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Winter Forest Sherry Cake
Here is a recipe for a winter cake from my grandmother’s cookbook, Gram’s Kitchen. It was one of her most popular bakes during the holidays.
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Frosted Chocolate Cake Doughnuts
It’s a tradition every year for me to cook a special dinner for my husband on his birthday, August 28th. This year he mentioned he’d like some homemade chocolate donuts, reminiscent of the irresistible ‘donut shop style’ doughnuts he enjoyed as a kid. This was my first attempt at making *real* doughnuts and I wanted them to be as authentic as possible, so I decided to deep fry them to get that deliciously rich, crispy crust.
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Drizzled Dark Chocolate Sheet Cake
I am thrilled to share one of my favorite recipes for a decadent easy dark chocolate sheet cake. This recipe uses a dark chocolate fudge cake mix and fluffy vanilla buttercream frosting, topped with melted unsweetened chocolate drizzle to complement the sweetness of the cake. Best served chilled, the cake is great for a party because it can be cut into small or medium-sized squares and served as finger food. Best of all, with it’s geometric drizzled chocolate pattern, the Drizzled Dark Chocolate Sheet Cake is a beautiful work of art… 🙂 Check out the recipe here…
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Decadent Flourless Chocolate Cake
My fiancé and I invited our families over for dinner last weekend, so I decided to bake one of my favorite desserts, a Decadent Flourless Chocolate Cake. Many die-hard chocolate-lovers out there are familiar with this fudgy type of cake baked with only chocolate, eggs, sugar, and butter, and not a trace of flour. The combination results in a souffle-like cake, with a moist inside and flaky cracked top. As with many desserts, the quality of ingredients you choose to put into this recipe is crucial to getting the result you want. In this case, the most important ingredient is the chocolate, so I used none other than Callebaut chocolate – a favorite of professional bakers around the world. It’s imported from Switzerland and of the finest quality. You can find this special type of chocolate at Whole Foods or search for other stores near you on their website.
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A Chocolate Chip Cookie Shake-up: Toll House Marble Squares
If you love chocolate chip cookies, you will go crazy for Nestle’s Toll House Marble Squares. With all the same ingredients you love in chocolate chip cookies –rich brown sugar and fudgy chocolate chips– these squares are essentially cookie batter baked in the form of a cake in a sheet pan. The squares are a bit thicker and chewier than their cookie form, but share the same chocolate chip cookie taste we have all grown to love. Once the “cake” is baked, you cut it into small squares for bite-sized treats. This recipe makes for a great gift – simply package up the squares in small boxes with decorative bows and you have a guaranteed hit. Keep reading for the full recipe!
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Sherry Cake
Sherry cake is one of my grandmother’s most delightful go-to cakes. It’s easy to make and bursting with the distinct taste of sherry wine. You start with a basic yellow cake mix and vanilla instant pudding mix and add eggs, oil, sherry and nutmeg. The result is a moist, dense pound cake-like cake that is sure to impress. It works really well baked in a bundt pan and sliced thin with dusted powdered sugar on top. You can make it in mini loaf pans as well if you wish.
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A Cake Fit For a King… Galette des Rois
The French are smart. After Christmas, once the endless Bûche de Noëls and truffles au chocolat are devoured and forgotten till next year, the French fill the newly formed dessert void with a brilliant confection, Galette des Rois. In Paris, bakeries reopen on January 2nd with their shelves full of these much-awaited cakes. Traditionally eaten only to celebrate the day of Epiphany on January 6, when the Three Kings came to Bethlehem, Galette des Rois is so popular that pâtissiers usually serve this scrumptious cake the entire month of January.
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Apple Flognarde… A Light French Clafoutis Dessert
Apple Flognarde is a delicious traditional French specialty hailing from the Limousin and Auvergne region in the southwest of France. A flognarde, similar to a Clafoutis which is made with cherries, is essentially a puffed “soufflé” baked with fresh fruit. Although you can make it with blackberries, peaches, figs, or blueberries, just to name a few, an apple version is perfectly appropriate for the fall, when you can find delicious native apples at your local orchards. The Apple Flognarde resembles a light-as-air pancake and puffs up when baked. It is slightly sweet and boasts a delicious vanilla flavor, similar to a crepe. The flognarde eventually deflates after cooling, leaving a light and crispy golden “custard” surrounding the baked apples. Served with a dollop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, this is the perfect light dessert to end a heavy meal.
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Carla Hall’s Lemon Pudding Cake with Orange Liqueur
ABC’s new daytime show, The Chew, has been killing it with to-die-for recipes rolling out every day. If you are a Top Chef watcher, you will remember Carla and her scrumptious and hearty comfort-food-style cooking. A true lover of sweets (she owns Alchemy cookies after all) it is no surprise this mouthwatering lemon pudding cake recipe comes to us courtesy of Carla Hall. My grandmother set out to make these mini-cakes and they came out truly delicious! Baked in ramekins, these pudding cakes make for a perfect individual dessert treat. With egg whites to puff up the cake, a healthy dose of butter, sugar, milk, fresh lemon juice and a kick of orange liqueur, you will find these pudding cakes irresistible. Once baked, the pudding forms a golden-brown cake on top and leaves soft pudding on the bottom, s
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Pumpkin Spice Bars
It’s almost fall and that means it’s time to start baking warm, spicy autumn desserts. My absolute favorite spice cake recipe is for Pumpkin Spice Bars. To make the bars, you start out by baking a homemade spice cake in a sheet pan and savoring the smell of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves filling up your kitchen. The creamy, sweet topping is a light and fluffy cream cheese icing, made with real cream cheese. Once baked, cooled and frosted, you have the option of serving as a full cake or refrigerating it until set, and cutting it into rectangular “bars.” Either way, you will die for this mouth-watering dessert. Enjoy for dessert, breakfast or an anytime-of-day snack.
