Seeing is Believing

Eating carrots may not give you seamless 20/20 vision but eating carrot cake, I daresay, will have you seeing many other things. Now, I have no medical doctrine but I do dibble dabble in the arts of pastry and that alone makes me an expert in advising that the benefits of eating carrot cake far outnumber the benefits of not doing so. As I mentioned before, I don't typically eat anything that's not beneficial to my health. Aside from the crucial nutrients of Vitamin A and rich beta carotene, this treat was just what the doctor ordered. In Waxahachie, Texas, exists a place, 1879 Chisholm Grill, where you too can find that benefiting ailment. Can you visualize with me my fellow cake gurus...a Caramel Carrot cake? Ah...pure insanity! I so concur! Don't strain. You don't have to see it to believe it because I'm gonna alleviate any preliminary angst you might be having right about now. So, visualize this...alternating layers of caramel and cream cheese icing with hints of brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, walnuts and those perfectly shredded carrot pieces, the texture dense yet moist with an extreme undefined yearning for another forkful. Can you taste it? I hope so but if you can't, newbie Cake Enthusiast out of hiding and avid blog follower, 'Gaudy lady', can too attest to the splendid chance encounter. Seeing is believing but tasting...clearly a more delightful disposition.

Everything is Bigger in Texas

Now and again it’s been expressed that it’s the little things in life that count. As much as I’d agree, occasionally though…bigger is better! Truth in point as in the case of the GIANT Sweet roll I found at Chaf In Restaurant, a nostalgic kind of old-timer’s diner, located just off the square in Cleburne, Texas. The injustice of this snapshot leaves little for the imagination. You see, the plate pictured here is actually a dinner platter, yessir, not some minuscule pastry plate. The motley of goodness consisted of baked doughy goodness doused in a butter cream icing infused with enlivening cinnamon. Jubilantly entwined swirls of gooeyness for that morning might have defeated my palate's proverbial gauntlet; Rise the sweet roll in all its glory! My cravings have been outflanked! Of course, as much as I wanted to devour the sugary monstrosity by myself, tis the season for giving, so I gave...a little… of the outside layers that is, to those who sat there alongside drooling in angst! Dithering through the outside layers, I finally got to the much anticipated center. The center contortion , moist and heavenly, was enough to send me into a lifetime of merriment jubilation. Couple this treat with black coffee and you'll be delighted just as much as I was. True to the age old adage...Everything is BIGGER and better in Texas y'all!

Sweet Ruthlessness!

Oh, the ruthless insanity of cake once again became evidently clear when I finally made the pilgrimage to the Blue Bonnet Bakery only to be schlepped by the never-ending, irrevocable temptation of something insatiably floury and sweet. There, shamelessly confined within the glass counter was the last piece of Italian Cream cake, romancing and summoning my senses. How could I possibly resist? Moreover, did I want to chance stirring up some sort of unacceptable scenario for the sake of oppressing my one true addiction to sugar? Nah...that would be so uncivilized and so not worth the energy! The prevailing and cloyingly sweet cream cheese frosting mixed in with pixels of chopped walnuts knocked me silly. The inside layers consisted of a hash of sweet coconut flakes and walnuts, giving it that excitably nubby texture. I was squealing, giddy and slap-happy with every bite. This over-the-top slice of sweetness will ransack your palate and dither your spirit. Barbaric! I know. Oh, oh, oh cake enthusiasts of the world, let's consider ourselves fortunate to have our hedonistic cravings satisfied by such an astonishing treat. What more can I say, the restitution of cake to the human spirit is profoundly ruthless! Ode to cake!

Raspberry Razzle Dazzle

McKinley's Bakery and Cafe's signature slice of White Chocolate Raspberry Ganache cake completely outwitted my senses today. The moist and excitably dense slice of manipulation was smothered by rich white chocolate ganache. The vanilla-caked layers were compressed with butter cream frosting and seedy raspberry preserves. Every razzle dazzle of a bite began stirring up the most intelligible musings usually captured with cake-eating. Amusingly, the first thing that came to mind was Prince's Raspberry Beret ballad and began humming over this harmonic piece of heaven. Hence, with my undoubtedly overtly, distasteful, engrossing obsessive behavior, and short of any vocal talent, I had utterly exhausted the chorus of the Eighty's popular ditty. My most sincere apologies to any Prince fans. But fear not, this aspiring treat does not withstand the typical 'song and dance' and is nothing short of making its own musical leitmotif. Just like Prince with his unpronounceable symbol, this rockin' cake has definitely earned its own trademark. Until my next venture, rock on fellow cake enthusiasts! YEAH!

Topsy-Turvy of a Treat

I was well beyond delighted the minute I walked into a charming venue called the Pie Place Café & Bakery in Burleson, Texas. Would one expect less than a beautiful showcase of desserts with a name like that? All hail, Delusion! Uh… negative…more like a bona fide manifestation; it was too surreal for just a sighing moment. Scanning the beautifully adorned pies, my eyes were drawn to the glass cake dome treasuring the Upside Down German Chocolate cake. This treat was typical of the nostalgic German chocolate cake, moist with all the abiding ingredients, the chocolate sweetness encompassed by pecan pieces and grated coconut. The tapestry swirl top of semi sweet chocolate and caramel set this fascinating dessert apart from the rest. It was swanky and stylish in its own existence and would put to shame any other pseudo cake daring enough to take the same cake runway. Whether you eat this cake upside down or right side up, it permeated every aspect of my topsy-turvy state of mind. And so until our next conviction, um, I mean convention, eat more cake, it wards off the H1N1 virus…well, not really but thinking it while eating cake might make it so!

Screaming for Ice Cream

I know my fellow sidekicks and cake enthusiasts what you must be thinking, “Isn’t this blog about cake?” Whoa and what about the enumeration of all the pie posts? Well, pies are implied, hence the subtitle of the blog and after all, they are the cousin of cake. But what about ice cream? I thought long and hard before I decided to post this. So here’s my intelligible premise: ice cream goes with cake, right? Well, and perpetually so, I promised my friend and restaurant owner, Nehme, I would stop by and try his homemade ice cream and if animated so, I would generate a post. So, there you go. My affectionately nicknamed friend, Cherry Pie, came along for the prop. Seeking antioxidant nourishment, she opted for the Pomegranate flavored ice cream, which she described as yummy and creamy. In lieu of the benefits of glowing skin, I took a liking to the Pumpkin Pecan flavored one. This bewildering single scoop of ice cream had me screaming, um no, it was more like caterwauling with happiness! I could hardly contain myself as I dipped into the toil of pecans, real pumpkin shavings, cinnamon and nutmeg. The texture was not creamy but had that Italian ice sort of scheme. If I closed my eyes, I could bamboozle myself into thinking I was indulging into a piece of pumpkin bread. This trendy nook also serves up flavors such as avocado honey, chocolate jalapeño and sweet corn with cinnamon, just to name a few. If you ever find yourself in the mood to wail out for some trendy ice cream, stop by Chadra Mezza Grill in Fort Worth, Texas and treat your palate to a cold and delightful thrill. After all, don’t we all scream for ice cream?

Ain’t No Fly in this Buttermilk Pie

I'm very excited to share with you today a little gem of a town I was able to venture to for a whole afternoon. As I walked the charming and whimsical square of Glen Rose, Texas, a chance encounter with a Buttermilk Pecan Pie served at Anderson’s Restaurant, eulogized the magnetism of what should be a care-free state of mind. At first, I dillydallied over the musing of such a pie. Buttermilk? Ugh! Seriously? I never had acquired the taste of buttermilk and the allegory of “flies in the buttermilk”, well, let’s just say, inhibited the snag even further. To my daunting dismay, however, the ingredients in this pie translated to something vibrant and viable. Oh joy, it was like eating a Pecan praline! The mesh of the cloying filling: buttermilk, vanilla, good seasoned pecans, coconut and white chocolate riveted within a crumble buttermilk topping, depleted any animosity I had towards buttermilk. The stigma of buttermilk is forever gone. Psst, come closer as I whisper…ain’t no fly in this Buttermilk Pecan Pie!

Drunken' Love

Pearl Street Station set bounds to a makeshift kind of happy hour when I got a taste of their reputable Bread Pudding with Jack Daniels whiskey sauce. The medley of a cluster of almonds, Mexican vanilla, cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg and the not so conspicuous, Jack Daniels whiskey sauce mixed in with evaporated milk, definitely enlivened the wet whistle. The bread’s end was finished with a mild crunchy texture that perfectly contrasted the softness of the pudding. This was a dynamite combo, and I can certainly understand why it’s a standard on the menu. Notable also, is the interesting tidbit that the whiskey sauce is not cooked in with the spirited fusion but rather poured in after, giving it that much more of an unyielding appeal. Served warm, every other slapdash of a bite not only gave me a crimson flush but also sent me into an 80 proof of absolute sedation. It was an intoxicating kind of drunken’ love! Cheers, my Bread Pudding Patrons in Granbury, Texas!

L'Art de Roulade

In my paramount belief of the French Paradox, my senses were hypnotized by the mesmerizing Chocolate Roulade gussied up in a pretty silver-foiled, fanned paper cup. The poshed ‘sweet roll’ was composed of a light brown chocolate spongy cake intermingled with a slightly cool indulgent whipped filling. The thick, semi sweet chocolate topping coupled with flourished white chocolate lines on top added to the intensity of this already pretentious pastry. One bite and I could hardly contain my lady like poise and nearly disrupted what should be the proper savoir faire of cake eating! In short, this Roulade was like a French woman, effortlessly elegant and refined. The conviction of this treat was quite engrossing and I can recommend it whole heartedly. The chic, uh, err, I mean classe...chic is so passé it seems, pastry set me in french mode and had me celebrating the utterance of a compliant syllable or two: Délicieux! Ah, Merci Becoup Swiss Pastry in Le Funky Town, Fort Worth! Until my next venture, Bonjour my fellow cake enthusiasts.

Death by Chocolate

The Old Neighborhood Grill in Fort Worth, Texas serves up the most generous slice of deeply appeasing chocolate cake. I would say enough to feed two chocolate enthusiasts at the very least. I, however, ate the cake all by myself. And what is so exceptionally note-worthy about having done that? Nothing really, for we will always want to have our cake and eat it ALL too. I just wondered whether the rear axle of my car would be able to cope with the strain afterward! That was a risk I was willing to take, for this cake was to DIE for, eh and after all, Wednesdays are my reckless days. This chocolate motif was a montage of everything chocolate with three layers of sugar continuity. It was affectionate and toothsome in texture. My body congregated into a blissful chocolate toxin. The spongy cake was moist and the extremely rich frosting was murderous to the senses. It was an absolute remission of sin. Death by chocolate? Very well then. A Post Mortem report from the other side: Glad to say, everything's made of chocolate... hip, hip hooray!