Candy Everybody Wants

With things trending towards a dryer and warmer NoCal, I met with Molly Mayhem on Sunday for a day out. We tripped on the cosmos as presented by the Academy Of Sciences, and took a cruise further down the coast. Her friends were throwing a little birthday dinner, and I was just lucky enough to show up. Molly has been working with candy lately, and here is one of her latest concoctions:

Blood Orange Caramels

I've severely cut my candy intake since I was a young'un, but this caramel is a more developed take on the classic. The incorporation of blood orange pieces and nuts gives it a multidimensional flavor and texture. Where a typical caramel is just straight sugar up in your grill, these little treats shift from their sweet caramel exterior to a slight tang from the blood orange, and then counters itself with a toasty, nutty crunch. Delightful. I'm not the only person who'd like to see these for sale somewhere.

Moving on to Molly's friends' place, we were treated to a fantastic sangria and raw oyster appetizer. Molly wanted to point out this one in particular for its sheer beauty and form:

Dinner was grilled sausage, peppers, onions, and mushrooms, roasted asparagus, and spiced fingerling potatoes. While that was all delicious and refreshing, I have to emphasize the birthday cake for just how balls-out crazy it is in concept, and yet totally the cake you've always wanted to make for yourself. Witness the Bacon Cake:




The basic recipe as I understood it is a typical yellow cake, but swap out a third of the flour for cornmeal; this makes the cake a little denser, like a light cornbread. Between layers of cake are layers of crisp bacon covered in a brown sugar glaze. The cake is coated in a typical sugar frosting, with a bit less sugar so it doesn't overpower the savoriness of the corn cake and bacon. Finally, it's decorated with more strips of glazed bacon. Now would be a good time to sponge the drool off your keyboard.

Molly's present was a sweet all-copper sugar pan, so the fun is sure to continue. She sent me home with more cookies and berry pies than I can handle myself. I think I have some bored fellow office workers I need to make happy.