A Gluttonous Champagne Birthday

Do you know when your champagne birthday is? It's when the date of your birthday matches the age you're turning. This weekend was my roommate Alex's champagne birthday, since she turned 22 on January 22nd! Naturally, the weekend was filled with way too much eating, drinking, and of course -- lots of cake, too!

Our weekend plans were fairly relaxed. On Saturday we decided to go for brunch at the famous plateau hot-spot, L'avenue. We had never been there, but it had been on our list of places to try for years. We've eaten at other famous brunch places in Montreal, such as Beauty's, Bagels etc., and Reservoir, but we'd never ventured up to L'avenue. Perhaps it was because we had always thought it's too far (it's not). Or maybe the long wait to get into the place deterred us (we had to wait about an hour outside in the cold just to be seated). But this place was definitely worth the wait! Just to give you an idea of the enormity of the portions at this place, take a look at the picture of their four-egg omelets. The first is the "Idaho" omelet with cheddar cheese, mashed potatoes, bacon and sour cream. The second omelet is with ham, leeks, spinach, and goat cheese. And almost every dish comes with a side of potatoes and fruit. And that's not it all. L'avenue isn't just famous for their amazing food, but also their decor. I won't spoil it for those who haven't been, but I've just got three words for you: use the restroom!

Later that evening, we had a party at our house, with a small pre-drink at our favourite local place, la Distillerie!

To say we woke up Sunday a bit hungover is somewhat of an understatement. Naturally, our first thought was "let's get food!!" And where did we decide to go? Back to L'avenue, of course. This was probably unnecessary given how much we had eaten the day before. But since Sunday was actually Alex's birthday, we figured hey, why not? This time, we brought a couple other friends since they had never been there.

After brunch we had to prepare for the feast we were cooking for Alex's actual birthday dinner. We decided to have a couple friends over and do a potluck at our place. Alex was making jalapeno poppers and buffalo chicken dip. My other roommate Alie made scalloped potatoes and blanched haricot verts with chopped almonds and truffle oil. And since I love to bake, I made Alex a red velvet birthday cake with dark chocolate ganache filling and cream cheese frosting. I also made my mother's rice krispy chicekn tenders, which uses rice krispy cereal instead of bread crumbs. It was all so delicious. Though, we ended up with WAY too much food, especially since none of us was hungry after such a large brunch at L'avenue.

 Scalloped potatoes with thyme and cheddar cheese

 Rice Krispy Chicken Tenders

 Blanched haricots verts with chopped almonds, truffle oil, and fleur de sel 

Buffalo Chicken Dip (with cream cheese, Buffalo sauce, and shredded chicken) 

 Cream cheese stuffed jalapeno poppers wrapped in bacon 

Excuse my casual attire, but who doesn't prefer to bake in sweats and a tank top?

 Red velvet cake with dark chocolate ganache and cream cheese frosting. For decoration, I added pirouette cookies around the exterior. 

Happy Birthday Alex!!! 

After such an incredible weekend, I'm going to have to detox for at least a week! That'll give me just enough time to come up with my next food adventure. 

Until then, happy eating!

-Talia

Chocoholism and a long Birthday Weekend

Apparently, the fourth weekend in july is birthday weekend in Northern Virginia. Over two days, I had three different birthday occasions to bake for. The first was for my boss at work. Okay, I realize this makes me a huge brown-noser, but hey -- if you want brownie points with your superiors, why not bake brownies?!  

The second occasion was for my friend's birthday, for whom it is a tradition that I bake each year. This year was particularly special as it was his 21st birthday. I typically do some sort of fun and colorful cake, but this year I wanted to go dark -- a rich chocolate cake with an oreo whipped cream cheese frosting.

To be honest, in previous years I took the easy way out when baking for my friend Todd and used Betty Crocker cake mix. I'm not ashamed to admit that I think Betty is fantastic -- her cake mixes have yet to fail me. However, I feel that in the past year I have become significantly more confident in my baking capabilities, and therefore more adventurous in cake-making. This year, I wanted to make a cake from scratch, but I didn't want to risk the cake coming out too dry or lackluster in flavor. As such, I turned to my favourite contessa to hand-hold me through this endeavor -- Ina Garten. I used her wonderful chocolate cake recipe.

For the frosting, instead of a traditional buttercream, I wanted something lighter that would help counteract the richness of the chocolate cake and the heavy oreos. As such, I adapted a whipped cream cheese frosting recipe from this website:

Oreo Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
8-oz cream cheese
1 cup sugar
16 oreo cookies (crushed)

Beat cream cheese and sugar on medium-high speed until well blended. In a separate bowl, whip heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in the whipped cream into the well-blended cream cheese until well incorporated. Fold in crushed oreo cookies.

Since it was for a 21st birthday, I thought I'd use the extra oreo cookies I had to decorate the cake a bit. This may not have been the most beautiful cake I've ever made, but the taste is what matters, right?

The third occasion I baked for was a family friend's birthday who is a total chocoholic. He requested that I make a cake for his birthday, for which I was quite nervous because I had never baked for him or his family before. I knew he wanted a chocolate cake, but I also knew that he LOVES coffee. So for this cake, I once again Ina's recipe above, but for the frosting, I made an espresso buttercream frosting that was simply out of this world, if I do say so myself.

Espresso Buttercream Frosting
2 sticks butter (room temperature)
2 cups confectioner's sugar
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon coffee liqueur
2 tablespoons finely ground espresso beans
2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

In a small bowl, mix together extract, liqueur, cream, and espresso. Microwave for 20 seconds to allow the espresso to steep into the mixture. Refrigerate to let cool and set aside. In a standing mixer, cream butter until light and fluffy. Slowly mix in the sugar and a pinch of salt until all is well incorporated. Once the coffee/extract mixture is room temperature, add to butter mixture and beat until evenly mixed together. This buttercream may be made ahead of time and refrigerated until use.

To garnish, I added a bit of crushed Cadbury Flake on top with a few blueberries for a splash of color.

This was truly a chocolate-crazed birthday weekend for me -- I'm definitely going to need a bit of chocolate-free detox! It may have been a crazy few days of birthdays and baking, but I must admit that all of this was worth it, as this weekend had two of my favourite things in the whole world: chocolate and celebrating with friends.

Happy eating!
-Talia