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Monday, January 24, 2011

L. A. Westside Tavern Restaurant: Warm Toffee Cake

Check out how a Los Angeles restaurant has updated the dessert comfort food for a heavenly taste experience.




From Denny:  This rich amazing dessert is a favorite with diners at the Westside Tavern in West Los Angeles, California, located inside the Westside Pavilion. At 534 calories, this is a diet buster but well worth the indulgence! Warm toffee cake is a dessert comfort food from decades past - and still popular today.  A little scoop on the side of whipped mascarpone cream, cream or ice cream makes for a  heavenly taste experience.

Check out the Westside Tavern

Their concept description: An expansive, social and urban-minded restaurant, Westside Tavern features chef-driven yet affordable interpretations of California Tavern Cuisine alongside a complementary selection of fresh cocktails, craftsman beers and thoughtful wines. Encompassing 10,400 square feet and 300 seats, Westside Tavern is open for dinner daily and is designed to be used as a casually upscale gathering place by a broad cross section of Los Angeles professionals.




Warm Sticky Toffee Cake

From: Westside Tavern, West Los Angeles, California (inside the Westside Pavilion)

Total time: About 2 hours

Servings: 6 to 12



Warm Sticky Toffee Cake

Ingredients:


English toffee sauce

Ingredients:

1 1-2 cups heavy cream

3-4 cup plus 1 tablespoon (1 1-2 sticks plus 1 tablespoon) butter, cut into 1-2 inch cubes

1 1-2 cups dark brown sugar

3-4 cup maple syrup

Directions:

In a large heavy-bottom saucepan, combine the cream, butter, brown sugar and maple syrup. Bring to a boil over high heat, whisking frequently. Once the mixture comes to a boil, remove from heat. Blend the mixture using an immersion blender until thickened and emulsified. Alternatively, the mixture can be blended in batches using a standard blender (be careful as the mixture is very hot). This makes 4 cups sauce.



Toffee Cake and Assembly

2 tablespoons (1-4 stick) butter, plus extra for buttering the ramekins

Sugar for dusting the ramekins

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water

3/4 cup plus 2 1-2 teaspoons (3.4 ounces) flour

Pinch salt

3/8 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup plus 1 ½ teaspoons dark brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

3/4 cup coarsely chopped dates

Hot prepared toffee sauce

Whipped mascarpone cream, cream or ice cream

Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease 6 (6-ounce) ramekins with butter, and dust with sugar. In a saucepan, whisk the baking soda into the boiling water.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and vanilla until fully incorporated.

4. To the butter mixture, add the egg and beat until fully incorporated. Over low speed, slowly and gently add the dry ingredients, scraping the bowl to make sure the batter is fully mixed.

6. Over low speed, slowly stream the hot water into the batter. Add the dates and continue mixing over low speed until the batter thickens. This makes about 2 cups batter.

7. Divide the batter between the prepared ramekins. Bake until the cakes are a dark, caramel color, about 45 minutes.

8. Remove the ramekins and cool the cakes for 5 minutes, then invert the cakes onto a rack over a rimmed baking sheet. Pour the hot toffee sauce onto the cakes until they seem saturated (extra sauce will pool at the bottom, this can be gathered for additional glazing and serving), then glaze the cakes a second time with the sauce.

9. Set the cakes aside for about 30 minutes to set up and cool. The cakes can be made a few hours in advance and held on a baking sheet, loosely covered with plastic wrap, at room temperature.

10. To serve, cover each cake with one-fourth cup warm toffee sauce. Serve with a generous quenelle or dollop of mascarpone cream or whipped cream, or scoop of ice cream.


Each serving: 534 calories; 2 grams protein; 73 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 27 grams fat; 17 grams saturated fat; 102 mg cholesterol; 63 grams sugar; 115 mg sodium.




*** Photo by Kirk McKoy/Los Angeles Times



*** THANKS for visiting, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, enjoy bookmarking this post on your favorite social site, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!

*** Come by for a visit and check out my other blogs:

Dennys Food and Recipes - all kinds of food
Comfort Food From Louisiana - Cajun and more comfort food
Romancing The Chocolate - chocolate recipes and more food
The Social Poets - news, politics
The Soul Calendar - science, astronomy, psychology
Visual Insights - photos, art, music
Beautiful Illustrated Quotations - spiritual quotes, philosophy
Poems From A Spiritual Heart - poetry
The Healing Waters - health news
Dennys People Watching - people in the news
Dennys Food and Recipes
Dennys Funny Quotes - humor
Ouch Outrageous Obnoxious And Odd - more crazy humor
Dennys Blog Feeds - check out what is posting on all the blogs at a glance

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Popular Posts 2010 at Dennys Funny Quotes


The Most Outrageous take home all the toys:  Congrats to Lady Gaga

From Denny: Thanks for all your support this year; your response has been awesome! Total fun ever since I began this crazy blog back in the summer last year. Glad to know there are so many funny peeps out there in virtual land who enjoy a good grin...






Most Popular Posts Ever:

Popular Posts 2009 of Dennys Funny Quotes and Thank YOU!

Popular Posts 2010 at Dennys Funny Quotes and Thank You!

42 Monday Morning Funny Coffee Quotes, Coffee Cartoon

10 Funny Cute Cat Quotes and Cat Cartoon

Funny Crazy Cat Quotes

25 Funny Quotes about Jokes and Politics

Funny Political Cartoons Sampler 12 Dec 2009

The Great American Immigration Debate: Political Cartoons - 8 May 2010

Funny Friendship Quotes

Funny Halloween Quotes, Halloween Cartoon






December

Funny Video: WikiLeaks Reveals Santa Naughty List

Funny Christmas Cartoons - Check out the irreverent cartoonist offerings for the holiday season.

Original Christmas Poem Story: The Night Before Christmas - the original and, of course since I'm from Louisiana, the funny Cajun version - and funny Santa cartoons.

Shoveling snow? Protect your back and your heart

72 Posts Roundup at Dennys Blogs - 20 Dec 2010

42 Monday Morning Funny Coffee Quotes, Coffee Cartoon 

26 Funny Political Cartoons - 6 Feb 2010


Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Most Popular Posts 2010 at The Soul Calendar

Check out the popular science stories this year that fascinated us like the volcanic explosions and earthquakes.



From Denny:  Thanks for all your support this year! What a year of massive planet wide geologic changes: polar glacial ice caps melting rapidly, high scale earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and around the world, volcanoes spewing lava high into the air in Iceland and Indonesia - stopping air travel. It's been a humbling year for the human race on planet Earth. Floods, blizzards, mudslides, oceans rising, the Earth is changing and we are here to witness it.

Just this December we got to see the first lunar eclipse on a Winter Solstice, the first in almost 500 years.  The next one is scheduled for 2094.  Here in my region of the world we experienced the British Petroleum Oil Spill Disaster.  As usual Big Business and the governments like America and Britain have shafted the locals who have gone bankrupt, personal and business.  The millions of barrels of oil still lurks on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and continues to wash ashore.  There are now light orange alligators found off the coast of Florida.

Here in Louisiana BP's oil spill devastated our fishing industry, killing the oyster beds and safe fishing grounds for everything from shrimp and spillway crawfish to salt water fish.  The fishing industry has declined by 70 percent with no help from BP or our federal government.  Big Business is just plain greedy and refuses to take care of the planet and future generations.

Out of this oil spill disaster has come some interesting ideas of how to clean up future oil spills.  More ideas abound for new types of alternative fuels using the ocean to help produce it.  Humanity can be innovative and creative if we just curb our greed to use our resources faster than we can replace them.

Take a look around.  There are plenty of humor posts too and lots of technology cartoons for a grin.


The Soul Calendar - Wondering about our universe and the universe inside us.

Check out these posts too: Most Popular Posts 2009 at The Soul Calendar


Here's the most popular posts for 2010:

Rare 500 Year Lunar Eclipse Gets Viewed By 1.5 Billion

Popular Funny X-ray Pin-Ups Calendar: Stripped to the Bone

New Years: Funny Quotes, Resolutions Tips, Poems



Tuesday, January 4, 2011

28 Awesome Desktop Calendar Wallpapers

Check out the most interesting offerings from some great designers this year.



From Denny: Smashing Magazine has put out some real beauties for the "calendar challenged" where I culled out the most interesting and beautiful choices. Why print up a calendar  when you can display it on your monitor? Check out just a few of these beauties.

They come in several monitor resolution sizes - and without the calendar - if you just enjoy the photo.  You can even vote for your favorites on the site - which I did.  I figure if someone took the time to create, send, choose, upload and post them then I can vote for the ones I enjoyed the most. :)

The designers hail from countries all over the world:  America, Spain, The Netherlands, Myanmar, India, Nepal, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Poland, Romania, Moldova, England.  Be sure to check out their links as most have links and are some interesting design, illustration, flickr or photography sites.  Enjoy - and be sure to let me know your favorites! :)


*** All of these delightful designs can be found in five resolution sizes, with or without the calendar, at Smashing Magazine:  Desktop Wallpaper Calendar January 2011.


Celebrating 2011

Designed by Tim Fritz from USA.




Frost Bitten - "A collaboration between two sisters. One’s a photographer and the other is a designer." Designed by Denise Johnson and Sharleen Heist from USA.




Quiet Please - Designed by Diana Samoila from Romania.




*** All of these delightful designs can be found in five resolution sizes, with or without the calendar, at Smashing Magazine:  Desktop Wallpaper Calendar January 2011.


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