Fall Glorious Fall

September, it's a time of new beginnings. Starting over, but not in a I've screwed up so badly, I have to leave town sort of way. But, if you had screwed up that badly, this would be the perfect time to start over.

While J may wax rhapsodic about Summer and its myriad bright spots, I prefer Fall, Autumn. Such a great season it has two names!

The leaves change. Root vegetables become all the rage -- who doesn't love a beet? Pumpkins become whatever your mind can make them. The air smells of cinnamon. Back to school shopping. Vogue Magazine is about 30 lbs. Sweaters come out of hiding. Jackets make a strong come back. The light in the sky seems both bluer and more golden -- go figure on that one.

For me, this fall means I start a new job nearer to my house. My commute is now 1/2 hour as opposed to 1 1/2 hours. Don't fret those of you in NYC, I will still be doing hair on Fridays, book your appointments early and often. Those of you who are close to Westchester or wanna day trip, look me up at Richard Scott Salon in Mt. Kisco. It's like starting at a new school. And, if I'm smart, i'll learn just as much.

Oh, Fall, Glorious Fall.

For us dear blog readers, Fall 2007 means that we've come to the end of the Butter Cakes Chapter of RSB's Cake Bible! I think I just heard a cheer go up across the land.

We finished with the Checkerboard Fantasy Cake (pg 32). You need a little contraption -- we looked for it at AC Moore and Bed Bath and Beyond, Linens 'n' Things and finally found it at Amazon.com. -- It's sold as a checkerboard cake kit. You get three pans and a plastic thingy with a bullseye sort of look to it.

You make one batch of cake and sorta divide it in half. To the smaller half (I know, technically a half would be equal....) you add the melted chocolate & butter. Then, you put the cake in alternating rings. Switching one pan. So, two of the pans are White in the center and outside ring and the middle ring is Chocolate and the other pan is Chocolate in the center and outer ring and the middle ring is White. Then you shave off a bit of the top of two of them -- ours domed quite a bit. Then frost the between layers and the top and sides. It's a pretty straightforward cake -- except that we had a brief moment of which layer goes where? As you can see in the photos, we did get it all worked out.

We diverted from the book for the frosting. We used J's mom's Fudge Icing. Dagnabit, that is one fine frosting. It was so reminscint of frosting you open in a tub and eat with a spoon, J had to swat my hand away. Really, I could have just sat with a box of graham crackers and eat the entire batch, it was that good.

I wish I could remember J's Mom's name, but I can't. Anyway, here's her recipe:
(Her name is Linda. -J)
Fudge Icing

4oz unsweetened chocolate
1/2 C Butter
1 lb. Confectioner's Sugar
1/2 C Milk
2 tsp Vanilla

Melt the chocolate and butter together. Mix the sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth, add chocolate. Beat over ice until thick.

It was just dreamy.

This cake rocked for many reasons. The texture of each of the cakes, chocolate and vanilla was quite nice. Crumbly, but not falling apart, moist yet fluffy. It was a very even mix -- I guess I expected them to be different textures....since you add chocolate, it should be more moist or wetter or something, but somehow they were identical.

The frosting was easy to put together, and spread like a dream.

For the record, this is the first time i've ever made a three layer cake and had it not slip off into oblivion.

So, while we are glad this was an excellent cake, we are more glad that it's the last in the butter cakes.

Coming up is the "Fruit, Vegetable & Bread Cakes" Chapter. We really need your Carrot Cake Recipes. Please email them to us, or post them here as a comment for everyone to see. Trust me, RLB's cake may end up being absolutely wonderful, but it doesn't have a cream cheese frosting -- or any frosting, and, that just ain't right.

Remember, bake through, eventually you'll finish the chapter.

Robb