Brittle is one of those dusty dinosaurs I pass up in the candy shop. Who wants that overly-sweet and dull filling-puller anymore? Those flavorless untoasted, unsalted peanuts staring at you from their sugar-glass tombs like a thousand sad eyes? Yeah no. It's the bottom of candy mountain. Maybe it is because we are just starting…
Poundcake is the shortbread of the cake world. But despite its apparent simplicity, it's not necessarily easy to master. Both are best plain, without any bits or babs mucking things up because, all in all, both are really just an excuse to eat butter. Bundt cake is poundcake, btw, just baked in a bundt pan.…
Let me just get this out of the way right off the bat: I don't really like chocolate cake. It's always just a little wrong somehow--too dry, not chocolately enough (just, you know, chocolate-colored), too rich, too sweet, too something. I needed to make my peace with chocolate cake. There are so many kinds of…
It's been a tough year. I know I'm not alone in feeling this. Maybe that's why I decided this year to saturate myself in Christmas cheer--a holiday I usually feel pretty neutral about. Last year at this time my Mom and I were in Iceland, and there was something so much more special about holiday…
Madeleines seem like a good place to start. Both a cake and a cookie, they satisfy on all counts. And these delicate Orange Cinnamon beauties are the most tender, melt-in-your mouth madeleines you will ever taste.
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I realized recently I have been doing so much cake-work in my sweetcraft practice. Time to get back to basics. The most basic of all basics, shortbread, which is, if executed well, hardly basic. Recipes for shortbread should be, well, pretty short--this is a recipe about butter, and if you start mucking things up with…
I did it, I solved your holiday dinner party dessert problem. This is a showstopping dessert that is also very easy to make. Most importantly, it tastes like heaven. Truly, it is one of my favorite desserts to eat and I have never served it to someone who didn't like it. It's also gluten-free and…
There you are, wanting cake immediately, but knowing your damn butter is definitely not soft enough. You just aren't clever enough to have prepared a day in advance for this specific craving to hit, and now you are standing in the kitchen wondering if you can just microwave that butter a bit to soften it…
That's right, I said Apple Pie Cake. It's a cake filled with apple pie filling. It's not that grody pie-baked-inside-cake monstrosity trotted out this time of year as a testament to America's top rank in Stuffership. This is a lovely, custardy cake with a layer of apples baked in the exact way I bake them…
After a season of cakes, I am ready for something with a little more texture to it, something crunchy and rich. These cookies have an unbelievably addictiveness to them and I think it's down to the texture: crumbly, tender shortbread with bursts of crispy poppyseeds and crunchy sanding sugar on the edges, not to mention…