I can't say that I get all that worked up about Valentine's Day, but it need not be an impressive spark to light the fuse that propels me to jump into some joyful kitchen endeavors. In keeping with the holiday, I used its 2021 appearance as an excuse to try out a new recipe for red velvet pound cake. Those are four pretty awesome words there, and in pairs one must submit hungrily to their siren call: "red velvet" and "pound cake." Glory, hallelujah, and hell yeah. Am I right?
With part of a jar of thick and flavorful caramel left over from the amazing burnt sugar syrup caramel cake a few days before, I found myself wanting to employ it in some sweet creation. Then it hit me: how about a salted caramel version of homemade Klondike bars, just to see if I could pull it off? The usual light fluffy interior of those isn't, in fact, ice cream, but a combination of swiss meringue and whipped cream, mostly. Perhaps because I'd warmed the caramel too much, or because I didn't counter the weight of the additional sugar content, I was unable to restore the swiss meringue to its fluffed and airy peaks, resulting in a denser bar than intended. But the chocolate coating still worked out just fine and the finished product was a frozen dairy treat that one could be proud to boast about. Since it was a double batch this time, there was all the more to share with the neighbors but also to hold onto for the gleeful satisfaction of the Roediger House.
To mark Mardi Gras on February 16th, I worked up a dozen and a half mardi gras sugar cookies, all green and purple and yellow...and amazingly delicious, to boot.
I could not bring myself to stop the sugar stampede. On the afternoon of the 15th, while supper cooked, I made the base for double chocolate liqueur ice cream and then churned it on sackcloth Wednesday. That's some ridiculously good ice cream, if I may say so.
Before bedtime that Wednesday night, it was the fear of having to discard the rest of a carton of milk, getting too near the end of its shelf life, that drove me back into the pudding section of my collected general desserts recipes notebook. I measured what I had, and it was precisely 4-and-a-half cups, the exact amount needed either for my vanilla pudding recipe, or for a new one I hadn't made before: hot chocolate pudding. I thought it would have to play runner-up to the vanilla version but I'd say they both tie for tops. Final analysis: perhaps pudding is pudding, and I'm putting it in my belly regardless.
The final entry in the mid-February sweetsstakes came on Saturday night, February 20th. Because I'd made that wonderful double liqueur chocolate ice cream, it seemed to beg for some delicious yellow cake with chocolate frosting...and I happened to have a recipe for that very thing that I'd wanted to try out. I was extra inspired because it came from that same recipe blog as that heretofore-mentioned amazing burnt sugar syrup caramel cake, so the pedigree was a real selling point! The crumb was tender, moist, and impressive even if the cake layers' flavor wasn't really kicking...but the fudgy icing was itself well worth it and led to privately licked plates.
"Red Velvet Pound Cake," by Amanda Rettke of the I Am Baker blog, found at IAmBaker.net. [Published 12 February 2021]
Adapted from "Homemade Klondike Bars," by Stella Parks, the Pastry Wizard at SeriousEats.com. [Published 06 September 2018 / Updated 15 April 2020]
"Mardi Gras Sugar Cookies," from Kelly of AmericanCupcakeAbroad.com. [Published 20 February 2012]
"Double Chocolate Liqueur Ice Cream," by Kita Roberts. From her Pass the Sushi blog. [Published 23 July 2019]
"Hot Chocolate Pudding," from the Food Network Kitchens.
"The Best Yellow Cake I've Ever Had," from Sally McKenney of SallysBakingAddiction.com. [Published 25 May 2020]
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