November cakes are here
Hello subscribers!
Orders for November open today at noon, but if you follow this link you can get a jump start and order an hour early. A Thanksgiving menu will come in early November, but I can reveal that I’ll be collaborating with Homeslice Pies on a joint turkey day pop up again - we’ll be at Bar Pomona slinging sweets the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
Autumn, Bayou Saint Cake style
I’ve brought back two favorite flavor combos from last year. For the first, I make an unctuous butternut squash butter, seasoned with single origin spices from Diaspora and Burlap & Barrel. I roast halved squash until it’s super creamy, blend it with a touch of cane syrup, brown sugar, and spices, and then spread it out in a thin layer in baking pans and slowly roast it again until it’s smooth, shiny, and deeply caramelized. The butter gets sandwiched with sour cream custard, dulce de leche, and thin layers of brown sugar graham flour cake. I finish it with coconut sugar buttercream, which may seem a little out of left field until you consider that, in this application, it tastes nothing of coconut and so much like toasty, warm graham crackers.
A butterbut butter cake from last year.
I’ve also reconfigured my chocolate maple torte - this year, it features my rye devil’s food cake paired with maple sugar custard, salted caramel, and chicory buttercream. You can buy powdered chicory root online, and it’s a fantastic substitute for espresso powder if you want to omit caffeine. In creamy applications, it tastes just like Haagen Dazs coffee ice cream. Maple sugar, while pricey, packs so much more of a punch in baking than maple syrup - you can use less and get tons of maple syrup flavor, without the cloying sweetness a liberal pour of syrup can sometimes bring.
I kept carrot cake around for fall too - I love pairing carrot cake with citrus marmalades or candied kumquats. Both add a little bit of acidity to what can sometimes be quite a sweet cake. I also think it works as a nostalgic callback for folks whose family carrot cake recipes call for canned pineapple. This time, I’m adding a layer of satsuma marmalade with the cream cheese mousse and date molasses buttercream. As ever, I use the Diaspora chai masala in my carrot and zucchini cakes.
Isabelle inspects the fruit, pup in tow.
Louisiana citrus season is here
I just got on the horn with Isabelle, my friend and farmer who brings me most of the citrus I use. She has an incredible farm on the west bank of the Mississippi, surrounded by a moat filled with the occasional alligator, where her 5-6 rescue mutts run amok. She’ll be bringing me the first meyer lemons and pink grapefruit this week. I’ll juice them, freeze the juice, and candy the peel in preparation for any dealer’s choice cakes that get ordered for November - that way, I’ll have some fun things laying around to work with. Just for fun - you can see my tutorial for candied meyer lemon bows here. I’m trying not to think about how I missed the short but so sweet calamondin season here in Louisiana - I have a handful on my tree still, but Isabelle’s harvest is already over.
A calamondin/ calamansi fruit - perfect, tiny, and tart.
Merch is back!
In case you missed it - I’ve got t-shirts for sale through my website. I made a goofy new design inspired by my friend Nicole’s love of F1 and dedicated to my former life in vintage moped clubs. You can rep Bayou Saint Motorsports with two 100 percent cotton tees. I’ve also re-printed an old favorite design, inspired by Matisse and illustrated by the brilliant Ashlee Arcenaux. Ashlee is part of a very clever design collective and branding studio called Also Known As (if you live in New Orleans, you’ve seen her work all over town). These tees are available in both 100 percent cotton and slub cotton (the latter has an ultrasoft feel and is slightly sheer in a chic way).
That’s it for today - my best to you all,
Bronwen