This Christmas found yours truly wanting to spice things up with a holiday bundt cake, using a recipe my mother had recently made with great success from one of her Gourmet magazines. After the yearly ritual of going to see my favorite holiday window displays at Bergdorf’s and Tiffany’s, two winning examples of which you can see here:

a bundt cake mold had to be purchased. I found one at Surprise Surprise (for a good price, I later learned when visiting other baking suppliers) on Christmas Eve shortly before they closed. With bundt cake mold in purse, good intentions, and my patient fiancee in tow, the last ingredients (mainly Guinness and molases – items not usually found in my fridge or cupboards) were purchased at a madhouse grocery store where other frenzied last minute shoppers were busy spreading cheer by jumping at each others’ throats. Having survived the Associated Supermarket, we repaired to one of our regular haunts, Pete’s Tavern, where our spirits were revived by a few beers backed with shots of Jameson’s. Our hearts warmed anew, we set off for home only to be distracted by the inviting fluorescent lights and colorful paper tropical fruit display of Papaya King’s. So of course we had to stop in for a quick dog. With replenished energy, we ducked in for a pop at our local 11th Street Bar, where lo and behold, Drew the bartender was serving hot dogs to the few left-over holiday stragglers. And so we obliged, had a few more hot dogs, and were even encouraged to take several home – Merry Christmas to you, Drew! (Unbeknownst to us, this happens every Sunday night, though with an undoubtedly bigger crowd). Arriving home later than anticipated, with a bundt cake mold, a hodgepodge of ingredients, hot dogs, a crumpled recipe, and wilted enthusiasm, the cake was shelved until the next day. And though we did not have a white Christmas, it did snow powdered sugar on my bundt cake. And it was delicious. (Not a huge fan of whipped cream, I recommend eating it with a healthy dollop of Stonyfield organic French Vanilla yogurt).

Bon appetit everyone, and belated happy holidays!!

The first time Empellon’s Alex Stupak cooked anything, it was out of a children’s cookbook. “I made a salad with russian dressing for my mother. It made her happy and I realized cooking can be a way of connecting with people. I was seven or eight”.

Chef Stupak is the former pastry chef of the influential WD 50, which incidentally is still his favorite restaurant.  When he opened Empellon in the West Village last March, he “needed to break away from pastry and molecular gastronomy. Like anything, it becomes what you’re known for and you’re limited to that. I figured that since I’ll most likely fail anyways, I may as well fail brilliantly and do something that took courage.”

He opened Empellon with his wife, pastry chef and Mexican native Lauren Resler. “I met Lauren at the bar at Clio in Boston where I worked. I came up for a drink after service and we began talking. She was a pastry cook at No. 9 Park. I called her the next day to as her out on a date. In some capacity or another, we’ve worked together for close to four years.”

Of his choice of Mexican cuisine, he says that “the more I eat Mexican food the more it makes sense and inspires. I haven’t travelled to Mexico all that much. I’ve probably been ten times total. I’m working backwards. I’ve never based my cooking on my life experiences. I choose to cook a certain way in order to force personal change. By deciding what you’re going to cook, you’re deciding everything.”

In his most recent East Village venture, Empellon Cocina (which is due to open any day now), Stupak hopes to “utilize the Mexican cooking system as a strong foundation to build upon. It is going to be highly personal and not at all concerned with attempting to replicate classics.” 230 West 4th Street  www.empellon.com

Last week, New York Kitchen’s ON THE LINE exhibit came down. In case you did not have a chance to see the show, here are photographs of the installation at Digital Plus in Brooklyn. Photographs from the event will be posting to Myriam Babin Photography’s Facebook fan page later today. Check in to see if you were captured by one of our guest photographers!