Rum Drenched Vanilla Cake and Saffron Rice

Rum Drenched Vanilla Cake, from Dorie Greenspan's awesome book, Baking. This cake recipe called for rubbing the sugar with vanilla beans, but I didn't have those, so I added a fat tablespoon of vanilla paste. And I went a little greedy on the rum. And the cream. So I don't know why I was still surprised when the batter was runny, instead of thick like Dorie said. Didn't realize this until it was too late though; I was reading the recipe and Dorie wrote: "Pour batter into pan, and smooth the top with a spatula." I looked at the cake and thought, "How very pointless. It smoothed itself." So I shoved it in the oven and forgot about it for a whole 11 seconds, and then got paranoid and reread the recipe...I seriously considered taking the cake back out and adding more flour, haha. Good thing I didn't! Everything worked out - the cake was moist, tender, and a little too delicious for its own good (especially when soaked in rum syrup!). I reduced the sugar by about a tablespoon, but it was still kinda sweet...the bitterness of the rum helps a little, as does the fat from the 7.5 Tbsp of butter and 1/3 cup cream, but it is very good served with coffee! Arrrr this is pirate's booty.

This was dinner from today. Saffron rice made by toasting rice with garlic infused oil and ground pork, then adding chicken stock, salt, saffron, and shrimp and cooking on the stovetop. The veggie is a stir-fried pumpkin leaves with fermented tofu and garlic, and kidney beans cooked with pickled mustard greens and ground pork. Trust me, it tastes better than it sounds.