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.))