White Chocolate Espresso Cake

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White Chocolate Espresso Cake

White Chocolate Espresso Cake

Pastry Affair turns three years old today. While the thought that I have been doing this for so long feels a little surreal, at the same time it feels entirely expected; I can't remember a time when I didn't sit down each evening to play around with the blog in some form or another. Even though I never quite planned on it, I found myself partaking in the unavoidable tradition of combing back through old posts. The steady stream of recipes, photographs, and words from the past year act as a personal history for me. A small record of late night cravings, hours spent behind a camera lens, and several lengthy conversations about my love for breakfast—it's all there, buried between the webpages.

White Chocolate Espresso Cake White Chocolate Espresso Cake White Chocolate Espresso Cake

The past year has been a quiet evolution. I am still growing as a blogger, though perhaps not making the large strides I did in the years before. Even so, I feel like I am finding more of myself in the photography and the words, slowly uncovering bits and pieces of my elusive voice. That voice can be so difficult to find.

Throughout the last year I gave myself three challenges. The first was to eat (and bake) vegan for a month. Though it was difficult at first, I successfully completed the challenge and discovered a huge revelation about myself in the process—I'm lactose intolerant. At the time it seemed like an ironic fate for a purveyor of butter and cream, but I have since grown to accept it. Even though the recipes I share with you do not conform to this condition, you can be assured that in my own kitchen I regularly use dairy-free ingredients. Real butter, for better or worse, hasn't found a place in my refrigerator in months.

White Chocolate Espresso Cake

The second challenge was to include metric measurements with the recipes whenever possible to make baking these recipes easier for those of you who live abroad. Lastly, and perhaps most ambitiously, I challenged myself to consistently develop my own recipes from scratch, to learn recipe development the hard way: through trial and error. To be quite honest, incredibly difficult moments and embarrassing errors were had in my kitchen, most of which I kept to myself. Though I have improved substantially since I began, I am still not immune to failures. Just this morning I tossed a batch of pineapple cakes, hot from the oven, straight into the trash can.

Baking never fails to keep me humble.

White Chocolate Espresso Cake

Truthfully, though I love the corner of the internet in which this blog rests, you continually make it something special. Through your comments, emails, and endless support, you have made these past three years possible. You have given me the inspiration to keep mixing together new ingredients, to spend time clicking away behind my camera lens, and to spend nights staying up late to share my thoughts with you. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you.

White Chocolate Espresso Cake

I have long believed that celebrations should involve cake and plenty of it. I think three years are worth celebrating, don't you? This cake went through a couple iterations before it reached this final product, but friends and family have all agreed that it is incredible.

White Chocolate Espresso Cake is on the list of my favorite cakes to date. A basic white cake batter is infused with espresso and has a lovely coffee aroma when finished baking. A white chocolate buttercream is spread around the cake; quite sweet, it is best used sparingly, but produces a complementary flavor to the cake. Topped with a sprinkling of cocoa powder and coffee beans, the cake becomes a work of art. As Janet Evanovich preaches, calories don't count during a celebration and I am inclined to agree. Eat up, my friends.

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Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes

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Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes

I'm not sure if you picked up on this yet, but I have a bit of a sweet tooth. While sugar in all its wonderful forms has—for better or worse—found a permanent place in my diet, my favorite form is through chocolate. Chocolate is a guilty pleasure for me, a crutch after a bad day, a moment of celebration during a long, weekend afternoon. Each day I eat it in one form or another (and it usually weasels its way into my breakfast).

It is not unusual to prepare a bowl of chocolate oatmeal or sprinkle a few miniature chocolate chips over a bowl of blueberry breakfast quinoa.

Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes

When Sunday brunch rolled around last weekend, it shocked no one when I reached for the bag of chocolate chips. I can't help but sprinkle a few over my own pancakes when they are cooking on the griddle, even when feeding a table of hungry loved ones. This time, however, I tossed a handful in the batter to share the sweetness with everyone.

In addition to chocolate, I also added another unique ingredient—buckwheat flour.

Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes

When I spotted a bag of the flour hidden among the shelves at the store, my curiosity got the better of me and I added it to my basket. The name "buckwheat" tricked me into thinking it was simply wheat in another configuration, but after doing a little research I realized how wrong I had been. Buckwheat is not related to wheat at all; in fact, it is a seed more closely related to rhubarb. It is also gluten-free, though I never would have guessed it.

After playing around with it in these pancakes and experiencing the subtle, nutty flavor, I am excited to experiment with it in new forms.

Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes are a bit of an unexpected, healthier twist on the classic pancake. The addition of buckwheat flour adds an earthy, nutty flavor that is not unlike the flavor of whole wheat flour. With a few chocolate chips and a heavy swirl of berry syrup, the pancakes will quickly become a breakfast favorite. I also included gluten-free directions for those who are sensitive to traditional wheat below.

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Nutella Swirled Banana Bread

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Nutella Swirled Banana Bread

Nutella Swirled Banana Bread

I've had quite the tumultuous relationship with Nutella. Since discovering I was highly allergic to tree nuts back in high school, I have been careful—and lucky—to avoid most incidents. While almonds are perfectly fine for me to eat (thank goodness), other tree nuts have been labeled with a big "Do Not Eat" sticker. My diagnosis has never bothered me too much and I rarely feel as if I am missing out. It wasn't until I moved to England when studying abroad that I experienced my first pang of tree nut jealousy.

When my friends all discovered Nutella for the first time, it quickly became a forbidden fruit in my eyes.

Nutella Swirled Banana Bread Nutella Swirled Banana Bread

In the cool English winter, many an evening was spent around the kitchen stove, laughing and joking, as a jar of Nutella was passed from spoon to spoon. I would often stand off to the side with a glass of water, alternating between great interest and wariness at the jar in their hands. Eventually, my curiosity took over and I could no longer stand in the sidelines. As the jar of Nutella was ritually passed around the circle, this time I made certain it would make a stop at me. When I found the jar in my hands for the first time (and several concerned faces pointed my direction), I cradled the container in my hands, lifted it towards my nose, and breathed in the wonderful scent.

My friends would later affectionately refer to this regular practice as "huffing Nutella." My rationale was that if I couldn't eat it, at the very least I should be able to smell it.

Nutella Swirled Banana Bread

It wasn't until I had an accidental encounter with Nutella (in which I unknowingly ate a slice of cake enclosed in a layer of it) and nothing bad happened that my curiosity for it was taken to another level. I knew I was seriously allergic to tree nuts, but if almonds could be an exception to the rule, was it possible for hazelnuts to do the same? It was several years later before I found myself and a jar of Nutella in the same room and I could give my theory a test. Though I do not recommend taking the risk I did to anyone for any reason, my experiment had a happy conclusion. Though I still rarely buy or steal a spoonful of Nutella from the jar just in case, a sale sign at the grocery started a chain of events that led to this swirled banana bread.

Though it has taken a long time to reach this point, I think you'll agree that it was worth the wait.

Nutella Swirled Banana Bread

Nutella Swirled Banana Bread is the culmination of five years of daydreaming about Nutella while baking. A basic banana bread recipe is elevated by dark swirls of Nutella. Instead of being folded in the batter, the Nutella is melted and drizzled directly through the batter which lends pockets of gooey Nutella in the final product. Despite the large Nutella swirls, the bread rises and holds together well; the secret inside is only revealed when the first slice is cut.

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