RECIPE: Birthday Cake For Every Day Of The Year
 No, this isn’t the cake, but one of the creative appetizers at E&E Grill House: smoky grilled bacon slabs on a salad of Savoy cabbage dressed with aïoli and cider vinegar. The cake is below. Photo courtesy E&E Grill House. |
We recently were a guest at a relatively new steakhouse in New York City’s Theatre District. E&E Grill House is a lovely change of pace, with a much more modern vibe than the typical steakhouse, including sleek white walls with occasional splashes of color (like a red wall dominated by a colorful Alexander Calder print). With all respect to classic steakhouse decor—dark paneling, damask and leather banquettes—we prefer E&E’s style.
Chef Eric Simeon’s menu has creative flourishes, such as Peekytoe Crab Fritters With Thai Basil-Chili Sauce; Smoked Baby Beets With Goat Cheese, Fennel and Pistachio; and Tuscan Kale Salad with shaved watermelon radishes, pecorino cheese and bread crumbs in a honey-and-whole-grain-mustard vinaigrette. For vegetarians, there’s Smoked & Grilled Tofu with grilled broccolini and yuzu-ginger sauce. Here’s a photo gallery of the food). Your choice of beef cut can be garnished with one of eight sauces, including Benedict, Blue Cheese Brulee, Caramelized Shallots, Cultured Bone Marrow Butter, Bearnaise, Roasted Garlic-Mustard, Salt-Cured Foie Gras and Telicherry Peppercorn. The service is great. |
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AND THEN THERE’S THE CAKE As much as we enjoyed our beef dishes, we left dreaming of a dessert called Birthday Cake: velvet chocolate cake (deep chocolate, not red velvet) with cream cheese frosting and a side of confetti ice cream—a ball of vanilla rolled in rainbow sprinkles. It was so good, we couldn’t wait for our next trip to the neighborhood—just for the Birthday Cake. Not your birthday? That’s OK: It’s your un-birthday. Or, as the Mad Hatter, March Hare and White Rabbit from Alice In Wonderland so memorably sing: “Now statistics prove that you’ve one birthday Want a weekend cooking project? Bake this cake! It may be just the thing to bake for Father’s Day, too. Thanks to E&E pastry chef Christopher Peneiro for sharing his delectable Birthday Cake recipe with us. |
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E&E BIRTHDAY CAKE RECIPE Ingredients |
 Our new favorite birthday cake—and unbirthday cake, too. Photo courtesy E&E Grill House. |
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Preparation: Cake 1. Preheat oven to 350°F. 2. Mix together cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 3. In a separate bowl, mix together melted butter, sugar, eggs, coffee, buttermilk, vanilla paste and olive oil. Slowly stir buttermilk mixture into flour mixture, blending until smooth. 4. Pour batter into two 8-inch round cake pans. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. CREAM CHEESE FROSTING & CONFETTI ICE CREAM RECIPES Ingredients 1. Beat cold cream cheese with softened butter and vanilla until combined. 2. Gradually add 2 cups powdered sugar that has been sifted after measuring. Continue to add more sifted powdered sugar until you reach a consistency and sweetness that fits your taste. (Editor’s Note: We don’t add much additional sugar. The cake and ice cream are sweet enough for us without over-sweetening the frosting.) 3. Layer the cake with frosting and serve with a ball of confetti ice cream. CONFETTI ICE CREAM Ingredients 1. Scoop round balls of ice cream and roll in sprinkles. 2. Return to freezer on a plate or tray until ready to serve, covered with plastic wrap or foil. You can do this the day before.
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