Mar 31
It’s no secret that I like to make food for other people (perhaps even more than I like to make it for myself), and something I’ve enjoyed most recently is putting together items at custom request. Someone dreams up something particular – maybe a little off the beaten path – and I test and experiment and tweak to put it together.
A “glitter Persian cake” was requested, and a glitter Persian cake was received.
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Mar 23
Remember when I decided that I didn’t really like chocolate cake? I tried recipe after recipe for traditional chocolate layer cakes, only to decide that I wasn’t finding what I wanted because I didn’t really like traditional chocolate layer cakes very much to begin with.
This was all a little ridiculous, because no one doesn’t like chocolate cake. It may not be on the top of one’s cake list (which I just made up and now want to make and laminate and put in my wallet), but seriously – no one honestly dislikes chocolate cake. I was fixated on finding that perfect recipe, and when I didn’t find it I basically said “I wasn’t playing anyway,” and all was well.
Until this looker came along.
Just a quick post of a recipe that’s unfortunately not entirely quick – but totally worth it.
I’ve made this one twice in the last week, first testing it for a little catering job I did last week and then tweaking it and sending it out to rave reviews. I’m glad I did the test, since the recipe definitely needed some re-working, and the end result was fantastic. These were the first thing to go at the event, and I had trouble keeping myself from eating four or five at a time from the test batch. Super flaky cream cheese pastry, tart and sweet lemon-lime-coconut filling, and a crispy little layer of vanilla glaze on top. Topped with two strips of candied lime zest, if you want to get fancy. Read more
I can get a little fixated on things sometimes. I’ll be the first to admit it. But together with a growing sense that it’s “no big deal” to churn out another batch of cookies or another shaker of cocktail or, in this case, another layer cake, that tendency to fixate means that sometimes I’m making a sizable volume of something in order to make sure I know how I like it best.
Feb 24
Working at a cooking school that emphasizes “no recipe/follow your inner chef-style cooking” and going to professional culinary school classes has me fascinated by the ways recipes are developed and written. I don’t know where we’d all be without recipes to guide the way we cook, but I’ve started to see how limiting and confusing recipes can be. No wonder people are overwhelmed and confused by cooking, when recipes state things as law and generally don’t explain why you’re doing things that way or what other options you have. Of course I understand that cookbooks wouldn’t sell very well if recipes included all of that information and blossomed to paragraphs upon paragraphs of notes and instructions – but I do think that recipes as written can be sort of counter-productive in teaching people how to cook. (And full disclosure, here: I’m about to give you two recipes. Part of the problem, I am.)
All this is to say that I’ve started to notice a bit more rebellion and a bit more of the scientific process – two generally dormant parts of my personality – coming out in the kitchen. As I understand more about the potential techniques and options that can go into the making of a cookie, for instance, I start to question the instructions of various recipes. I start to wonder what would happen if I took the baking technique of one recipe and added it to the dough of another. Or what would happen if I chilled the dough. Or if I added a bit more spice. And then I start to experiment.
My name is Bowen and I'm a cooking instructor/food writer/home cook in Seattle, WA. I'm dedicated to community-based food systems that nourish people and planet alike, and this site is an extension of my kitchen - seasonal, fresh food and cocktails made with heart (and sometimes an indecent amount of olive oil) to share with friends and loved ones.
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