first three minutes // raspberry ricotta cake

her sleeping form lies beneath a quickly retreating fog, which rolls and roils backwards and towards the bedroom door, sucking itself down into a vent, exhaling and dissipating onto the street near the sidewalk with a thin and elegant hiss. dampness and the smell of mulch remain. each morning the air is new in perpetuum, and hangs above her head like time suspended night upended, space prepared to wait without hurry for eyes to open up into it. a sheen of sweat on a forehead, an exhale of decay, the room gives a final unobserved heave, the molecules rearrange and then settle. 

she wakes to rain. trees just outside are laced with new green. she is blank and full and she watches the rivulets on the window by her bed, shifts in the sheets to touch a giant leaf from the potted plant on the windowsill, it is smooth and rubbery and thin. under the canopy of her own ceiling there is the smell of coffee from the kitchen, there are dust motes light and drifting, she holds loosely to the plant, she is heavy inside of herself, alert and childlike and newly landed.




for a balanced breakfast:

raspberry ricotta cake           from bon appétit 

vegetable oil spray
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
 1 1/2 cups ricotta
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup frozen raspberries

:: preheat oven to 350°. Lightly coat a 9" round cake pan with the cooking spray.

:: whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

:: whisk eggs, ricotta and vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth; fold into the dry ingredients until
    just blended.

:: fold in butter, followed by 3/4 cups of raspberries.

:: scrape batter into the pan, and scatter the remaining 1/4 cup raspberries over the top.

: bake until golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean, approx. 50-60 minutes. Let cool for at
  least 20 minutes before removing from the pan.

first week of april // cardamom orange yogurt cake

today you could:
go to work and even still! open some windows, make some coffee, feel the weight of a stone in your hand, shake out the sheets of your bed, paint something with bold and irregular stripes.

this week saw:
the acquisition of a giant plant for our bedroom. welcome, monstera deliciosa.
a first spring walk through red hook.
this cardamom and orange yogurt cake*
nighttime rehearsals in the financial district. (stony and damp outside, brightly lit and filled with freshly cut wood inside. elements of nature even at the epicenter of capitalism and commerce, ascend the subway stairs and see a freedom tower in the waltzing fog.)

and I learned this word: archipelago. an expanse of water with many scattered islands, or a group or scattering of similar things. like a crowded street. arched ceilings pelicans flying long long ago.

*cardamom orange yogurt cake 

ever so slightly adapted from this recipe. (made mostly because I had all of these ingredients already, which absolutely never happens.)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp cardamom
1 1/2 tsp orange zest
1 cup of sugar
3/4 cup plain greek yogurt
1/2 cup olive oil
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract



:: preheat oven to 350

:: butter and flour a standard loaf pan. tap out excess flour.

:: whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and cardamom in a medium bowl.

:: rub the orange zest into the sugar with your fingers, then mix well with yogurt, olive oil, eggs and
   vanilla in a large bowl.

:: gently fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients. mix until just combined.

:: pour into loaf pan and place on a rack in the middle of the oven. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until
  the top is lightly browned and a cake tester comes out clean.





ps. if you're interested, check out our apartment tour on Scissors and Sage this week!

rate of change // best birthday cake

I've been thinking about the sculpture court at the met. Where there is light and it is cool, where things are smooth, where the echoes bounce up and all of the toes seem similarly clenched against their marble slabs.

This week marked my last brunch shift as a waitress. It was also the week that a gas explosion caused a building to burn to the ground on Second Avenue, one block from the cafe where I work. Thick smoke on a familiar street. If life is so random and unpredictable, then how have I stayed at this job for so long? What glues a person to a place despite the constant shifting of the plates? I once saw a yellow cab crash into a Staples on Fourth Avenue; and/or I keep thinking: we're like the moon, we have phases. The breadth of rates of change.

This week also contained celebration and more vernal rebirth! (Go ahead and cheerfully say that to someone you don't know.) Best friends turned 26, everybody ate many vats of pasta and this cake*, rehearsals started, things kept growing, shifts took place with varying degrees of perceptibility.

Yesterday I was babysitting and my babysittee lay down on the floor, unmoving, and said "look at me, I'm a glacier!" No statues here.

*best (dare I??) best birthday cake      (adapted from this recipe)

a rich chocolate cake. not too sweet. just right. 

cake

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray

• 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

• 1 3/4 cups sugar

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup freshly brewed coffee  (I stuck mine in the fridge to cool it down a bit.)

• 3/4 cup buttermilk

• 3/4 cup vegetable oil

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

• 3 large eggs

ganache

• 2 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream

• 6 tablespoons seedless raspberry jam
• 18 ounces bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cacao), chopped

and (optional) loose raspberries for serving

// (to make)

• :: preheat oven to 350°F and place rack in the middle of the oven. Coat two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides with nonstick spray. Line bottoms with parchment paper rounds; spray rounds. Sift flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into large bowl; whisk to blend and form well in center. Whisk 1 cup water, buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract and eggs in medium bowl to blend. Pour wet ingredients into well in dry ingredients; whisk just to blend. Divide cake batter between prepared pans (about 3 cups each).
  
  
  :: Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. (If cakes form domes, place kitchen towel atop hot cakes, then press gently with palm of hand to level.) (Satisfying.) Cool completely in pans on cooling racks. (Cakes can be made one day ahead! if you do this, cover in pans and leave out on counter.)
  
  
  
  

  • :: Place chopped chocolate in medium bowl. Bring cream just to boil in a saucepan. Pour over chocolate. Let stand 1 minute, then stir until ganache is melted and smooth. Transfer 1 1/4 (ish) cups ganache to small bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ganache is thick enough to spread, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour. Let remaining ganache stand at room temperature to cool until barely lukewarm.
    
    
    :: Place the rack inside of a rimmed baking sheet, (or on a cutting board, or over whatever you don't mind getting covered in ganache.) carefully remove the first cake from its pan, and place it on a cardboard round, or the removable bottom of a 9-inch tart pan, or a plate is also fine if you don't have either of those. (This will just make the cake more easily transferable from the cooling rack.) Peel off the parchment paper. (Flat side of the cake should be up.)
    
    
    :: Spread 3 tablespoons jam over top. Spoon dollops of chilled ganache over, then spread evenly. Carefully invert second cake, and place it flat side down on the first cake.  Spread remaining 3 tablespoons raspberry jam over top of second cake layer. Pour half of barely lukewarm ganache over cake, spreading over sides to cover. Freeze until ganache sets, about 30 minutes. Pour remaining ganache over cake, allowing to drip down sides and spreading over sides if needed. (I had to do a lot of spreading on mine! no big.)
    
    
    ((the original recipe calls for concentric circles of raspberries on top of the cake, but I just served a few on the plate with each slice.))