/Formatting/

The language of layout.

Last week, I was a bit…

sad.

Let’s just say sad.

Today, I’m super excited! Ah, how things change in a week’s time.

I have a lot to share today… birthday stuff, cake stuff, food stuff…

It’s convoluted and crazy, but I’ll keep it structured (somehow).

Don’t you worry.

If you're looking for simple, I’m not the one.

I am both a rule-follower and a contrarian

in the world of words, and the world beyond.

I’ll refuse to write a slant rhyme, or to stray from my established poetic metre, or to spell words incorrectly…

but, I’ll make up my own words, abandon sentence structure, and

write

like

this.

I let words determine my direction

and, often, I let my senses

and feelings guide me, too.

I follow what feels right, what sounds right, what my body and mind want to explore.

I write free-verse, I write in rhyme,

I write

a recipe

for rosemary scones (???).

That’s what this Substack is for. Feelings, food, and frazzle.

On that note…

Subscribe now

/Flavors/

Birthday Cake Jars

I’ve been desperate for a new and creatively challenging baking project, and what’s a better excuse than my very own birthday?

I love making my own birthday cakes, and this time (for ease of transportation… and also because I couldn’t decide on just one flavor), I made my own cake jars!

There were three jar flavors to choose from.

GLUTEN-FREE CHOCOLATE VANILLA STRAWBERRY:

• Gluten-free chocolate cake

• Vanilla pastry cream

• Fresh sliced strawberries

• Vanilla bean buttercream

Because my best friend Olivia is gluten-free, I always like to provide gluten-free options at events. Due to the variety of cake jar flavors I was creating, I had ample room to make one of them fully gluten-free.

First, I whipped up a super simple vanilla bean pastry cream. It was a classic creamy custard made from sugar, cream, butter, salt, vanilla bean paste, whole milk, corn starch, and (of course) eggs. It is a concoction destined to be sandwiched between the most decadent chocolate cake. Now, this gluten-free chocolate cake???? Exquisite. My sister, in her words, has deemed it “better than most normal chocolate cakes.”

She was eating leftover scraps by the handful.

To make this decadent, fudgy, showstopping chocolate cake, I cut Broma Bakery’s Super Moist Gluten-Free Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe in half— using super freshly-brewed espresso as the coffee component.

After it was baked and the sheet cake was fully frozen solid, I cut it into circles using a biscuit cutter.

Next, each of the four 6-oz jars received a circle of cake, a dollop of custard, a heaping helping of freshly sliced summer strawberries, another circle of cake, and a swirl of vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.

If you’re ever in search of a combination that will please both gluten-free and gluten-full people alike, try this one out.

CHERRY ALMOND MATCHA:

• Almond cake

• Frangipane custard

• Stewed cherries

• Matcha buttercream

The Cherry Almond Matcha cake jars were by far my most inventive in terms of flavor combinations.

But that, truly, is one of my favorite things about baking.

You can create combinations that only you could dream of.

For this one, the dream consisted of an almond croissant, an iced matcha latte, and a dark summer cherry. The flavors, without even touching my taste buds, mingled perfectly.

I wanted this cake jar. I wanted it now.

Frangipane, the creamy almond filling usually found in almond croissants and tarts, is one of my favorite flavors. It is typically made with almond flour or ground almonds, almond extract, eggs, and other delicious ingredients. The inclusion of raw eggs, however, means it must be baked prior to consumption.

Frangipane is baked inside the croissant.

Frangipane is baked inside the tart.

I couldn’t bake the frangipane inside my cake jars. I wanted a creamy, pipeable filling.

So, I had to get creative. The solution was a frangipane/custard hybrid.

Frangipane’s creaminess, cooked texture, and inclusion of eggs led me to realize that I could simply cook the eggs first. I made some extra vanilla pastry cream, then mixed in almond extract, almond paste, and ground almonds.

The resulting mixture was a gorgeous, silky, nutty, unique, and salmonella-avoidant cake jar filling.

The other filling for this jar was some stewed, jammy cherries. I pitted and chopped dark sweet cherries, added them to a pot, and cooked them down with water, a teensy bit of sugar, maraschino cherry liquid, some salt, and a splash of cognac.

The base layer… the almond cake… was a play on this Sally’s Baking Addiction Pistachio cake that I made for my 21st birthday a couple years back. I just swapped the pistachio crumbs for almond flour, left out the green dye, and added a weeeee bit more almond extract. As with the chocolate cake, I cut the recipe in half because I only needed four cake jars of this flavor.

Each Cherry Almond Matcha cake jar was filled with a circle of almond cake, frangipane filling, another circle of almond cake, cherry filling, another circle of almond cake, and a sensational swirl of the most green and punchy matcha Swiss meringue buttercream.

(Honestly, this buttercream was so good. Fresh-whisked ceremonial matcha and extra matcha powder made this taste like your favorite cafe’s matcha latte. No bitterness. So smooth.)

LEMON BLUEBERRY LAVENDER:

• Lemon cake

• Wild blueberry lemon jam

• Lemon curd

• Lavender cream cheese buttercream

I saved the best for last. I’ll admit it. The four Lemon Blueberry Lavender cake jars disappeared faster than any of the others. They were… and I don’t use this term lightly… pretty perfect.

The fluffy-yet-moist lemon cake base, the Jana’s Jammy Wild Maine blueberry and lemon jam, the thickest and tangiest lemon curd I’ve ever made, and the cream cheese Swiss meringue buttercream that had just the right hint of lavender. It was phenomenal. I literally cannot tell you what aspect I enjoyed the most.

Probably the curd.

Or the tart and floral buttercream.

Or… who knows.

I used (half of) Preppy Kitchen’s Lemon Cake recipe as the base. The lemon curd was made with the classic combo of lemon juice, butter, sugar, egg yolks, salt, and lemon zest… I just perfected it this time.

I used extra egg yolks to ensure a thick and creamy result that wouldn’t get soupy in between cake layers. I also mixed the lemon zest into the sugar with my fingers to extract and infuse it with all the lemony oils!

The buttercream was a mixture of my Swiss meringue buttercream base, some softened full-fat cream cheese, lavender extract paste, and a teeny tint of natural purple coloring.

I did not invent the idea of cake jars, nor did I ever claim to. I just thought it would be the perfect idea for this particular birthday.

Why?
Well,

On that note…

/Festivities/

My birthday and The Great Nosh

I am not the biggest “party person”.

I have tried very hard to be a "party person”…

because I love planning parties, and I love people…

but, often and unfortunately, I get tired easily. My social battery runs out, even with those I love most.

Because of this, planning my own birthday party tends to be more difficult than any other planning I do.

This year was probably the best birthday I’ve ever had.

I owe it all to doing what I actually wanted to do

and to the many loving people I’m lucky to have in my life.

The day started with sleeping in… amazing.

I had an outstanding taco lunch, before heading to Sorate for an iced agave oat milk latte with their house matcha.

We then went to Color Me Mine to drink our tea and do some painting with many of my favorite people in the world.

It’s difficult when so many of your friends are literally an ocean away. Many of my friends live in England, which makes planning difficult because there are always people I wish could be there (Ella, Millie, Cat, Amber, Joe—I miss you!). Even so, I was astounded by the number of people who showed up… just to paint pottery with me on my birthday.

I love people in so many places.

Isn’t the world gorgeous sometimes?

I loved our time at Color Me Mine. It was a creative outlet, an activity, and an excuse to spend two whole hours with amazing people. I painted some floral and striped coasters (super exciting), and I loved seeing what everyone else decided to decorate.

The pottery painting party provided me with that whimsical childhood heart flutter, that excitement you only get from simple expressions of joy and art without pressure of the “product”.

After painting, we walked a couple blocks to Columbus Park.

See, what I didn’t mention is that I had been carrying around an insulated bag full of ice packs and my cake jars… all day… in the heat.

I was nervous that they would melt, but I knew that if there was any way I could transport three cake flavors to the park after five hours in scorching city summer heat, I could do it by putting the cake 1) into jars, and 2) into a bag full of ice packs.

At the park, the cake jars were, again, pretty perfect. They weren’t too cold, and the frosting wasn’t frozen solid.

The frosting wasn’t melted, either. 😅

They were delicious, and the perfect size for a birthday candle.

The next day, Dalton, my parents, Julia, my cousin Frank, and I hopped on a ferry over to Governor’s Island to attend The Great Nosh, “the ultimate summer picnic packed with NYC’s best restaurants, exclusive chef collabs, immersive art, unexpected Jew-ish cultural connections and plenty of sunshine.”

While the sunshine was mostly missing, the rain subsided just as the festival began… and the treats just kept on coming.

Junior’s cheesecake filling sandwiched between Caroline Schiff’s black & white cookies… a reuben in a roti… a sesame bagel with wasabi cream cheese, soy-cured lox, cucumbers, and the works…

It truly was my Jew-ish heaven (if that sort of thing exists).

We met the Old Jewish Man, watched Jewish grandmothers make homemade fermented pickles, and ate (and ate).

I couldn’t have asked for more

for my twenty-third birthday.

I was overwhelmed by love. Thank you.

Oh… wait…

I could have asked for more?

My family could have surprised me with the Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer that I talked about last week and was going to buy for myself?

Oh, yeah…

They did. :)

On that note… things change. One day, you won’t find anything to cry about on your birthday. One day, election results won’t have to be depressing (Yay for Zohran!).

/Parting Words/

A song on repeat:

A snack I’m liking lately:

Apple and warm peanut butter

A drink I’m liking lately:

Mango smoothies!

A random thing I enjoy:

Soft blankets

A thing I’m reading or watching:

I’ve been too busy???? Help????

A clothing item I find fun:

My orange dress!!!

With love and appreciation,

Annabelle