Since I need to experiment with different types of cake for the wedding cakes I’ll be baking later this year, I decided to make a chocolate Génoise cake last weekend.

If you’re not familiar with Génoise, here’s what Wikipedia has to say: “A Génoise Cake is a sponge cake named after the city of Genoa and closely associated with French cuisine that does not use any chemical leavening, instead using air suspended in the batter during mixing to give volume to the cake.”

For my first attempt at Génoise, I think I did pretty well. I did overbake it slightly as the bottom of the cake was a little denser than it should have been. Despite this, it tasted like it should and I won’t overbake it next time.

The recipe I used for the Génoise is from Baking Illustrated. As usual, this recipe from Cook’s Illustrated turned out very well and the recipe was well written and straight forward.

I sliced the Génoise in half and filled it with chocolate mousse from Sherry Yard’s Desserts by the Yard. If you haven’t ever flipped through this cookbook, you should. It’s beautiful and everything I’ve baked from it has been perfect (or as nearly perfect as I can do).

The mousse recipe can be found here on the Los Angeles Times website. I didn’t really change the recipe at all. The recipe made more mousse than needed for the cake…fortunately having too much chocolate mousse is never going to cause any problems at my house.

I’d been hunting for a good (and easy) mousse recipe for a while and this recipe is it. I shall search no longer.

And finally (as if the chocolate Génoise and chocolate mousse weren’t enough), I topped the whole cake with chocolate ganache. The cake probably didn’t really need the ganache to taste great but it certainly made it look a little prettier. And shinier.

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It’s official. I like rhubarb. Or at the very least I like raspberries enough that they cover up the taste of rhubarb.

I guess I should make a couple of other things with rhubarb before I profess my undying love for it. Someone on Flickr just commented that it’s good in an apple pie. I think I’m willing to try that. But I won’t be baking a strawberry rhubarb pie for myself anytime soon. I think I’m opposed to mushy strawberries.

At any rate, this is the second raspberry and rhubarb tart I’ve made and they’ve both been pretty delicious. I’ll even go so far as to say I think they’re more delicious than plain raspberry tarts and pies.

You probably want a recipe for this tart. But I can’t really give you one as I didn’t really use one. Make this like you would any other pie. Or follow the very, very loose directions below.

Start with a double batch of pie dough. Preferably homemade. But you can use premade dough if that’s what you do. Roll the dough to the appropriate size for your pie or tart pan. Line the pie or tart pan with one of the pieces of dough.

Toss the rhubarb (3 peeled stalks of it, chopped into 1/2″ pieces) and raspberries* with lots of sugar, a bit of arrowroot powder, a hint of cinnamon, an even smaller hint of nutmeg and a dash of lemon juice. Pour these into the dough lined pie or tart pan, dot the filling with a touch of butter and top with the second piece of rolled pie dough (or in my case, arrange the star shaped pieces of pie dough over the filling). If you use a solid piece of dough, cut a few slits in the top so that steam can escape while baking. If you don’t do this, you might have a soggy top crust.

Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.

*Sorry, but I really don’t know how many raspberries I used. Maybe 2 cups?

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Time for another list of random things I’m thinking about. I liked the last one enough to try it again.

Just out of the oven and cooling on the counter: A raspberry rhubarb tart. We went to the store intending to get peaches or apples for pie…but they had the rhubarb pictured above. I’m still not sure if I like it or not…but it tastes awfully good baked with raspberries.

Will be cooking for dinner tonight: Pork medallions with an apple & golden raisin sauce, roasted potatoes and asparagus.

Currently drinking: Water from my stainless steel Nalgene bottle.

Playing on the iPod right now: Fidelity by Regina Spektor.

Currently checked out from the library: Weeds Season 3 DVD (which is getting a little ridiculous), 30 Rock Season 1 DVD (believe it or not, I haven’t seen any of these episodes), Martha Stewart’s Cooking School and Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell.

Currently reading: Atonement (I’m still pretending that I’m actively reading it), Martha Stewart Living magazine, the last half of Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson and a food related memoir that I can’t remember the name of at this moment.

Would like to buy: a new couch. Preferably a sectional. Possibly brown leather.

Laughing about: Typos. My sister Tasha & I had a rather juvenile email exchange this morning about typos in emails that had me in hysterics. Think about how funny an email might be if you leave the “i” out of “doing”.

Currently knitting: A second pair of  Saartje booties for a friend’s newborn baby. I’m knitting them from Socks That Rock yarn leftover from the Chevron Scarf I made last year.

Anxiously awaiting: Eating the tart cooling on the counter. Also, I really want my daffodils to bloom. I think some of them might actually do so in the next week.

Needs: I still need shoes of all sorts. And some short sleeve shirts for work…that I’ll need if it ever gets warm for more than two days in a row.

Crazy Future Aspirations: To be a domestic diva with an empire. Kind of like Martha Stewart. But without people hating me and definitely without a jail sentence.

Playing on the iPod now: Catch My Disease by Ben Lee.

Attempting to Learn: How to decorate a cake. I can do it…but not nearly as well as I need to do it for the wedding cakes I’ll be making this summer.

Must Resist: Butter. I’m trying to use less of it. This is not easy given my penchant for baking.

What’s Keeping Me Busy: Work. My (mostly) desk job makes me tired sometimes. This surprises me after standing for 9 years at my old job. Of course, part of the problem might be that I can’t force myself to go to bed early.

Hyped Up About: Our new used bed frame. The boyfriend found it on craigslist on Friday night and we had it set up by 4 pm on Saturday. A similar new bed would have cost a lot of money. This bed did not cost a lot of money.

Waiting For: Laundry. It’s in the dryer. Then I have to fold it. And iron it. It’s kind of a Sunday ritual now.

Craving: A milkshake. Maybe a Baskin-Robbins mint chocolate chip milkshake. I haven’t had one of those in years.

Playing on the iPod now: Two by Ryan Adams. Which reminds me…doesn’t it seem odd that he and Mandy Moore are now married?

If I had magical powers: I would make our yard beautiful. Lots of green grass and flowers and vegetables and herbs. And if I had money, I’d think about paying someone to help me with it.

Looking forward to: At least one camping trip in April with friends. We’re either going to the mountains or the beach. Depending on the weather.

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For more Wordless Wednesday posts and info, go here.

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These molasses spice cookies are a favorite here. They’re also very popular with almost everyone else I’ve let have them. One of my old coworkers is pretty much obsessed with them. I made her a batch because she helped us move. Somehow or another, she made the batch of cookies last for more than a week. She loves them so much that she didn’t want her supply to run out.

Just last night, we were visiting some of the boyfriend’s family and the first thing his uncle asked was “Did you bring any of those cookies?” He tried some at Christmas and found out that 2 of his children had some last week. I must remember to bring him some the next time we visit. If I don’t, I might not be welcome back.

The recipe for these cookies is from Baking Illustrated and I really didn’t change a thing. They’re spicy but not too spicy. They’re chewy and gingery and wonderful. While I do like regular crunchy gingersnaps, I much prefer this chewy version.

The only thing you need to be careful of with these cookies is that you don’t overbake them. They should still look a little raw in the cracks that form while they bake. If you’re in doubt, take them out. They’re way better underbaked than they are overbaked. Trust me on this…I learned it the hard way. The hard, dry cookie way.

Molasses Spice Cookies

Recipe from Baking Illustrated

Preparation time: 30 minutes. Makes 18 large cookies.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line cookies sheets with parchment paper (or grease lightly).
2. Mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices together in a bowl and set aside.
3. Using a mixer, cream the butter on medium speed for 2 minutes.
4. Add the brown sugar and 1/3 cup granulated sugar. Beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes with mixer set at medium speed.
5. Add egg, vanilla extract, and molasses. Beat until combined, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula.
6. Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.
7. Place remaining 1/3 cup of granulated sugar in a shallow bowl. Working with 2 Tbsp of dough each time, roll dough into 1 3/4 inch balls. Roll balls in sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheets, spacing them 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart.
8. Bake until the outer edges of the cookies begin to set and centers are soft and puffy, about 10 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets for 2 to 3 minutes before transferring them to cooling racks .

Note: do not overcook. The centers of the cookies should be somewhat soft and spongy when you take them out of the oven, otherwise they will end up hard and dry.

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Despite all of my gourmet, epicurean, and foodie ways, I love ordinary store bought hot dogs.

Despite my ability to spend all day in the kitchen preparing just one dish for dinner, I love it when we have hot dogs for dinner because they’re ready in about 5 minutes.

Despite my desire to spend hours baking delicious homemade breads, I’m content to eat my hot dogs on Martin’s potato rolls.

Despite my love of sauces and spices and flavor, I like my hot dogs with only a drizzle of ketchup. No chili, no mustard, no relish, no onions. Just ketchup.

Despite my desire to eat healthy and less processed foods, I’ll never give up eating overprocessed industrial hot dogs. They’re just too tasty.

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I went to Costco yesterday. I went for the sole purposes of buying vanilla extract and pricing grass seed. I got the vanilla, priced the grass seed and bought quite a few other things I didn’t intend to buy. It’s the Costco way. That’s the reason I try to make trips there are infrequently as I can. When I do go, I spend the entire time I’m there fighting the urge to buy industrial size boxes of cereal or enough dishwasher soap to last until the year 2020.

One of the unplanned purchases was Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food cookbook, Great Food Fast. I’ve had my eye on it for a while and I was unable to resist its low Costco price. I also hadn’t gotten a new cookbook since Christmas so it was time to treat myself.

I’m looking forward to using this book to expand my easy dinners repertoire. I’m still getting used to not working in a restaurant and actually being at home for dinner every night. The restaurant used to feed me dinner when I worked dinner shifts and I probably only cooked dinner 3 nights a week. As a result, I have a very limited regular rotation of entrees. I’ve taken to scouring cookbooks, magazine and the web for new ideas.

Flipping through the book last night, I came across the recipe for these lemon custard cakes and immediately wanted to make them. As is normally the case, I made a couple of changes to the recipe. I used Meyer lemons instead of regular lemons. And I added frozen raspberries…if for no reason other than lemons and raspberries go so well together.

Obviously you can use regular lemons. You could leave out the raspberries (but you’ll only have 6 cakes if you do). You could use some other fruit. Blueberries would probably be pretty fantastic. Or blackberries. Oh, the possibilities.

Meyer Lemon Raspberry Custard Cakes

Very slightly adapted from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast

Makes 8 individual cakes

Ingredients

• Unsalted butter, room temperature, for custard cups
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons grated Meyer lemon zest (I used 2 lemons)
• 1/4 cup fresh Meyer lemon juice (from the same 2 lemons)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• approximately 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
• Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

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Many months ago, I wanted to bake chewy sugar cookies but all of the recipes I had required chilling the dough for some obscenely long period of time. I wanted cookies then…not 12 plus hours in the future.

After a little perusing of Food Blog Search, I found a recipe that didn’t require chilling and yielded chewy cookies. Bingo! The recipe can be found on the Fallen Souffle blog. I’m not sure of its original source as she didn’t list it in her post.

These are perfect. They’re quick and easy. I honestly had the first sheet of them out of the oven in about 20 minutes with the assistance of my Kitchenaid stand mixer. If you need something sweet and homemade in a hurry, these will do the trick. They certainly worked for me last Friday night when we were out of dessert and desperate for a quick sugar fix.

I’ve made these cookies at least 7 or 8 times now in various different ways. It’s really easy to add different flavors to the dough. I’ve made them plain and rolled in sugar. I’ve made a triple ginger variety with fresh, powdered and crystallized ginger. I’ve also added almond extract and crushed almonds. The favorite in our house are the lemon ones pictured today. They have lemon extract and dried lemon peel from Penzeys in them.

Side note: I’m kind of obsessed with Penzeys and I’m really obsessed with this dried lemon peel. If you don’t know what Penzeys is, you should. And if you are in the know about Penzeys, buy some dried lemon peel. You might love it as much as I do.

Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies

Recipe from the Fallen Souffle blog

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 – 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract (depending on how lemony you want them to be!)
• 1 tablespoon dried lemon peel
• 1/2 cup sugar for rolling cookies

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. Using a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and very fluffy.
4. Beat in egg, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon peel.
5. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.
6. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and roll in sugar. Place on lined cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.
7. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned.
8. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

One more thing: If you don’t already do this, store your cookies in a conainer with some pieces of bread. Any mildly flavored bread will do. The cookies will suck the moisture out of the bread. The cookies will be soft. And wonderful. I only learned this trick a year or two ago and I now swear by it. If you want soft cookies, you must use the bread.

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