Years ago, when Larry and I first met, I could bake about three things reliably. Cheesecake, lemon poppy seed cake, and chocolate chip cookies. That was the extent of my dessert repertoire. The poppy seed cake was always a favorite of his, but it was really just a doctored up cake from a mix (the horrors!).

At some point I started baking a lot, and I’ve made quite a few poppy seed cakes along the way. This one is easily a replacement for that old cake out of a box I made in my days as an inexperienced baker.

The cake is moist and dense, thanks to a half-dozen eggs and a cup of creme fraiche. It’s topped with a simple lemon-sugar mixture, which helps keep the outside moist and adds flavor. I’ve got this book checked out from the library, and I think I want to bake about every cake in there. For the recipe, head over to Oh Snap, Baked Goods!.

Enough about dessert – I want to include some notes here for my own sake on the sandwiches we had for dinner tonight. They’re a mashup of several different recipes, and they’re excellent. We used the black chile oil that was leftover from the squid – it’s great on its own, or mixed with a bit of mayo as a spread. I still had caramel left over, so I made up another batch of the caramel-miso glaze from the pork belly recipe. And I used the same braising method but with a pork shoulder, and in the pressure cooker for just over an hour (adding two cups of water to the orange juice, though). We shredded the pork when it was done and mixed in some of the glaze. Larry smeared black chile oil onto crusty sourdough bread and we added avocado and pork for a really great sandwich.

• Miso-Sesame Avocado Pork Sandwiches with Black Chile Oil
• Lemon-Poppy Seed Cake (Cake Simple, p. 24)