Whopper Cake - Book Review Plus Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

"Today is Grandma's birthday
and Granddad has an itchin'
to bake a whopper chocolate cake
and traumatize the kitchen"

They had me at "traumatize". Whopper Cake, by Karma Wilson and Will Hillenbrand, is a great children's book. The story is of a Grandpa who wants to make a cake for his wife, but has a little bit of trouble following the recipe. It is just too tempting for him to scale it up a hundred-fold or so. A delicious mess ensues.

The book ends with a (normal-scale) recipe for Whopper Cake. With my daughter's birthday approaching and the book in nightly rotation, it was obvious that we should make it for her big day. I can confirm, it makes a very moist, tasty chocolate sheet cake. You should buy this book for any kid that loves to cook with his or her family. Or any kid that loves cake.

The recipe didn't specify a frosting, but I was faced with three simple facts: (1) we had a lot of leftover cream cheese (2) my wife loves cream cheese frosting (3) cream-cheese frosting is super easy to make. Here's what I came up with:

Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting
Enough for a 9"x13" sheetcake
Vegetarian and gluten-free (the icing, not the Whopper Cake!); not vegan

• 12 ounces good quality chocolate chips (Ghiradelli works well)
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 6 ounces cream cheese (I used the whipped kind, but a denser one should work fine too, just break it up into cubes), at room temperature
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Melt the chocolate chips and butter in a double boiler or microwave. To microwave, combine in a microwave-safe bowl and cook 1 minute at a time, stopping to carefully stir in between. This is my favorite way to do it, you just have to be sure not to overcook or you can scorch it.
2. Allow to cool a bit, so it won't cook and curdle the cream cheese.
3. Whisk the cream cheese and salt into the melted chocolate. Keep whisking until smooth.
4. Refrigerate for an hour or so until firm enough to spread.
5. Yum.

Interview with Jill Lightner, Editor of Edible Seattle Magazine (But Keep Reading if you Live Elsewhere!)

Edible Seattle magazine first caught my eye at our co-op last year, and I subscribed right away. How cool is it that we have a local magazine devoted to the farmers, chefs and artisan food creators around Puget Sound? I knew I was hooked when I found the Icebox, a regular article by Bethany Jean Clement in which she visits a local chef's abode, rummages through their refrigerator and subjects them to an entertaining grilling.

Better still, Edible Seattle is part of a network of dozens of Edible Communities magazines from Queens, NY to Ojai, CA. These folks are doing yeoman work in getting out the word about great local food.

Jill Lightner, the editor of Edible Seattle, was gracious enough to answer a few questions:

MN: So how did you land such a plum job, editing a magazine all about the amazing local farmers, chefs and food artisans around Seattle?

JL: I’m the luckiest food writer in town. I started freelance writing about 10 years ago and it didn’t take too long to feel limited by being primarily a restaurant critic; I think it’s a lot more fun (and interesting) to get the extended story behind food, rather than simply describe what I ate. Alex Corcoran, the publisher, and I connected a couple years ago over Craigslist (he was also publishing Edible Rhody at the time) and I had seen Edible Brooklyn. We worked together for about eight months before publishing the first issue of Edible Seattle.

MN: What is the magazine's mission?

JL: I like to say that I want farmers to be as famous as rock stars. But it’s not just farmers—it’s also fishers, food artisans, wine makers and brewers, bakers, cheese makers…you get the idea. The real mission is to promote sustainable food at all levels of our local economy: healthy farmland, rivers and oceans, lower use of fossil fuel, a living wage and safe working conditions for those in the food industry, and keeping as many dollars within the community as is feasible.

MN: I see you have already gone from quarterly to bi-monthly after just a year of publication. Are you finding a receptive audience in Seattle?

JL: It’s so satisfying, we really do feel appreciated. One of my favorite parts of the job is meeting folks who don’t normally feel a connection to any media, and hearing them talk about how they love the magazine. When we ran a story about FFA, it gave a voice to teachers and students in tiny towns all over Washington, and I was getting emails from grandmothers sharing their pride. At the same time, urban shoppers love it, too—and nobody seems to miss restaurant reviews. I hear constantly how fun it is to go ‘behind the scenes’ into the kitchens of the chefs we write about. Being embraced by people across the political spectrum means a lot; the opportunity for urban Green Party members to find they agree on politics with a small-town rancher is really remarkable.

MN: How is Edible Seattle connected to all of the other Edible publications, from San Francisco to Rhode Island?

JL: Officially, there are somewhere around 50 publications affiliated with Edible Communities. While some share a publisher, most operate independently. The national connection is a way to access a number of benefits, some financial (group advertisements) and some editorial (book excerpts from Barbara Kingsolver, for one example). Each publication makes individual decisions about which national programs they want to participate in, and each publication precisely tailors their content to their region. Ours covers all of Puget Sound; another covers all of Chesapeake Bay, but some are quite small—just two counties. A new one in New Mexico will be the first bilingual Edible Communities magazine; there are also two published in Canada.

MN: What is your favorite story that you've published so far?

JL: My favorites are the ones where I learn something, and the ones that cover a topic not typically seen. Heidi Broadhead wrote a three-part series looking at different levels of agricultural education, that series stands out for me. The “Field and Forest” department is a favorite, too—wild foods give such insight into the natural history of our region, and the cultures tied to the land.

MN: What is the best thing you've gotten to eat on the job?

JL: I am getting completely spoiled. Farmers love to feed people, and honestly whatever I’m eating at the moment is probably my favorite. If I had to pick one thing, it’s a homemade apple pie from Jon Rowley and Kate McDermott. They spent about four years developing their pie recipe, testing everything from the type of butter in the crust to the baking/tasting qualities of apple varieties. It’s the best pie I’ve ever eaten—I was picking up the edge of the crust and eating it like a biscuit.

MN: What changes can we look forward to in this second year?

Some of the changes will be subtle. The price of food has become more of an issue, so we’re looking at ways of communicating that farmers’ markets are real bargains. Because of budget cuts relating to social services and increased demand at food banks, we’ll be continuing our work at promoting food-related nonprofits, including the King County Fair, which nearly disappeared this year thanks to county cuts. Lastly, I have tremendous concern about our salmon populations, and feel the need to more actively discuss the broad environmental and social concerns that relate to effective fishery management. It’s a fine line between being an active voice and being the nut on a soapbox—we want to encourage folks, not anger them, but there are urgent issues our fisheries face.

MN: What are you featuring in the May/June issue?

JL: The May/June issues has some of my favorite recipes yet, by the way—including a gluten-free brownie topped with ricotta and sweet cherries. It’s delicious. I can’t wait for cherry season. To paraphrase Emma Goldman, if I can’t eat it, it’s not my revolution.

Thanks Jill! I hope all of you will take the opportunity to subscribe to the Edible Communities publication in your area. They are well worth supporting and I think you will find the magazines, informative, inspirational, and appetite inducing.

Fine Cooking "Fresh" - Cookbook Review

I just got a nice new "best of" book from Fine Cooking magazine. This one is Fine Cooking Fresh: 350 Recipes That Celebrate the Seasons. The thing I like about Fine Cooking is that the recipes hit a very solid middle ground. They are generally full of flavor, use authentic ingredients, and aren't dumbed down. But they also aren't overly complex or precious. Many pages include helpful hint & tip boxes that will make your life in the kitchen a bit easier. Several of my "go to" recipes have evolved from articles in the magazine.

This collection in particular includes lots of approachable dishes. I think most home cooks would feel comfortable cooking them as is or improvising to suit what they find in the fridge or at the market. It is by no means a vegetarian collection, but there are tons of great salads and easily adaptable entrees and side dishes. A quick scan certainly whets my appetite. How about Spanish Braised Spinach with Chickpeas? Savory Tomato, Corn and Cheese Tart? Apricots with Moscato and Thyme Syrup?

If I had one suggestion for the authors, I'd love to see the chapters arranged by season or even month rather than by course (the standard soup, salad and so on out to dessert approach). When so many of us are focused on eating what is fresh and local, that style would make it a lot easier to hone in on recipes that are immediately useful.

Altogether I think this is a very good collection, full of recipes you will enjoy, especially with the warm weather entertaining season fast approach.