yum yum. i'm going to make both. you rock the mic. case solved. oh, can i use that yummy Monk made lager ale stuff? can never remember the name of it. guiness might be good too. what do you think? name a brand.

the monk beer (ale, actually) is chimay. and i say go for it.

does the beer cake taste like beer?

I don't have much of an opinion on cake....but let me tell you my donut trauma. I used to love em'...when I lived in New England. We had Dunkin Donuts...which is a great name for a Donut shop thankyouverymuch. But then I move down here...and the main donut shop is called Krispy Kreme. And just the name makes my stomach turn and I haven't eaten a donut since I moved here. krrrrissssppy krrrrremmeee. Krreeeeeespy Kreeeeeme. uck.

a fucking urinal cake

Tim Horton's will be your donut saviour. My all-time favorite cake is Red Velvet cake. I don't consider it a good birthday without it. I think part of it is that my mom makes it from scratch and not from a mix.

Krispy Kreme's are fine doughnuts,it was a big deal to me when they came out here,just try them,forget the name.

Our Dunkin Doughnuts got busted,a couple of years ago.It seems they had some kind of illegal scam going on.Mid Easterners needing citizenship,and the local doughnut shop was providing American women to marry them,for a given fee.I still miss their doughnuts.

Good lord.

wow. that's awesome

doughnuts are probably the very worst kind of sweet treat you could eat. that's why they are so delicious. i remember Dunkin Donuts. droopy, i posted your beer cake recipe to my website. hope you don't mind. i gave you credit for it.

My wife used to make a chocolate/espresso/hazelnut cake which was really chewy, almost more like a brownie, which she'd put fresh whipped cream on top. Damn, what I wouldn't give to have that recipe, or better yet, her making it for me.

grandma would make a simple, sweet and buttery pound cake. a little whipped creme on the top, maybe a side of vanilla ice cream...keep it simply baby

Oh yeah, I remember my grandfather out back making vanilla ice cream in one of those circa 1900 hand-cranked deals with the rock salt. That was the best stuff. My grandmother would say it was Fanny Farmer's Philadelphia Ice Cream recipe. Damn, I gotta get me one of those ice cream makers and an old cookbook. Anybody know if those electric ice cream makers work well?

They work for me... Just don't buy the crappy "Ice cream mix" crap. Christ, that was awful. Real cream baby.

I saw my first Dunkin' Donuts a little while ago. I'm still recovering.

First Dunkin' Donuts? Where'd you grow up, in a cave? And Kalli, despite the name Krispy Kremes, if you can get past that, inside those hallowed greasy doors await THE finest doughnuts in the world.

whenever it snow in atlanta, a neighbor would make "snow ice cream" oh man that was good. just like you are talking about dougie...thats good shit

homemade ice cream is the best!!! we make icecream in an electric maker every summer to top our peach pie. always vanilla, but c'est tres bien.

My grandmother used to run her own bakery. When we were little it was a blast because she'd always make my brother and I these really elaborate cakes. One year I got an upright Garfield. Another year a Cabbage Patch Kid. Then at Christmas time (and this was my favorite) she'd make a ginger-bread house. Not one of those cheesey little things you see in Christmas Tree Shops. No, hers were always overly elaborate. I'd stare at them for hours and steal the gummy drop shingles when no one was looking. One year I fed her pug a couple of the candy egg things and he threw up in my uncle's lap. Thought that was pretty funny.

fine by me, sarah. it's not like it's my personal recipe. i got it out of a 1965 danish cookbook i'd found at a flea market. agatha - beer gives the cake sort of a tang. my danish birthday dinner - appetizer: chilled shrimp in beer, beer. first course: beer soup, beer. main dish: beer meatloaf, sauerkraut in beer, beer bread, beer. dessert: chocolate beer cake, then more beer.

Droopy,I wanna get tanked with you,where can we ggo with this?Love,J

fuck. the blackberry cake was a disaster. no fault of the recipe, i'm sure. drat.

the girls whose birthday it is tomorrow is allergic to beer. now what do i do? DRAT!

ok, now i'm trying a white chocolate white cake. the two round cake pans are in the oven right now. i'm going to put a creamcheese, sugar, and raspberry creme layer between them. earlier today i made a creamcheese, dark chocolate and rapsberry frosting, that i'll frost the outside of the cakes with. i hope this works out or i'm screwed.

That sounds very tasty. Allergic to beer, hunh? That's rough.

yeah, could you imagine the horror of it? something about hops or yeast, i think. i'm going to bake the beer bread today. it's Discoverers Day and for some goofy reason my company gives us this day off. it's also going to be web cam day, i think. since it's raining today and i'll be home making jewelry and doing laundry and yoga and crap. and spamming these boards, most likely.

I got the day off too, but I forgot, woke up, walked all the way over the PO, and it was locked. Doh.

sorry about the blackberry cake, sarah. i want to get wasted with you too, j. have a nice day, isolde. say goodbye, droopy.

droopy, i think i undercooked the blackberry cake. and it didn't get fluffy enough, it was just sorta flat and undercooked. urgh. i'll try it again though at some point. the beer cake though... YUM! guiness.

I'm going to make a Roasted Root Vegetable Soup tonight that I saw in Food & Wine magazine last week while sitting in a doctors waiting room. Looks easy and I think I can remember it: Roast 1 beet, 1 turnip and 1 parsnip all cut in 1/2 inch slices in 500 degree oven for 10-20 minutes on a baking sheet smeared with 2 TBSP of olive oil until golden-brown on edges. Meanwhile, heat 2 cups of chicken broth. Once vegetables are done, put in boiling chicken broth (or vegetable broth for veggie people) and simmer 20 minutes until tender. In batches, puree the mixture in a blender or food processor. Once all mixed, return to heat for 10 minutes. Add S&P to taste. Can serve with sour cream on top, and fresh dill on top of the sour cream. I think I'll make that as an entree (entree as the Europeans use it, a starter dish) and then broil shell steaks with garlic, then finish with salad. Yes, that will do nicely. And pumpkin pie for dessert. Can't wait.

That sounds pretty good...yum.

Yeah, turned out nicely. I don't mean to rub it in, but don't you vegans secretly hunger once in a while for a nice, juicy steak, broiled to perfection with the crispy fat? I can't imagine going without that.Just curious.

Nope, I don't. People ask me this all the time. I was veg for so long I've forgotten what steak tastes like. I can't imagine liking it at this point. I would eat it if I killed it, though!

Fair enough. Thinking of killing of cow anytime soon?

Not really, since a. I don't have cows, and the other stipulation has to be an animal I raised/know well b. I don't think the local farming community would approve of my slaughtering their cows. c. what the hell would I do with a whole fucking cow?

Freeze it.

moo! Wow, that's one big freezer.

what about chicken? dont you miss real chocolate made with full cream milk?

Nope. I DESPISE FUCKING HATE milk chocolate. It's REPULSIVE and I can't understand how anyone SANE would even consider EATING THAT SHIT.

Sorry. What I meant to say before I was possesed by Satan was: I infinitely prefer dark chocolate for its stronger cocoa flavour and smooth texture. I think that dark chocolate has more flavour to it, and plus, I love raspberries in chocolate, and the only good raspberries in chocolate come with dark...yum.

for my 18th birthday my parents took me to a fancy italian restaurant (slyvia's, if i'm not mistaken) that served minestrone soup to everyone. it was ok, but it tasted really strange. how was i to know that it was made with beef broth? i can't seem to eat it if i can recognize it, so i'm trying to wean myself off all meats whatsoever. as it is, i'm beginning to try altering recipes. i made a fancy french soup one evening this summer, but instead of using ham, i cut up a chicken and fried it in the dutch oven before composing the soup itself. i find vegetarianism liberating. your sense of taste is no longer dominated by the desire for meat. but that might be just me and what my dad did once.

you are using vegetarianism and talking about eating chicken in the same paragraph, do you consider chicken meat?

Apparently not. When I was vegetarian, I didn't eat _ANY_ animal. Period. That was that.

yeah i only eat my friends. many people call themselves vegetarians and eat seafood and chicken. it's meat-lite...

It's meat-lame, is what it is

well i wouldn't say that much. "tofu cheesecake" could be easily targeted and ridiculed as silly food.

I've heard of vegetarians who eat dairy products and eggs, and I know people who don't consider themselves vegetarians but only eat either chicken or fish.

Vegetarians eat dairy products and eggs. VEGANS do not. Some people don't like red meat, so they don't eat it, but don't lie and say they're vegetarians either...

..but then there is the question about eggs...is it life or not? maybe not by the time it reaches you, was it ever life? could it have been a life? are you, the vegetarian, eating what could of been a life? ..that stems into a "when does life begin?" argument.. ..which could lead us to the abortion topic.. which could bring us to reproductive rights, and the gender debates... the definition of vegetarianism is defnitely misused, but then again so is the term feminism .. so what the fuck.... full circle fuck (waiting for nate's follow up ass comment to sidetrack this nonsense)

I'm not holding my breath. Your very argument above is one of the reasons I decided to become vegan--I realized it was hypocritical to say I wouldn't destroy the life of an animal who had no choice I was chowing down on eggs and milk...so yeah. I just get bitter about vegetarians who eat chicken and fish, because I don't think of them as vegetarians. Whatever. It's my feeling.

you sure are a bitter vegan/hippie gal lately... i once read where vegetarians and vegans have more irriated dispositions than meat eaters... there is a joke in here somewhere involving irritable bowel syndrome but i cant seem to find it.

No, I don't believe in militant veganism. What people do is their choice, and that's how I've always felt. I just don't like it when people get confused, and I like to straighten these things out. I have personal resentment towards people who claim to be vegetarian and aren't, that's all. I'm pretty laid-back the rest of the time. Oh--and I'm _NOT_ a hippie, so don't ever call me one.

ok

*takes off her PETA t-shirt and lays down the potato gun* ahhh...much better. I'm eating raspberries in dark chocolate. YUM!

hippie!!

let me clarify that: i do eat chicken and fish, but i'm trying to wean myself off of them without my parents throwing a fuss. lately, if i cook anything it's vegetarian. is that better? i was an actual vegetarian for about six months, but my parents threw a fit at thankgiving two years ago.

do your parents dress you too? not to seem critical, i understand how parents can be that way, mine were when i went vegetarian in high school....but ultimately, they can't do a damn thing about what i eat. if they don't like it, tell em to bugger off!

That's pretty much what I said. I said: "you want to throw a fit? fine, I'll cook my own food. nothing I haven't done before. fucking deal with it."

Freaked out in what way? I can't imagine my parents throwing a fit if I didn't wanna eat meat. My mom would probably pester me occasionally, remind twice a day that I need protein... but that's how my mom shows that she cares. She nags me. I can imagine some parents I've known coming up with some pretty crazed reasons to rave about being a vegetarian... They probably would have lumped the practice with drug use and satan worship. Vegetarians corrupting youth. If I was vegan, I'd wear shirts that said things like "Omlets are abortion" and "Shellfish have feelings too".

*laugh* Maybe I'll make one. I like it. I could have a picture of a big bloody egg, and on the back, write "Omelettes are abortion." I'm really, really tempted to get a PETA shirt and do something naughty to it now. I eat lots of tofu. I just more more calcium today, too, so I'll have strong bones...

just to clarify, pez, i was simply asking if you considered chicken in the vegetarian category. i was not saying you were wrong. i support your rights to eat what you want. that would be a funny slogan: food- eat what you want!

It's a good slogan, though!I didn't mean to sound like I was attacking you, BTW, I was making general statements about how I feel about a group of people and their label.

i remember when i stopped eating meat, my dad got completely pissed at me and told me that i was stupid. it hurt my feelings, but i was seventeen and everything hurt my feelings those days. my mother didn't like it, but she didn't call me stupid either. mostly, she was worried that i was going to get sick and anemic, which was a valid concern.

i was a veggie back when i was only selling enough dope to buy more dope. we ate nothing but bean and cheese burritos and king cobra by the quart. think about that for a bit, eh? 4 guys eating nothing but bean and cheese burritos and malt liquor. at times walking into the bathroom was walking into a wall. i'm not speaking in metaphor, either. goddamn. and dope. lots of it. we kept the townhouse hotboxed. we'd reach for the bong in our sleep. waking up was wondering when you were sober last. and man. shit. man. burning bowls like a forest fire and painting bowls like Basquiat.

oh, and my favorite cake is carrot cake. with the cream cheese frosting that susie doesn't seem to agree with.

my friend andrew took me to lunch. i had 8 oz of prime rib for lunch, and two amber bock drafts. i'm nearly drunk, but it's my birthday week, so fuck it. tomorrow i'm having lamb for lunch, and martinis and banana splits and naked hot tubbing for supper. i've been saving up for this! whooo!

cake. i'm going to bake myself a cake tonight i think. and take valium so i can sleep. did i tell you guys i was hypnotized yesterday? what a fucking trip. i should take this to drunken ramblings. i'm at work. i need to go back to the bar for another draft.

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup (Food & Wine, Nov. 2000) 4 Servings 1 large beet (1/2 lb) -- peeled, halved and sliced 1/3 inch thick 1 medium turnip (1/2 lb) -- peeled, halved and sliced 1/3 inch thick 1 medium parsnip (1/2 lb) -- peeled and sliced on the diag. 1/3 inch thick. 1 medium onion, thickly sliced 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 4 cups chicken stock s&p creme fraiche or sour cream 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill 1) Preheat oven to 500. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the beet, turnip, parsnip and onion with the olive oil and spread in a single layer. Roast the vegetables for about 20 minutes, stirring once or twice, until tender and golden brown around the edges. 2) transfer the vegetables to a large saucepan. Add the stock; cover and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat until the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. 3) Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender or food processor until smooth. (Alternatively, use an immersion blender.) Return the soup to the saucepan and reheat gently. Season with salt and pepper. LAdle the soup into deep bowls. Top with a dollop of creme fraiche and the chopped fresh dill and serve at once.

i'm about to eat rice with shiitake mushrooms. hope it's good. it was from the nutrition department, so i got to use my discount. right now i couldn't imagine giving up eggs or milk (milk would be really really hard...i looooove milk) but it's doable. i've been asked if i miss (red) meat (hamburger and meatloaf...i was the ketchup queen!) but i hardly remember it at all. cutting down on red meat is good for your health...less bad cholesterol and more rainforests. but that doesn't mean that i'd knock a hamburger out of someone's hand. that'd be pointless.

the beer chocolate bread is in the oven right now, rising. oh my god. i had a *really* hard time not eating all of the batter. i had a really easy time finishing the leftover can of guiness. i think guiness is perhaps the perfect beer. thanks again for this one droopy, it kicks major ass.

I miss fresh hot cocoa sometimes. Luckily, I know farmers at home, so I can get milk for a few days when I go back. (I know I explained somewhere that I eat animal products i killed/removed from the animal if I knew the animal. anyway.)

Yeah, that's the one Nate. Turned out really nicely, although I had to up the quantity of liquid that I posted previously. I think I'll get a subscription to that magazine.