Dessert

Coconut Layer Cake

Coconut Layer Cake

This cake was kind of born 2 and half years ago when I was tasked with feeding 100 people with a coconut cake. "Can it have pineapple filling?" my dear friend Jaf asked. YES, YES IT CAN! This cake is a delicious, crowd pleasing hit in its original version, but with this pineapple filling, it takes …
Small Chocolate Cake

Small Chocolate Cake

There are many a great chocolate cake recipes out there. Why, say you, post yet another? Take for example the great Beatty's Chocolate cake recipe that I made for many years. All the elements of a great chocolate cake: good quality cocoa, buttermilk, coffee. The problem is, they're quite big if …
Pistachio Layer Cake

Pistachio Layer Cake

I've been making pistachio cakes in various forms since my friend asked me to make one for her wedding last year. The truth is, it's very difficult to make a strongly pistachio flavored cake. It's not like ice cream where the nuttiness easily comes through the cream and sugar. In cakes, in its …
Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

I recall as a kid, I would get visibly angry if upon cutting into a cake at someone’s birthday party, the interior revealed a pale cake with fruit wedged between the layers. I mean c’mon! Save the fruits for the healthy afterschool snack. If I’m dressing up and buying you a present, the least you …
Pastry Pillows

Pastry Pillows

I'm baaaaaaaack! After recovering from hosting Thanksgiving dinner, I'm back in the kitchen making some of my favorite things: small bites, filled with butter, sugar, then topped with more fat and more sugar. Yeah! Just in time for the holiday season, I'm whippin' out my trusty old "100 Best …
Cherry Almond Cake

Cherry Almond Cake

I know, I know. I'm actually posting a non-chocolate recipe. There are few things that I enjoy as much as I enjoy chocolate. Vacations. Lobster truffle mac and cheese (just discovered at cute Sunnyside spot Côté Soleil while out to dinner with the talented and endearing Moni Begum of Moni's …
Chocolate Wafer Cookies

Chocolate Wafer Cookies

If ever you've craved a cookie so intensely chocolately, with little to meddle with it pure chocolate flavor (no nuts, no eggs, and a high cocoa to flour ratio), then this cookie is it. I first made these about 1 year ago when I made my first ice box cake…for 50 people. I must have made 4 batches. …
Eton Mess

Eton Mess

 Eton Mess aka Eat-A-Mess. Named for the school where it was first served - Eton College, presumably in the mess hall. For some reason I am surprised when people aren’t familiar with this dessert. I mean, didn’t everyone watch the episode of Barefoot Contessa when Ina Garten cooked a charity …