The coffee cake was on sale!!

There is whole line of Boston Coffee Cakes.  They usually cost about $7.99 to $8.99 in stores. So when you see a big $5.00 sticker on the cake you grab it up!  Boston Coffee Cakes makes many different varieties but we went for the classic cinnamon with walnuts cake which is a favorite.  Notice there are no artificial colors or flavors! 

Only $5.00?  We're down!

And it looks like a coffee cake!

Chinks of walnuts and cinnamon sugar for the top!

This cake is a standby that we are always happy to see.  The cake is nice and moist with a ribbon of cinnamon sugar running through the middle of the yellow cake. It is never too dry and goes very well with coffee which is probably why it is called a coffee cake.  If you ever see one with the  $5.00 sticker go for it!

A swirl of cinnamon is the finishing touch!

Leftovers......again!

Since a lot of the ravenous summer students were offsite for the last few days, and we've had good size cakes, we ended up cakes left over.  Just like home, we never waste food and when their is nothing new coming we go with the leftovers.  These things should look familiar from the previous days' postings.

These things should look familiar!

Notice there is also strawberry filling between the layers!

Quarter chocolate cake also had to be finished.!

Strawberry Pseudo-shortcake

Now that there is no longer ten feet of snow on the ground and it is getting warmer, some of the types of cakes more predominant in summer are starting to appear. Our cake person for today was not impressed with the selection at the Eastside Marketplace when he went the evening before so he returned in the morning to check for something better and he found something hot out of the bakery prep room or whatever you call it.

The summer treats start to appear but it ain't no shortcake!

Bound with a ribbon for a decorative twist!

They called it a strawberry shortcake but it wasn't the real thing. The cake part was yellow cake and rather than having frosting on the sides they closed it up with lady fingers and bound it all together with a ribbon. This made for a nicely decorative presentation btw.  The top had a thick, swirled layer of whipped cream garnished with some very red fresh strawberries.  There were about three layers of cake with a whipped cream filling.  There was some question as to whether this was real whipped cream or not but it wasn't the really bad ersatz cream so we do.

Ruby red strawberries in a bed of whipped cream!

The lady fingers give it shape!

As the cake was freshly made it tasted good and was well received. Our crowd does tend to like things with fruit and whipped cream so it was a good choice if you want to ensure something woudl go over well. It was a big hit with one of our more recently arrived Japanese colleagues who took a picture so he could get it for his family. Thus does a simple little strawberry cake become a cross cultural treat!

Lots of layers with lots of cream is a great combination!

Wellesley Farms Chocolate Cake from BJs

Wholesale warehouse stores along the lines of Costco and BJs can be a little intimidating because everything is huge. If you can buy in bulk and have the room to store it then these places can be useful.  For normal amounts you are mostly wasting your time with a few exceptions such as the deli and the bakery.  BJs has its own superior brand name that you have not heard of unless you have been to BJs. That name is Wellesley Farms.  So if you see something from Wellesley farms you know where it came from.

Simple but good looking chocolate cake!

Smothered with those choco bits I would say.

The clue that it came from BJs.

Today we had a sumptuous chocolate cake from Wellesley Farms.  This was American style chocolate cake with butter cream or lard cream frosting, four layers with frosting in between.  There was not much in the way of decoration but the whole cake was covered with what could best be described as chocolate confetti and I mean the whole thing - sides, top and maybe the bottom. This was a very good chocolate cake and since we took it out early the frosting was nice and creamy as opposed to cold and congealed.  This cake was moist and perhaps a little rich but nonetheless was enjoyable and as classic a cake as you can get. Ir would have been great with a glass of milk!

Anyone got a glass of milk?

Say Farewell with a Black Forest cake

One of our cake hour standard attendees is finally moving on from PVD.  Having done his PhD and gotten his MD over the course of the last nine years, he is on to his internship at Mt. Sinai in New York City.  It just so happens that his wife is quite an accomplished baker and had made many great delights over the years for cake hour.  So they offered to bring in a farewell cake before the big move to PVD, at least for him.  And what cake did they choose, the cake of all cakes a Black Forest cake.  This is one of our favorites and arguably the world's best cake if it is made right which it was this time.

It only took nine years but I'm heading out!

Creative top for a Black Forest cake!

Great work with the whipped cream!

Holding back the sea of chips!

There are a number of posts about this but to reiterated the critical thing is that it not be too sweet, so the cherries in the cake are the dark sour kind, the cake itself is infused with Kirschwasser aka Cherry Brandy and the frosting HAS to be whipped cream.  Happily today's baker knew all this and there was little doubt this would be well done.  There was a little bit of a creative touch on the top in that instead of the shaved chocolate and cherry decorations, she opted for a field of small chocolate chips.  This was nice and the large whipped cream florets that were created to hold back the chips were great. The black forest cake was popular especially with those of our colleagues that are not into American overly sweetened pastries. It did not last long but we will look forward to a return visit sometime in the future from our cake hour pal.

Cherries, chocolate, kirsch infused...all there!

Time to dig in!

It didn't take long to get to the last piece!

We learned today that working at the Research Center is for all practical purposes a vacation for some of our Japanese colleagues.  Apparently in the Land of the Rising Sun long days are the norm and families may not get to see Dad until very later or the weekend.  Here, during their research fellowship, they work pretty normal hours and get home in time for family dinner,  This first well with the researcher and the spouse.  It is a good gig for the researcher who develops prestige by doing this academic work abroad.  It is a good gig for the spouse too because there is some help with the family.  We wonder if this is the reason why, as we also learned today, that the wives really miss their American life once they get back.

A little slice of heaven for our colleagues from Japan!

Tiramisu Cake for the Newbies

The summer research season is upon us!  That means we will get a number of student interns from all over the planet from June through August.  Cake hour has proven to be VERY popular with these interns over the years. Today was the first visit from a number of this year's crop including people from Brazil, New Hampshire and the Bronx. Yes, the last two locations are not that exciting but things are what they are.

Something looks familiar!!

It's Tiramisu from Whole Foods!

Their first treat was a classic and a favorite. The Tiramisu cake from Whole Foods is always a pleasure and we were happy to have it today. It was good and fresh with a nice balance of mascarpone to the other ingredients such as the soaked lady fingers and the cocoa powder.  This one is never that sweet and light and easy to eat.  Our new fans were happy to get off the ground with this.

Cocoa powder aplenty on the top!

Nice balance of the mascarpone and the other stuff.

One of them is a medical student. Weren't we surprised to hear that because the lectures are taped, people can and do skip classes and then review the Internet feed or videos in lieu of attending the course.  Supposedly about 50% of the students learn this way.  Just think, they are paying about $70,000 a year to look at a bunch of videos.  That's a nice racket.  We also wondered what would stop someone from downloading all the lectures and then start their own online medical school. You could charge a lot less and still make money!! Hopefully no one will give this a try.

I wan't to be alone!

I'm down on that online Med School idea!!

 I guess I can deal with a photo!

Passion from Pastiche

If you have read this blog, you know by now that one of the better bakeries in PVD is Pastiche on Federal Hill.  We have had a lot of their products but every now and then something pops up that we hadn't tried before and that the bringer of cake recognizes as something new.  They make this raspberry almond cake with a raspberry glaze on the top.  Today we had something similar but it was a passion fruit coconut cake.  At first we thought it was lemon but we were wrong it was passion fruit.

If you see this box, it should be something good.

It looks like the raspberry cake but judging by the color it is something else.

It's isn't lemon - it's passion fruit glaze.

Nicely done with the white chocolate daisies!

As you can see the cake is, as always, beautifully done with a butter cream frosting that was complimented with a passion fruit glaze on the top, toasted coconut flakes on the side and embellished with white chocolate daisies on the top.  There were three layers of white cake with passion fruit cream in between.  Pastiche's cakes are never heavy and this one was no exception.  It was fresh, tasted delicious and we were very happy to have had the opportunity to give it a try. Good work again Pastiche!!

Toasted coconut on the sides is the finishing touch.

Lots of layers and passion fruit cream....yum!

You don't see too many things made with passion fruit around here.  We did have one of our colleagues bring in a cake and had made a passion fruit sauce to go with it.  Upon sampling the sauce another person started getting an allergic response.  Since her known allergy was to kiwi, we were surprised at what was happening but it turns out that kiwi and passion fruit allergies can be cross reactive.  We think it was a coincidence and give no credence to the claim of the allergic one that the one who made the cake and the passion fruit sauce was trying to kill her. In other words we don't believe it was a crime of passion...fruit.

Who knew passion fruit could be deadly!