Friday Afternoon Bake-off: Cupcake Throwdown

Friday was a beautiful day in Providence- the sun was shining all afternoon, people were outside playing and running around....  and my friend Blair and I were in the basement kitchen of Caswell (another dorm) locked in an intense showdown of baking skills. Typical springtime activities.

When we first met at the beginning of the semester, it didn't take long for us to realize we both thought ourselves skilled with an oven and a whisk. We talked about how we both were big fans of Food Network, and somehow we got started about Bobby's Flay's Throwdown , a show in which he challenges a local food legend every episode to see if he can't outdo their famous barbeque ribs, ravioli, German chocolate cake, etc. Before I knew it, Blair threw down the gauntlet, leaving a note outside my door one day (fyi- this should be read with the Alabama twang that, until meeting Blair, I'd never heard in person before in my lahf):

better brush up on ya' bakin' skillz, cuz it's goin' down...

Trent's Birthday Cake: Chocolate PB Cup Cake

This past Monday was my friend Trent's 21st birthday. It only made sense, seeing as how he always lets me bake in his kitchen, that I would make him a cake. Luckily for me, he had this insight months before I did, and sent me this recipe while I was still in Spain last semester. He told me (although part of me wishes he hadn't) that he actually first saw the cake on  another site: thisiswhyyourefat. Sigh. Quite the fan of peanut butter and chocolate (who isn't? communists?), he embarked on an expedition to the food blogosphere to track down the recipe. I don't know how much his Eagle Scout training helped him, but he eventually managed to snatch it.

A few months later,  I started examining the specimen.  I quickly saw that it kinda earned its place on TIWYF...  2 sticks of butter, 2 eggs + 2 egg yolks, buttermilk, melted chocolate. This made me... hesitant. But, praise be, a solution presented itself in the frosting that the cake was paired with: a peanut butter icing used by Ina Garten to top some chocolate cupcakes. Having made my way to her corner of Food Network's website (here goes yet another food blog adventure...) I saw another recipe of hers for chocolate cake that had a 5-star review, but no butter and fewer egg yolks. I decided I would not be the reason WYF, so I would make Beatty's Chocolate Cake into Trent's Birthday Cake.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

In the spirit of last month's world athletic activities, I'd say that the delectable combination of peanut butter, oatmeal and chocolate makes these cookies

creamier.
chewier.
tastier.

Baked at the right temperature and for just the right amount of time, these medallions of flour, sugar and butter achieve the perfect golden and bronze hues that'll make anyone's mouth water.  (Ok I'm done with the puns.)

Once again, my friend Trent spared me from having to schlep all my baking gear down five flights of stairs to the kitchen. Instead I just had to carry my baking sheets halfway across campus. A fair deal.

Trent proposed making some sort of peanut butter cookie this time, so I turned to one of my favorite blogs, Brown Eyed Baker. Of course, she had just what we were looking for: Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. Even though their name was a bit of a mouthful,  they looked so good that all I could think of was just that:  mouthfuls and mouthfuls of them.

Chunky Monkey Biscotti

Put together a little chunky (peanut butter & chocolate chips) with a little monkey (mashed banana) and you get these dark, rich cookies that are perfect with a cup of coffee. Based on the Ben & Jerry's flavor combo :

these biscotti have a blend of banana, chunky peanut butter, and chocolate all baked (twice, more on this later) together into the form of the traditional Italian dry cookie.

More on biscotti: The plural of the Italian biscotto, meaning cookie or biscuit, biscotti are a twice-baked (from which they get their name "bi-cooked") and therefore relatively dry cookie or biscuit. Biscuit, actually, is a cognate (Can you tell I'm a linguistics major?) of biscotto, as are the Spanish bizcocho and German Biskuit, although the latter two refer more to a type of spongecake than to a cookie!

Before I get to the recipe, I need to thank my friend and roommate from last year, Trent, who offered to let me bake in his kitchen! Not only did he save me from scrubbing the AEPi kitchen with Lysol wipes (he keeps his kitchen spick and span) , but he also was a big help: I conquered my OCD and let him measure the cocoa powder.