Sitting in Bars with Cake: Lessons and Recipes from One Year of Trying to Bake My Way to a Boyfriend - Hardcover

Shulman, Audrey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1419715828 ISBN 13: 9781419715822

Verlag: ABRAMS, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

It’s hard to meet people in a big city, let alone any city. And after living in LA for several years as a single lady, Audrey Shulman turned to baking. But rather than eating her cakes solo over the sink, she brought them to bars, luring guys with a heady dose of butter and sugar. Sitting in Bars with Cake recounts Audrey’s year spent baking, bar-hopping and offering slices of cake to men in the hope of finding her soul mate (or, at the very least, a date). With 35 inventive recipes based on her interactions with guys from all walks of life, from a Sticky Maple Kiss Cake to a Bitter Chocolate Dump Cake, this charming book pairs each cake with a short essay and tongue-in-cheek lesson about picking up boys in bars. And while Audrey didn’t meet her soul mate, her collection of stories will serve as inspiration for anyone who has ever put themselves out there in hope of finding true love.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Audrey Shulman is the writer behind Sitting in Bars with Cake, a blog she started with the intent to lure men with sugar. Coining the term cakebarring, she has since perfected the exercise designed to help young singles meet and mingle with potential soulmates. A Southern transplant from Nashville, TN, Shulman now lives in Los Angeles, CA.

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It's hard to meet people in a big city, let alone any city. And after living in LA for several years as a single lady, Audrey Shulman turned to baking. But rather than eating her cakes solo over the sink, she brought them to bars, luring guys with a heady dose of butter and sugar. Sitting in Bars with Cake recounts Audrey's year spent baking, bar-hopping, and offering slices of cake to men in the hope of finding her boyfriend (or, at the very least, a date). With 35 inventive recipes based on her interacti

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Sitting in Bars with Cake

Lessons and Recipes from One Year Trying to Bake My Way to a Boyfriend

By Audrey Shulman, Camaren Subhiyah

Abrams Books

Copyright © 2015 Audrey Shulman
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4197-1582-2

Contents

Welcome!, 
Getting Started, 
Chapter 1: Sweet, 
Chapter 2: Salty, 
Chapter 3: Bitter, 
Chapter 4: Fruity, 
Chapter 5: Savory, 
The End, 
Acknowledgments, 
Index of Searchable Terms, 

CHAPTER 1

Sweet

Cakes for Pleasant Surprises, Thoughtful Gestures, and Full-On Victories

Are you in the mood to whip up something sugary and sentimental, even erring on the side of adorable? The following recipes have been baked up to accompany tales of endearing reactions from my male, cake-eating audience. Yep — these are sweet cakes about sweethearts, who (shocker) actually exist on the bar circuit. Hopefully the sugar high will hit right about the time you arrive at a line or two reaffirming that there are, in fact, still scrumptious single boys floating around.

The Guy Who Made Contact with My Mouth

This guy looked kind of like George Stephanopoulos, if George Stephanopoulos was still young and really amazing at Ping-Pong. He'd been playing a rather captivating game of table tennis when I interrupted to see if he'd like my last piece of cake, which he promptly abandoned his opponent to eat.

He turned out to be a nationally ranked athlete from Bulgaria, made especially evident when he threw an arm out to show how much he loved the cake and shot-put my empty cake tray clear across the room. While his opponent stamped his foot waiting for their game to resume, the Bulgarian insisted on feeding me bites of my own cake, taking care to wipe derailed frosting from my mouth. I had just started to get comfortable with the up-close-and-personalness of this gesture when, without any warning, he grabbed my face and kissed me as a thank-you for the unexpected dessert.

There'd always been a certain layer of tentativeness during those rare moments when I'd found myself within feasible make-out distance of any male person's face, so I was grateful to the Bulgarian for finally bursting the personal-space bubble by pulling me in and slobbering on me.

Sticky Maple Kiss Cake with Pumpkin Frosting

For athletic foreigners, syrup-loving Vermonters, and boys who work to break long-standing personal-space issues.

For the cake:

1 cup (2 sticks/230 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (220 g) brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup (240 ml) maple syrup
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ½ cups (310 g) all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ cup (60 ml) milk

For the frosting:

4 ounces (½ block/115 g) cream cheese, at room temperature
3 ½ cups (350 g) confectioners' sugar, sifted
¼ cup (55 g) pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon maple syrup
Hershey's Kisses, for garnish

To make the cake: Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Butter two 9-inch (23-cm) round cake pans, line the bottoms with rounds of parchment paper, and dust the pans with flour, tapping out the excess.

Beat the butter and brown sugar together until creamy, then add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add the syrup and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and ginger.

Working in batches, stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture, alternating with the milk; stir until just combined. Divide the batter between the prepared pans.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cake comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes, then loosen the sides with a knife and invert onto wire racks to cool completely. Peel off the parchment and transfer one cake layer to a serving platter.

To make the frosting: Beat the cream cheese with the confectioners' sugar, then add the pumpkin and beat until smooth. Spread some of the frosting over the bottom cake layer, top with the second cake layer, and spread the remaining frosting over the top. Drizzle the syrup over the top and arrange the Kisses around the top border.

The Guy Who Was in a Frat

This guy looked fresh out of a fraternity, his spiked hair and bronzy tan betraying a very recent college education's worth of poor decision making. He could have been the national spokesperson for pub crawling, or perhaps an all-inclusive spring break cruise. "You girls are beautiful, but THAT CAKE!" he said, fake falling over. "Nice!!"

As soon as I offered to cut him a piece, Frat Bro's attention quickly turned to my exceptionally pretty best friend. He offered to buy her a drink, but she said no thanks, she didn't drink, and undeterred, he stuck around, eating the cake and asking her a series of questions that revealed a level of perception far exceeding my understanding of frat boy wherewithal. What was the most rewarding part of her job? What did the future of college admissions look like? Did she also research California fault lines?

Thinking it was only right to give him a heads-up, my friend tactfully hinted that she was much older than he was — as in, more than a decade older than he was.

"Well," he said with a shrug, "you're still pretty bangin'," and returned to his table of similarly dressed Malibu Kens. I wondered if I'd been underestimating the capacity for good in all of them.

Sweet Greek Walnut Cake with Yogurt Frosting

For undergrads, actual Greeks, and those under the impression that they're still entitled to a spring break.

For the cake:

½ cup (1 stick/115 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (220 g) brown sugar
3 large eggs
¾ cup (180 ml) orange juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup (120 ml) sour cream
1 cup (125 g) chopped walnuts

For the frosting:

½ cup (1 stick/115 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 cups (400 g) confectioners' sugar, sifted
¼ cup (60 ml) plain Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon orange juice
Chopped walnuts, for garnish

To make the cake: Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Butter two 9-inch (23-cm) round cake pans, line the bottoms with rounds of parchment paper, and dust the pans with flour, tapping out the excess.

Beat the butter and brown sugar together until creamy, then add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add the orange juice, lemon juice, honey, and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Working in batches, stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture, alternating with the sour cream; stir until just combined. Stir in the walnuts. Divide the batter between the prepared pans.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cake comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes, then loosen the sides with a knife and invert onto wire racks to cool completely. Peel off the parchment and transfer one cake layer to a serving platter.

To make the frosting: Beat the butter and confectioners' sugar together until...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: ABRAMS
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1419715828
• ISBN 13: 9781419715822
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 208
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: HCM Kinzel GmbH; 49070469820; info@hcm-kinzel.eu; ; Felix-Wankel-Str. 9/1; Zaberfeld; D-74374; Deutschland