We made a tenth

Let's see, what do we have to report? We finished baking our nine cakes before the heat wave hit and most importantly before the wedding, and we even made a tenth yesterday to celebrate my dad's birthday.

It has been a whirlwind of festivities around here, and we are showing no signs of slowing or stopping. Siobhan and Rob—hi!—are officially married. It was beautiful, as you can see from the picture up there, and we had so much fun and danced for so long that I have blisters on my toes and bruises on the balls of my feet. It's a good sign, I think. Tomorrow Sally and I leave with my mom to head back to my parents' house in Maine, and tomorrow also happens to be my parents' 35th anniversary. Thursday is my sister's birthday, and Wednesday we'll be doing our annual 40-quart strawberry pick in Maine. It's a big week.

I can't stay here long today—there's too much work and packing and laundry!—but I wanted to say a quick hi, and as a tide-me-over, share the wedding cake recipe. I have it memorized at this point, but the original comes from over here, which in turn came from Je Veux du Chocolat ! by Trish Deseine. 

It's very, very simple. There are only five ingredients, and if you were going to list them the way they appear on a nutrition label in descending order, they would go like this: sugar, eggs, butter, chocolate, flour. That's it. The batter takes about 5 minutes of hands on time to mix up, and the cake only takes 23 minutes to bake. Which is all to say that if you were thinking of baking one, if you had a special occasion, you could have it on the table in about 45 minutes start to finish.

Happy summer, everyone.

WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS CAKE

Needless to say, when you make a cake that involves only 5 ingredients, they ought to be of top quality. You want to use high-fat European-style butter, very good chocolate, and top-notch eggs.

7 ounces butter, plus extra for the pan

7 ounces bittersweet chocolate (between 60 and 70%)

1 and 1/3 cups granulated sugar

5 eggs

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Get out a 9-inch cake pan and cut a parchment circle to line the bottom; butter the sides.

Melt the butter and chocolate in a pot over very low heat. (You could also use a double boiler; I didn't because I don't have one.) Stir in the sugar. When the mixture has cooled a bit, whisk in the eggs. Add the flour, whisk until just mixed, and pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the top is shiny and crackly and the middle is just slightly jiggly. It goes fast at the end—a lot of jiggly to a little is a matter of minutes—so keep a close eye. You don't want to overcook this cake.