DESSERT FREAK

Tito

2011-12-28T08:40:00.000-08:00

Happy end of 2011! This year on Christmas my little brother Tito and I made the sugar cookies pictured above. We decorated the cookies with a lime infused cream cheese frosting that tasted like key lime pie. Eating the cookies felt like heaven, and it was definitely a highlight of the year. Here are some of the other best things that happened to me this year (in no particular order):

Getting into grad school!
Moving to my apartment in Boston to go to Grad School.

My 11-11-11 party.

Making new friends in Northampton (NoHo) and in Boston.

Visiting all my Cali friends (LA! SF! SD!) and visiting my grandparents in Lake Tahoe.

Potlucks in NoHo.

Meeting celebrities!

The Joy the Baker Podcast.

Frisbee in NoHo.

Finding an awesome yoga studio in Boston.

Kayaking in an icy swamp in 25 degree weather in New York.

Spotify (I could say this about ten times, it makes me soooo happy).

The Community Servings donation Christmas gift (thank you Gabriel!).

Discovering the best lobster rolls ever at Espresso's in Gloucester.

Doing well in Grad School.

Some more specific moments:

Dinners at Rachel's house, voice lessons with Dan, driving stick with R.L., kayaking with Megan and Melissa, going to Jamaica Plain with Gabriel, the traditional New England Clam bake with BSLUG (UCSC Alums, Boston), discovering that there is decent Mexican food on the East Coast with the BSLUGs.

This year has been challenging for me, but it had some amazing moments!

See you next year,

Gretta

Mudslide Cookies

2011-10-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

I discovered an inspirational food blog, How Sweet It Is. Chef Jessica has assembled an incredible dessert section with creative recipes ranging from red velvet brownies to cake batter chocolate bark. Two days ago I whipped up her cake batter crispy treats. They were a gift from heaven. And recently I made her salted mudslide cookies, which rocked my world. These mudslide cookies are addictive and have officially been added to my dessert repetoire. Thank you, Jessica, for your informative and imaginative blog! It is my new guiding light in the kitchen.

Cook's Illustrated German Chocolate Cake turned Cupcakes

2011-10-04T06:49:00.001-07:00

I miss the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), my alma mater. Santa Cruz is special in a myriad of ways, including its redwood forests, diverse animal life, ocean setting and dynamic people. UCSC's mascot is a banana slug, because the slug itself is native to the area, and because it represents the uniqueness of the people who attend the school. We are a peaceful bunch who respect alternative ways of living. Recently I discovered the lively UCSC Boston alumni group, which brings a taste of home to the East Coast. When one of the alums invited me to his home for a gathering I knew I had to make a good impression. I took the Cook's Illustrated German Chocolate Cake recipe and transformed it into cupcakes by pouring the batter into cupcake tins and reducing the baking time to about eighteen minutes. When they cooled I slightly scooped out the centers of the cupcakes and filled them with coconut-pecan frosting. The cupcakes proved to be irresistible, and one woman thought it was the best cupcake that she had ever had. Though I really liked these cupcakes I think the Gooey Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes that I made back in 2009 are slightly better! Still, I think I made some new East Coast UCSC friends!

A Chocolate Tarte from Robert Linxe

2011-09-27T19:13:00.000-07:00

See the beautiful chocolate tart pictured above? This dessert made all of my sophisticated friends cry out with pleasure, expel tears of joy and experience nirvana. I may be exaggerating, but jeepers, I served this tart to over twenty people and everyone complimented me on it in an over the top manner. The sheer ecstasy that this tart evoked made me realize that if I ever have the privilege of baking for royalty or the like, this is the dessert that I would prepare. It would be my way of getting "in" to a well known family. Kate Middleton, eat your heart out. Carla Bruni, this is probably the best thing you can consume during your pregnancy. Though I am confident that Kate and Carla would love this tart, as for me, well, I would never bake this for myself in a million years. Something about the buttery crust turns me off, which is why I am not a huge fan of traditional apple pies or confections with shortbread crusts. Yes, I would make those types of recipes for my friends (like Ladurée's strawberry tart), but they are not my absolute favorite go-to sweets. Still, I would whip up this tart on any day that I know important company is coming over for dinner. The recipe I used is Robert Linxe's of the landmark La Maison Du Chocolate, via Dorie Greenspan's outrageously wonderful and groundbreaking cookbook, Paris Sweets.

Vegan Peach Crisp

2011-09-21T06:13:00.000-07:00

I should not be writing this. I should be studying marketing for my class tonight or writing an essay for my seminar next week.

My life has again changed dramatically. I moved to a new city, Boston, and have started graduate school, a new job, and searching for new friends in the area. Despite these huge changes, I feel relatively happy and incredibly sane. I am taking everything step-by-step and making a conscious effort to avoid getting bogged down by work. Friends from Noho...you know who you are...can you please move to Boston (except for Dan, who should move to NYC)!!! Speaking of friends, I miss our weekly potlucks the most. The peach crisp above was made for Vanessa's birthday potluck in late August. The recipe is adapted VegNews online and was a great success. I made two of these babies and not a single bite was left over at the end of the night. The biggest surprise about this recipe was how well the oil worked as a substitute for butter; the topping was incredibly crunchy and had robust flavor. This will be my new, go-to vegan, summer dessert! Now, back to studying...

Toffee Bars

2011-08-18T07:53:00.000-07:00

I am confused. Why are bars with a shortbread crust and a chocolate layer on top referred to as toffee bars? According to the New Oxford American Dictionary the definition of toffee is "a kind of firm or hard candy that softens when sucked or chewed, made by boiling together sugar and butter, often with other ingredients or flavorings." Thus, calling a cookie-like bar a toffee bar sounds like a misnomer to me.

Despite the inaccurate name, I went through with making the bars for a recent potluck and they turned out to be a wildly popular. I adapted a recipe from the Food Network; my only adjustments were substituting pecans for the cranberries and melting the chocolate with a shot of brandy before pouring it all over the shortbread crust. The brandy was an excellent choice, as it intensified the chocolate flavor. Nevertheless, the next time I make toffee I want to use a Heath bar-style recipe, perhaps the "Best Toffee Ever" from Allrecipes, which includes only butter, sugar, salt, chocolate, and nuts.

Caramel Corn

2011-08-08T16:31:00.000-07:00

After eating two bags of caramel corn from Nuts on Clark at the Chicago Airport over a month ago, I have not been able to get caramel corn out of my head. I finally caved and made my own batch, using the recipe from Little Blue Hen (which is via Smitten Kitchen and adapted originally from the The Craft of Baking). This treat is easy to make (no baking required) and addictive, however it is not as buttery or as deeply caramelized as the corn I had at Nuts on Clark. Next time I make this recipe I will use a tad bit more butter and replace the granulated white sugar with brown sugar.

Ladurée's Strawberry Tart

2011-08-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

Thank you Harvard Bookstore for introducing me to Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan. I am in love and slightly obsessed with almost every recipe in this treasure trove of deliciousness. For those of you not familiar with this Parisian dessert bible, baking extraordinaire Dorie Greenspan presents her favorite recipes from the city's most famous bakeries. It is a must read for Francophile sugar addicts everywhere.

The strawberry tart recipe from Ladurée especially tugged at my heart strings. The tart is buttery yet light, sweet and refreshing. The recipe calls for homemade strawberry marshmallows, yet due to the humidity here in my tiny New England town, I decided to skip this process and make the tart without the additional confection. It was still scrumptious. Recipe information can be found in the Art of Being Perfect blog.

Baba's Famous Cheesecake

2011-07-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

My grandma "Baba" makes outstanding cheesecake. It is so good that whenever Baba makes it at her house the entire family eats it for breakfast. Here is the coveted recipe!

Baba's Famous Cheesecake

CRUST

1 1/2 cups finely ground Nabisco® Honey Maid Cinnamon Graham Crackers

3-4 tablespoons melted butter

1 tablespoon whole wheat flour

Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Mix graham cracker crumbs and flour with the butter. Spread mixture into the bottom and sides of a nine inch spring form pan. You may use a dish to pat the crumbs down and in the sides of the pan. Bake this crust at 325ºF for seven minutes or until golden brown. Once completed, take the crust out of the oven and let it cool.

CAKE

Juice of one whole lemon

2 pounds cream cheese at room temperature

1 cup sugar

4 eggs at room temperature, slightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup sour cream at room temperature

In a food processor mix together the lemon juice, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Take the mixture out of the food processor and beat in the eggs. Pour over the cooled crust. Place in a 325ºF oven for forty five minutes, checking the cake around the 30 minute mark. The cake is done when edges are done and the center slightly jiggles. Take the cake out of the oven and set it on the counter for ten minutes.

TOPPING

1 cup sour cream

2-3 teaspoon vanilla (to taste)

3-4 tablespoons sugar (to taste)

Increase the oven temperature to 350ºF, mix sour cream, vanilla and sugar together. If you want a sweeter topping add more sugar. If you feel that your cake will be sweet enough than add only three tablespoons of sugar. After the cake has cooled for ten minutes, spread the topping on top of it taking care to keep the mixture 3/4'' away from the edges of the pan. Bake for five minutes. Take the cake out of the oven and let it cool to room temperature. Cover the cake with waxed or parchment paper and then layer plastic wrap over it to prevent moisture from building up. Cool overnight in the refrigerator and eat it the next day! Serve with raspberry sauce and strawberries.

Sugar Plum Balls

2011-07-20T11:05:00.001-07:00

My Grandma Barbara (Baba) is famous for her delicious sugar plums, pictured above. These candies are chewy, sweet and contain the ideal ratio of fruit to nut goodness. Typically Baba serves sugar plums around the holidays, however she made a special batch for my visit to her summer home in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Luckily these candies are healthy, because I cannot get enough of them!

Baba's Sugar Plums

1 cup blanched almonds

3/4 cup raisins

3/4 cup dried apricots

3/4 cup chopped dates

3/4 cup walnuts

1/4 cup orange juice

3/4 cup sugar

Process the almonds and walnuts to a coarse meal. Add the raisins, dried apricots and chopped dates to the mix, processing throughly. Add orange juice and pulse until the mixture sticks together. Shape into one inch balls; roll in sugar. Put the sugar plums in candy paper liners and store in an airtight container. While it is best to store these in a the refrigerator long term, sugar plums taste best served at room temperature.

Peanut Butter Fudge-Brownies and Twice-Baked Cinnamon Shortbread

2011-06-18T17:52:00.000-07:00

In the past few weeks I have been regressing more than I ever have in my entire adult life. I have been reading tons of Young Adult fiction (I recommend Dash & Lily's Book of Dares), watching children's movies (Ramona Quimby is so cute!), and inhaling every book in the Chronicals of Narnia. I am not exactly sure what facilitated this change, except I think that being friends with a lot of ex-summer camp counselors and children's teachers has rubbed off on me. I recently made two special childhood treats, peanut butter-fudge brownies from Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven and crunchy twice-baked shortbread from Deb at smitten Kitchen.

Deb's shortbread recipe, originally adapted from Alice Medrich, is full of buttery goodness. I put a slight twist on this dessert, adding cinnamon to the sugar topping to make them slightly warmer and spicier. It was a good call and the shortbread was successful, earning my epicurian friend Matty's high approval. The peanut butter-fudge brownies were dense, moist and contained a subtle peanut butter flavor. I liked them and would recommend them to anyone who wants a chocolate treat with a faint peanut butter taste as a back note. My favorite part about the brownies was definitely their fudgy texture. If you want to take them to the next level, you may choose to spread a peanut butter frosting on top of the brownies.

Peanut Butter Fudge-Brownies

A little butter or oil for the pan if it's not nonstick

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup (packed) light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup unbleached white flour

1/4 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted peanut butter)

1 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cups minced peanuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch pan (unless it's nonstick).

Cream together the butter, peanut butter, and the sugars in a medium-large mixing bowl with an electric mixer at high speed. Turn the speed down to medium, and add the eggs one at a time, and the vanilla, beating well after each. Stir in the remaining ingredients, and mix by hand until every thing is uniformly blended.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan, and bake on the center rack of the oven for 15- 20 minutes, or until the top feels firm, and a toothpick inserted all the way into the center comes out clean. Cut into squares while still hot, but let them cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes before serving. Serve warm, at room temperature, or cold. Makes about 1 1/2 dozen medium-sized brownies.

Rhubarb Torte

2011-06-06T07:58:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a special and unique way to use rhubarb, I have the perfect recipe for you. The rhubarb torte from the Recipe Hall of Fame Dessert Cookbook: Winning Recipes from Hometown America is insanely delicious. It is possibly the best fruit dessert I have ever tasted! A few notes: do not make this pie on a humid day or the meringue will weep. If you store this in a refrigerator overnight the meringue may weep as well. This torte is best served on the same day that it is made.

Rhubarb Torte

Originally adapted from Dorthy Rickers Cookbook: Mixing & Musing (Minnesota)

FIRST LAYER:

1 cup flour

2 tablespoons sugar

pinch of salt

1/2 cup butter

Combine ingredients and press into 8x10 inch pan. Bake at 325° for 20 minutes. Leave crust out to cool.

SECOND LAYER:

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1/3 cup milk

2 1/4 cups chopped rhubarb

3 egg yolks (save the whites)

Chop the rhubarb into small bite size pieces, taking great care to discard the toxic green leaves. Combine all ingredients and slowly cook on medium heat until thick; pour over baked and slightly cooled crust.

THIRD LAYER:
3 egg whites

5 tablespoons sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Beat egg whites and slowly add sugar, salt and cream of tarter. Spread atop cooked rhubarb mixture. Make sure to spread the meringue to the edges of the pan. Brown in 325° oven for 10-15 minutes.

Sweet Potato Pie

2011-05-29T18:19:00.000-07:00

Sweet Potato Pie! A Southern Thanksgiving staple, served up in New England in the end of May. I made this pie as a gift for Dana and Greg, my incredibly supportive friends. The all butter crust is from smitten kitchen's blog and the filling was loosely adapted from Allrecipes. This pie is littered with goodness. Instead of boiling my sweet potatoes I slow roasted them for an hour in their jackets. Then I went a little crazy and added 1/8 tsp. cloves, 1/4 tsp. ginger, three tbsp. lemon juice and one tbsp. bourbon to the cinnamon, vanilla, and nutmeg that the original recipe called for. I also added three tbsp. of flour to thicken it all up a bit. My improvisations paid off. Dana LOVED the pie and I throughly enjoyed it. This will surely show up on my holiday table later this year.

Ice Box Cake

2011-04-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

For years I have wanted to make a classic Nabisco chocolate wafer ice box cake and this past weekend I finally turned my desire into a reality. Using the classic chocolate refrigerator roll recipe as a base, I added two and a half tablespoons of granulated sugar to the whipped cream and layered the cookies and cream in a pyrex square pan. Cocoa was sprinkled on top as a garnish. My favorite part was how the chocolate wafers transform into cake like pieces. Brilliant! Though I enjoyed the cake, it was so insanely rich that I could only eat a few bites at a time. I do not think I will be making this any time soon as Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers are expensive and hard to find, plus the cake itself is way too heavy. Still, it is a nice nostalgic treat which I may break out on very special occasions. It makes me want to have a 1950's party!

Brownie Cookies

2011-04-11T19:17:00.000-07:00

The "Better-than Brownies-Chocolate Cookies" pictured above are mouthwatering and ethereal. I have made these cookies several times now, and they always come out perfectly. They are the best solution to a "brownie or cookie?" moment. Find the recipe at the Brown Eyed Bakers blog - you will be so happy when you make them!

Chocolate-Whiskey Pudding Cake

2011-03-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

Sherry Yard is one of my baking role models and my life would be so awesome if I could bake every single recipe in her epic bible Desserts By the Yard. I am still young so it could totally happen. So far I have not made much progress in recreating her masterpieces however last Saturday I did make Sherry’s Chocolate-Whiskey Pudding Cake for two of my epicurean friends. The cake it truly a hybrid of a pudding and a cake. Sherry suggests serving the cake warm with crème fraiche, however my grandma gave me a different, out of the box genius idea. She told me to create a whiskey infused ice cream “sauce.” To make this I simply put high quality vanilla ice cream in the fridge for about an hour so it would be cold but not frozen. Then I transferred it into a bowl and whisked it with a shot of whiskey (I adjusted it to taste). The ice cream was not 100% melted but slushy, enough to be able to drip it onto the warm cake for a divine effect! Fabuloso. I recommend making this cake for anyone you want to impress!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip

2011-03-05T12:49:00.001-08:00

The amazing blogger Brown Eyed Baker recently suggested making Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip as a Valentine’s Day treat. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip! I had never heard of it before, and this confection appeared to be a promising addition to my dessert repertoire. The recipe called for butter, cream cheese, brown sugar and mini chocolate chips, making it similar to a cream cheese frosting yet with brown sugar for more depth of flavor. Easy enough. I ended up preparing and serving this treat at a pot luck with freshly baked sugar cookies. The overwhelming result? Everyone loved it and thought that it tasted like cannoli filling. I even saw one or two people take the dip and frost brownies with it! I think that calling this creation “cookie dough dip” is a misnomer – it is more ideal for sandwiching in between cookies or frosting a cake with. In fact, one day I want to make chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes and frost it with this dip...

Coconut Cream Cake

2011-03-05T11:07:00.001-08:00

I love the brand philosophy skin care and for the three months that their coconut frosting shower gel was in my bathtub I wanted to eat coconut cake every single day. That was a year ago. This week the universe gave me strong signs to make a coconut cake when my amazing friend in San Francisco made one and then two days later Deb from smitten kitchen (who I wish was my friend!) made a piña colada cake inspired by her trip to Aruba. The deal was sealed when my coconut loving confidant invited me to her house for Friday dinner.

My cake is a great example of my innovative and slightly discombobulated baking style. I made Sherry Yard's white birthday cake from Desserts By the Yard, poked holes in it, added a mixture of cream of coconut (Coco Lopez brand) and sweetened condensed milk, and then decorated it with sour cream frosting (sour cream and powdered sugar) and sweetened coconut flakes. I did not really measure anything except for the ingredients in the basic white cake itself. In the end I was lucky. The cake was moist, perfectly sweetened and the sour cream frosting gave everything a bit of tang. It was the perfect end to a Friday night dinner.

For Emma

2011-02-01T17:20:00.000-08:00

Hanging out with my potluck group in Northampton is like being at a summer camp for adults. We are a wholesome crowd and do everything together from cooking and singing to playing ultimate frisbee. Last year a member of our “camp” left to go to grad school in Canada, and when she came back to visit last week we had a potluck in her honor. Emma’s favorite childhood dessert was lemon meringue pie, so I made her one from Molly O’Neill’s classic New York Cookbook. Overall the pie was great, however my meringue was not as voluptuous as I would have liked it to be because I used cold egg whites; they should have been at room temperature. And yes, I meant to write voluptuous, I like my baked goods to be sexy. Other than the lackluster meringue topping, my pie looked and tasted excellent. This recipe is a keeper.

One note: if you are going to make a lemon meringue pie, always eat it on the same day that it is prepared. Leaving it out overnight, either in the icebox or at room temperature can lead to a filling water filling and a saggy topping.

Magnolia's Famous Banana Pudding

2011-01-23T17:55:00.001-08:00

I miss Magnolia's Bakery in NYC soooo darn much. In addition to glorious cupcakes they have the best banana pudding in the whole world. Lucky for me Alyssa Torey published the recipe in More From Magnolia, a book that I treat like a bible. I am not 100% sure that the pudding from the cookbook is the same as the one they serve at the bakery, but it tastes pretty much the same to me. I like this pudding; in addition to being easy to make many of my friends said that it was the best pudding that they ever had! In the future I want make a chocolate variation of the same recipe with chocolate wafers, chocolate pudding and possibly bananas. Yum!

Crème Brûlée and a Gingerbread Boy

2010-12-26T12:00:00.000-08:00

Ahhh, the mellow afterglow of Christmas. I feel full and good. For Christmas dessert this year I prepared Sherry Yard's decadent crème brûlée from Desserts by The Yard. Sherry's recipe is richer than most as it is made from 100% cream, as opposed to a combination of cream and milk. Très bien.

Above is my gingerbread boy, Steve. He is a special five year old made from a combination of all-purpose and whole wheat flour. This is my favorite gingerbread recipe and it always receives rave reviews. Nobody will ever be able to tell that it has whole wheat flour in it.

Gingerbread Cookies adapted from Yoga Journal (December, 2009):

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup molasses

1 large egg

1/2- 3/4 cup candied ginger, chopped into tiny pieces.

1. In a small bowl, stir together flours, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves, and salt. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and butter until smooth and well blended. Beat in molasses and egg. Stir in flour mixture until well combined. Fold in the candied ginger until evenly distributed. Add more candied ginger if desired. Spoon dough onto waxed paper and wrap tightly. Chill until firm, 2 to 3 hours, or overnight.

2. Preheat oven to 350°. Line two cookie sheets with baking parchment. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thick. Cut with lightly floured cutters and place cookies 1/2 inch apart on the cookie sheets.

3. Bake until cookies are firm to the touch, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from pans, cool completely & decorate.

Chocolate Chip Meringues

2010-12-04T23:07:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard of savory meringues? Meringues are low in fat, high in protein, crispy and light, so I don't really understand why they are not a popular snack. I would eat a handful of salty meringues over a heavily processed bag of chips any day. If I ever develop a delicious recipe for savory meringues you will certainly be the first to know. Today, however, I will focus on the simple chocolate chip meringue recipe from smitten kitchen. These babies are pretty yummy and their only negative quality is that I felt like I could eat a dozen at a time. For my adaptation of Deb's recipe I omitted the nuts, added extra chocolate chips, threw in about a tablespoon of cocoa powder and used a 1/2 cup of sugar. Perfecto!

Pecan Pie Bars

2010-12-02T18:02:00.000-08:00

I always watch the Food Network at the gym, which is horrible for me because whenever I get home from working out I am famished and eat my face off. One recent workout led to an obsession with Bobby Flay's Throwdown winning pumpkin pie, which I ended up making for Thankgiving and which turned out to be fabulous. But I digress; I am here to discuss the Brown Eyed Baker's chunky pecan pie bars. Oh me, oh my. Good Dickens. The mix of chocolate, nuts, Jim Beam (my addition) and shortbread crust were outstanding! First I made them for Thanksgiving for all to share. Then I made a batch for myself. Fraggle Rock! These were a huge success.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

2010-11-20T19:37:00.000-08:00

I present to you a beautiful flourless chocolate cake for beautiful Carolynn's birthday. This simple recipe is from Epicurious and enhanced with a tablespoon of espresso and a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract. I served it with vanilla Häagen-Dazs and homemade whipped cream infused with almond extract. I love this cake!

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cupcakes!

2010-11-03T16:31:00.001-07:00

Peanut butter and chocolate blend together so beautifully and their flavors intertwine so flawlessly that they must be soul mates. The essence of peanut butter and chocolate's heavenly union is fully captured in smitten kitchen's chocolate peanut butter cake. This cake, or in my case, cupcakes, is outstanding.

I was inspired to turn this particular cake into cupcakes after my friend Bonnie made them with great success. Before I attempted the recipe I scoured the reader comments from smitten kitchen and found that Deb (the blog's author) suggested making a cupcake variation with her chocolate butter cake as the base. I did just that, however I did not think they were as chocolaty or as rich as Bonnie's cupcakes. Still, my friends and I thought the dessert was divine and we all experienced joyous sugar highs. Despite the fantastic reviews, next time I make the cupcake version of this cake I will follow the original recipe through in through.

Music Note Cake

2010-10-28T19:37:00.000-07:00

I love things that are out of the ordinary, out of control, wacky, extreme and on the edge of society. I like pushing boundaries in my baked goods; I often bake like a chef to discover new things. smittenkitchen is one of my favorite blogs because Deb, the author is inventive and all about finding perfect recipes. Over a year ago Deb formulated her "best birthday cake," a yellow cake with a chocolate sour cream frosting. Naturally I have wanted to make this cake since I first laid eyes on it, so I took the recipe and created a music note cake for Music Teacher Dan's birthday. I created the cake by baking the cake in thirds, 1/3 in a small round pan and the other 2/3's in two loaf pans. I then carved out the music note shape. It was awesome. My favorite part about this dessert was the frosting. Not too sweet, but perfectly chocolaty, rich and velvety smooth. Though the cake was not out of control, wacky, extreme or on the edge of society, it was out of the ordinary and I am sure it made a lasting impression.

Star Peach Pie for a Rock Star Guy

2010-08-16T16:24:00.000-07:00

Greg is the rock star of the pot luck group. For his birthday party Jacque and I made an amazing peach pie (his favorite) with little stars on top! The recipe was PERFECT - I used smitten kitchen's pie crust recipe & filling from the pie lady. I know this pie was excellent because our friend Vanessa ate over half of it in one sitting! And Vanessa has outstanding taste in dessert. Everybody else LOVED it as well.

The nectarine pie below is from the Recipe Hall of Fame Dessert Cookbook: Winning Recipes from Hometown America. It is supposed to be a "Gourmet Peach Pie" but I substituted nectarines in for the peaches. The pie features a graham cracker crust, cream cheese filling, a layer of nectarines and a jelly top. It was NOT the most popular dessert and therefore I will not be making it again, even though I actually liked it. I now know to stick to traditional fruit pies with all butter crusts.

David Lebovitz - Chocolate Macarons

2010-08-01T18:50:00.000-07:00

Distance makes the heart grow fonder. I moved away from NYC almost a year ago and everyday I miss it more and more. Recently when I went to visit I had the privilege of stopping by Macaron Cafe on the Upper East Side. Their macarons are phenomenal and taste, look, and feel exactly how I imagine the ones in France would. My favorite flavor is cassis, however all of my friends favor rose.

Recently Robin and I tried our hands at the chocolate macarons from David Lebovitz's The Sweet Life In Paris. We were impressed at how easy and fast the recipe was and we swooned when we tasted the little bites of heaven. The one thing that we forgot to do was tap the side of the pan against the counter after we piped the batter to prevent the tops of the macaron from being pointy. A small yet important detail that I will not forget next time. And I hope next time comes soon because these babies were awesome!

DESSERTGASM COOKIES

2010-08-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

For his 30th birthday Dennis's brilliant and beautiful wife decided to hold a cookie contest-themed surprise birthday party in which Dennis would be the judge. When I received the invite to this party I was overwhelmed with emotion - first out of excitement and then out of fear. I had to win - my reputation as a dessert aficionado depended on it. Without knowing anything about Dennis's cookie preferences I boldly set out to make a cookie that I felt confident nobody else in my social circle would bring. I began contemplating many different recipes, including Sherry Yard's version of thin mints, and Dorie Greenspan's orange gallettes, almond butter cookies layered with Grand Marnier infused apricot jam and topped with a meringue cookie. Finally I remembered a divine, dessertgasmic cookie that was truly outstanding. It was this cookie that upon eating made me ponder, "why didn't I think of that?" It was a simple cookie, made from a Ritz cracker, with a layer of peanut butter & then a smothering of marshmallow fluff, all dipped in Wilburs chocolate with sprinkles on top. It is similar to the chocolate coated and peanut butter filled Girl Scout cookies but oh so much better. In fact, I now call them DESSERTGASM cookies. They are absolutely perfect. So good, in fact, that I hope that one day Ben & Jerry's makes an ice cream based off of them! The creator of this cookie is Nancy, founder of Nancy's Cookies in Hamilton, NJ (email nancyf77@optonline.net for more information). Thank you Nancy for helping me win the contest!

Catching Up

2010-06-06T16:40:00.000-07:00

For the past few months I have been a busy bee in the kitchen. I most recently made delicious chocolate mint cupcakes based on Martha Stewart's grasshopper cake. The frosting was excellent but next time I will use the Cooks Illustrated dark chocolate cupcake recipe which is richer and has a deeper chocolate flavor. In May my friend Robin and I made caramelized banana tarts from Desserts By the Yard. A hazelnut crust is topped with a layer of banana caramel, caramelized bananas, homemade vanilla ice cream with a caramel ribbon and croquante (almond brittle). We skipped the spun sugar.

A few weeks ago I prepared ridiculously delicious oozing chocolate lava cakes. The only thing that I would add to this recipe is some vanilla, espresso and/or flavored liquor like Kahlua! YUM! This recipe was simple to prepare and I cannot wait to make it for my future children when they begin to study volcanos in school.
The cake below is the "Orange Kiss-Me Cake" that my grandma has been bugging me to make for about two years now because her mother used to make it all of the time. The recipe comes from the Pillsbury's Bake Off Cake Cookbook (1969) and is a raisin, orange and walnut cake with a cinnamon sugar topping. I am not a fan.
In February I made chocolate peanut butter truffles coated with graham cracker crumbs from the Recipe Hall of Fame Dessert Cookbook: Winning Recipes from Hometown America. The truffles were sent overseas to a friend and I heard that they arrived in perfect condition. I thought they were good but not great, but my friend in Korea LOVED them. Perhaps they get better over time?

I have been meaning to blog about the apple pie below since December! This is the "best" apple pie from Recipe Hall of Fame Cookbook. Although I love the cookbook I disagree that this is the best apple pie ever and this holiday season I hope to make a few different ones and host an apple pie taste testing party.
Whew! I feel better now that I am all caught up, at least picture-wise. To be honest there are some more desserts that did not photograph well, including my favorite no bake chocolate peanut butter cookies, a sour cream apple pie (another December creation) that died, Smitten Kitchen's awesome russian tea cakes, her amazing cinnamon swirl buns, and a heavenly tres leche cake from the Pioneer Woman that my friends practically died over. What should I bake next?

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

2010-04-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

Pineapple upside-down cake is an easy cake to make, which is why I was incredibly surprised to learn that my grandmother, who is an excellent baker, always uses a mix when she prepares this dessert. Although I only use mixes for ridiculous cakes (like my Almost Better than Harrison Ford Cake) I decided to use a mix in honor of my grandma. I bought a Betty Crocker super moist yellow cake mix, and substituted pineapple juice for the water it called for. I also added a teaspoon of vanilla. My grandma suggested using a teaspoon of pineapple extract as well, but I could not justify paying five dollars for something I knew I would most likely only use once. The top of the cake is from an adaptation of the Fannie Farmer cookbook recipe and is composed of pineapple, brown sugar, maraschino cherries, pineapple juice & butter.

I took the cake over to my friend Adrien's house for his birthday party. Everyone really enjoyed the cake and was surprised to learn that it was from a mix! I could definitely detect that it was not 100% homemade, so next time I plan on doing the whole thing on my own. In fact, next time I want to try the almond infused upside-down cake from simply recipes...

White Chocolate and Pecan Blondies

2010-04-11T14:36:00.000-07:00

I am not a huge fan of white chocolate chips, but recently I purchased two bags of them so I could make chocolate fudge rippled with a layer of green mint chocolate. When the fudge plan sadly fell through I began searching for a creative way in which to use the chips. Last week I found the perfect opportunity; my boss suggested that I make dessert for a homeless shelter luncheon that her Ladies Club was sponsoring. Baking for people in need is my favorite form of community service! I found a recipe for white chocolate and macadamia nut blondies in the Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library Cookies & Biscotti book and invited my friend Jacque over to be my baking buddy. Since Jacque happened to have pecans we decided to substitute them for expensive macadamia nuts. We also substituted instant coffee for the instant expresso powder which the recipe called for. I must say that the coffee was an excellent, undetectable secret ingredient. As you can see from the picture, the blondies were were very dense and moist as well. I would certainly make this recipe again, but next time I try my hand at these bars I plan on making Al Roker's Platinum Blondies which I have heard are scrumptious!

Chocolate Pecan Pudding Pie

2010-04-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

My friend Megan & I made the FABULOUS chocolate pecan pudding pie recipe from the More from Magnolia cookbook by Allysa Torrey. We served the pie with unsweetened whipped cream (Megan's choice - I add sugar to everything) and it was a HUGE success! The only change we made to the recipe was that we did not add the pecans to the pudding - we only put them on the top of the pie as a garnish. There are two things that I need to keep in mind next time I make this pie; the first being to make it the night before it is served. It is important for the pudding to have time to really firm up in the fridge. Second of all I left the pie out at room temperature for around two full hours before we all dug in. I was impressed by how well the pudding stood up as I was concerned that the pie would be a liquid mess after leaving it out for so long.

Ladies - all of the guys who tried this LOVED it! It is quite the comforting, "just like mom made" pie. I highly suggest making it for your man!

Beet Cake

2010-03-27T16:33:00.000-07:00

Carrot cake is always a successful dessert, zucchini bread is wholesome deliciousness, so why not try beet cake? My friends Philipp & Megan found this recipe & all three of us made it in under an hour. We made a few changes - first we did not peel the beets- we left the skins on & added them to the batter. Philipp & Megan also did not put the full amount of sugar into the cake - I believe they omitted about half a cup. We also skipped the suggested icing & stuck to a traditional cream cheese frosting. The next day I took the cake to a potluck & Dana frosted & decorated it. The cake was a truly a group effort. The verdict? I did not like it one bit, perhaps because of the rough texture from the beet skin. On the other hand Philipp enjoyed the cake & most people seemed to like it. If I ever make a beet cake again I will use a classic carrot cake recipe & substitute peeled beets for the carrots.

St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake

2010-01-15T19:39:00.001-08:00

The recent article on St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake in the New York Times completely inspired me to try out the recipe. I made the cake for a bake sale to benefit the Northampon arson victims and I must say they were a great success. Who can resist gooey butter cake? The great thing about this cake is that it is moist and not overly sweet. This recipe will forever be my go to cake for bake sales, brunches & camping trips!

I encourage you to please make a donation to benefit the Northampton arson victims and of course the victims of the earthquake in Haiti at Pioneer Valley Red Cross or wherever you see fit.

Out of Control Sugar Cake

2010-01-15T18:57:00.000-08:00

After searching for the fanciest & most complicated dessert recipe in the world Alissa & I decided to simplify things and make a combination our favorite treats for Alissa's birthday cake. That is how we invented the Out of Control Sugar Cake:

bottom layer = salted brown butter rice krispy treats

middle layer = peanut butter & chocolate fudge

top layer = purple divinity candy

frosted with= purple cream cheese frosting with sprinkles mixed in

It was super delicious- and it gave me one of the best sugar highs of my life!

Pecan Crunchies

2009-12-26T12:24:00.000-08:00

Toffee-like cookies are one of my favorite holiday treats, so when I found a recipe that called for adding a pecan layer of toffee goodness to the top of graham crackers I knew I had to make it. The recipe is from the Best of the Best series Recipe Hall of Fame Dessert Cookbook: Winning Recipes from Hometown America and is simple to prepare:

1/2 (16-ounce) box of graham crackers

1/2 pound butter

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup pecans, chopped

Lightly oil a jellyroll pan and line with graham crackers. Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add brown sugar and stir until mixture bubbles vigorously. Add pecans and quickly spread over the graham crackers. Bake at 350º for ten minutes. Cut along indentations of the crackers; leave in pan and freeze for 1 hour. Do not eliminate freezing, because this is what makes them so crunchy. Yields 5 1/2 dozen truly delicious cookies!

Original recipe taken from Tastes & Tales from Texas...With Love.

World Peace Cookies

2009-12-23T17:46:00.000-08:00

I finally made World Peace Cookies! I feel like these cookies are almost a rite of passage in the baking blog world- everyone else has made them at some point. I did not exactly love these cookies (however the people who ate them did) and I think it's because I (gasp) used Hershey's cocoa...perhaps they would have tasted better had I used a better quality brand? Another reason could be that I simply do not like plain chocolate cookies. The last chocolate cookies I made, which had peanut butter chips were much more to my liking. I think I am going to take a break from chocolate desserts for a while...

Katharine Hepburn's Brownies

2009-12-20T08:56:00.000-08:00

If you have been reading this blog you know that I recently made a huge move from NYC to Western MA. There has been a pretty steep learning curve involved in this transition for me, as it is my first time living in freezing weather, first time owning a car, driving in snow and living alone. Things I never thought about, like snow parking bans and snow emergencies are now at the front of my mind. I also have had to go through the process of making new friends - which has been an incredible experience for me. Somehow I came across a group of awesome people who have have weekly potlucks - which means that I have a reason to make desserts! For the last get together I made the original Katharine Hepburn brownie recipe which I have wanted to make ever since the Tuesday's with Dorie bloggers made the "Tribute to Katharine Hepburn Brownies." I do intend to try the Tribute brownies at some point, however I thought I would make the original first. The one bowl recipe was easy enough, and the results were pretty good! As you can see from the picture I only put nuts on top. I also like my brownies a bit undercooked, so I baked them for 30 min., took them out of the oven and then let them sit in the pan for another half hour before I took them out. Jacque, the lovely hostess of the potluck, wrote to me exclaiming, "Just wanted you to know I hoarded your brownies... and then ate all of them! Best brownies ever!" Yay!

Carrot Cake and Decorated Sugar Cookies from Heaven

2009-12-05T10:22:00.000-08:00

One of my best friends from college came to visit me up here in Northampton (aka NoHo- yes, I went from SoHo to NoHo), and for him I made a plain carrot cake- with no nuts, pineapple, coconut or raisins. The cake itself was good, however it became incredible after being refrigerated overnight. Since I only had green food coloring available, we decided to decorate it with a frog and a little saying that would help us remember our special time together.
Later on that week my college friend, his buddy from Chicopee and I had a mini sugar cookie decorating fiesta. We created a scene with God (can you find "him"? his arms are spread wide), all of the stars around him in heaven, and the trees, frogs, men and ice cream cones below on the earth. We even cast the rejects into the underworld. It was a lot of fun, and believe you me, the picture does not do any justice to the beautiful creations we designed.

All in all I must say that although the sugar cookie and carrot cake recipes I used for these two baking experiences were good, they cannot compare to the recipes I used in my previous carrot cake and sugar cookie blog entries. In a nutshell, I prefer to have pecans and pineapple in my carrot cake and almond extract (as opposed to vanilla) in my sugar cookies.

cupcakes, pie bars and disaster

2009-11-25T16:59:00.000-08:00

I haven’t posted in a while for various reasons. I’ve been pretty busy- going through a hard break up, moving to Western MA for a new job, quitting my old job, saying goodbye to pretty much everyone in NYC, visiting my friends and family in CA, etc. Needless to say I have been eating a lot of sugar.

On a Sex in the City like Sunday, my friends Lulu, Super Bon Bon and I baked chocolate cupcakes, took a stroll in Central Park while they were cooling, and came home to frost them. We used the Cooks Illustrated Dark Chocolate Cupcake Recipe from March 2005- my ultimate favorite recipe in this category . We improvised a buttercream frosting from butter, milk, vanilla, sugar, a little sea salt and red food color. They were delicious!

After coming down from my chocolate baking spree I decided to make a dish specific to the season.

Joy the Baker’s Pumpkin Pie Bars are so amazing. They are a made from oats, pumpkin, cream cheese, spices, butter, chocolate chips, need I say more? Joy even added butterscotch chips and nuts to hers. They are seriously customizable bars from heaven. Next time I will probably substitute brown sugar for the white sugar to give it some more edge. Perfect for this season! I think this may be my favorite pumpkin dessert after pumpkin cobbler…

Now I want to show you an example of a freakish dessert that represents this insane transition.

I like to call these, “Mexico City Volcano Cupcakes.”

I have always wanted to make Mexico City Earthquake cake- which is a German chocolate cake baked with a swirl of sweetened cream cheese filling that creates cracks and crevices in the top of the cake when finished. It looks like an earthquake hit it!

My friend Pauline and I wanted to eat this cake- in cupcake form. So we used the recipe and poured it into cupcake tins. The result? An actively erupting Mexico City Volcano! I think I ate one and gave the rest to Pauline. Look at the pic! I am like a geologist going deep into the volcano!

Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie

2009-09-23T18:08:00.000-07:00

Strawberry pie, oh my, oh my. I craved strawberry pie all summer long and never had the chance to make it. The craving never really went away and a week ago when I stumbled upon an inexpensive box of strawberries at a farmers market I immediately knew that I was going to make my mothers famous strawberry pie. Her pie is unique because it has a layer of cream cheese heaven in the middle. Since I have never made the pie before I improvised each layer in this order:

1) Prepare the 9'' graham cracker crust (omit cinnamon)

2) Cream cheese heaven: Mix one box (8 oz) of cream cheese with about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and either the juice of one lemon or 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Adjust to taste- I added more sugar. Spread evenly onto pie crust.

3) Pie filling: I used a recipe that did not require food color or gelatin, and slathered it all over the cream cheese layer once it was lukewarm.

I would suggest making this pie at night and eating it the next day, because it takes a while for the filling to set up and the flavors to fully meld. It was well worth the wait! The pie is delicious and I cannot wait to make it again next summer.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

2009-09-23T17:30:00.001-07:00

Whenever I make pumpkin cookies I eat about ten at a time to make up for the 22 years it took me to discover them. You see, it was only a few years ago that my then roommate taught me about the sheer joy of the pumpkin cookie. Adding cream cheese frosting to the middle of two cookies sandwiched together and calling it a whoopie pie only heightens the deliciousness factor- and is sheer genius.

The recipe I used for the pumpkin cookies can be found here.

The frosting recipe I used is actually from Nigella Lawson, and it is unique because it replaces cream for butter. The result is a fluffier and whiter frosting.

These whoopie pies got rave reviews, and I will definitely be making them again soon!

Shoo-Fly Pie

2009-09-20T12:06:00.000-07:00

Shoo-Fly pie is an old American dessert that is particularly popular with the Amish and was a favorite of George Washington. The reason I chose to make the pie was twofold- 1) I wanted to make a moist and fruitless pie and 2) I desperately wanted to finish off the molasses that has been sitting in my pantry for almost a year. Plus, the pie is unusual. I have never seen it in a grocery store or on the menu at any restaurant. So why not try my hand at it? I chose to use Tyler Florence's recipe for the pie because it was one of the few on the Internet that did not call for shortening. I understand that a lot of people LOVE shortening but I try to avoid it in my baking at all costs. One of the main reasons for this is that shortening will not dissolve very quickly- even when hot water and soap are added to it. If hot fluid and grease cutting chemicals cannot make shortening go away very well- can you imagine how quickly shortening will dissolve in your body? I don't want you to lose your appetite so I'll stop there.

The results of my pie were hit or miss. I personally loved it because I enjoy molasses, however the people who did not like molasses in general despised the pie. Since a lot of people do not love molasses I would not bring this to a dinner party or church event because it is not guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser. Rather, I would make it for people I knew would be interested in eating a molasses pie!

Maida Heatter's Peach Crisp

2009-08-09T15:56:00.000-07:00

I love peach desserts and it really saddens me that 1) peaches are

not in season all year long and 2)when peaches are in season I

always seem to be craving ice cream or chocolate and never really

take the time to make fresh fruit desserts. Well, enough is

enough. I am going to make a point to start using summer fruits

more while the weather is nice and everything delicious is in

season. To start on my summer fruit dessert spree I began by

buying fresh peaches from the grocery store. I know, I know....

grocery stores are not very great places for buying fruit, but the

sad truth is that my nine hour work day often prevents me

from getting to the farmer's market. Luckily for me, the Whole

Foods I went to had great peaches that from neighboring New

Jersey, so I knew I had a good foundation for any dessert.

After spending some time searching for peach recipes, I settled

on a peach crisp from Maida Heatter's Book of Great American

Desserts. Most of my family members have her books (she was

a bestselling cookbook author in the 80's), and I have always

wanted to try her recipes. This particular crisp called for a

topping that resembled more of a dough than the crisps I am

used to making- it was a simple mixture of sugar, egg, almond

extract, butter and flour. I usually make crisp toppings with oats

and no egg, so I was glad to be adventurous and try something new.

Unfortunately, when the crisp was done, I was not as happy with

the results as I had expected, because it ended up resembling

more of a cobbler than a crisp. However as usual, everyone who

tried the crisp LOVED it and thought it was excellent. I did like it-

it just was not super crispy the way I like my crisps to be!

Cinnamon Coffee Cake Cupcakes

2009-08-03T17:41:00.001-07:00

Matty LOVES cinnamon so I decided to whip up a quick batch of coffee cake cupcakes that had a layer of cinnamon sugar with pecans in the center. The recipe I used was from my grandma's Pillsbury's Bake Off Cake Cook Book from 1969. The recipe requests that the baker place a half the batter in the pan, then spread half the cinnamon sugar with pecans on top, then add the rest of the batter and then pour the remaining sugar mixture on top of that. I followed the directions perfectly, however when the cupcakes expanded in their cups the pecans spread out which made the cupcake topping very uneven and seriously unattractive. Despite their disproportional appearance, they were devoured by Matty, me and some of our friends. Which is odd, because I actually did not think they were that good. They were O.K., don't get me wrong, but we must have been pretty hungry to eat the lot. I would totally tell you the recipe, but to be perfectly honest, it's not really worth it.

In the near future I plan on posting some peach dessert recipes, so hopefully I will have better luck in my baking adventures!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

2009-07-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

Every New York City Dessert Freak knows about Levain Bakery on the Upper West Side. Levain is famous for its gigantic cookies, which weigh in at 6oz each and resemble scones. Each cookie is practically a mini meal and are so delicious that the chocolate chip version has won a cookie "Throwdown" with Bobby Flay. My favorite flavor is the chocolate cookie with peanut butter and chocolate chips. Unfortunately LeVain does not give their recipes away, but many people have tried to recreate the yummyness of their creations. I found my "copycat" recipe for the peanut butter chocolate cookie on Sugoodsweets.com and I was thoroughly impressed by the result. It was very much a Levain cookie, with its slightly raw and gooey center. The cookies came out perfect and I know I will be making them again soon!
DISCLAIMER: LeVain Cookies, copycat or real, MUST be eaten warm. Nuke them in the microwave for 10 seconds, plop them in a preheated oven for three minutes- do whatever you have to do to warm them throughly before eating. I would not suggest taking these to a a picnic in the middle of the forest, or to the beach (unless you plan on heating them on your bbq) because one cannot appreciate their gooeyness unless they are properly melty upon eating!

Little Baby Jesus Cake

2009-07-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

For my birthday this year Matty took me out to a homey little Italian restaurant called Vesta, specifically so I could try the "Little Baby Jesus Cake." What is Little Baby Jesus Cake? It is a cake so good that one can only utter holy words upon tasting it. It is also one of Matty's best NYC discoveries, thank you very much! Little Baby Jesus Cake is a cross between a sticky date pudding and cake.

Back to the restaurant. The slice of cake arrived to our table in a pool of caramel sauce with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream on the side. It tasted of butterscotch and nuts and the best type of date ever. Usually I hate unsweetened whipped cream, however it complimented and cut the sweetness of everything else. It was so good that of course at the end of the meal Matty challenged me to recreate the heavenliness of the cake on my own.
Luckily for me Matty was not the only one who had discovered the amazingness of the Baby Jesus Cake. The recipe can be found here.

Recently I made the cake with my friend and fellow baker April. We were surprised that the recipe did not called for nuts, and added about a cup of chopped pecans to the thick batter. In fact, the batter was so dense that we were not sure it would spread out into a regular cake pan, so we decided to bake it in a loaf pan. Of course the cake turned out to be about four times the size of the batter, and ended up looking like a brown banana bread (I will bake it in a pie pan next time). In order to deal with the awkard shape we ended up cutting it into bite sized pieces and pouring the sauce all over everything. After tasting the cake we decided to double the amount of sauce to increase the "goo" factor.

The cake was divine, which meant that I passed Matty's challenge with flying colors. For when Matty tasted it his eyes widened as he uttered, "Oh. My. God! This is heaven!"

Pound Cake Cupcakes with Strawberries

2009-07-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

Ever since she made them for her brother's graduation from college two years ago, my friend Alissa has been encouraging me to try her famous pound cake cupcakes with strawberries. I finally made two variations of the dessert, one with it's original frosting recipe (above, left), and one with homemade whipped cream in place of frosting (above, right).
The cake itself was excellent, however next time I make this particular recipe I will omit the lemon which was so powerful that it tasted like a lemon pound cake instead of a plain one. Additionally I will make these as miniature cupcakes because the cake is so dense.
The frosting was delicious, but super gritty. Perhaps I prepared it wrong? Stuart only knows. I plan on trying it again using powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar to ensure a smooth consistency.

Despite all the changes I plan on making, the cupcakes were great as is and were a crowd pleaser!

Key Lime Pie Test II

2009-06-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

Key lime pie is my favorite dessert and as you may already know, I am obsessed with it. I am on a mission to find the most perfect key lime pie in the whole wide world. Luckily, I was called on to prepare two of these pies for a friends graduation. Nine year old Cayleigh is holding slices of each- the one with the whipped cream topping is Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pie (recipe found at www.foodnetwork.com) and the one on the right is currently the highest rated key lime pie recipe on allrecipes.com, Key Lime Pie VII (I will refer to this as "pie VII").

I made very few changes to the pie recipes. I only altered pie VII by making my own graham cracker crust. I changed Steve's pie by baking it at 375° F for about 15 minutes. I felt obligated to make this alteration simply because I did not feel comfortable serving raw egg yolk to 20+ guests!

The results of my test were a huge surprise. 100% of the men (six males, ages 18-89) who tried Steve's pie liked it better than pie VII, while 100% of the women (six females, ages 9-85) liked pie VII better. Clearly the females preferred a tarter tasting treat while the men prefer less tang. This is somewhat of an annoying find, because now I feel that I will always have to make two pies in order to please both the men and the women!

In my next key lime pie extravaganza, I plan on preparing the Floridian Key Lime Pie that won my last Key Lime Pie Test AND both recipes that I tried today. I cannot wait to find out which version will win the battle of the best key lime pie!

Cinnamon French Toast Cupcakes

2009-06-28T14:39:00.000-07:00

Cinnamon french toast cupcakes. Two words= HOLY COW.

These cupcakes, though not very photogenic, were some of the best cupcakes I have ever made. I found the recipe on How to Eat a Cupcake The frosting recipe was my own- I combined:

1/4 cup of butter

1 (8 oz. package of cream cheese)

1 cup + maple syrup

powdered sugar (to taste and for consistency 1-3 cups )

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tbsp. cinnamon (to taste) and more to decorate with.

My frosting is technique is all about trial and error. In this case my friend April and I just got down and dirty with it and we were lucky it worked!

If you have not made french toast cupcakes I highly recommend that you set a date and make them soon! These are a true crowd pleaser.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Pie

2009-06-23T11:19:00.000-07:00

Matty loves peanut butter and chocolate, so for his birthday I decided to combine the two flavors into a pie. For this particular dessert I wanted to use my Best of the Best Recipe Hall of Fame Dessert Cookbook (From Quail Ridge Press), because on page 99 of this dessert bible there are actually two peanut butter pie recipes listed in a row. Of course I was unable to choose just one, so I combined the two and added my own ingredients as well.

The pie was really good- but perhaps a little too sweet for my tastes. Next time I will add the sugar very slowly and adjust to taste. I will also make my own pie crust with store bought chocolate wafers instead of simply buying the pre-made shell.

Here is the recipe I came up with:

1 (9-inch) chocolate pie crust

1 (6-oz) jar Smuckers Chocolate Fudge Sauce

1 (8-oz) package cream cheese (I use 1/3 fat)

1/4- 1/2 cup powdered sugar (to taste)

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 (8-oz) carton whipping cream

Pour a layer of fudge sauce into the bottom of the crust, spread evenly and place the crust in the freezer. Using a mixer, combine cream cheese and granulated sugar until smooth. Add peanut butter, vanilla and slowly add 1/4 cup powdered sugar. Taste and add more powdered sugar if needed. Beat well. In a separate bowl beat whipping cream until it has peaks. Fold into peanut butter mixture. Taste and add more powdered sugar if you are a sugaraholic. Take crust out of the freezer and pour mix into crust. Chill for at least three hours in fridge.

If you choose to decorate the top, freeze for an hour, decorate and then move pie to fridge. I used the fudge sauce to decorate the pie.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-06-15T08:48:00.001-07:00

After the semi-disaster of the mocha brownies from my last blog entry I was left in need of a fabulous classic baked present for my local cooking mentor. Chocolate chip cookies were a safe treat because they are super simple to make and very hard to mess up. I decided to go with Smitten Kitchen's "Crispy Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies."

The cookies were sooooo flippen dippen good. These are a "must bake" and were a huge success. The next time I make any version of chocolate chip cookies I think I am going to try out the Levain Bakery knock offs because, as most dessert focused New Yorker's know- the Levain cookie is outrageous! It is as big as a scone and MUST be eaten warm to get the ooey-gooey-ness of the center to be at it's prime.

Mocha Brownies

2009-06-07T12:10:00.000-07:00

When it comes to giving baked goods as a present to someone you barely know, chocolate chip cookies or brownies are certainly a safe bet. Both are generic and classic American treats that most normal people who like chocolate tend to love. Recently I needed a quick gift for a local new cooking instructor of mine, and I felt that brownies would do the trick. I contemplated using my "go to" brownie recipe, but as usual, was feeling adventurous and craved baking experimentation. I have a few yummy looking new brownie recipes laying around, including a few from Deb (smittenkitchen.com), Baked and Cooking Light. I decided to go with the Cooking Light one, because I have held on to the recipe for months and months and have not yet used it. The brownies are called Mocha Toffee Fudgey Brownies and were featured in their 20th anniversary issue and noted as one of their best brownies ever. Although the recipe called for toffee chips, I decided to substitute chocolate chips instead to keep it simple. The recipe itself was easy to follow, and turned out perfectly well in terms of texture. The taste was not the best for two reasons. First off I used incredibly cheap instant coffee - and the flavor reflected this mistake. Secondly there was a very strong taste of baking powder in the brownies! Perhaps if I would have used toffee chips instead of chocolate I would have been more successful in masking the flavor? In any case, these were okay brownies- perfect texture, but not a great taste. I would make these again using high quality instant coffee and toffee chips, but I want to try out the other brownie recipes first.

In the end, I was not comfortable giving these brownies as a gift, so I ended up feeding them to my boyfriends family and making plan B, chocolate chip cookies as a alternate present. I will post the cookies soon...

KEY LIME PIE TEST I

2009-05-30T09:14:00.000-07:00

My favorite dessert in the whole world besides peanut butter and chocolate ice cream from Baskin Robbins is key lime pie.

Oh My Lord, how I Love Key Lime Pie!

The tangy, ethereal filling and crunchy graham cracker crust- DIVINE! I have an obsession with finding the best key lime pie ever. I have read tons of recipes and have experimented with about four or five pies in 2009 alone. My favorite pie comes from Mangos Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, FL. It's so good that it's ineffable. You really just have to go there to taste what I've been privileged enough to have eaten.

Last night I had a few friends over and had them taste four versions of key lime pie.

Pie #1 Amy Sedaris's Key Lime Pie from I Like You, Hospitality Under the Influence, with 1/2 a cup of non-fat Fage Greek Yogurt added for extra creaminess. I made my own crust and fresh whipped cream topping.

Pie #2 Same pie as above, yet frozen. Whipped cream to top. (the yellow square is pictured)

Pie #3 Florida Key Lime Pie from allrecipes.com. I made my own crust, used full fat sweetened condensed milk and omitted the lime zest (the green slice is pictured).

Pie #4 Same pie as above but with extra lime juice to taste and frozen.

The Verdict (out of six people) :

Pie #1 Very Good.

Pie #2 Better than Pie #1. Now I know to always serve this one frozen.

Pie #3 Excellent. Needs a little more lime, however it's perfect the way it is as well.

Pie #4 Strange texture, but the right amount of lime.

In the future I am going to rotate between the second key lime pie and the third with extra lime juice to taste.

P.S. I also may do another tasting soon with a third pie- the recipe from Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pie in Brooklyn. I used his recipe earlier this year against Amy's and Steve's won. However I prefer Amy's and that's why I used it here.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

2009-05-22T16:13:00.000-07:00

Every time I make banana bread I use a very highly rated recipe from allrecipes.com and add chocolate chips. Every time the recipe is a smash hit and everyone who tastes it loves it. You cannot go wrong with this recipe, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

This time around I used a small loaf pan so I would have extra batter for "banana bread cupfins." Am I allowed to combine the words cupcake and muffin? Cupfins is way cuter than "mufcakes!" Seriously these are too dessert like and sweet to be plain muffins- they are almost as exciting as a cupcake but not quite... Anyway I tweaked the batter for the cupfins by simply throwing some shredded sweetened coconut into the remaining mixture. The coconut flavor was mild, and next time I may add a small splash of coconut extract to really bring it out and make it tropical.

The reaction? The banana bread was perfect as always. The cupfins were "yum" but my roommate Matty liked the unadulterated bread better. I am fine with either, but ate too much of everything and need to take a break from it all for a little while!

Gooey Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

2009-05-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

A few years ago a co-worker gave me a little magazine-esque "book" called Crazy for Cupcakes! The recipes in the book are easy (most involve cake mix), and the decorative ideas and frostings are cute and scrumptious. I picked up the book recently to find a date nut spice cake recipe and ended up discovering "Gooey Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes." Any dessert with the word "gooey" in it will make me do a double take. I LOVE ooey gooey sweets.

Usually I make recipes based on what I have in my pantry, and luckily I had the german chocolate cake mix, eggs, oil and coconut that are called for in the recipe. Here is the low down: make the cupcakes. In the meantime, make the topping from butter, brown sugar, cream, coconut and pecans. When the cupcakes come out of the oven, top each one with the frosting, and put the pan into the broiler for a few minutes until the tops are brown and bubbly.

A comment about the topping: most german chocolate cupcake recipes call for eggs in the frosting- but this is simple and less eggy which ='s more affordable for me. Next time I make these I want to do a traditional topping and compare it against this one.

The Verdict: Duncan Hines german chocolate cake mix was so good that it RIVALED bakeries in my neighborhood. The frosting was OUTSTANDING. The cupcake itself was AWESOME. Plus the whole thing was super easy to make. If you want the recipe please post a comment with your email address!

Shelly's Cherry Squares

2009-05-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

I had been dying to make Shelly's Cherry Squares from the More From Magnolia Cookbook since I read the quick and easy recipe. In January I bought a can of cherry pie filling specifically for this dessert. Each time I tried to make the squares something stopped me- the person I was baking with wanted to make something more complicated, the people I was baking for hated cherries; there was always an excuse. When I was finally ready to make the squares I discovered that only 1/2 cup of my two cups of cherry pie filling was necessary for the recipe. If I were to make the squares then I had to have a plan for the remaining filling.

White Trash Pastry Chef to the rescue! My roommate Matty had a solution to my dilemma. He offered to make a cool whip based cherry "fluff dip" to accompany the squares. With our magical dessert roommate synergy, I made the squares while Matty produced his top secret recipe of cherry fluff dip.

Finally everything was ready. I was totally disappointed to discover that Shelly's "squares" were not squares. It was cake. Pound cake. Big, dense and bready. When I think of squares I envision bars, bricks, thin cookie like "squares." Perhaps squares in this case only refers to the shape? The recipe is great if you want a pound cake!

The White Trash Pastry Chef's cherry fluff dip was okay, but not good. Yes, it satisfied my desire for sugar, but it was too tart and unnatural tasting. This is in no way the fault of the chef- this all really boils down to the fact that cherry pie filling is pretty gnarly. I will never buy canned pie filling again!

Key Lime Thumbprints

2009-04-27T14:03:00.000-07:00

Key Lime Pie is my favorite dessert in the whole world, with ice cream coming in a close second. I have made a few experimental key lime pies this year and am still searching for the perfect recipe. Once I find my favorite one I will certainly display it here!

In the meantime, I discovered Martha Stewart's Key Lime Thumbprints cookie recipe and decided to give it a whirl. Unfortunately, due to my short attention span, I was unable to ignore another pressing thumbprint cookie recipe that was begging to be made. So, uhhh, I combined them...! I'm semi-embarrassed to admit that it's really hard for me to make a recipe according to the directions. I am a total baking rebel- and lucky for me it almost always works in my favor (let's just say it's a good thing this blog didn't exist when I made my homemade pumpkin cobbler). In this case, I simply used the thumbprint cookie dough recipe from The Recipe Hall of Fame Dessert Cookbook, Winning Recipes from Hometown America and filled it with Martha Stewart's key lime filling. To be perfectly honest the only big difference between the two cookie dough recipes is that Martha's called for white sugar while I used brown sugar only. No biggie. Mine just had more of a carmel flavor to it.The results? Fabuloso my friends! I will certainly make these again! They are super yummy. I cannot wait until the holidays when I will fill the thumbprints with multiple filling and make a rainbow of cookies! Yum!

Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

2009-04-22T15:47:00.000-07:00

Amy's Cookies from Dean and Deluca have completely inspired me. I have never tasted a store bought cookie that I love as much as Amy's- hers are crisp, fresh and heavenly. I aspire to produce cookies that are as excellent as hers!

The cookies above are the Strawberry Shortcake Cookies featured in the Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library's Cookies & Bisotti cookbook.

I made these cookies because they are beautiful and because I wanted to make the spring version of a summer strawberry shortcake. I was successful.

The recipe itself was simple- make a classic refrigerator butter cookie, roll out, cut into shapes and then assemble with strawberry jam. My roommate felt that the cookies were too hard, however I do not think I would have noticed that the cookie was hard had he not mentioned it. Perhaps if I make them again I will take them out of the oven at eight minutes rather than the suggested ten... I may also make them using Matty's aunt's ethereal sugar cookies. Or perhaps using a classic almond cookie dough... Stay tuned to find out!

Mint Chocolate Dirt

2009-04-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

What do you do with leftover Newman's O's chocolate mint cookie sandwiches and milk that must be consumed ASAP? Make chocolate mint dirt of course. And trust me- this dirt won't hurt.

Have you ever heard of dirt? Surprisingly, many people have not. Dirt is delicacy for preschool students, particularly around Earth Day. It is made by layering crushed up oreos (which resembles dirt), chocolate pudding, and gummy worms in a clean ceramic flower pot. Moms typically use the gummy worms to decorate it.

My dirt was made from whole chocolate mint Newman's O's crushed up to a fine dirt in the food processor, layered with Cooking Light's best chocolate pudding. As usual, I altered the recipe- not because I thought I could make it better- but for lack if certain ingredients. I used soy milk and 2% milk instead of the 1% and non-fat evaporated milk that I was supposed to use in the pudding. And let me tell you it was pretty darn good. As for the cookies- crush up as many as desired for the dirt- if you have leftovers use them as ice cream topping!

This dessert was excellent and I will make it again. It can be summed up by Matty's text message that he sent me after he ate it:
"OMG that has to be my favorite dish you have ever made. That is what I want my b-day cake to be! WOW!"

Easy and Sweet: Frozen Treat

2009-04-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

I try and eat a piece of fruit every single day. Unfortunately, this is a huge challenge for me, partially because I don't really like fruit, and also because it is hard to find perfectly fresh fruit in New York City- especially during cold months. I hate to admit it, but most of the fruit I eat ends up coming from another country like Mexico or Chile. My recent goal has been to eat local and in season food as much as possible.

The other night I was wondering what my fruit would be for the day would be when I remembered that I had a banana (so not a local food). Since I had not had my dessert for the day, I decided to turn the banana into a frozen chocolate covered banana with walnuts on top. I grabbed approximately 1/4 cup (you can alter according to how chocolaty you want your banana) semi-sweet chocolate chips from the freezer, set them in a bowl, poured about a tablespoon of milk on top and microwaved it for 30 seconds, stirred and then microwaved it for another 15 seconds until everything was completely melted. I stirred the concoction once more and poured it over the peeled banana. To decorate, I put walnuts on top. After about an hour in the freezer the banana was ready to be eaten. Refreshing, simple, and cheap- not to mention loaded with potassium and antioxidants! My type of dessert.

Carrot Cake!

2009-04-04T17:29:00.000-07:00

There are way too many recipes for carrot cake. Most include pineapple, some have raisins, and a few feature coconut. In my opinion, having a carrot cake with all three of these additions would make it a fruity cake with too many flavors competing with one another. I am fine with the pineapple but I loathe raisins in carrot cake, and I would save the coconut for a pure coconut cake or cream pie.

Enter entertaining.

While entertaining, one must take into consideration the tastes of all of the guests. Matty wanted a carrot cake with pineapple and raisins, while Ivan wanted absolutely no fruit in his cake. I wanted the pineapple only. The solution? Make a plain carrot cake cupcake for Ivan, make half a pineapple-carrot cake for me and add raisins to the other half for Matty. There. Everyone can be happy.

The recipe I used was from The Best of the Best Cookbook: The Recipe Hall of Fame Cookbook. Well, kind of. I altered the ingredients just slightly, adding 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, an extra teaspoon of cinnamon and vanilla, and by substituting one of the two cups of granulated sugar with dark brown sugar. It was a moist and excellent cake. The funny thing is that Ivan chose to eat the cake over the cupcake (he did not want to be the odd one out). Ivan claimed that he could not even taste the pineapple, most likely because once baked all of the flavors become more mellow and complimentary to one another. Annoying! But at least he loved it...as did we all.

Cottage Cheese Pound Cake

2009-03-28T18:00:00.000-07:00

Growing up I remember eating Sara Lee pound cake straight from the freezer. I loved the smoothness and richness of every bite.

Recently Deb from Smitten Kitchen re-sparked my interest in pound cake with her cream cheese pound cake and strawberry coulis creation. After reading her blog I decided I had to make a pound cake straight away, however I did not have cream cheese on hand and wanted to use only ingredients I had at home. Enter Cottage Cheese! I had cottage cheese. After a quick google search for cottage cheese pound cake I came across a recipe from the Baltimore Sun Entertaining section that looked good and decided to make it.

The results were scrumptious! The cake was dense yet delicate, moist, sweet and crisp in all the right places. I am especially excited about this cake because it is so smooth that I doubt anyone would ever suspect that it contains cottage cheese. Matty despises cottage cheese, but was so inspired by this cake the he wants to use it as the base recipe for his future trifles and strawberry shortcakes. This is a great recipe if you have leftover cottage cheese and want to use it up quickly!

Coconut-Banana Cream Pie for Pi Day

2009-03-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

3.14, or March 14th is Pi Day, and somewhat of a special holiday for nerds and dessert lovers. This is my type of holiday.

On Pi Day Ivan and I happened to be visiting my father in Massachusetts. Dad LOVES coconut (and math), and I happened to have a recipe for a coconut cream pie that I have been meaning to use for a while. I didn't want to carry the cookbook with me all the way to MA, so I decided to copy the recipe down before I left. To my dismay, the cookbook had completely screwed up the recipe and it was impossible to follow. I ended up finding the a recipe for coconut cream pie here:

Old Fashioned Coconut Cream Pie

I altered the recipe by substituting half of the half and half for coconut milk. I also added two thinly sliced bananas to the bottom of the pie shell, substituted coconut extract for vanilla extract in the filling, and made homemade whipped cream with coconut extract in it (pie is pictured without the whipped cream topping).

The results were satisfactory. Of course my dad LOVED it, but Ivan and I both felt that it needed some changes. First of all, the store bought crust was too salty. Second of all, we were annoyed with the texture of the filling. The pie contained 3/4 cup of toasted shredded coconut, which we felt interrupted the smoothness of the filling. Since there was coconut milk and coconut extract in the filling, plus toasted coconut on top, it was not necessary to have the extra coconut shreds inside. My favorite part of the pie was the homemade whipped cream with coconut extract.

Yay for Pi Day 2009!

Matty's No Bake Ice Cream Creation

2009-03-11T09:22:00.000-07:00

My roommate Matty is brilliantly creative. In addition to being a hair dresser, wig maker, costume designer and frosting expert, he is now a "white trash pastry chef"- a title that was given to him by Amanda of Brooklyn Fudge.

White Trash Pastry Chef! How gourmet! I would take his desserts over a torte from Vienna any day!

The picture above is of Matty's No Bake Ice Cream Creation. The bottom layer is made from one large solid piece of Matty's famous No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie. The cookie layer is topped with Breyer's vanilla ice cream and decorated with Hershey's Syrup.

The creation is original and scrumptious. The combination of chocolate and peanut butter is surprisingly and beautifully accented with a hint of cinnamon. I think that the vanilla ice cream is a great choice because it does not overwhelm the cookie layer. Next time Matty wants to use butter pecan ice cream to bring out the saltiness of the peanut butter. When that happy day comes, I will compare and contrast both recipes. For now, I will bask in the warmth of the White Trash Pastry Chef who I am lucky enough to live with.

Pear and Apple Crisp

2009-03-11T08:52:00.000-07:00

Last week I made a pear and apple crisp for Ivan's family. We had eaten lasagna for dinner, so I wanted something light and "healthy" to finish. I don't really think that the dessert was super healthy, however it felt good to believe it. Kind of like how growing up my best friend's mom always told me that ice cream was healthy because it contained calcium. Semi-logical nutritional justification.

I deviate, I deviate.

Back to the crisp.

I adapted the recipe from allrecipes.com

The recipe is interesting for a few reasons :

-The topping calls for baking soda and baking powder (I have never seen either one of these two ingredients in a crisp before)

-The recipe received high reviews, yet most of people who wrote these reviews noted that they completely altered the given recipe

-I was surprised that the apples and pears were not lightly coated in lemon juice to prevent browning and add a hint of citrus

My version of the pear and apple crisp followed the recipe that the critics re-created. I left out all the water, cut the sugar in the filling by half and added nutmeg. Additionally, I coated the fruit with the juice from half a lemon, and per my grandma's suggestion added a teaspoon of vanilla. The result was divine! The dessert was not too sweet, had a delicious citrus zing and felt super refreshing.

I will be making this again soon.

Pillsbury's "Trio Cupcakes"

2009-02-25T17:03:00.000-08:00

When I saw the Pillsbury's Bake Off Cake Cook Book from 1969 resting at the bottom of my Grandma's bookshelf I immediately grabbed it and leafed through it. Images of cakes, cupcakes and frosting techniques popped up from the pages. It was a golden find. I wanted to take it home with me and have it be my baby.

Shockingly, when I asked, my grandma refused to gift me the cookbook. She explained that she loved the recipes and used them all the time. I found her response hard to believe considering that the book was piled under one hundred other books, and it looked like nobody had opened it in a gazillion years. After a little bit of persuasion, my grandma agreed that I could have the book if wrote down the directions for her favorite "Orange Kiss Me Cake."

Three months after my grandma gave me the book, I had yet to make a single recipe. Feeling guilty, I flipped through the pages in search of an affordable cupcake. I considered turning the "Orange Kiss Me Cake" into a cupcake, however it contained walnuts and raisins- two ingredients that I did not have on hand. Instead I found an alternative orange cupcake, the "Trio Cupcake." The cupcake is composed of three layers, spice (bottom), orange (middle) and vanilla (top) all underneath an orange frosting. The "Trio" is made with a basic cake batter that is divided it into three bowls. Different mix ins, such as vanilla or orange peel are added into each bowl. A tablespoon of each batter is deposited into the cupcake papers and then baked.

On to the frosting.

My roommate Matty is a frosting expert. He completely made up the recipe for the delicious orange frosting recipe that gilded the miniature cakes. My surmise is that he made a basic buttercream, added a pureed orange and its juice, and then sprinkled in ground up cloves and cinnamon. Whatever he did was delicious!

The cake turned out really well. The flavors melded favorably underneath the veil of orange frosting. Ivan's family and I agreed that we like chocolate mint desserts better, but we appreciate the variety. I mean, really, how often do you eat orange cupcakes?

Matty's Aunt Sue's Sugar Cookies

2009-02-19T11:59:00.001-08:00

For Valentine's Day weekend I took a trip with Ivan and his family to Florida to visit his relatives- and there was no way that I was going to show up empty handed. Heart shaped sugar cookies decorated with pink and red icing seemed to be the perfect thing to bring along. The only problem: I had no heart cookie cutters at my house and NONE of the stores in my area carry them. Thus Matty and I spent ALL night long shaping dough into various artistic heart shapes. We also made a batch of triangle cookies, pictured. OMG this cookie dough is so good! I cannot give the recipe away because it's a family secret, but let it be said that this was smooth dough (powdered sugar replaces granulated sugar) and Matty had to watch me closely because I kept on sneaking bites as we went along.

After we popped our babies into the oven for about eight minutes they were ready to be decorated! Fun, fun, fun!

Almost Better than Harrison Ford Cake

2009-02-01T19:29:00.000-08:00

I am obsessed with what my Best of the Best Dessert Cookbook calls "Almost Better Than Harrison Ford Cake." It is a moist and delicious cake which is also known as "Better Than Anything Cake" 0r "Better Than Sex Cake." This is my favourite cake EVER. I could eat a whole cake in one sitting and feel good afterward. I would not be able to move around for a day or two- but I could eat the whole thing. I would poke my belly and think, "That was the best cake ever- it is worth all the calories, all the pounds, and all the years it has taken off my life."

Better than Sex cake is easy to make. Make a chocolate cake- German Chocolate, Chocolate Butter, Devil's Food cake- whatever. Poke a zillion holes in the warm cake and pour a can of sweetened condensed milk over the whole thing. Pour half a jar of carmel topping over the cake. At this point you can add whipped topping across the whole thing- or you could skip it. Then sprinkle with crumbled Heath Bars. Chill.

I altered the classic recipe when I made this cake on Friday. I skipped the whipped topping, and I substituted Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for Heath Bars per my friend and roommates request. To make up for the lack of whipped cream, I served it a la mode. The cake was simply divine!

TO DIE FOR!!!! Make at your own risk.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches

2009-02-01T19:14:00.001-08:00

The other day I threw a little dinner party for the boys at my place in Astoria. This was a big deal considering that it was my first dinner get together in a long time AND some of my friends had never been to my hood. I had to impress them. I made "1990's Melt in Your Mouth Dinner Rolls," Red Snapper en Papillote (with vegetables underneath), and Ivan created a hearty salad. For dessert I made chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches. The ice cream inside was vanilla chocolate chip. SOOO GOOD! Yum! I think everyone was happy with the results. Looking back there are two things I wish I would have done differently:

1) Offered a selection of ice cream cookie sandwiches, for example: gingersnap cookies filled with butter pecan ice cream, or better yet, chocolate brownie cookies with peanut butter ice cream filling.

2) I should have taken the sandwiches out of the freezer for five minutes before serving. They would have been slightly softer yet still frozen.

Overall I think everyone had a great time at my place, and I know these kids will definitely be visiting me Astoria again soon!

Fudge Cupcakes

2009-02-01T18:43:00.000-08:00

Amanda from the award winning Brooklyn Fudge has introduced me to something new and amazing: Fudge Cupcakes. Amanda simply melted her fabulous Brooklyn Fudge in a large saucepan, mixed in an egg, flour and baking soda and wham- bam- the batter was ready! 350 degrees and twenty minutes later we had perfect little cupcakes with melted fudge centers. And of course we frosted the cupcakes with fudge frosting. All I can say is OMG heaven! Thank you Amanda!

Aunt Joyce's Brownies

2009-01-17T16:03:00.001-08:00

I have a goal of making all of the desserts in Amy Sedaris' I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence. I have already made her key lime pie, vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting, and today I made her Aunt Joyce's brownies. The brownies were excellent- I replaced a teaspoon of vanilla for 1 and 1/4 tsp. of peppermint extract (the recipe calls for 2 tsp. of vanilla). The brownies were very minty and chewy. I believe that the outcome of the brownies had to do with the size of the pan that I baked them in- a Pyrex 38x25x4cm pan. I have no idea how long I baked the brownies for because I didn't pour the batter into the pan evenly so half of them were thin and half of them were super thick. I ended up having to take the thin ones out and then I put the thicker ones back into the oven for an ten extra minutes. All in all, I highly suggest this recipe to anyone who wants a brownie that is super minty but not super sweet.

XOXO

Gretta

P.S. I was at Chelsea Markets with Ivan and Steve and we saw Bobby Flay. People were taking pictures.

P.P.S. If you are on a diet and cannot bake brownies, I suggest that that you use Dora The Explorer toothpaste. It's like a dessert with no calories!

Unemployed

2009-01-15T17:57:00.000-08:00

I'm unemployed- and I have to admit- I kind of love it. I have so much free time to do the things I simply feel like doing. It's awesome.

My true #1 favourite thing to do in the world is bake dessert. I love baking simple and classic dessert recipes, as well as healthy and all natural hippie sweets. Perhaps my ultimate dessert creations are the ones with the least healthy ingredients, that is, cool whip, sweetened condensed milk and various cake mixes. My cookbook of choice for these recipes is from the Quail Ridge Press Best of the Best series: Recipe Hall of Fame Dessert Cookbook, Winning Recipes From Hometown America. This book is filled with cool whip and cake mix. It's practically oozing sweetened condensed milk from the seams. I love it so!

Today my fabulous roommate Matty and I made the All-Time Favorite Lemon Squares recipe from the Best of the Best: The Recipe Hall of Fame Cookbook . So good!