Salted Caramel Nut Birthday Cake: Nutty Crunchy Caramel, Caramel-Milk Chocolate Frosting, Chocolate Walnut Chiffon Cake, Salted Caramel Nut Filling with Roasted Almonds, Walnut, Pecans, Cacao Nibs, and Maldon Sea Salt.

Another birthday, another custom-made cake for Chad. I like this little tradition. Last year, a little while before his birthday, he idly mentioned wanting an orange creamsicle cake, so I came up with one. This year, I asked him what kind of cake he wanted, and he said “Caramel” and wanted the rest to be a surprise. And really, how cute is that? He’s been awash in the sea of caramel that I’ve made in the past year, and given a choice to have anything he wants, what does he do but tilt his head up, take a look around, and confidently declare, “More, please?”

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he has actually been pretty caramel-deprived recently. I’ve gotten better at making and appropriating my confections, so there aren’t as many rejects up for grabs as there used to be. He’d been asking for the Caramel Nut Bar especially recently with little success, so I decided to make it into a cake. It occurred to me afterwards that it’s really a tricked out version of The Snickers Cake that I used to like from Jerry’s Famous Deli until I started making my own desserts….

Oh, and did I mention that another tradition I might keep going is to make his birthday cakes as layered bundt cakes? I feel li’l rebellious doing it. But it’s super easy to frost — easy to get the frosting layer even w/o a high midde, as often happens and just fast in general. As I was frosting it, I remembered last year how I felt so liberated to make the frosting wavy, instead of smooth like how we did it in culinary school… and then I realized that this year I was already taking it a step further by frosting it without having put a crumb coat on first.

Clearly, I’ve come undone.

Crunchy Nut Caramel: Spread roasted nuts on a silpat, caramelized a little sugar, poured it over, let cool, broke into shards, placed, and done.

Chocolate Walnut Chiffon Cake: Man, I love chiffon cakes — so light and moist. I used Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Chocolate Chiffon Cake recipe, which was especially fortuitous b/c she doesn’t like the way that the vegetable oil in chocolate chiffon cakes interferes w/ the chocolate flavor… so she substitutes part of it with Walnut Oil… which brilliantly fit into the nut cake that I had mind! And even better, I actually have some — from Rancho Lavina at the Santa Monica Farmers Market, with a slightly toasty pure walnut flavor, it’s one of my most treasured kitchen possessions. I used AP Flour instead of cake because I like that little extra toothsomeness; plus it matches better to the caramel and frosting consistency.

Caramel Nut Filling: The caramel nut filling is the exact recipe that I use for my caramel nut bar. Since it’s slightly oozy…. and salty…. and buttery, it was just right.

I thought about making it slightly boozy by adding bourbon… but I forgot. I think it was for the better. But I still drank bourbon on the side, neat, to make up for it.

It occurs to me now that a runny caramel sauce would have been awesome on the bottom a logical culmination of the textures of the caramel. It wouldn’t be necessary, but it would be good. And all I would have had to do was reheat my leftover caramel nut filling and stir some cream in to thin it.

Caramel-Milk Chocolate Frosting: Halved this recipe, and it was easy and yum. And since I use ganaches in my candy bars, it was a logical part of the cake. And since my milk chocolate has notes of caramel to begin with, it was great to use.

And I have to say, this cake was pretty awesome — the moist cake, creamy ganache, silky caramel, salty tang, crunchy roasted nuts and caramel. It has that deceptive lightness that only a rich and complex dessert can pull off, tempting you to go for seconds… and thirds. Chad agreed — he was in awe when he saw the cake, while he ate it, and after he finished it… and during his second slice.. and third… (ok, over the course of 2 days).

I sent out my first promotional email to my mailing list today…. so I figured I’d republish it here, too…  Orders close this Saturday!

Father’s Day 2008: The Candy Bar Edition

Looking for a way to surprise your Dad? A box of BonBonBar’s handmade candy bars will probably do the trick. They may look like the candy bars that he grew up on, but with fresh and organic ingredients, they take the flavor to a whole new level. And whoever heard of Single Malt Scotch in a candy bar? Well, you… and me…. and maybe soon your Dad.

And marshmallows for Dad? Why not… He has a soft side, too.

Please place your order (hopefully using the included coupon) by this Saturday, June 7, at Noon so that the confections can be made fresh and sent to him in time for Father’s Day on Sunday, June 15. All 2-Day shipments will be sent out on Tuesday, June 10, unless otherwise requested.

Nina

Save 10%

on orders over $50*
until 6/8/2008.

Use coupon code: fathers

* Price does not include shipping and handling charges, or applicable taxes. Rates may vary.

I didn’t make the food in this picture… And it doesn’t even contain chocolate…. But it symbolizes an important part of BonBonBar’s development… not to mention ritual, and I think that it qualifies as part of my work.

As I never fail to mention, the business keeps me either busy or tired almost all week long. During the weekends especially, which are filled with sprints of production, and Mondays, when I package, I barely have time to eat, so after I go to the post office and UPS as late possible in order to protect the packages from heat for as long as possible, I’m usually very hungry and tired.

I usually go to California Chicken Cafe (CCC; which is mercifully near UPS) to get a Low-Cal Chicken Caesar Salad to take home, eat, and then digest while taking an evening nap. I happen to like that salad a lot, and in a good way, it always reminds me of the weekend that I got overwhelmed preparing orders for Valentine’s Day.

I was extremely tired and hungry after that difficult weekend, and I went to Urth Caffe for a green salad with grilled chicken. As I sat there, alone at a sidewalk table, I remember feeling hyper-aware — in a comatose-sort-of-a-way — of every sensation that I experienced… the feeling of the most wonderful fresh air against my face… the initially-cold metal chair that was in contact with as much of my back and legs as I could manage in order to support them… the lacing sunshine and shadows covering the tables and sidewalk… the varied voices of the patrons around me, discussing business and pleasure… and most of all, the way that the lettuce in the salad snapped, so refreshingly and satisfyingly. I found myself eating the pieces of lettuce one by one, savoring the cool crunch of each bite. A bite with chicken meant a little chewiness, a new flavor, a welcome occasional addition.

I knew I must have been quite a sight — tired, probably disheveled, and marveling at each bite with a stupefied smile — but I didn’t care — and don’t care how weird it may seem to write about it now — I can still feel that sense of relief and goodness that I knew that early February evening, eating that salad.

Salad can easily get short shrift. Some people see it as the go-to healthy option, but it’s often not — because it’s often drenched with dressing. But if dressed lightly or not at all, it really is a way to savor fresh ingredients; or if you like a ton of dressing, like I sometimes do, that’s great, but not healthy. I think of Suzanne Goin as the master of salads. In her cookbook, you can see how salads become a way to combine fresh, individual ingredients so that they can be appreciated for their flavor, texture, and color individually and in combination with each other. Part of her genius method is to arrange salads on plates, instead of bowls. I think it makes a huge difference. A bowl of food is something like an inverted pile… and I tend to plow through those without much thought (they are, in fact, my own staple, fast meals). But a salad of fresh ingredients laid out on a plate — again, not as a pile — has a striking poetry to it. You can’t help but taste it.

The beauty of the CCC Low-Cal Chicken Caesar Salad is that it has squares of toasted pita in addition to the lettuce and chicken. The dry crunch of the delicate pita, the bursting wet crunch of the lettuce, the cushion of chicken, the “sauce” of dressing… really, it’s quite luxurious. I always thought that cubes of croutons were too harsh to put in a salad, so the thin pieces of toasted pita are just brilliant to me. Oh, and the low-cal caesar dressing is salty… wonderfully salty. Others have railed against the mediocrity of the chicken caesar salad, but when done right like this, I love it — with layers of so many textures and flavors.

Anyway, since that V-Day weekend, I usually have a half-size Low-Cal Chicken Caesar Salad as my meal on Monday, and I’ve also made it a point to try something new — a pastry or variety of fruit, usually — every week as a way to be inspired. I haven’t really taken pictures or blogged about it, but it’s something that I take seriously. A year ago, I would have thought that only one inspiration a week is… well… weak… but when you’re busy, it’s just enough to avoid overload — and non-blog-posting guilt.

So… this week, I got a bad CCC salad — overdressed with NON-low-cal dressing (ie, regular Caesar dressing). Despite some popular sentiment, I don’t think that fat equals flavor. It can maintain heat and carry some flavoring, but often, I think it mutes flavor… and makes me feel greasy besides. Plus, the dressing wasn’t as salty as I liked. It was just a bland, limp, fatty salad.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt that my weekly inspiration shouldn’t just be a pastry, it should be a meal. So, I drove out to Square One Dining… and had just the most perfect experience ever. I was tired and wasn’t planning on taking a picture, but after I took a bite of the grits with cheddar and bacon — and experienced the slight pop of the cheese-inflected grits surrounding a piece of perfectly crunchy, smoky bacon — I just had to capture the memory.

And then there was the French Toast with Butter and Maple Syrup. Amazing… the airy brioche, with a curiously light and flavorful eggy batter as a coating. Again, I was in my signature hyper-aware-yet-slightly-comatose state, and I tried to figure out how they did it without asking (though the staff was super-friendly; I just felt like solving a puzzle, and as a backup, had a vague memory that someone asked for the recipe in the LATimes).

And you know how I’m not a big fan of sweet, eggy dishes… but this french toast didn’t taste like eggs… It tasted like heaven; it didn’t at all need maple syrup or butter, except as occasional novelty. I saw little black flecks, and deduced that maybe they infused the cream/milk for the french toast with vanilla beans before adding the eggs to the batter. The result was a combination that was a balance of eggs and vanilla that produced almost a new flavor — not quite one or the other. And incidently, they use local/organic whenever they can, and they use same eggs that I do for my pecan nougat — Mike & Sons.

When I got home, I found that the LATimes had indeed posted the recipe… and that the eggy batter was actually a creme anglaise! In culinary school, we were taught that eggs shouldn’t be cooked twice, so I’m a bit impressed at how Square One so flagrantly QUADRUPLE cooks its eggs in this dish — technically, the eggs in the anglaise are cooked twice and the eggs in the brioche are cooked twice.

It was also the first time that I’ve asked to take home leftovers from a breakfast-based meal, because I couldn’t imagine letting it go to waste. I thought that the leftovers would pale in comparison to the fresh version, but amazingly, they were delicious — cold, and then heated for under a minute in the microwave. Quintuple-cooked eggs… yum…(!)

And what does this have to do with candy bars and marshmallows? Well, I should mention — I’ve come a long way since that V-Day weekend, three months ago. I’ve sent out orders much larger than that weekend, still all by myself, with much greater ease, but I still feel humbled — and in a way, appreciative — of that experience… Even though now, frankly, I’m feeling a little fierce, or at the very least, more able. The new summer-related challenge is to make sure that they don’t melt after they leave me, but with fingers crossed, I’m feeling up to it.

And the inspiration of new food is so important. I taste my confections constantly because the process of making them has so many variables, but I’m always aiming for each to taste like one thing… and that can be a little confining, no matter how delicious. There are so many flavors and textures — that is, products — that I still want to explore and make. Consistent inspiration and quality is vital to me… and my company.

And Tommy, if you’ve read this far, I’ve finally thought of my Six Word Memoir:

She Tried To Do Things Right.

(with full awareness that “right” is subjective… after all, I’m not tagging anyone with this, b/c I just tend not to :))

Ok. The caramel update is still forthcoming… and so is the now “weekly…ish” BonBonBar photo post. I don’t know where the time goes… Well, maybe it goes towards running a chocolate business in LA by myself (and have I mentioned how Quickbooks is an interminable odyssey in its own right?). But I LOVED all of the suggestions that I got for the caramels, and was so touched by the creativity and thoughtfulness of the ideas. The downside of my business is that I tend to be either busy or tired, but whenever I get a comment or an email from a reader or customer, I am so deeply touched and grateful… and feel so guilty when I can’t respond right away, and when days slip by. In addition to having the privilege of working with chocolate and sugar on a regular basis, hearing from others (from all over the world!) is my favorite part of having my own business.

And this week was a banner week for that. Here are three takes on my products that talk about them in ways that I never would have imagined…

First, Kevin Vigneault, he of Candy Bar Lab, posted niftily about Learning Product Development from a Candy Maker.

Then, Alice Q .Foodie posted about enjoying my candy bars for her birthday. I always hold my breath a little bit when I start to read a post about my bars, but when it’s for someone’s birthday, I’m more like a deer in headlights than a person looking at a computer screen. But phew…. Alice liked them quite well!

My lungs barely had a chance to recover before I read Ruth Reichl’s write-up on Gourmet’s Weekly Newsletter. One of my beliefs for the company is that everyone is a VIP and wonderful for even considering my confections, but when an author, former New York Times (and LA Times!) restaurant reviewer, and current Editor-in-Chief of Gourmet Magazine raves about your passion fruit marshmallows, it’s hard not to get a little bit more flustered than usual. It doesn’t seem like Gourmet posts its newsletter on its site so I can’t link to it, so here’s a copy of the writeup by Ruth:

I wish that every time someone complained about the quality of the shows on the Food Network that they would be required to cap it off with, “Watch KLCS on Saturday aftenoons instead!”

I’ve been watching it for a while (though many of the shows are currently in reruns), but I just got super-excited by the sight of José Andrés hosting his own show, “Made in Spain.” I remember that he was one of the more fun — and amazingly talented — Iron Chef America winners. I have one of this cookbooks. I read it from cover to cover and made some dishes, and now I get to watch him on TV.

There are also shows w/ Mark Bittman, Cook’s Illustrated, Lidia Bastianich, a Scandinavian cooking show whose name escapes me, Rick Bayless, Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie, Ming Tsai, and others. Though they all have their own look and style, they all stress the importance of good ingredients and technique, and also share a sense of place and conviviality in regards to food. It’s real cooking and people, and it’s fun to watch.

I get KLCS as channel 3 on my TV in LA. I’m not sure if other PBS stations carry the same programming… at the same time… but I hope so.

Off to make chocolates….