ARTS&FOOD®™: April 2017

Sunday, April 30, 2017

Special FOOD issue: Chocolate Cloud Cake

FOOD

Chocolate Cloud Cake

Mmmmmmm

Just made this cake, and WOW what a neat experience it was to eat.

The cake is made in a spring form pan and forms a thin crust on top,

but the interior of the cake, when warm, is somewhere between chocolate mousse and cotton candy in texture. It literally melts in your mouth. This dessert also must have the whipped cream on top of each serving, for the correct flavor.

On a 1 to 10 scale it would rank it at 6 or 7 in difficulty to make, but was well worth it as a dessert experience!

I say you should make this for your next impress-the-guests-meal or gathering!
We loved it!

(After a day in the fridge the dessert turned into a dense chocolate pie, but microwaved back to a decent texture, BUT the hot-out-of-the-oven with whipped-cream-on-top version will make your eyes roll back into your head, it cannot be beat!)

Chocolate Cloud Cake

Makes one 8” single layer cake

Serves 8-12

Cake:

8 ounces best-quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, softened

6 large eggs, 2 whole, 4 separated

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cognac or Grand Marnier (optional)

Grated zest of 1 orange (optional)

Whipped Cream Topping:

1 ½ cups heavy cream, well chilled

3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Unsweetened cocoa powder, for sprinkling

1. CAKE: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of an 8 inch spring form pan with a round of wax paper (I used parchment paper): do not butter the paper. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler set over hot water. Remove from the heat and which in the butter until melted, set aside.

2. In a bowl, whisk the 2 whole eggs and the 4 egg yolks with ½ cup of the sugar just until blended. Whisk in the warm chocolate mixture. Whisk in the optional cognac or Grand Marnier and the optional orange zest.

3. In another bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the 4 egg whites until foamy. Gradually add the remaining ½ sugar and beat until the whites form soft mounds that hold their shape but are not quite stiff. Stir about ¼ of the beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it; gently fold in the remaining whites. Pour the battering the pan; smooth the top.

4. Bake until the top of the cake is puffed and cracked and the center is no longer wobbly, usually 35-40 minute. Do not overtake.

5. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack; the cake will sink as it cools, forming a crater with high sides.

6. WHIPPED CREAM TOPPING: At serving time, whip the cream with the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla until not quite stiff. With a spatula, carefully fill the crater of the cake with the whipped cream, pushing it gently to the edges. Dust the top lightly with cocoa powder. Run the tip of a knife around the edges of the cake; carefully remove the sides of the pan and serve.

(Source": Classic Home Desserts cook book, Richard Sax, author.)

Until later,

Jack

ARTS&FOOD is an online magazine dedicated to providing artists and collectors around the world with highlights of current art exhibitions, and to encourage all readers to invest in and participate in “The Joy of Art” and Culture. All Rights Reserved. All concepts, original art, text & photography, which are not otherwise credited, are copyright 2017 © Jack A. Atkinson, under all international, intellectual property and copyright laws. All gallery events', museum exhibitions', art fairs' or art festivals' photographs were taken with permission or provided by the event or gallery. All physical artworks are the intellectual property of the individual artists and © (copyright) individual artists, fabricators, respective owners or assignees.
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Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Top-Tier Art Transforms the Midtown Hudson Piers of New York City!

PIER 94 jutting out into the Hudson River
is located along the West Side Highway near 54th Street, NYC.

ART
"THE ART PIERS"
of New York City

The Midtown Piers along the West Side Highway of New York City are rather ugly with their industrial exteriors. They were built to accommodate all of the trans-Atlantic passenger ships and Caribbean cruise ships, which still uses some of the piers weekly. These unusual long and narrow spaces have become the Pop-Up Art Fair venues of choice for some of the best fine art for sale in the world. Multi-millions of dollars of artworks are displayed in these unlikely galleries during several long weekends every year.

The Armory Show is the largest big-league, long-term art fair to embrace the piers as their venue. The Armory Show, which specializes in showing the best art created by living artists (Contemporary Art), has steadily grown adding a second pier with mostly 20th Century Art (Modern Art), and a third pier with showing lesser known, emerging artists in solo shows called VOLTA.

Below we show some of the art in all three piers from the past Armory Show Week.