Tag Archives: chocolate cake

Sutton Cafe: Your Favorite Neighborhood Diner in Midtown East

sutton cafe restaurant storefront photo by gail worley
All Photos By Gail

Every neighborhood needs a quality, go-to Greek Diner — the place where you can get (almost) anything you crave, whether you show up for breakfast, lunch or dinner. In midtown east (on First Avenue just around the corner from 57th Street), Sutton Cafe Restaurant has been keeping customers fed and happy for 30 years — and that’s gotta be good!
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Peter Anton’s The Foodhist Temple at Unix Gallery

Foodhist Temple Pizza
All Photos By Gail

Foodie-ism ascends to a higher plane at Peter Anton’s The Foodhist Temple, up now at Unix Gallery. For this sensorally-immersive exhibit, Unix has transformed itself into a red-walled sanctuary displaying objects of adoration in the form of larger-than life sculptures of decadent food items. A Cheeseburger Deluxe Platter, several brimming Boxes of Chocolates and a mammoth Chocolate Layer Cake on a Pedestal are among the righteous treats nestled amid a plush-carpeted shrine, complete with dimmed lighting, New Age mediation music, lit candles and fresh flowers. Visitors are asked to remove their shoes upon entering. Continue reading Peter Anton’s The Foodhist Temple at Unix Gallery

OWG Presents Cake That Microwave Cake for One!

Cake That Packaging

Do you like warm chocolate cake? I sure do. Old World Gourmet Foods (Their Slogan: Serving Fun for Over a Decade) has recently introduced Cake That – an individual cake in a cup that you can make at your home or office with just a microwave and a few tablespoons of milk. I’m not even kidding!

OWG sent me a sample of the Chocolate variety of Cake That and I brought it to the office so I could make it, take some pictures, eat it and tell you all about the experience. Here we go!

Cake That Ready to Prep

Cake That comes with an envelope of dry cake mix inside the cup, which will serve as your baking vessel. I recommend using a scissor to cut across the top of the envelope, which will make it easier to get the dry mix into the cup without spilling it all over the counter.

Simple directions are printed along the bottom front of the cup. Once the mix is in the cup, you need to add three (3) tablespoons of whole milk (recommended). I brought a measuring tablespoon from home, because I wanted to be as exact as possible with my milk measuring action. Sadly, the milk was a little overzealous coming out of the carton, and I definitely got a bit too much milk in the mix. And once it’s in there you can’t really take it out.

Find out how I adjusted cooking time to cope with the excess of milk by reading further!

Cake That Mixed

Here’s a shot of the wet cake batter as I mixed it with a plastic fork. Directions advise against “over-mixing” but I wanted to get rid of as many of the dry cake mix lumps as possible, and there were a lot of them. So, you know, mix it until you feel satisfied, is what I say.

Cake That Baked
Smells Like Chocolate Cake!

Baking time is estimated at “one minute, fifteen seconds,” but may vary depending on your microwave. I checked doneness after 60 seconds and this (above) is what it looked like. I zapped it for another 20 seconds and then took it out for a taste.

Remember: once you remove your Cake That from the microwave, you will need to let it cool for a few minutes to avoid burning your mouth.

Cake That Bite

Here’s what it looks like all baked and on the fork ready for a bite. It definitely looks like chocolate cake and it smells just amazing! Everyone in my office was like, “Who made chocolate cake?” Just being serious.

Now, about that ‘extra milk in the mix’ situation: while the top half of the cake was baked to a delicious, chocolatey, moist perfection, the lower half was basically raw, like brownie batter. So, after I after I ate the part that was cooked properly, I put the cup back into microwave to cook for another full minute, and it was perfect, if a bit on the moist side.

Cake That would be especially delicious served with vanilla ice cream, and there is definitely enough in the portion to share, or to eat some now and save some for later, which would be my preference.

Cake That can be purchased for $4.95 per two-serving cup (with free shipping!) at the OWGShopOnline.

Desmond’s Steak House Offers a Tailored Dining Experience

Desmonds Globe Lighting Front Entrance
Interior Photos By Gail. Food Photos By Anne Raso.

A steak house might be described as Manly, Elegant or Down Home, depending on its location, target clientele and the type of image it wants to project. Open for under a month and centrally located just a few blocks west of Macy’s or east of Times Square, Desmond’s Steak House seems to indicate that one Steak House can be all things to all people, within reason of course. Occupying an 8,000 square-foot space (formerly the site an OTB) at 513 Seventh Avenue, Desmond’s is a welcome dining addition to a neighborhood that’s somewhat calling out for a renaissance. Before you even open a menu, the interior of Desmond’s offers you a choice of rooms and dining spaces in which to enjoy your meal, each with subtly different décor to suit your mood, or the size of your party.

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Because Any Time Is The Right Time for Cake

TastY Cake!
Don’t Those Piggies Look Happy?

We always say around my office that “any time is the right time for cake.” Because we all love cake so much. With that in mind, here’s a recipe for Chocolate Cake for One that you can make and be eating in just ten minutes! Hell yeah!