Growing into a Gluttonous Halloween

Oct. 24, 2011 - PRLog -- With Halloween weekend less than a week away, kids everywhere have picked their costumes and plotted neighborhood routes, determined to take home more candy than ever before. However, many of us are unlucky enough to have grown too old to hit the streets with pillow cases and extended hands, but the urge toward sweet excess persists. For those who lose control of their sweet tooth in late October every year, Red Rock Press presents a few recipes to help you transition from candy as you grow into a properly adult and gluttonous Halloween.

Below is a recipe for a Three-Layer Devil’s Food Cake that would have made King Henry VIII weep with satisfaction. It comes from GLUTTONY: MORE IS MORE, a guide to ingestible excess across the centuries by Nan Lyons, author of the cult book/film WHO’S KILLING THE GREAT CHEFS OF EUROPE? If enjoyed sparingly, this truly decadent cake will not weigh down the eater dramatically. By contrast, if one keeps it up, as Henry VIII did, they may suffer the same fate: by age 57, the king had grown so large he had to be lifted and carried from room to room.

Speaking of great acts of excess, despite the tragedy of Halloween falling on a Monday this year, many will ignore the fact that we have work the following Tuesday in favor of costume parties and other soirees on Monday night. To celebrate the temporary casting off of responsibilities, we’d like to share a devilishly good cocktail recipe: The Revenge Fizz. The recipe comes from ENVY, ANGER & SWEET REVENGE: HEY, IT WORKS IN HOLLYWOOD! by Stephen M. Silverman. You can learn more about the most memorable feats of gluttony, envy, anger, and revenge by visiting http://www.redrockpress.com/sinseries.html#gluttony and http://www.redrockpress.com/sinseries.html#envy.


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Three-Layer Devil’s Food Cake

For Cake:
2 large eggs
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 ½ cups sour cream
2 tablespoons buttermilk or milk
2 ½ cups sifted flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup unsweetened cocoa
½ cup very hot water
1 ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Bittersweet Buttercream Frosting:
6 large egg yolks
½ cup sugar
½ cup corn syrup
1 pound unsalted butter, softened
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and slightly cooled

To make the cake:
-Grease and flour 3 (8-inch) cake pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-In a large bowl, beat eggs well. Beat in brown sugar. In a separate bowl, mix together the sour cream and buttermilk or milk. Set aside.
-Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and cocoa.
-Add dry ingredients to egg mixture alternately with sour cream mixture and hot water, ending with dry ingredients. Fold in vanilla. Divide batter evenly among pans.
-Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Let cake layers cool on rack.

To make the frosting:
-In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks until light. Set aside.
-Grease a heatproof, glass measuring cup and keep within reach of the stove top. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the sugar and corn syrup. Stir constantly until the mixture comes to a rolling boil. Once at a rolling boil, transfer the sugar syrup quickly into the measuring cup.
-While beating with a hand-held electric mixer, pour the hot syrup in a steady stream (avoiding the beaters) over the egg yolks. (Use rubber spatula to crape out syrup from measuring cup.) Beat well.
-Beat in the butter and melted chocolate gradually until fully incorporated. Allow buttercream to cool to room temperature before frosting the cake. Use frosting between the three layers and on sides and top of cake.

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The Revenge Fizz

2 ounces gin
2 ounces cream
½ ounce fresh lemon juice
½ ounce fresh lime juice
1 egg white
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1 dash (3-4 drops) orange flower water
Club soda on reserve

-Pour all of the ingredients into a chilled cocktail mixer and shake furiously for at least one minute. Strain into a goblet and top off with cold club soda, to taste.
-Alternate plan: Use a blender with about one quarter goblet of shaved ice. The add soda and stir.
-Warning: This libation will soothe one’s nerves, which could render moot the very idea to seek revenge.

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Dan Kleinman
Red Rock Press
Daniel@RedRockPress.com
212-362-8304