The Brooklyn Papers / Jori Klein

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Convicted kitchen queen Martha Stewart has developed a craving for a Red Hook favorite: salty cake.

"We fell in love with it, and apparently, so did Martha," said Renato Poliafito, co-owner of Baked and inventor of the soon-to-be-famous "Sweet and Salty Cake," which will be featured on the Nov. 29 episode of "The Martha Stewart Show."

The contradictory confection is a traditional chocolate ganache and caramel layer cake with just one kicker: approximately a teaspoon of "fleur de sel," also known as sea salt.

Crystals of sodium chloride lace the caramel filling and dust the sides of the dark chocolate cake, much like that other white granule would in a less sophisticated cake.

"You need less sugar because salt brings the element of sweet out," said Poliafito, sounding a little like Stewart himself. (Polafito is pictured far left with Matt Lewis and Rafi Avramovitz.)

Local popularity has kept the "S and S" as cake-of-the-month for six months running.

"It’s hit-or-miss with non-traditional cakes, but the salty was a hit," said Kristine Moberg, a baker.

The famously finicky culinary diva sampled several of the bakery’s goods, including Baked’s popular red velvet cake, before falling for its riff on the salty caramel common in France’s Brittany region.

And now that Stewart is taking the salty cake to the masses, the bakery’s neighbors may be able to enjoy the dessert for another six months.

Moberg, the baker who will appear live on the show with Stewart, explained, "If a cake proves itself, we aren’t going to stop making it."

"Sweet and Salty Cake" will be featured on "The Martha Stewart Show" on Nov. 29 at 10 am. For a limited time, the cakes can be purchased at Baked (329 Van Brunt St. between Wolcott and Dikeman streets in Red Hook). For more information, call (718) 222-0345 or visit the Web site, www.bakednyc.com.

©2006 Community Newspaper Group