Break Fast

This post needs very little explanation. I went over to a friends house for his family's Break Fast for Yom Kippur and as it is every year, both the food and dessert spreads were unbelievable. My friend's mom is the best cook ever, and her dessert room (yes room) really was incredible, everything you could imagine was there. Just look over the photos and drool.

I encourage you to click on the photos to see them full size. You dont want to miss a crumb.






Chocolate Cake - This was so rich! It was almost like a brownie, very soft with chocolate chips and chocolate icing. So great.


Poppy Seed Cake - A classic at this household. Very unique, so moist and not too sweet!


Coconut Mouse - Imagine a thick whipped cream with coconut flakes. So good with the strawberries!




Peanut Butter Balls - The Infamous. Always a treasure in this house, and always amazing. It's a secret what's inside!


Jelly Diamonds - The Regular Guest. Made by a family friend, these are always a hit for this holiday. Each layer a different flavor, not only delicious, but fun food to play with!


My Plate - I had to try everything! I think my favorite which is on my plate but not photographed separately was the chocolate mousse and the cheesecake! I also poured a ton of strawberry sauce over on the cakes. Serious food coma last night!

"New York" Cheesecake

After seeing my previous post about Urth Cafe's chocolate cake, my friend Michael told me that Urth also has great cheesecake. I'm pretty picky when it comes to cheesecake because sometimes it tastes fruity and like freezer burn. For example, diners cheesecake is usually gross. My favorite cheesecakes, from New York of course, are from Petak's on the Upper East Side, Carnegie Deli, on the West Side and Holy Moses in Westhampton. I will also admit that its hard to go wrong at The Cheesecake Factory... While cheescakes usually come in a variety of flavors, I really only like original, at most with strawberries. This one was very good. Really thick, a little on the hard side, I would have liked it to be a little creamier, but it had a really good flavor. I also liked that instead of a slice it was a mini cake, it was very cute. The glazed strawberry topped it off well!

Chocolate Cake

I went to Urth Café in Beverly Hills for dinner and could not walk past the dessert case without trying something. Of course the chocolate cake was calling to me, so I got a slice. And by slice, I mean they gave me two large pieces sitting on top of each other. It's a really good cake - not to be confused with their flowerless, eggless, vegan, low sugar chocolate cake - ew. This is full on sugar. The cake part itself, as you can see by the various shades of brown, was made up of three different layers. The middle was more moist than the top and bottom, and was more like a standard box cake, yum. The bottom layer, a little more dense is like a chocolate pound cake. The icing in between and on top is a very sweet milk chocolate, which is nice mixed with the dark chocolate frosting that sealed the outside. I'm very pleased with this cake. However, its so intense I could only eat half of the one slice. It's better that way- more for later!

A Hollywood Moon Pie

I love stumbling upon random treats! While trying to kill some time, my friend and I went to the nearest coffee shop to where we were in Hollywood called The Corner. Matt spotted the case of small cakes: chocolate, red velvet, some kind of nut thing and a moon pie. Clearly the moon pie was the right choice. It was not only adorable to look at, but it was so tasty. It was similar to an Oreo, but the frosting was cream cheese. It was very sweet but not over the top. The double layer of cake balanced it out perfectly.

TATES!

I've already said that Tate's are my favorite chocolate chip cookie, simply because they are so unique. When my friend Jordan's mom got the cookbook, we knew this had to be done. We attempted to recreate the perfect cookie and they came out pretty good! However, I'm convinced that Kathleen (Tate's creator) is keeping something a secret. Hers are always perfectly crispy, and ours were still chewy. Regardless it was really fun. Definitely going to keep trying to get them just right!