Carrot cake is a quintessential dessert of spring. This recipe is moist slightly sweet, and perfectly spiced. It is paired with a rich and velvety cream cheese frosting.
Asparagus is so beautiful this time of year, so I wanted to create a recipe around it. I made some basil and pumpkin seed pesto, and drizzled it on toasted bread with asparagus, avocado, and shaved Parmesan.
Because his family is a true-to-the-bone pancake family, I really wanted him to share with me the secrets to making a good pancake, thin and delicate, perfectly browned on the outside, soft on the inside. He gave me a recipe, one that he has memorized. A set of very specific instructions, the right temp, the right amount of time for frying. I followed it to a tee, and sure enough, the pancakes came out the way I had always dreamed they would.
These caramels!!! Now, I'm not going to take the claim to fame for inventing this caramel recipe, because it is a very slight adaptation from Ina Garten's fleur de sel caramel recipe, but I did come up with the idea to cover them in dark chocolate and top with some flaked sea salt, and that's got to mean something.
Did I mention that last week I was able to finally perfect my apple crisp while the baby was sleeping? Since the beginning of the summer I've been on a quest for the ultimate apple crisp, which to me means big juicy chunks of apples, a little tart a little sweet, slightly soft with a little crunch, bathed in a thick sweet syrupy liquid topped with a buttery, nutty crumble, but not too crumbly.
After Thanksgiving, I decided to experiment with my pumpkin pie recipe. I wanted to try and make it into mini tart form. I choose little gingersnap tart shells, because of gingersnap cookies, and tiny food, am I right? The tart crust came out soft and caramel, almost chewy. It was a perfect combination to the pumpkin filling.
The thing I love most about this loaf cake is that you can eat it for breakfast and no one will judge. This is perfect for me because I always struggle with finding things to eat for breakfast. If you are looking for other foods that double as dessert and also breakfast, pancakes, waffles, and muffins are all totally acceptable, even if you cover them in chocolate and raspberries, caramel, ice cream, and sprinkles, am I right?
Strawberries and rhubarb are such a powerful combination. They compliment each other in such a perfect way, it is hard to compete with anything else. This cake is truly spectacular. After a few tweaks and adjustments, I think I have finally come up with a cake version of the strawberry rhubarb pie. This cake is moist, with a delicate crumb. It has a slight sour component from the buttermilk that is fantastic.
I have been using a lot of coconut-related products lately in my cooking - coconut oil, coconut milk, and shredded coconut. Just last night, I enjoyed a delicious bowl of the silkiest yellow curry with tofu and fresh vegetables. I think my coconut obsession might have something to do with the seemingly long winter months and my desire for a well needed tropical-type vacation. So, clearly, I was going to incorporate coconut into this French toast in some fashion.
I am just going to leave you with a roundup of my favorite Holiday cookies and slip away quietly. If you choose to make only one cookie recipe this year (because you have way more exciting things to do than spend hours in the kitchen baking - I love you and envy you), the mint chocolate Nanaimo bars are perfect.
I have to tell you a few important things about this cake. This cake is made up of four parts. A devils food cake made with a hint of coffee, a whipped hazelnut ganache filling, a thick layer of chopped hazelnuts, and a dark rum ganache outer layer. This cake is the cake of all cakes. It's sexy and divine.
