I’m not a real food blogger. 1. I forget to take pictures of the finished product. 2. I don’t photograph many recipes in progress because my nail polish (when I’m wearing any) is usually chipped beyond salvaging. Not pretty. 3. I am passionately interested in tasting the food of great restaurants, but I get so…
Category: Desserts
Evolution of a Fresh Coconut Cake
There’s no recipe here today, just a record of the process and a public declaration: I’ll never grate a fresh coconut again. The first ingredient listed in the recipe for Fresh Coconut Cake from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book is (ta dah!) one coconut. Author Marion Cunningham instructs the cook to access the meat of…
Buttermilk Sugar Cookies
This recipe makes a bunch, because I needed a bunch. These soft, delicately-flavored cookies were dessert last week at my Third Thursday Cafe. Buttermilk adds a little tang to the dough, which bakes up under a shower of cinnamon sugar. It’s a lovely smell to come home to. I divided the output as it came…
Carrot Cake
I’d rather call this Carrot Bread until Lent is over, if you know what I mean. It’s baked in a loaf pan, it has no frosting, and it’s full of fruit, nuts, and vegetables. It’s practically a baked salad. Okay, that last part’s a stretch, but if you get a hankering for a lushly textured…
Swoon-worthy Brownies
It’s Valentine’s Day. If chocolate is the currency, these brownies are worth a million bucks. Cheers to love! The Best Fudge Brownies Ever, adapted slightly from a recipe printed on a bag of all-purpose flour made by the King Arthur Flour Company, Inc., of Norwich, Vermont, America’s oldest flour company. 1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted…
Possum Pie
Beyoncé delivered a killer Super Bowl halftime show Sunday night. I made a killer dessert. We’re simpatico that way. I’ll venture a guess, though, that one can’t wear 18-square-inches of leather and lace and dine on Possum Pie very often. Or not to great effect, anyway. Possum Pie is about to enjoy a renaissance. It rates…
Lemon Cake
Once upon a time, a woman and her husband were invited to a Christmas party. The woman knew she’d see friends there who had done nice things for her recently, so, on the day of the party, she made three lemon cakes to take to them as gifts. She grated zest from many lemons, and…
Apple Tarts
I had riches in the refrigerator, extra puff pastry left over from dinner on New Year’s day. Too good to go to waste, this all-butter puff was made by Dufour Pastry Kitchens in New York, and my not-so-local fancy food store had stocked it for the holidays. I’ve read rave reviews about Dufour’s puff pastry…
Shortbread Linzer Cookies and Stars
Gather ye butter, sugar, and flour. I’m making Christmas cookies today. The base of this recipe can morph into lots of different treats. It is the Transformer of baked goods. I first made it as shortbread hearts for Valentine’s Day from a recipe in The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, by Ina Garten. In the recipe headnotes,…
Ring of Coconut Fudge Cake
Someone special had a birthday recently. Like every year, I asked him what kind of cake he’d like. Every year, he says he wants this one. This year, to my surprise, the onery cuss he said make anything chocolate, not specifying this cake. So of course I made this cake, like every year. Because it’s that…
Cookbook Wall 