Friday, January 20, 2012

FFWD Quarter-Quarts


Quarter-Quarts cake with peach preserves
I know it's January and we're supposed to be eating healthy, but this post is about two cakes (and a reasonably healthy soup).  In my defense: (1) about five years ago my New Year's resolution was to quit dieting.  It hasn't exactly worked - sometimes I'll briefly try a new diet - but I have definitely improved.  Call me pessimistic, but I just can't resolve to stop eating chocolate, or butter, or heavy cream, or pizza, when I know it won't last anyway.  So, this year I'm just trying to only eat while sitting down - something which is surprisingly hard for me.  (2) I didn't actually make both of these cakes in the same week.  I made the Quarter-Quarts cake last week, and Marie Helene's Apple cake this week.

I wasn't sure about the Quarter-Quarts cake, it sounded kind of boring.  It was very easy, though, and I already had all of the ingredients on hand.  I put it together while my M. Jacques Armagnac Chicken was in the oven, and slid the cake in as soon as the chicken came out.  When the cake was done, I put it on the drying rack and went back to the living room to watch football.  All of the sudden, the brown sugar popped into my head!  I had completely forgotten to put it on top of the cake before I slid it into the oven.  So much for the nice glaze.

Missing brown sugar topping

I hurried into the kitchen and put the brown sugar on.  For some reason I thought maybe if the cake was still warm enough the sugar would melt.  It didn't work at all.  Then, I thought maybe I could use the blow torch to melt the sugar.  That didn't work very well either!  It mainly burned and didn't really glaze, although it did add some interesting texture to the cake.  Luckily, because I was worried about the cake being dry, I already had a topping planned.  I made some peach freezer jam this summer and it didn't set up at all (still don't understand why!) but it does make a great topping for pancakes and was an excellent sauce for the cake.  All said, we definitely enjoyed this cake.  Paul, especially, really liked the simplicity.

Bruleeing the sugar didn't quite work
I did a much better job following the instructions for Marie-Helene's cake.  I had a lot of fun picking out four types of apples (Mcintosh, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, and Fuji) and the cake was very easy to put together.  I put it together while simmering my citrus marmalade and brought it to our friends' house that night.  We loved this cake as well.  I liked that it was really all about the apples with very little cake, but the cake itself had a great flavor (from the rum!).

Apple cake and marmalade

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Garnishes
On Monday night I made the Vietnamese Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup for dinner.  It took a little bit long for a weeknight - probably about an hour - but it was very easy, and we both enjoyed it.  It has nice clean flavors and almost feels light (if you somehow block the can of coconut milk out of your head!).  Plus, I always think it's fun to put out a whole plate of garnishes!


Soup
   




17 comments:

  1. Wow, sounds like you've been busy. I think between the apple cake and the quatre quarts cake, the apple is my favorite. But I did really enjoy this week's recipe as well.

    Also, I have made the Vietnamese Chicken soup a few times now using low fat coconut milk and it still tastes great.

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    1. Thanks for the tip about low fat coconut milk - I'll have to try that next time!

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  2. That apple cake was good... I haven't caught up to the Vietnamese chicken soup, but I keep hearing such good things about it that it probably needs to hit my list.
    Creative thinking with the sugar topping... I don't even want to think about how many times I miss stuff like that :-)

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  3. I forgot all about the soup -- thanks for reminding me, it was delicious. And LOL about eating sitting down as a goal. I can relate. :)

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  4. I still need to try Marie Helene's apple cake. I might have been more willing to make room in the freezer for that kind of cake. ;-)

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  5. What a great full-on Dorie post! Everything looks delicious.

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  6. You have been busy! Both of your cakes look great! I don't think you needed have worried about the brown sugar as mine didn't really glaze either, but gave it a nice crunchy twinkly topping. The Marie Helene cake is one of our favorites now and I am asked to bring it to every family gathering. :) I have not revisited the soup, but seeing your photos makes me want to try it again.

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    1. The Marie Helene cake is great - so much flavor for something so simple.

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  7. You should just call it a creme brulee pound cake! It looks awesome and I bet the brown sugar gave great texture to the cake.

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  8. Oh man, now I want that apple cake! I do have a whole bowl of apples inside. Hmmmm...Yum. It's on. lol I haven't made the soup yet. It looks tasty.

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  9. Sounds like a delicious week at your house this week! Even though the quatre-quarts seemed boring, I really liked it! And thanks for reminding me about the apple cake and chicken soup. I enjoyed both of those when we made them back at the beginning of FFwD.

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  10. What a great menu - I'm trying to do some catch up also and will move that soup to the top of the list, I have a small window to enjoy hot soup. It's supposed to be 82 on Thursday. The apple cake looks really great also - I've been on an apple tarte binge the past year so maybe this could substitute.

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  11. I love that you made both of the cakes and the soup. I think we liked the soup way back when we made it. I still have to try the chicken though. :)

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  12. You've been busy playing catch up! I need to do the same!

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    1. Usually I hate playing catch up, but in this case it's been a lot of fun!

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