several halloweens ago, a thoughtful friend (i think it was capnscurvy) clipped a recipe from the mercury news for black cat cookies. i made them for the halloween party we threw that year, and loved them. but as halloweens are a full year apart, i have to admit that i almost completely forgot about the recipe after the first go with it.
last weekend, we were invited to a bbq at a friend’s parent’s house and when we asked if we could bring something, dessert was requested. it was a very fortuitous request, because my dad had just sent me the recipe for a blueberry tart from the new york times (thanks, dad!), and i was waiting to make it for a group so mike and i wouldn’t consume the whole dessert ourselves.
on the morning of the bbq, we awoke early to the sound of mike’s cell phone alerting him to a technical issue with his company’s servers. mike rarely drives these days (he commutes to work on a bike), so we had lent his car out to his sister while hers was in the shop earlier in the week, and thus he headed over the hill in my car to fix the issue. i could have called her and asked for a ride to the store to obtain the ingredients for the tart, or for that matter, i could have called any of my other family members and friends dotted across the west side of santa cruz. but since the day was sunny and i needed some exercise, i decided to strap on my tennies and walk to the store. before leaving, i took one last thorough read-through of the recipe and realized that the dough needed to chill for 30 mins before baking. i had all the ingredients for the crust on hand, so i set to work making the dough, then stuck it in the freezer, grabbed my list and headed out listening to this american life on my ipod.
when i received a beautiful tart pan for my birthday this year (thanks, mom!), i decided that i had to utilize the new present and try my hand at tart making – something i’ve never tried before and frankly intimidated me a little bit. at about the same time, a coworker lent me a lunches, picnics & appetizers version of the tassajara cookbook, and while thumbing through the pages i found a lemon tart recipe that spoke of being the best of all lemon bar recipes, but reinvented into a tart. (i have to give credit to my talented husband for the gorgeous pic above, and while i’m at it, he also gets credit for about half the pictures on this website.)
i absolutely love lemon bars and figured that this would be a perfect way to ease my way into the art of tart baking – because how can you go wrong with lemons, butter, and sugar?
earlier this month, the new york times posted an article about the hunt for perfection in chocolate chip cookies. this article created a stir in the food blog world as everyone scrambled to make the recipe outlined in the new york times, critique it, and offer their own commentary about the best chocolate chip cookie.
i was planning on doing the same for you, dear readers, but every time i went to make the recipe from the ny times, my hands uncontrollably reached for my recipe box to get ahold of the card with my personal favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe instead.
in late june, we traveled out to ohio for mike’s family reunion. the event was held in a lush green park with a covered picnic table area, and on the day of, it was warm and humid with a nice breeze and a chance of some showers to liven things up. as we put down tablecloths to mark our picnic bench territory and set up a net for some badminton matches, family began to arrive with homemade goodies of all sorts. as a vegetarian, these events can be quite interesting, and i usually make mike go first in the buffet line to taste the homemade concoctions and determine if they are made with meat or if they are safe for my consumption. (luckily, my mother in law – thanks, barb! – always ensures that there are some delicious veggie items for us at ohio events, but i do love to sample the local cuisine as well.)
at the dessert table, though, there was no need for mike to taste test for me, and i promptly loaded a plate with more baked goods than my stomach should (or would) contain. when i first tasted this cake, my taste buds were delighted, and i mused out loud “what’s in this?? coconut? banana? pineapple?” and immediately went back for another slice. many badminton, bocce ball, volleyball, horseshoe/ring toss, and guessing how-many-items-fit-into-a-container games later, we were forced back under the covered picnic area by an afternoon rain storm. the baker of this cake was telling someone else about it, referring to the delicacy as a hawaiian wedding cake. i shared my delight with the recipe, and was shocked to discover that the recipe contained little else besides pineapple, flour, and sugar – a case of simple concoctions tasting better than more complicated ones. the recipe was so simple that the baker was able to give me the recipe off the top of her head, and i quickly wrote it down and vowed to make it again very soon.
flash forward a couple of weeks to my first opportunity to bake for friends in a long time, and it was without hesitation that i decided to make the hawaiian wedding cake for my beach celebration. i made two modifications to the original recipe: 1) i baked them as cupcakes (because the only thing better than cake is a cupcake!), and 2) i also decided made them vegan – see my parenthetical comments for more details.
here’s the unfrosted cupcakes (and an unsurprising glimpse of mike on his computer):
