Marie Antoinette Cake

Where to get it, plus my recipe for Naked Meatballs, some Super Bowl and Valentine's Day recipes...and more to munch on.

Every birthday, every holiday, on National Cake Day, and for any and every excuse, I order a Marie Antoinette Cake. I live just a few minutes from Southampton where Tate’s little bakery resides and creates this most luscious of all cakes. I order the very small 5” across version, because it slices beautifully into thin slices and is so full of flavors and textures and palatable surprises that a small thin slice is able to convey all those things.

So what is it? Layers upon layers. Yellow and very chocolaty cake. Raspberry and vanilla buttercream. Raspberry jam. Chocolate mousse. Marzipan. Apricot jam glaze over the top. Around the cake, more buttercream and crushed toasted almonds. I’ve heard of people heading out here for the summer and their first stop is in Southampton to pick up this cake.

On a very different note, considerably less ornate, is the Marie Antoinette Cake from Laduree. It is a simple loaf cake infused with their Marie Antoinette tea, made with dried rose petals, honey, orange and pineapple.

Or…..the Marie Antoinette Rose Raspberry Cake from Laduree!!! Now that’s more like it! The Laduree cakes are only available in France and Europe, with home delivery in Paris, although you can check on their USA website for pickup locations in America for their confections.

For today, I am driving to Southampton for mine, from Take’s Bakery.

Interesting fact: Marie Antoinette is credited with bringing croissants to France from her native Austria and with their subsequent popularity.

Super Bowl Super Food

This year’s super bowl should be a great watch, and for that I was trying to think of what to make other than my standard huge baking tray of over the top Nachos with everything on them, super-gooey with cheese, tons of heat from jalapeños, and lots of crunch.

It’s about the game. But it’s also about the food, right? Mostly snack food and a spread for grazing.

One of my favorite recipes from my cookbook, Cuisine Niçoise, is for Naked Meatballs (Les Tout Nus) that you pick up and dip into a tomato sauce. Here’s the recipe. Makes 24 medium size meatballs.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup rice

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 small onion, minced

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

4 cloves garlic, minced, divided

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

3 teaspoons fine sea salt, divided

1/2 pound ground beef

1/2 pound ground pork

1 (9-ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed very dry

2 large eggs, beaten

2 tablespoons orange marmalade

1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

Bring the water to a boil. Add the rice. Cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and set aside.

In a saucepan, heat olive oil, add onion and cook for 3 minutes. Add the sugar and cook medium-high for another 5 minutes until onions turn light brown.

Add 1 clove minced garlic, tomatoes, and 1 teaspoon salt. Simmer for 15 minutes then keep warm.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly coat baking sheet with cooking spray or olive oil.

In a large bowl, addd cooked rice, ground beef, ground pork, spinach, eggs, marmalade, remaining garlic, 2 teaspoons salt, and breadcrumbs. Mix with clean hands until very well blended.

Place the flour on a large plate. Roll the meat into the size of meatballs you would like, about 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of meat, rolling them lightly without compressing too much. Then roll each meatball in flour and shake off excess.

Place meatballs on the baking sheet, put into the oven, and bake for 16 minutes or until done.

To serve, spoon the tomato sauce into a dipping bowl, arrange the meatballs on a serving dish nearby for them to dunk into the sauce.

Valentine’s Day Recipe (not pink)

So simple. So good. You don’t need a recipe for this one. Buy a wheel of Camembert or Brie that will serve two. Gently slice off the top rind. Place the cheese on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (leave it in its box if it comes with one). Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Sprinkle the top of the cheese with 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar. Bake 6-10 minutes until oozy. Serve on a plate for two with two spoons and slices of crusty bread nearby. (you can alternatively add any jam on top instead of brown sugar)

Destination: The Hamptons

Well here I am, as usual at this time of year, in the Hamptons enjoying the calm and looking at the sky each night with hope as it turns lighter and lighter, bit by bit. Soon it will be Spring again, right?

I am still wrapping my dachshund, Lilly, up in her winter coat to take walks. Inside, she languishes at my side while I write.

Click below to see Lilly’s new winter coat and my walk with her in Bridgehampton….

My walk with Lilly in the Hamptons...

Cookbook Review: (I will be reviewing new cookbooks, as well as delving into my vast cookbook library to share some of the best ever. This is one of them….)

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World's Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn is one of the best written culinary books I have ever read. It is the story of Flinn tossing her corporate job in America for a spot at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. It is a love story. It is a story about finding your passion in life. And it has recipes! What more could you want?!

She writes so beautifully that you feel as if you are right there with her, learning how to cook from some of France's toughest cooking instructors. Her triumphs and her failures, her love affair with food as well as with Paris pulls you in and keeps you wanting to read more. I even loved reading about her apartment and what she and her friends ate when they went out into the Paris night. And her boyfriend! Yes, there is the love story to follow as well.

"Today we are studying Auvergne, the coldest region of France, says the Gray Chef, with the oldest mountains in Europe. Those mountains were once active volcanoes, and as a result this is an area of high yet especially fertile plateaus loaded with volcanic soil. The hearty people of Auvergne eat a whole lot of pork and stick to the ribs food."

If you can't take the cooking classes at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, you can take them by reading this book. Flinn literally spends a part of each chapter telling you exactly what she learned in class and how her dishes turned out.

"How many tears did I cry because I didn't know what I wanted?" "The sharper your knife," as Chef Savard had said,"the less you cry." "For me, it also means to cut those things that get in the way of your passion and of living your life the way it's meant to be lived."

Exactly.

Link to her

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