Birthday Boy, Bananas and Burgers=B cubed

  Erich recently turned 27.  His request was simple, yet complicated.  He wanted to plan a quiet night out with friends at his favorite bar in Brooklyn, 4th ave. pub, and he wanted me to make this cake to bring!  I could not complain really.  It was not like he was asking for roast lamb or an extravagant meal, but I was a bit intimidated by the four layer cake.  Luckily, it turned out not to be too hard to make, and there were no leftovers!  Unlike, Sarah, I did not have a spring form pan, so I divided the cake batter between two layer cake pans and cooked them for half the time.

  On Friday, we had a burger off as a special birthday dinner.  Recently, Erich has been obsessed with Asian ingredients...miso, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and bonito flakes.  He puts one or all into and onto everything!  It's pretty fantastic!  For his burger he made an "unami" pesto (roasted mushrooms, miso, garlic, bonito flakes, etc.).  He also made parmesan crackers, and roasted tomatoes to top his burger.

Unami burger by Erich

Brussel Sprout Burger by me

  For my burger, I sautéed brussel sprouts, garlic, and red onion with a little bit of olive oil and fish sauce.  I topped my burger with whole grain mustard, gouda, avocado and the brussel sprout mixture.  Both burgers were delicious!  Originally we had planned to make a third burger to share with the winning burger, but they were both so good!  So we combined the ingrediants to make the final burger, and it ended up being the most delicious!  Go figure.