BAKING THAT'S JUST 'SWEET ENOUGH'
Happy “Friday Eve” to all who celebrate! This week, we’re asking What’s 4 Dessert? Because we both received copies of a book you’ve no doubt seen on television (Colbert!), in print (Vogue!), and of course right here on Substack (a newsletter!)…
Yes, we’re talking about Alison Roman’s latest tome—Sweet Enough.
Are the recipes effortlessly chic and delicious in that oh-so-Alison-Roman kind of way? Yes. Is the book beautifully shot and filled with pithy kitchen quips, ex-pastry-chef advice, and signature hot takes? Also yes. Were there recipes we IMMEDIATELY had to make? Of course.
OH, AND PAID SUBSCRIBERS ARE AUTOMATICALLY ENTERED TO WIN A FREE COPY OF SWEET ENOUGH!! DETAILS AT THE END OF THIS NEWSLETTER (There’s still time—upgrade to paid by Monday 5/1/23 11:59pm PST to be eligible).
EK: One of my favorite things to do is get a new cookbook and browse through the crisp ink-scented pages imagining what this and that would taste like. Sometimes I look through the cookbook and nothing jumps out at me. Sometimes a recipe jumps so high and so loud that I have to make it immediately. Such was the case with the Seedy Breakfast Cake in Sweet Enough.
I am a sucker for anything with sesame seeds, and poppy seeds come in a close second. Add “granola energy,” and that’s just icing on the cake—so to speak!
AU: And I love anything that is both impressive enough for entertaining, and easy enough that you can make it with very little notice… which is why I loved making the Mint and Chip Ice Cream Cake for Josh’s birthday a few weeks ago.
SEEDY BREAKFAST CAKE
EK: I read the recipe a couple of times and I couldn’t really image what it was going to taste like, so I thought this is either going to be fantastic or not:)
The Seedy Breakfast Cake is a quick-bread-cake like banana bread—and you can even add a banana to it, if you like—filled with sesame seeds, poppy seeds and a number of optional seeds. It’s a base that you can fill with your favorite nubby add-ins. Spoiler alert: it is fantastic!
In this recipe, like most of the cookbook, Roman encourages her readers to freestyle and many of her recipes include optional ingredients. I took the liberties and used wheat germ instead of flax seeds, a half portion of caraway seeds instead of fennel seeds, a handful of Scottish oatmeal, and a couple of tablespoons of leftover pumpkin seeds and chopped pecans I had on hand. I also omitted the optional banana because I wanted to taste the seeds. Like the cake in the cookbook, the toasted sesame seeds and poppy seeds made up the majority of the seeds in the Seedy Cake.
The options in the recipes underscore that it is ok to substitute like items with like items, i.e. caraway seeds for fennel seeds or sour cream instead of greek yogurt. And as someone who often bakes and cooks on the spur of the moment, I rely on having everything on hand. It’s annoying to have to go out to the store to pick up one ingredient when you might have an acceptable substitution. That makes this cookbook easy to use, and I imagine Sweet Enough will stay on the top of the (book) stack in a lot of kitchens.
It was easy to mix together, as it doesn’t require anything more than a couple of bowls and a blending fork. The cake uses half oil and half sour cream (or yogurt), eliminating the need to cream butter and sugar together.
EK: Once the cake was baked, I took it out of the loaf pan and it looked just like the picture in the book! So much so that I couldn’t resist taking a photo of it in front of the photo in the book.
I couldn’t wait to slice it and taste it, but per the instructions, I had to wait until it had cooled! The waiting paid off, and the cake sliced beautifully. It was soft and moist, and more tender than I expected. The poppyseeds were evident because they are dark in color, but you really don’t see the rest of the seeds—save the occasional pumpkin seed or pecan piece.
The flavor was also more delicate than I expected. Lightly sweet like cake, but savory too, with the flavor of the caraway seeds. This is a breakfast “cake” that you can make and eat all week long for breakfast, for snacking, or anytime you are feeling hungry. Once the loaf was a couple of days old, I toasted it and slathered one slice with French butter, and one slice with my favorite Santa Cruz Dark Roasted Crunchy Peanut Butter. Some would say it was just… Sweet Enough!
MINT & CHIP ICE CREAM CAKE
AU: A few weeks ago, my husband, Josh, celebrated another trip around the sun… He’s still 2 years younger than me (a fact he just LOVES to proclaim—usually in a very public setting).
When Alison Roman was doing the media rollout for Sweet Enough, one of the recipes she featured on her YouTube channel was a simple, nostalgic, Mint and Chip Ice Cream Cake. The cake immediately conjured images of my childhood: Going to Baskin Robbins after swim meets (literally the only semi-athletic thing at which I semi-excelled in my youth). I usually opted for Mint Chip or Gold Medal Ribbon on our BR trips. I always wanted the upside-down cone that was decorated like a clown, but Jan Underwood was not having that mess in her wood-paneled Chrysler Minivan.
I also knew that the Mint and Chip Ice Cream Cake embodied every single one of Josh’s favorite things: a rich, moist chocolate cake, mint chip ice cream, and whipped cream. Slam dunk! So it was the obvious choice for the birthday boy’s cake this year (previous years have been tres leches, yellow cake with choc frosting, and even Roman’s own Old Fashioned Strawberry Cake).
Here’s the best part: Since it’s a cake that literally must be stored in the freezer, you can make it up to a week ahead of time!
The first layer of the dessert is the chocolate cake layer, which is Roman’s “All-Purpose Chocolate Sheet Cake.” Made in a household half-sheet pan, or three 9-inch round cake pans—it makes a lot of cake! More than you’ll need for the ice cream cake. Using buttermilk, sour cream, and oil (instead of butter) ensures the recipe will stay moist, even in the freezer. Instead of adding melted chocolate to the batter, you use unsweetened cocoa powder. Roman says this makes it taste like Cocoa Puffs cereal, and that’s accurate. It’s the chocolate flavor we all grew up with!
The second layer is the Mint Chip Ice Cream. Roman is known for her “hot takes” (some of which she seems to regret going so hard—nice to hear), but I completely 100% agree with her on this one: Baskin Robbins Mint Chip Ice Cream is superior. It’s bright green, refreshingly minty, and has the perfect texture of chocolate flecks throughout each bite. I thought I was going to have to visit an actual Baskin Robbins store and have them scoop two pints of Mint Chip ice cream for me, but did you know that BR sells pints in most grocery stores now??? (Or at least they do in California).
“I like the fake mint flavor. Fresh mint leaves steeped in hot dairy will never, ever give you something that tastes as good as mint extract or artificial mint flavor. I hate to say it, you hate to read it, we all know it’s true.” — Alison Roman
AU: The final layer is simply whipped cream. Roman notes that she calls for more powdered sugar than she would normally, because freezing food dulls the flavors. I thought this was a good call out and filed it away for future cooking endeavors. She recommends a good schmear of whipped cream on top, and then frosting the sides, too, if you feel like it. After several bottles of rosé in the pool, I can tell you that I did NOT feel like it.
To assemble the cake, you simply cut out a 9” round of chocolate cake, and place it into a plastic-wrap-lined springform pan. I had lots of cake leftovers. After cutting two rectangles out to freeze for a “cake emergency” down the road, I had some scraps that were excellent snacks.
Then, scoop the ice cream onto the cake. It should be semi-spreadable, but not so thawed that it runs. You can either smooth it out with an offset spatula, or—as Roman suggests—just fold the plastic wrap over it, and level that baby out with your hands (which is what I did, and it worked great!). Pop the cake into the freezer while you make the whipped cream to let the ice cream firm up again. Top the whole thing with whipped cream, as desired, and then put it back into the freezer for at least 2 hours, or until you’re ready to serve it.
AU: Here’s the thing about ice cream cake: everyone wants a big piece. Did we slice an entire cake into 6 ginormous portions? Yes, yes we did. You only live once, folks. Have the cake.
SWEET ENOUGH BOOK GIVEAWAY!
Sweet Enough is the third cookbook from Alison Roman, and you can see her confidence evolve if you look through her first, Dining In, second, Nothing Fancy and this, her third cookbook, together. The book is stylish, shouts personality, brims with accessible photographs and offers good recipes, tips and advice to make and serve desserts that will please yourself, your friends and your family.
And, we are giving away a copy to one lucky paid subscriber! To be eligible, all you have to do is upgrade to a paid subscription by Monday 5/1/23 11:59pm PST.
“Sweet Enough” Copyright © 2023 by Alison Roman. Photographs copyright © 2023 by Chris Bernabeo. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Random House.”
I can’t wait until my next birthday so I can have the cake all over again!