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April 18, 2010
Competitive Update: Megan’s cake just won the “Taste of Mexico” Category at the 2010 UIUC Edible Books Festival. Congratulations Megan!
Last Tuesday was the Edible Books festival at UIUC, and I entered a One Hundred Years of Solitude cake!
It was a really excellent experience, partly because it was a whole lot of fun to have a reason to make something so complicated, and mostly because I got to spend the morning hanging out with other people who have an unnatural interest in baking extravagant things. And, I took home a prize (for reasons which are very flattering and sort of inexplicable) for the Taste of Mexico category.
I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, but here’s a rundown of the cake:
– Marble cake with cream cheese icing
– Graham cracker and icing houses
– Red icing trail of blood
– Licorice train tracks
– Pretzel stick fence
– Runts bananas
– Animal cracker livestock
– Rock candy “ice”
– Pretzel stick, icing, and mint-leaf tree
– Mint leaf border
– Mini yellow swedish fish “gold fish”
– Orange peel “baby tail”
– Brown sprinkle “ants”
– Lots and lots and lots of icing color
Ta-da!
The banana company railroad yard.
The first of the line is tied to a tree...
... and the last is being eaten by the ants.
Todd
April 18, 2010
You're being given a police escort directly to Pleasuretown. Bottoms up!
That’s about all you need to know. Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.
Vodka (I prefer Russian Standard, shown in the photo) + Cran = Cape Codder
Vodka (1/3) + Cran (1/3) + Champagne (1/3) + Lime (until overflowing) = Cape Todder.
Shake well, serve over ice in the largest, fanciest glass you can find. Cheers!
Todd
April 17, 2010
My girlfriend’s parents live in Rockville, Maryland; you know…that place where Lewis Black woke up in front of a courthouse, married to a woman he’d never met three days after having chugged a bottle of NyQuil [2:25 in the video].
The Fractured Prune is a random little donut shoppe nestled into the new, massive Rockville TownCenter development…just up the street from the same courthouse! Although it’s part of a chain in the Northeastern U.S., this place feels seriously local. I think this comes from the fact that they make your donut on demand. That’s right – you can order off the ridiculously extensive donut menu or make up your own donut however you see fit. This time they were running slow (understaffed) and threw in an extra donut for free! This was the 2nd time this happened!
Think I’m kidding you?! You’re wrong. Behold their speciality donuts – or you can make your own:
- Banana Nut Bread: banana glaze, cinnamon sugar, peanuts
- Black Forest: raspberry glaze, coconut, mini chocolate chips
- Blueberry Hill: blueberry glaze, powder sugar (Find Your Thrill)
- Carnival: honey glaze, rainbow sprinkles
- Creamsicle: orange glaze, powdered sugar
- Chocolate Covered Cherry: cherry glaze, mini chocolate chips
- French Toast: maple glaze, cinnamon sugar
- Lemonade: lemon glaze, granulated sugar
- Morning Buzz: mocha glaze, Oreo® cookie crumbs
- Myrna Medley: chocolate glaze, chocolate jimmies, peanuts
- Ms. Prunella: mixed berry glaze, cinnamon sugar
- O.C. Sand: honey glaze, cinnamon sugar
- Pebble Beach: honey glaze, cinnamon sugar, mini chocolate chips
- Peppermint Patty®: mint glaze, mini chocolate chips
- Plain Jane: a naked donut (don’t peek)
- Rolo®: caramel glaze, mini chocolate chips
- Reese Cup®: peanut butter glaze, mini chocolate chips
- Strawberry Shortcake: strawberry glaze, graham cracker, powdered sugar
- Sundae: honey glaze, peanuts, mini chocolate chips
- Trail Mix: banana glaze, nuts, coconut, chocolate jimmies
I got the Rolo – Caramel Glaze and mini Chocolate Chips. Still piping hot out of the fryer, this puppy was gone in about .045234 seconds. It was good. Very good. Like…so good it makes you angry. Angry that you don’t have another one.
To summarize: the Fractured Prune is one of those rare places where I seriously considered locking the doors, jumping across the counter, strong arming the staff, and gorging myself on endless donuts until the police found me in a sugar-induced coma next to the fryer. Instead, the savvy workers anticipated the inevitable ‘twinkie-defense’ and just gave me a free donut for not getting too physical on the premises. Hats off.
Rockville Town Square
39-A Maryland Ave.
Rockville, MD 20850
301-738-2424
http://www.fracturedprune.com/
