Homemade

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 …
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 …
Mexican Chicken Noodle Soup

Mexican Chicken Noodle Soup

The first thing I do when someone sneezes in the house, is submerge a chicken in a pot of boiling water to make chicken stock for soup. That’s a normal, knee-jerk reaction, right? Ok, perhaps I exaggerate. But there’s just something about the thought of clear, warming chicken noodle soup that makes …