After last week's cake-wreck, I was glad to find out that I have some skills with the baked goods after all. They key is not taking shortcuts with the cake or frosting. The cake itself is vanilla-cherry with some cherries mixed in. The frosting is dark chocolate with almond extract. In between the layers, in addition to buttercream, is crumbled coconut macaroons. To top it off, I sprinkled on some toasted coconut. This cake was for the birthday of someone in my lab who likes coconut, and it was a big hit. My next goal is to make cakes with more intricate and involved decorations now that I have a handle on the more understated techniques.
I did do a good deal of cooking this week myself, but I will not claim these delightful hors d'oeuvrs as my own. These are the wonderful creation of my new beau. From what he told me, they are eggplant slices wrapped around tomato paste and fresh basil, then breaded and baked. Quite wonderful.
The main course to follow the above eggplant rolls was this baked salmon. It was seasoned with dried tea leaves (sadly I cannot remember which type of tea) and seafood seasoning. It was grilled in the foil packet that you can see above. It came out very moist and well flavored. Who would have thought tea could be so versatile?
I will mention some of the other food I made this week, even if I ate it so fast I forgot to take pictures: fresh local berries with balsamic syrup, roasted green beans with cashews, cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto, garlic bread, and grilled corn with orange-hoisin butter. I also got a start on this week's cake, but I won't ruin the surprise.
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