Mimesis and Midnight Chocolate Cake

I read somewhere that Charlie Chaplin once entered a Charlie Chaplin impersonation contest and did not win. I don't know if this story is true but I like it. Something funny happens when we try to be ourselves. Now the Chaplin situation is more complicated I know. He would be impersonating an act, but still. I think about how complicated that could get, and my mind wanders. He would be competing against impersonators who have obsessively "perfected" their outfits, make up, acts... Did their immaculate re-enactments of his work make him uneasy? Did he overdo it or was he too casual? did he get out-Chaplined by the mimics?

Then I think about how strangely we sometimes act when our awareness of ourselves is heightened for some reason. I've struggled to explain this before. I still find it hard to articulate how easy it is to turn into an imitation of yourself when you are in fact aiming for the opposite. It's almost as if when you try to isolate whatever it is that you are, in order to be it, you interrupt the flow of the process of being. I've caught myself in such moments before. I don't like the feeling. It's like wearing wet jeans.

A few weeks ago when Steve was coming to visit me in my little town for a few days I started thinking about this. Just before he got there I looked around me and wondered what my life looks like; what I look like in it. But I quickly distracted myself to help the moment pass for fear of ending up in that hyper-self-conscious state of awkward and anxious mimicry. At midnight Steve told me he was really craving chocolate and I said I'd bake a chocolate cake with the rest of our bottle of red wine. 
-Right now?

-Right now. 
And as we ate our chocolate cake with spoonfuls of whipped cream from a mason jar at two in the morning whilst discussing faith or religion or rationality or god knows what, I thought: If we ever have to audition as ourselves, we should do this scene. I'm pretty certain no one else's rendition could even come close.
 

Chocolate Red Wine Cake 
(bake this cake when someone craves it, for it does not keep well.)

6 tablespoons soft unsalted butter

3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup  white granulated sugar

1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk

3/4 cup red wine (we used chianti)

1 teaspoon good vanilla

1 cup + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/2 cup good cocoa powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line the bottom of a medim round cake pan with parchment paper, and grease the sides.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and mix until fluffy: 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and yolk and mix well. Then add the red wine and vanilla. The batter will look a little strange but that's fine. 

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together, right over your wet ingredients. Mix until 3/4 combined, then fold the rest together with a rubber spatula. Spread batter in pan. 

Bake 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool in pan on a rack for about 10 minutes, then flip out of pan and cool the rest of the way on a cooling rack. Dust with powdered sugar and eat with whipped cream. 

 

The Berry Blues

The blue ones always show up first. I think they're supposed to be ready to pick at the end of April but it's been warmer this year so the fruit shops on my way home have had gorgeous baskets filled with the dreamy blue-black berries for a few weeks now. How can you resist? Blueberries are great. They remind me of Robert Frost poems and make me want to bake. My first blueberry adventure this year was this coffee cake. It came out moist and delicious and looked absolutely beautiful because of all the dark blue magic in it.

You ought to have seen how it looked in the rain,
The fruit mixed with water in layers of leaves,
Like two kinds of jewels, a vision for thieves.
-Robert Frost

Recipe: Blueberry Coffee (or tea) Cake

1 1/2 C All Purpose Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
3/4C Sugar
1/3 C Canola Oil
1 egg
1/2 C Orange Juice
1 tsp Orange or Lemon Zest
1 tsp Good Vanilla Extract
1 C Blueberries

Optional Streusel Topping

1/2 C Flour
4 tbsp Brown Sugar
4 Tsp Canola Oil or Melted Butter
2 tsp Cinnamon


Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and the baking powder. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg with the sugar and oil until frothy. Add the Orange Juice, zest, and vanilla to the egg mixture and mix. Add the flour in thirds and stir until uniform but don't over-beat. Finally, fold in the blueberries.

For the Streusel topping, simply add all the ingredients and mix them with a fork. Pour half of the batter into a greased shallow cake pan (2 1/2") and top with half of the streusel. Next, pour the rest of the batter in and finish with the rest of the streusel. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

This is a very moist and fruity cake, so if you plan on keeping it for more than a few days, keep it chilled to avoid moldy berries.

Apple and spice and everything autumn

Winter in Toronto has been suspiciously gentle this year. We've barely dipped into double-digits below zero and snow sightings have been rare. So, I find myself entertaining autumn notions and craving spiced cake and apple pie and pumpkin things... My seasonal cravings are confused. When I found the recipe for this spiced bundt cake the other day, I couldn't resist. It's a moist and crumbly cake that's simple and elegant and keeps well. And it's ready to serve with a simple dusting of powdered sugar.
Recipe: Spiced apple bundt cake

1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 c (1 stick) room temperature unsalted butter
1 c brown sugar
2 tbsp honey
1 large egg
1 c apple sauce (here's how you can make your own)
confectioners' sugar to dust

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt and spices and set aside. In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer or egg beater, beat butter, sugar, and honey until fluffy. Add egg, and mix until the consistency is smooth.

With the mixer on low, sift in the flour mixture and beat until the wet and dry ingredients are just combined. Finally, stir in the applesauce. The batter should be a little lumpy and thick; especially if your applesauce is home-made. Generously grease or spray and flour a medium bundt pan and spoon in the batter. Bake in the oven, preheated to 350, for 50-60 minutes or until a knife comes out clean but moist. Dust with sugar and impress your guests. We don't have a cake dish, but I cheat by inverting a small china bowl and placing a large china plate over it (no one will ever know).