A Literary Feast: Recreating 10 Fictional Meals in Brooklyn
- c/o bakednyc.com
The cook disappeared. Almost at once she was back again staggering under the weight of an enormous round chocolate cake on a china platter. The cake was fully eighteen inches in diameter and it was covered with dark-brown chocolate icing. “Put it on the table,” the Trunchbull said…”Greedy little thieves who like to eat cake must eat cake!”
Roald Dahl was a true gourmand, and it’s quite evident in the many mouth-watering descriptions of food in his books. From the descriptions of the delectable candy confections in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the methods of how best to eat pheasant in Danny the Champion of the World, Dahl’s writing has made generations of mouths water. Except, of course, when he wrote about the thoroughly repellant snozzcumber in The BFG. That thing sounds disgusting. But the treat that always stood out the most to me was the chocolate layer cake that poor, gluttonous Bruce Bogtrotter was forced to eat by the evil headmistress Mrs. Trunchbull in Matilda. Eating a whole cake in one sitting is, I suppose, a punishment, so I don’t recommend that you attempt it with the decadent Diner Double Dark cake from Baked, but I won’t blame you if you try—it’s just that good. This is also a good place to mention that Dahl and his wife published a cookbook years ago that is absolutely worth buying and is a staple in my home, full as it is with wonderful Scandinavian and English recipes, as well as personal anecdotes and lovely photos.
Baked; 359 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook