So decadent it could only be for celebrating a birthday. 

Who ever said it was sad to make your own birthday cake was wrong.

Here’s the thing about baking your own birthday cake: it ensures that you are in full control of what you are eating to celebrate your day. No crumbly cupcakes because your friend forgot that you actually hate cupcakes, no overly sweet processed frosting because your neighbor only had time to go to the bakery department of the chain grocery store and no half-eaten chocolate mint ice cream cake left in your freezer for the next six months.

Another great thing about birthday cakes? You can make it and not even tell anyone, leaving an entire cake to yourself. No one has to know, it’s your birthday after all.

My mother has made me this cake on many a birthday, and I have no shame in making it myself because it’s one of the most amazing baked goods I have ever tasted. Like many traditional Swedish cakes it employs whipping cream instead of frosting, which if you ask me, every cake should do. This is no cake that’s masked as health food, it’s simply a cake. Not vegan, not low fat, not full of omega 3s… because you know what? It’s your day, and you deserve to eat a chocolate, hazelnut, whipped cream masterpiece.

Did I say today was my birthday? Shhhh….

Chocolate Hazelnut Meringue Birthday Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 5 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 5 tablespoons milk
• 100 grams hazelnuts
• 1/4-1/2 cup chocolate chips

For the meringue:

• 4 egg whites
• 1 1/4 cup sugar

For topping:

• Whipped cream
• Hazelnuts
• Cocoa powder

Directions:

Cream together butter and sugar. Add in egg yolks one at a time and mix thoroughly. Mix in flour, baking powder and milk.

Grease and flour two circular 9″ baking pans and pour even amounts of batter into each. Chop hazelnuts and sprinkle on top, followed by chocolate chips.

To make the meringue, whip the egg whites until stiff, and carefully fold in sugar. Spread over hazelnuts and chocolate chips in the baking pans.

Bake at 325F for about 40 minutes.

Let cool in the baking pans before removing. Run a butter knife around the edge of the cakes to loosen them and remove carefully. Place one on a large plate and cover with a layer of whipped cream. If you want, add in a layer of fresh raspberries or blackberries here. Cover with second layer of cake and cover entire thing with whipping cream.

Garnish with cocoa powder and hazelnuts. And a Swedish flag or two if you want to really be Scandinavian.

Want more food inspiration? Check out the rest of our Sunday Recipe series. 

The post Sunday Recipe: The Best Birthday Cake Ever appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnCelebrating two years of being food obsessed.

I know for a fact that at least four people read this column: my mother (she has to), her friends Lisa and Sally (I shamelessly email it to them every week), and the guy who runs Portland Food and Drink (probably because we live in the same city and he thought that my take on bone luging was funny).

There are, of course, a few more fans than that. (L.A. Weekly, The Washingtonian, and The New York Times seem to agree, which makes this writer proud. At least, I’m happy to see the foodies are not so underground these days.)

Today Foodie Underground turns two. Or as I like to look at it, today Foodie Underground and I are celebrating our two-year anniversary, because writing a weekly column is kind of like being in a relationship.

Before you start making your “food equals love” jokes – I just so happened to pen a whole set of pick up lines just for that – let me explain.

Just like in a new relationship, in the beginning, you start off happy and giddy.

“You want me to have my own column?” you say to your editor, excitedly planning all the things you and your column will do together. The first few months are great. You’re spinning with creativity and thinking about your column 24 hours a day. Everything you do reminds you of your newfound love. Life is beautiful.

Slowly however, the reality of routine hits. You. Must. Write. The. Column. Every. Single. Week. A few Monday mornings you drag yourself out of bed, put on a French press and stare at your computer screen, glancing at your watch, realizing said editor is going to be very upset if you don’t get this thing done soon. Things feel a little boring. You’re not as inspired as you once were. Where is the spark? Should you break things off and move on to something else? You find yourself asking your editor for ideas to “spice things up.”

But as you get farther into your relationship, things stabilize and the positive feelings return. You hit a comfortable stride, evolving and developing your relationship, that creativity takes on a new face. Then you hit the “we” stage, the point where you realize you and your column have become one. Much like a partnership, you start to do fewer and fewer things apart. You’re never alone on a Saturday night when you have a column to get in the can for Monday.

You come to realize how very much influenced you are by your “other.” Such is the case with Foodie Underground. In the last week alone I have been contacted to see if I know anything about hay smoking (yes, it’s a thing…or at least was in early 2011), told that I should write a food advice column, and received an email from my mother to see if I had ever tried combining chocolate and sea salt with ground coffee (I have not, but it’s on the to-do list now). These are all things that didn’t use to happen. Invitations, Twitter, products, events…these relationships, er, columns, are work.

To add to the realization that my food column and I are inextricably linked, last week an office mate asked me what he should get for lunch, and I told him to go to the taco truck down the street. “How big are they?” he asked.

“Here, let me show you a picture,” I responded, pulling out my phone, which happens to store a lot of food related photos.

“Of course you have a photo of that,” he smiled.

“Want to see what I made last night?” I quipped back, not waiting before whipping my laptop over to his desk to share more food photos.

Call it an obsession verging on insanity if you must, but writing this column has forced me to think – really think – about food in new and vital ways. What we eat, how we eat, where we eat, who we eat with, people who don’t eat, people who eat too much, where we get our food, who prepares our food: Food is everything.

We must eat to live, and ultimately, so much of our everyday lives – health, emotional well-being, energy levels – is affected by what we put into our bodies. In the western world, most of us have access to foods that our grandparents and even parents could only dream of. And yet we’re stuck in the middle of a health epidemic. Obesity rates are rising despite a bounty in supply; food deserts. And unfortunately, when talking about good food is equated to a certain level of pretentiousness, we get distracted from the real issues, and solutions, at hand.

Yes, that truffle-infused fennel-crusted bacon-studded brioche you’re staring at looks good, and you could certainly pair it with a glass of sparkling water, but what have you done lately to deal with the questions of food justice?

As I wrote two weeks ago, you might be surprised to find out what’s normally on my dinner plate. Although I like bourbon drinks out of mason jars as much as the next single-speed riding urbanite, I’m as weary as you of the predictability of the trendy culinary world and the people who are obsessed with it. Kind of like this:

I may have a not-so-secret love affair with foodie capitals like Brooklyn and San Francisco – the first Foodie Underground ever mentioned both. Last week, I ate an entire roasted fish at a restaurant that had a very fitting name, only one word, of course. And on occasion I do things like learn how to make cheese. But the truth is that I just want to explore new places, discover good food along the way, and make sure that we’re putting the spotlight on programs that are ensuring that everyone, no matter where they live or what socio-economic bracket they find themselves in, can do the same.

Fortunately, I have supportive friends, who could just be putting up with me because they know that eventually I will cook them dinner and it will probably involve arugula, or even a polenta olive oil cake, and although Foodie Underground and I are tied at the hip, they don’t seem to care too much. That leaves me to keep thinking and talking about food, which as I have come to learn, makes me one happy girl.

Two years of this is cause for celebration, and in good Foodie Underground spirit, I had to come up with a fitting celebratory dessert. The result was this little gem, which I am hoping at least a few of you try to make yourself. It’s a combination of some of my favorite flavors, has the obligatory sea salt, is gluten-free and vegan (because porquoi pas?) and is relatively painless to make.

Enjoy, and then go out and change the world with good food.

Date and Orange Chocolate Ganache Torte with Lemon Almond Crust

(The Official Foodie Underground Birthday Cake)

Note: I use two 6 oz./4.5″ tartlet ramekins for this recipe.

Ingredients

Crust

• 1 cup almond meal
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon honey
• zest of one Meyer lemon
• 1 teaspoon cardamom

Filling

• 1 cup dates, chopped or cut into small pieces
• zest and juice of 1 orange

• 4 oz. baking chocolate, 100% cocoa
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350F.

• Prepare the crusts by melting the coconut oil and mixing with the rest of crust ingredients, until a dough forms. Chill dough for 15 minutes.
• Split dough into even parts and press into greased tart pans. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
• While the crusts are cooling, combine dates and orange zest and juice in a saucepan and place on medium heat. Stir regularly, until orange juice has been soaked up by dates. Pour date mixture evenly into baked crusts.
• To prepare the ganache, chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in a bowl. Heat coconut milk together with sugar in a saucepan until bubbles appear around the edges, then pour over chocolate. Let sit for five minutes, then gently stir until mixture has a smooth consistency.
• Pour the ganache over the date mixture and let cool. Note that these are best served when the chocolate has set, so store them in the refrigerator, and remove about 10-15 minutes before serving.
• Garnish with sliced almonds, orange zest and a lemon slice.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to independent markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: Anna Brones

The post Foodie Underground Celebrates 2 Years appeared first on EcoSalon.