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.
