Resurrecting the Almond Cake

Plus: Easter Brunch, Dinner at Ben's, Anniversary at Republique.

Hey everyone,

I just got back from an Easter brunch in Topanga Canyon where I was tasked with bringing dessert. If you’ve been reading this newsletter for at least a year, I’m sure you guessed what it is that I brought…

That’s right: it’s the ALMOND CAKE that I’ve been making for years, the one from Amanda Hesser’s Cooking for Mr. Latte. It’s truly my favorite cake because of it’s a miraculous combination of almondy flavor (by way of almond paste and almond extract) and a texture that’s rich and luscious and still somehow light (thank you, sour cream).

For your convenience and enjoyment, I did a BRAND NEW POST with much better pictures than my old post about it and now the recipe is more readable and PRINTABLE.

CLICK HERE to get this almond cake into your life.

As for the rest of the brunch, we were visiting Craig’s Aunt Liz and Uncle Chris and it’s always a lovely time up there. I mean just look at this table setting:

Here’s my plate featuring all of the food that Chris made: ham, salmon, scalloped potatoes, asparagus.

And here’s our very happy dog, who found many things to gobble up from the floor.

On Friday night, we were invited to our friend Ben Mims’ place for dinner. For the record, I invited him to my place this time but he insisted on cooking, even though he cooked for me last time. Hey, I’m happy to oblige. Here he is with Craig and our pal Ryan.

Now Ryan’s boyfriend Jonathan is a vegetarian so normally when they come for dinner, the entree is veggie friendly. But this time Jonathan had plans so Ryan requested MEAT and Ben provided a Noah’s Ark-worthy platter of both pork and beef.

But wait, there’s more!

Ben also smashed potatoes and fried them and served them over sour cream. Can somebody say “show off”? :P

Finally, Saturday was my 17th first-date anniversary with Craig. SEVENTEEN YEARS. Holy crap. I still remember when he first made his debut on my blog in a post about soup dumplings and all the commenters were like “we knew you were gay!” “Yay, now we know who you’re dating.”

We had our anniversary dinner at Republique, which is still one of L.A.’s most exciting restaurants. We were across from the kitchen, which was slightly stressful after watching The Bear. I heard someone say “all day!” and had to look it up to remember what it meant in restaurant lingo.

The food was excellent as always. We ate these leek and gruyere beignets and tuna toasts + the baguette and butter (a must-have) + a salad with green goddess dressing and, for my entree, I had the beef cheek in bourguignonne sauce.

That sauce was pure French cooking 101. I loved it.

And now for some fun and exciting links:

• A tribute to Mimi Sheraton, the NYT’s first female food critic who passed away last week at age 97 (NYT);

• Gary Shteyngart reviews Koloman in NY (Gary’s Journey Through Hell);

• Tao in NY recreates Babette’s Feast (Eater NY);

• Everything David Lebovitz ate in LA and SF (David Lebovitz).

That’s all for today, folks!

In case you missed Thursday’s paid subscriber-only dispatch, I wrote about illegal French cheeses, my new carbon steel pan, and dinner at a secret Sal’s (from Provincetown) pop-up.

I’ve also been keeping up my Operation Muffin Stud, which is now less about losing weight and more about finding balance between exercise and pleasurable eating. You have to be a paid subscriber to get access, so what are you waiting for?

Until next time….

Your pal,

Adam