There was a television series on PBS called Rumpole of the Bailey where a very clever lawyer was married to someone he described as “She Who Must Be Obeyed.” Not to her face, of course.

Not that I’m in that situation, but recently I heard Suzen say, “Too much chocolate.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Every damn blog post,” she answered.

Okay, I was hitting the chocolate pretty hard in the springtime, I admit. I did seek help and this summer has been filled with berries and fruit covered in natural, raw sugar. So think I’ve made enormous strides.

Now about this recipe for chocolate cake. I don’t know how I got it. I do not remember looking it up or printing it or anything. One day, there it was, printed out and on my desk. I would deny any responsibility for its appearance, but Suzen would not believe me. I may have accidentally downloaded while I was sleepwalking one night. Bad things do occur when you are chocolate deprived.

I won’t say this is the best chocolate cake ever. I will say, that if I ever have a formal last meal, this is the dessert I would request. The cake is divine. But the frosting is the killer. Milk chocolate frosting. A pound of milk chocolate plus whipping cream. I had the best time ever making this.

And the truth is, Suzen did, too. She decorated the cake. And she ate several pieces. I was just politely silent with every bite she took. One smirk from me and … Well, we won’t go there.

The one change we made in the recipe was to add crunched up Heath bars to the top of the cake as well as the middle layer. In fact, we divided the recommended four Heath bars, putting just two in the middle and then the remaining two on top.

Now, be honest. When you look at the picture of the cake above, don’t you just want to like your monitor? This cake is that good. As you plan for next weekend, buy some milk chocolate. Like a pound. Maybe more because you’ll want to taste test to make sure it’s good milk chocolate.

And to where to buy very good milk chocolate? Trader Joe’s has a house brand that is reasonably priced and exceptionally tasty.

Chocolate Crunch Layer Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting

Yield: 10-12 servings

Cake Ingredients:

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• ½ cup hot water
• 1 ¾ cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 ¾ cups sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ⅔ cup whole milk

Cake Preparation:

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350˚F. Butter two 9-inch diameter cake pans with sides 1‑¾ inches high. Line bottoms of pans with waxed paper. Butter paper. Dust pans with flour, tap out excess. Combine chocolate with ½ cup hot water in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Cool to lukewarm, stirring often.

Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then vanilla extract. Beat in chocolate mixture. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions, beating just to blend after each addition. Divide batter equally between pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean and cake just begins to pull away from sides of pan, about 35 minutes. Cool cake in pans on racks 5 minutes. Cut around pan sides. Turn cakes out onto racks; peel off waxed paper. Cool Cakes completely.

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cups whipping cream
• ¼ cup light corn syrup
• ½ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 pound milk chocolate, chopped

Frosting Preparation:

Combine cream, corn syrup and butter in heavy large saucepan. Whisk over medium heat until mixture begins to simmer. Add chopped chocolate. Reduce heat to low and whisk until frosting is smooth, about 1 minute; transfer to a large bowl.

Fill another large bowl with ice. Set bottom of bowl with frosting atop ice. Whisk until frosting is cool and begins to thicken, about 8 minutes. Place bowl of frosting on work surface. Using electric mixer, beat until color lightens and just until frosting becomes thick enough to hold peaks when beaters are lifted, about 2 minutes. Frosting will continue to thicken as it stands.

Assembly Ingredients:

• 4 1.4 ounce chocolate-covered English toffee bars (such as Heath Bars or Skor), cut into ¼-inch dice
• 7 ounces milk chocolate (such as one Hershey’s bar)

Cake Assembly:

Place 1 cake layer, flat side up, on an 8-inch diameter tart pan bottom or cardboard round. If desired, place pan bottom with cake atop 8-inch diameter cake pan to make a simple decorating stand. Top layer with 1 ½ cup frosting, spreading to edge. Sprinkle evenly with diced toffee. Top with second cake layer, flat side down. Press slightly to adhere. Spread thin layer of frosting over top and sides of cake to seal and set crumbs. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake (if frosting becomes stiff, stir gently spatula to loosen).

Stand chocolate bar on a short end. Using a vegetable peeler and starting at top edge of 1 side, run peeler down length of bar (chocolate will come away from side of chocolate bar in curls). Pile chocolate curls atop cake. Chill at least 2 hours. Cake can be made 2 days ahead. Cover with cake dome and keep chilled. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.

Source: Epicurious

So, what has been the most popular post so far? That’s easy: The Simply Delicious Yellow Cake followed by Sweet Pink Buttercream Frosting. Suzen entered those recipes two years ago and we still have people flocking to them.

Since that yellow cake is so desired, we decided to give you an option. Our friend Stephen Schmidt wrote what quickly became a classic cookbook. Master Recipes was published in 1987, and has since been republished and cherished by cooks around the world. The premise of Master Recipes is wonderful: provide a superior master recipe for, say, yellow cake, and then list several options and extensions, each of them equally delectable.

Stephen was working on the update for the Joy of Cooking and enlisted Suzen and her team to be the test kitchen. Stephen is, without question, a meticulous chef, teacher, and cookbook author. Every step counts for him, as you will see in the very detailed instructions he provides for this cake.

Suzen has applied an additional trick when making this cake. Rather than frost it, she infuses the cake and its adorning whipped cream. When you bake the cake, before you put the batter in the pans, place 2 washed and dried rose-scented geranium leaves in the bottom of each pan. After the cakes have cooled, remove the leaves. There is a very lovely herbaceous aroma that modestly penetrates the cake.

And, instead of frosting, Suzen steeps lavender blossoms in whipping cream for two hours, then whips the cream with a little sugar and crowns the cake with another herbaceous tone.

This cake is a true mellow yellow and a refreshing light dessert on hot summer nights.

Stephen, by the way, has over a decade devoted to his next book, the ultimate, comprehensive survey of American desserts. We understand that publication is forthcoming, and we look forward to enjoying what will surely be the pinnacle of dessert books.

Master Yellow Cake

Yield: serves 8

Ingredients:

4 large eggs, separated
2 cups sugar
16 tablespoons (two sticks) butter
2 ¼ cups on sifted cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
Salt

Preparation:

Bring all ingredients to room temperature. If the ingredients are either too old or warm, they will not become aerated when beaten and they will not blend with one another in the proper manner

Set racks in the upper middle and lower third levels of the oven.

To bake a cake in 9-inch layers, select three round pans measuring 9 inches across and 1 ½inches deep.

There must be enough room in the oven for the cakes to be placed at least 2 ½ inches apart and 3 inches distant from the oven walls; otherwise, they will rise in a lopsided fashion. If you have a small oven test the oven size with the empty pans. If there is not enough room, baked just two layers of the time, one on each rack. Set the third layer aside at room temperature, loosely covered, and bake the other two were done.

Smear the bottom sides and corners of each pan with 2 teaspoons soft butter or vegetable shortening. Sprinkle 1 ½ tablespoons flour and each pan and shake and tap the pan so the bottom and sides are completely dusted. Invert pan over the sink and rapid sharply against the faucet to remove any excess flour. If you follow this procedure conscientiously, your cakes will never stick to the pans.

Preheat oven to 350°F 20 minutes before baking

Step 1: Creaming Butter, Sugar, and Egg Yolks

Separate eggs, placing yolks in a 4-quart mixing bowl and whites in absolutely grease free 3-quart bowl (not use a plastic bowl for whites). Set egg whites aside.

Add sugar and butter to yolks and beat at moderately high speed with electric mixer, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, until soft, off-white in color, and nearly as fluffy as stiff cream. This will take 6 to 8 minutes depending on the efficiency of your mixer. The purpose of the step is to incorporate air into the batter, so don’t stint on the beating. On the other hand don’t overbeat the batter either, or it will turn grainy and curdled-looking and much of the air that you have beaten in will escape.

Step 2: Adding Flour, Baking Powder, Milk, and Vanilla Extract

Measured flour and baking powder into a 2 ½-quart mixing bowl and toss with a fork or wire whip to blend thoroughly; the leavening must be well distributed within the flour or the baked cake will be riddled with large holes. Sprinkle one third of the flour mixture evenly over top of cream butter mixture.

With electric mixer set at moderately low speed, beat for about 5 seconds or until the flour is partly incorporated. Pour one third of the milk over the batter, again mixing about 5 seconds. Continued adding flour and milk alternately by thirds, until both are used up, beating about 5 seconds after each addition. Add the vanilla. With the mixer still set at low speed, beat the batter about 20 seconds longer, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. As soon as all the ingredients seem blended together and the batter looks smooth, raise mixer speed to moderate and beat for 20 to 30 seconds or until the batter thickens perceptibly and takes on a satiny creamy appearance. Do not beat beyond this point, or you will deflate the air bubbles and caused bake cake to be low, excessively fine, and crummy.

Step 3: Beating Egg Whites, Completing the Batter

Wash beaters thoroughly in hot sudsy water and dry well; the slightest trace of grease will prevent egg whites from mounting properly.

Beat egg whites at low speed with electric mixer until they look foamy, then add cream of tartar and a generous pinch of salt and increase speed to medium. When egg whites form soft frothy peaks, increase speed to high and beat until the whites are thick, glossy, and stand firmly at the end of the up to beaters. Using a rubber spatula, gently but thoroughly fold egg whites into cake batter.

Step 4: Baking, Cooling, and Frosting the Cake

Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Then gently shake each one back-and-forth on a flat surface to level the batter and to burst any large air bubbles.

Set filled cake pans in the thoroughly preheated oven, ensuring that the pans are at least 2 ½ inches distant from each other and 3 inches of the oven walls and that they are staggered rather than one right above the other on the racks. Three 9 x 1 ½” layers will need to bake 20 to 25 minutes; other sizes will require proportionally longer or shorter baking times. To test for doneness insert a cake tester or toothpick in the center of a layer; the needle should come out clean, with no liquid batter adhering. Another sign of doneness is the shrinking of the cake from the sides of the pan. You may also transfer doneness by pressing the center of a layer with your finger; the cake will spring back fully baked.

Place the cakes on racks in the cooled in the pans for about 10 minutes but no longer or they may get soggy.  One layer at a time, run a butter knife around inside of pan to loosen side of cake, and shake the cake back and forth very gently to loosen the bottom. Invert a rack over top of cake and gripping pan and rack invert them both; cake should immediately fall out onto the rack; lift pan off cake invert. Invert a second rack over the bottom of the unmolded cake and, holding the cake between the racks, flip the layer over so that it rest son its bottom side. Remove rack from top of cake.

Allow cakes to cool thoroughly — at least one hour at room temperature — before wrapping or frosting. Frosting will become runny if spread on a cake that is even slightly warm, and warm cakes become sweaty and gummy when wrapped.

Source: Master Recipes by Stephen Schmidt

And, there’s a side benefit to this menu. You can make it by candlelight. Suzen made the cake and I made the whipped cream in the early afternoon. Thank God, because at 5PM, we lost power with our guests set to arrive at 6:30. We broke out candles. We used the remaining daylight to get ingredients and utensils organized. In our kitchen equipped with gas burners, we anticipated a long evening and searched out the matches. And, rather than keep the pork chops warm in a oven we could not start, I fired up the barbeque.

The power did not come back on. We cooked this meal by candlelight. We stirred risotto in deep shadows, carefully tipping our 10-candle candelabra around to see when the turkey stock had been absorbed. We toasted the crostini on the inside grill and spread the horseradish cream quite evenly by flashlight.

We had just served dessert when the power was restored and lights came on. By unanimous consent, we turned off the lights and finished our strawberry cake by flickering candlelight.

I hope you enjoy some or all of this first class meal. Look for each item here on our blog. They were all posted in the week of May 10, 2010.

• Afternoon Delight Champagne Punch
• Roasted Olive Appetizers
• Suzen’s Duck Breast Crostini
• Risotto with Smoked Salmon and Mascarpone
• Strawberry and White Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

A first-class dinner party has to end with a very first-class dessert. For last week’s dinner party, I knew I wanted a fresh strawberry tart as the end piece. I had also suggested that we start with a tart appetizer. What’s wrong with a meal bookended by tart pastry?

Suzen’s eyebrows shifted. I was informed that two tarts was one too many. Out went the opening tart, replaced by an olive appetizer. And, then, somehow, someway, mysteriously, the ending tart went too. Oh, yes, Suzen reminded me our guests had seen a tart from us just a month ago so we needed some else. Something spectacular. Something different. And, with berries, which were already in the fridge.

There is this dessert book I’ve been saving, I guess for such emergencies. Sherry Yard is the pastry chef for Wolfgang Puck, so you know she is first class. Her beautiful book, Desserts by the Yard, is one of those slow page turners. You look at a recipe, or at an incredible picture, and you really sort of mentally digest that one before moving on. If reading added calories, this book would be banned.

And there in Desserts by the Yard is a spectacular 3-layer strawberry cake. A spongy buttermilk cake, made with white chocolate, is baked, then sliced into the three layers. The layers are separated by strawberries buried in a tangy mix of whipped cream and crème fraiche. As the picture here shows, this dessert is eye-stunning. The cake itself softly carries just the faintest notes of the buttermilk and white chocolate. And the filling, with little sugar, bites at your tongue and uses the sweetness of the berries to compose a full flavor palette.

This dessert look beautiful, tastes perfectly, and will impress your guests. With the layers and fillings, it looks complicated — part of the reason you guests will utter an “oh, my,” when they see it. Yet it’s an easy cake to make. The time factor, about 3 hours end to end, simply comes from needing to let the cake bake, then fully cool. It’s a great project to have going while you work on other aspects of dinner. With this cake, you know your evening will end sweetly and sensationally.

Strawberry and White Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

Serves: 12

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
⅛ teaspoon salt
3 ounces white chocolate, preferably Valrhona
6 ounces (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 ¾ cups sugar
4 large eggs, separated  
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

For the Filling and Topping:

2 cups heavy cream 1 cup crème fresh
1 tablespoon sugar
2 pints strawberries, hulled and quartered 

Preparation:

Make the Cake:

Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 12 x 17″ half sheet pan with pan spray and with parchment paper. Spray the parchment.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

Melt white chocolate in the microwave safe bowl at50% power for about two minutes or in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and set aside. Be careful, because white chocolate burns easily.

In a stand mixer fitted the paddle attachment, or a large bowl a hand mixer, cream together the butter and 1 ½ cups sugar at high-speed for two minutes. Scrape down the bowl and beaters and continue to beat for three more minutes, until light and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Whisk 2 tablespoons butter into the melted white chocolate until blended. Scrape this mixture back into the butter and beat on low speed until well blended. Add the egg yolks in two editions, scraping the bowl down after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.

On low speed, alternating wet and dry ingredients, add the buttermilk and the flour mixture in four additions. Scrape down the bowl.

In a large bowl, beat the egg whites on medium speed with a hand mixer until they form soft peaks. Slowly add the remaining ¼ cup sugar and continue to beat on medium speed. Beat until the egg whites form stiff, glossy peaks. Fold half the egg whites into the cake batter, then gently fold in the rest.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Using a spatula, preferably offset, smear the batter evenly over the pan. Bake, rotating the pan from front to back halfway through, until golden brown and firm to the touch, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan. Lightly spray the back of a half sheet pan with pan spray and cover with parchment. Invert the cake onto the parchment covered tray, remove the pan, and peel off the parchment.

When the cake is completely cool, cut crosswise into 3 equal pieces.

Make the Filling and Topping:

Whip the cream, crème fraîche, and sugar together to medium stiff peaks.

Assemble the Cake:

Place the first piece of cake on a serving platter. Spread 2 cups of the whipped cream evenly over the top. Arrange half the strawberries on the whipped cream and then spread a little layer of the cream over the berries. Place a second cake layer on top, repeat with2 cups more cream and the remaining strawberries. Top with the last layer cake and spread the  remaining cream on top.

Chill until ready to serve. The cake can be assembled up to 4 hours ahead.

Source: Desserts by the Yard by Sherry Yard

I didn’t get to Boston until I was thirty-four, and my first meal was at a harbor side restaurant famous for its gargantuan servings of roast beef and curt staff.

I devoured my beef and then ordered, of course, Boston Cream Pie. When the waiter served me a dish of something, I had to ask, “Wait. What’s this? I ordered Boston Cream Pie!”

“That’s it,” the waiter turned away.

“But, this has chocolate on top. And where are the bananas?” I pleaded.

“Where are you from?” the waiter stalked away.

Mom got it wrong, but I like her version better. So I’ve taken a lovely recipe for Boston Cream Pie from Flo Braker’s Baking for All Occasions, and modified it to meet Portland standards, not Boston. Flo is a renowned leader of the culinary world, and a superior baker and cookbook author. The reason this particular version of cream pie is so delicious is the cake: a buttermilk cake this is soft as snow. It really has a matchless flavor and Flo uses this cake as the basis for many her desserts. Her Boston Cream Pie, for example. And now for Portland Cream Pie.

Next time I visit Boston, I might just take my version back to that restaurant and show them how it really ought to be done. Since Boston Cream Pie is the official dessert of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I probably ought to just stay home and relish it myself.

Portland Cream Pie

Yield: serves 6 at best

Ingredients for the Cake:

1 ¾ cups cake four
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 ½ ounces unsalted butter at room temperature
1 ⅓ cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten

Preparation for the Cake:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350° F. Butter a 9 by 2 ¾-inch round springform pan, then flour it, tapping out the excess flour. Or, lightly cost with nonstick spray and flour the pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt onto a sheet of waxed paper; set aside. In a small bowl, stir together the buttermilk and vanilla; set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until it is lighter in color, clings to the side of the bowl, and has a satiny appearance, 30 to 45 seconds. Increase the speed to medium-high and add the sugar in a steady stream, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Continue to beat on medium speed until the mixture is lighter in color and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.

With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time, beating after each addition until incorporated. If at any time the batter appears watery or shiny (signs of curling), increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the batter is smooth again. Then return to medium speed and resume adding the eggs, beating until smooth, stopping the mixer as needed to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly touched in the center, a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out free of cake, and the sides are beginning to come away from the pan, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes.

Slip a small metal spatula between the still-warm cake and the pan and run the spatula carefully along the entire perimeter of the pan. Release the springform clasp and remove the sides. Invert a rack on top of the cake, invert the cake onto it, and lift off the bottom of the pan. Slowly peel off the parchment liner, turn the paper over so the sticky side faces up, and reposition on top of the layer. Invert another rack on top, invert the cake so it is right side up, and remove the original rack. Let cool completely.

Ingredients for the Vanilla Diplomat Cream Filling:

1 cup whole milk

½ cup granulated sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
3 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
⅔ cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon dark rum

Preparation of the Vanilla Diplomat Cream Filling:

Rest a fine-mesh sieve over a 1-quart bowl and set nearby for straining the pastry cream later.

Pour the milk and ¼ cup of the sugar into a 1 ½-quart saucepan. Using the tip of a small paring knife, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the milk.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs yolks until blended, then whisk in the remaining ¼ cup of sugar. Add the flour and whisk to combine; set aside. Bring the milk mixture just to a boil over medium heat. Remove from the heat and pour half of the milk mixture into the yolk mixture while whisking constantly. Return the combined mixture to the saucepan and whisk to combine. Return to medium heat and heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture just comes to a boil, 1 to 2 minutes. It will have thickened at this point. Continue to stir and simmer until it is smooth and thick, about 1 minute more. Remove from the heat, add the butter, and stir until the butter is melted and incorporated. Pour through the sieve into the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly into the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Poke a few slits in the plastic with tip of a knife to allow steam to escape and set aside to cool for 15-30 minutes. Once it has cooled, you can refrigerate it for up to 3 days.

Whip the heavy cream and refrigerate in Bowl #1

Ingredients for Cakes Assembly:

2 cups heavy cream
¼ cup sugar
2 ripe bananas

Preparation of the Final Cake:

Whip the cream, adding the sugar at the end. Set aside in Bowl #2; refrigerate.

Slice the bananas, placing the pieces in a bowl and covering with a moist towel. If you desire, splash a dash of dark rum over the bananas and add mix with 2 tablespoons of sugar.

Using a 12-inch serrated knife, split the cake in half horizontally. Place the bottom layer, cut side up on a sturdy cardboard round the same diameter as the cake. Spoon about ½ cup of the refrigerated whipped cream from Bowl #1 into a pastry bag fitted with a ¼-inch plain open tip. Pipe a line of the whipped cream around edge of the cake layer.

Stir the vanilla and rum into the cold pastry cream until smooth. Then fold in the remaining whipped cream from Bowl #1. Spoon the filling evenly over the bottom cake layer. Using an offset spatula, spread the filling evenly just to the line of whipped cream. Center the other cake layer, cut side down, on top.

Using the whipped cream from Bowl #2, cover the top and sides of the cake. Use the reserved banana slides to decorate the top, applying them either randomly or in a spiral starting out from the center of the cake.

Source: Adapted from Baking for All Occasions by Flo Braker