Chocolate + the baker's basics = a make-it-anytime cake
Suzy Palatin's easy-to-make cake could be your instant fave
Bonjour! Bonjour!
It happened just when I was scraping the chocolate batter into the pan — I realized that I was calmer than I’d been for days, that my breathing was slower and my shoulders not skimming my ears. This can happen when I’m in the kitchen and happily focused on what I’m doing. When I take the moment to really pay attention to what I’m doing, to the ingredients under my hands, to their aromas, their textures and the way they change as I work with them. Even after so many years in the kitchen, I sometimes I forget that I have the ability to create this calm, that all I have to do is make something. It’s been a stressful week. I’m glad I can make things. I’m glad I can share them. You too, I bet.
My book baby is…
So my new book, DORIE’S ANYTIME CAKES, is now one week closer to being in the world (its birthday will be October 21), and I’ve been trying to find one of those charts that tracks babies and compares each week of their development to a fruit. I think my baby is still in the microscopic stage. I read that at 4 weeks, a baby is the size of a poppy seed, so I think I’ll have to wait a while before I start down that adorable rabbit hole.
A moment in my Paris life
Once the pantry is replenished and the fridge full, I feel as though I’m ready to pick up my Paris life, and part of that pick-up is going to the neighborhood shop that sells magazines to see what’s new. A few years ago, my neighborhood shop — Buci News — changed hands, got spiffed up and started carrying slightly more souvenirs and slightly less stationery, but it kept the spirit of the place and it kept the magazines. The shelves are a little neater, but the stock is still plentiful — here’s what I came home with the other day.
And then it’s a spin around l’Ecume des Pages, the Saint Germain bookstore that I fell in love with early in my Paris days and the one that still stays open until midnight. I head to the back of the store to see what’s new in the cookbook section and even though it’s only been 6 weeks since I was last here, there were new books to covet and one that I brought home with me, François-Régis Gaudry’s Recettes & Récits (in French only, I think). He’s a food journalist and kind of a pop-star here, and I like the way he makes chefs’ food approachable. The dessert section of his new book is slim, but as I riffled through it, I was stopped by a chocolate cake that looked so good … and also so familiar. A quick read of his headnote and my hunch was confirmed: It was Suzy’s Cake, a gâteau I first tasted in the 1990s and a recipe I worked on for Chocolate Desserts, a book I wrote with Pierre Hermé.
Suzy’s Cake — the make-it-always cake
I’m sure I’ve already told you that I often don’t remember the recipes I’ve made. I let myself off easy and, instead of blaming my faulty memory, I say it’s because there’s just too much stuff. Fifteen books. Thousands of recipes. How can a girl remember them all? Of course I do go back to many recipes — in fact, in ANYTIME CAKES, I’ve got recipes earmarked as “treasured,” old favorites that I continue to bake and often to play around with. But sometimes I’ll come upon a recipe and it’ll take me a beat to get to ah-ha and to realize my connection to it. And that’s what happened with Suzy’s Cake.
The Suzy of cake fame is Suzy Palatin, a cook, an author, a former model and Pierre Hermé’s friend. The cake was her dinner-party closer, her signature sweet that she’d make when friends came for dinner. That’s how Pierre discovered it - and where he fell in love with it.
The cake stands out for lots of reasons:
» its simple elegance — so plain and so sophisticated at the same time;
» its texture— set at the edges and becoming progressively softer and moister as you come to the center;
» its flavor — intensely, but by no means overwhelmingly chocolate;
» its richness;
» and its good nature — it’s delicious at almost any temperature, it takes to toppings, go-alongs and fillips and you can play around with it.
That it’s exceedingly easy to make is the bonus. Scroll down for the recipe.
But first, a little Paris escape…
Times are crazy — take moments to breathe, to be with friends and family, to listen to music, to read beautiful sentences and, of course, to cook and bake and share what you’ve made. And with tomorrow’s Lunar New Year, take time to celebrate, too. I wish you a healthy, happy, prosperous new year.
I love you for being here — thank you. See you next week!
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SUZY’S CAKE
Adapted from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé by Dorie Greenspan
