Cincinnati Trip, Part II

After our uneventful stay at a very nice Extended Stay America hotel, my traveling companion and I made our way over to the house of the theater friends who had starred in the production of 1776 we saw last night. Brunch was in order and our hostess was to regale us with her mother's world famous French Toast. Err, pancakes. Err, French Toast. Let me explain.

Normally French Toast is made by soaking day old slices of bread in a custard and then grilled in butter. Pancakes are a mixture of flour, baking soda (or powder), milk, eggs, oil, salt and a little sugar that are griddled in butter. Fundamental difference, no? Our hostess's mother discovered back in her college days that if she combined the methods, you get something totally new. She made a pancake batter with some cinnamon and nutmeg and then dipped slices of bread into the batter and griddled them like French toast. What you end up with is something totally unique, a hybrid that is better than the sum of the parts.

We started with some lovely mimosas while the bacon was being griddled. Once all of the components were ready, we sat down to a feast. Beside the fabulous French Pancakes, we had some lovely crispy bacon (my favorite kind) and scrambled eggs with peppers and mushrooms. A shot of my plate sans syrup:


This was so yummy, I had to have a couple extra strips of that crispy bacon and several more slices of the French Pancakes. We hated to say good-bye, but everyone seemed to have other commitments today that we needed to fulfill, so we were off. But we'll be back soon.

The Butterfinger Cake

My grandmother's 86th birthday was actually on Thursday, February 12th, but today was the first day that my aunt from Columbus, my mother and I could get together to help celebrate. We started out with lunch at The Mill at our local Wadsworth location of Buehler's grocery store. Nothing was particularly noteworthy (or photo worthy) so I won't say anything more than this: The Mill's hollandaise was way better than The Grotto's was.

After lunch, we returned to my grandmother's condo to do cake and presents. My mother decided to make the cake this time instead of the normal way-too-sweet version at Giant Eagle. I present you with ... the Butterfinger cake:


And now, Mr. Deville, your close-up shot:


This is actually a pretty straightforward cake. Use a recipe for your favorite German chocolate cake (my mom's was from a mix). Personally I would make sure that you don't overcook the cake as it can get a little dry. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, poke holes in the cake using the back of a wooden spoon or a dowel rod. Take a jar of your favorite caramel sauce (or you could make your own caramel -- even better!) and pour it over the still hot cake. Then cover with a layer of crushed Butterfinger candies. My mom said that two normal sized Butterfingers fit this bill nicely. Now let cool completely to room temperature.

At this point, cover with Cool Whip (or lightly sweetened whipped cream) and then garnish with some additional crushed Butterfinger bars.

It was a nice cake and the less sweet topping (whipped cream / Cool Whip) was nice as the caramel could make the cake seem too sweet at times for me. Really the only thing I would have changed ingredient-wise would have been to add a little cocoa powder to the box mix. The cake just didn't seem chocolate-y enough to balance out the other flavors in the cake. But, that being said, I actually had two pieces and plan on taking some home with me as well.

Oh, yeah, Happy Birthday, Grandma!