I made this chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream, chopped toffee, and sea salt…. and then I shrugged my shoulders. It wasn’t very good…. a personal shame that I’m willing to share with you. I actually think that making a bad chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream is a crime in some states.
I should have just eaten the toffee and skipped the cake. I did, of course, eat all of the toffee off the top of this cake before placing it in the refrigerator to forget about until late next week. I’m sorry. I’m a work in progress.
I hope this finds you enjoying an extra mellow Sunday morning with perhaps more coffee than usual. I curated some of the Internet for you. It goes a little something like this:
• Was this August really the worst month ever? Social media studies can give us the answer. The answer: kinda yeah.
• This week I listened to a Fresh Air Podcast from earlier this summer: Kidnapping Is a Lucrative Business for Al-Qaida, Documents Show with host Terry Gross and journalist Rukmini Callimachi. It’s a testament to how important and how dangerous foreign reporting can be. Really interesting.
• Jon Stewart is back and THANK YOU!
• Have Twitter and YouTube become the editors of the information we receive? The New Editors of the Internet.
• The Emmys were last week which means red carpet madness, juice cleanses, designer dresses, jewels for days and… what on earth is a mani-cam? Why we should ask women about more than their dang dresses! What are we even doing…. for real.
• Louisiana… we’re Losing Ground and that’s a fact.
• Southern cuisine has its nuance and you best get it right. I’m learning day by day. The Real Reason Sugar Has No Place In Cornbread
• What would James Bond drink in New Orleans, from writer Sarah Baird and bartender Abigail Gullo.
• I’m starting the book & Sons next week. I’ve read as much as I could in the Amazon preview and I want more. Classy, right?
• From Grad School to Jail. Too real? Too real.
• On a scale of 1 to totally weird, where are we on this Crystal Skull Shotglass ?
• These Super Power Vegan Collard Wraps looks healthful and super delicious! I definitely want to make my own version. They’re the opposite of doughnuts and I love it.
• Favorite recent podcast discovery: Slate’s The Gist. Informative and funny smart-talk.
Get all up in this day!
xo Joy
ajmilad
Joy, thank you for not just being a kick-ass baker, and hilarious podcast-maker, but also a woman with conviction who isn’t afraid to share information on these mega important issues in the world. As a woman who both loves the kitchen and is a super NPR nerd/political junkie, I saute you!
joythebaker
hahahha! i see what you did there… (and i love it!)
The Queen of Dreaming
Lovely post as always, totally agree with the terrible august!
http://justsem.wordpress.com/
Karleen Armstrong Lewis
I fell in love with your blog many, many years ago because of my obsession with baking, but I’m loving it even more lately because of posts like these. You’re sneak-peek at what you’re reading and listening to show what an intelligent and conscious brain you have!
Suzonne Stirling
I think cornbread is a lot like gumbo – you like whatever your grandma made and that’s just how it is (except that I argue with my grandmother over gumbo, so perhaps I’m just contrary by nature). But I love a little sweetness to my cornbread. In fact, I recently had cornbread made with Steen’s at Toups Meatery in mid-city and now I have a new perspective – why use sugar when you can have cane syrup?!
A Toast to the Good Life
YUM. I LOVE this idea. Beautiful, inspiring photos. Looks delicious!
franceskrussell
Thanks for being so honest! I really appreciate when bloggers let you know what doesn’t work as well as what does. Anyway, I’ve seen a lot of other beautiful recipes on this website that I’ve been meaning to try :)
Emily @ Life on Food
Happy Monday!! So sad about the cake. Sometimes when I don’t have a winner I chop it up and make an ice cream sundae.
Sally
Diverse round up of thoughts as ever Joy – lot’s of good reading and food for thought. Have a great week.
Ella
I second what Cait said! I think it’s really cool of you to expand your thinking and therefore writing beyond food because it IS real. Love you!
http://www.youtube.com/sparklesandsuch26
Kim S
Crazy Cake (a super dense, moist, chocolate cake) with peanut butter frosting is a birthday party staple in my family. Super Awesome! I could give you some pointers if you’d like ;) (I kid, I kid!! I’m a super novice baker!! :) )
Paulette
Make another cake, do a vanilla butter cream then in the center filling place chopped miniature peanut butter cups ice rest of cake using chopped heath bars on top. Now I am hungry. Paulette
Zulejka
Looking at your links I can’t help but think – you’ve become a lot more serious since moving – or were you like that but I just haven’t noticed? I like it, though!
joythebaker
i think i’m just sharing more of that side on my blog lately. real life is hard to ignore.
Amy
Sometimes a ‘meh’ cake is okay when you just need a chocolate and sugar hit. Sometimes it is a disaster. Like my less than stellar, and then crumbled on the floor, bundt cake last week. These things happen.
Also, I am an Amazon preview reader too. I love knowing what I am getting myself into before I add it to the basket.
Hope your Sunday was lovely, from the future here in Australia Monday is pretty good too :)
Natalie - Paper and Birch
well the cake definitely looks yummy! I’m super excited about Jon Stewart too – love him!
Kelci
This is a brilliantly curated list. Thank you so much!
Diane Leach
The cake looks gorgeous. Thank you for your meaningful “outside the food” posts. And thank you for admitting even the most talented bakers sometimes have the occasional baking fails.
joythebaker
just the facts!
meganmarie013
Great list Joy! I made a cake too with frosting from your cookbook. It was AWESOME! Those collard wraps look intense. Thanks for sharing :)
Darci
A great collection this week. The grad school to prison article was powerful – will be sharing with my high school students and I love The Gist recommendation – adding to the playlist. I think my favorite though was the Jon Stewart piece. Perfection.
joythebaker
i’m so glad you got some good tidbits out of the list! that feels great!
Karen
Jon Stewart has a way to get his point across like no other. Happy he is back from vacation.
I love the variety of topics you choose to explore. Great job!
Sam @ PancakeWarriors
I stopped by The FIrst Mess to see the collard green wraps – they are beautiful and her post is nothing short of amazing. Thanks for directing me that way! And I agree – definitely need to try that recipe!
joythebaker
her photography is gorgeous!!
Abi
That cake looks so good! Great post too! Abi :)
Coco | It Was Just Right
Hi Joy —
Just wanted to say I only recently started following your blog and I’m so glad I did! You have a way of saying things that makes me smile. Especially enjoyed the 11 Things post last week. Basically what I’m saying is, rock on!
joythebaker
yea girl! i’m really glad you’re here!
Nicole B.
I love Sunday mornings. Especially days like today when there are blue skies and a nice breeze. The cake looks delicious, sorry the taste buds didn’t agree. The Grad School to Jail article was really interesting. I always enjoy your weekly round up of articles and news stories.
Ali | Gimme Some Oven
Just read the entire Grad School To Jail article. Wow. Just wow.
And “daily” life is not complete without John Stewart. SO GLAD HE’S BACK!
DellaCucinaPovera
Awesome collection of sunday loves. Gonna catch up on some Stewart right meow. Cheers.
Joanna
Happy happy Sunday and last day of August! Bring on September and that cake you posted, it looks delicious! Oh and I have to totally agree with you about the sugar in the corn bread, it has no place there!! I’m from Alabama and my grandmothers never put sugar in their corn bread.
everydaymadefresh.com
Darcie
Coulda fooled me with that cake!
I beg to differ with the cornbread guy on sugar. I’ve lived in North Carolina (the South) for most of my life, and I’ve baked a lot of my own cornbread and eaten a lot of other people’s cornbread. There are 2 chili events I participate in every year, and there’s always lots of cornbread to choose from for your chili. (In this town, a lot of older folks put broccoli in it. What they hey?!) Most of the “old-fashioned” recipes are dry, crumbly and flat-flavored (salty, corny). The cornbread that people always rave about is the recipe I use, and it’s moist and sweetish because of sugar. Because corn has natural sugar in it, I think adding a bit of sugar enhances the corn’s flavor. It doesn’t taste like dessert–if it did, we wouldn’t ladle our chili over top. But it’s even more heavenly slathered with Tupelo honey.
Darcie
PS: Have you seen the movie “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”? Clementine cake figures prominently throughout. Wonder if you’ve made it.
joythebaker
i have seem that movie! i’ve never made the cake though. add that to the list!
whiskandshout
Eh, it happens. Kind of nice to know that it happens to everyone, huh? Although I’m sure PB and chocolate couldn’t go too wrong :)
Clementine Buttercup
I learn something new about the US in every one of your Sunday posts. You give me a lot to think about. Thank you.
http://www.clementinebutter up.blogspot.co.uk
Cait
Joy, I so appreciate that even though your site has an obvious theme and point, you still post these links about other things going on in the world. Sometimes I look at other blogs that are about food and fashion or whatever and it seems like the person is existing solely on planet Perfect and one wonders weather that blogger ever looks away from their expensive outfit or home furnishings to see that there are legit important things happening on this Earth that deserve attention and discussion.
joythebaker
real.