This is something you need to make, like, tonight or this weekend. It’s the cake that, when it’s on the menu, just has to be ordered, even in the face of more exciting options (not to say that you can’t then order two desserts). It’s gimmicky, to be sure, and not unlike a filet mignon: [...]

I keep looking at this picture and thinking this piece of cake is evil. You see the beady eyes and pointy nose and tongue too, right? I’m not crazy. Anyway, here’s something embarrassing: before this crumb cake, I’d never cooked with rhubarb. I was always sort of afraid of it and now I know why! [...]

Well, it seems I’ve met my match: a dessert so ridiculously rich I can barely stomach it. I’ve only been able to eat this cake in the thinnest possible slivers, and only then with a generous dollop of fresh whipped cream to temper the intensity of the chocolate. I’ve gone back for a second sliver [...]

What feels like a million years ago I made these mini cupcakes for Natalie’s birthday. They were basically her birthday present last year in mini cupcake form. Except without the cookie dough component. Dammit. I realized too late that I probably should’ve filled some of the cupcakes with cookie dough, and I hope she’ll forgive [...]

Dammit dammit dammit. I hate bundt pans. Never again. I’m getting rid of mine, does anyone want it?? I’ve been a little burnt out, yes even though I just got back from vacation, and I wasn’t going to make anything for St. Patrick’s Day. Instead, I was going to lamely refer you to last year’s [...]

I had this brief moment of panic yesterday when I realized I hadn’t made anything special for Halloween. I considered ditching my friend’s party last night, sending the husband out by himself to deliver the message that I needed to stay home to make homemade versions of candy bars, like Twix or Whatchamacallits, so I [...]

In addition to lying in bed at night dreaming up ice cream flavors, I’ve now been contemplating cake pops as well, how frickin adorable they are, how the woman who popularized them is so ingenious. I’ve never considered myself a “crafty” person in the kitchen, although I did make some penis-shaped cookies for a bris once [...]

In the midst of making this cake, I realized that I’d never made a layer cake from scratch before. How embarrassing! And it was so impressive looking and fun to frost that I started thinking I have got to do this more often. Why on earth not? It wasn’t until I actually cut into the [...]

And it was at this moment that I started snickering and called the husband into the kitchen to ask him what these looked like, and he took a cupcake and put it under his butt and made a farting noise and presented it to me and we both started cracking up and I named these [...]

Don’t mess with perfection. We all know the adage. And yet we defy it. Did I actually think I could improve upon the hallowed almond cake? Am I delusional? Yes, and apparently yes. It started with a recipe for a citrus-almond poundcake that I nearly shat myself over because it sounded so similar to the [...]

Before I give you the backstory on this one, I must gush and rave. This cake is f*ing amazing. It is sooo f*ing good. Good enough to necessitate expletives, Dale? Really? Hell f*ing yes! If I ever write a cookbook or open a restaurant, this cake will surely be featured. It is just so delicious. Nothing fancy, [...]

So, I recently went through two very exciting major lifestyle changes, the first of which has absolutely nothing to do with this cake, the second of which has everything to do with it: 1. I am now an official Jewess (yes, I had to go in the mikvah; no, the rabbi didn’t see me naked); 2. [...]

I’d been meaning to get this recipe for over a month, my little bag of recently purchased Spelt flour sitting in the back of the cabinet waiting to contribute itself to this odd experiment of a cake. The book this recipe is from, Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours, by Kim Boyce, has garnered [...]

I asked/ordered my sister to make me this cake for my birthday. Then, I suggested/insisted that she take pictures of the process and convinced her that she wanted to do a guest blog post. Today is her birthday (the nerve she had to be born so close to my birthday!) and, as a birthday present [...]

So in the midst of all the bake sale baking, there was also this pineapple upside down cake. I was invited to a Disco Pineapple Party (because disco balls and pineapples look strikingly similar, especially when you spray paint a pineapple silver), and when I received a text from one of the hostesses asking if I’d [...]

Is this not one of the most gorgeous things you’ve ever seen? Let’s just admire it for a moment.

I remember very clearly the first time I made this cake. We had just moved to our new place in Brooklyn and I was sick and I was PISSED. Because I hate being sick (who doesn’t?), and it tends to happen to me when I move. I guess you could blame that old intangible enemy stress, [...]

It occurred to me that I didn’t even mention the reason for the dinner party in my last post. Not that there needs to be a reason for a dinner party, of course, but it does help to have some excuse or motivating factor, and the excuse in this case was that my very lovely [...]

These cupcakes absolutely require an exclamation mark because they make me so happy and excited!!! They are a long-standing tradition. When I was growing up, my mom would make them every single year for St. Patrick’s Day (and still does). I thought they were the coolest things because they were green inside, of course (and not [...]

So I realize that “muffin cakes” seems kind of redundant…either that or oxymoronic, but what I’m trying to get across here is that these were supposed to be cupcakes but were really more like muffins. A muffin-cupcake hybrid, if you will. Denser and cakier than cupcakes, and maybe less sweet? (Ummmm, I was pretty drunk [...]

with Roasted Potatoes, Buttered Peas, and, for dessert, Individual Molten Chocolate Cakes There seems to be a prevailing notion out there that everything’s better with bacon. Which is, I presume, why this dish is hailed as “certainly one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man.” Strong statement, Julia, strong statement. True? I wouldn’t [...]