Glorious Springtime Weekend. Planting seeds by day, House of Cards by night. There is a new chicken at the Hammer ranch, Juicy. She’s a beauty. And a new flower post fashioned from a PVC pipe, hole punched and spray-painted and stacked with petunias and other bloomers. Pretty sure this is un-waterable…. didn’t think about that […]
Category: Cake
Juicy Wine Cakes for my Favorite Dunce
“When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.” -Jonathan Swift, from “Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting” Happy 7th Birthday, Izzy, bulldog of mine. You and Ignatius Jacques Reilly, the fat buffoon protagonist of Jonathan Kennedy Toole’s Confederacy […]
Buckwheat Chocolate Torte
It’s my birthday week! Among my favorite gifts rolling in was this generous box of bittersweet chocolate baking bars from Sarris Chocolates, to whom I dedicate this post. I decided to use the bars to bake a healthy chocolate torte with buckwheat. Gluten-free dessert that tastes amazing! Such a success. Last time I tried to […]
King Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Filling
The Mardi Gras season is here! For this week’s chocolate dish, I have elected to bake a king cake with chocolate filling, a traditional Mardi Gras dessert. For most of the rest of the country, the seasonal party-energy build up is around the Christmas and New Year holiday, but for New Orleans, Yuletide is but […]
Chocolate Babka
JERRY: That’s the last Babka. They got the last Babka! ELAINE: I know. They’re going in first with the last Babka. JERRY: That was our Babka. ELAINE: You can’t beat a Babka. JERRY: We should have had that Babka. ELAINE: They’re going to be heroes. JERRY: What are we going to do now? If we […]
Blitz Kuche, Lightning for a New Year
Happy New Year!!!! While the UN has announced this as the year of the Pulse (grain legumes), I unilaterally declare this to be the year of Chocolate. My New Years Resolution this year is to make one new chocolate dish per week. Why? Because I got a new cookbook from my mother in law featuring […]
Good Morning Brunch Cake
Here I go into the Season of Night—ICU Night Float, a dreaded post for me, but to ensure I have something to look forward to in the bleary-eyed mornings when finally I am able to float home for a daytime’s rest, Christmas lights, loved ones and coffee cake. Buttery Brunch Cake Adapted from Penzeys Cake: […]
Ezra Pound Cake for the Edible Book Festival
“Please, Ma’am, tell me about your Edible Book project.” “Well I chose Chocolat, after which I fashioned a chocolate ginger bread house decorated like a French chocolaterie.” “Beautiful. And yours?” “My book is The Color Purple by Alice Walker, and so I decorated a cake with all things purple! Radicchio, purple grapes, dark carrots, tinted cauliflower, and […]
Bulldog Birthday Cake
Izzy the Tooth is six years old. I am aware that I photograph my bulldog more than I would a firstborn human. Izzy, however, is not aware that she is not, in fact, a firstborn human. I’m beginning to wonder if occasions like her birthday, on which she gets fed ample, extra portions of treats […]
Cabin Fever Pumpkin Swirl Cake
Winter in Minnesota reminds me of the evil oogly stare of Kaa in Jungle Book. But instead of a boa constrictor’s body, it is a scarf and mad bomber hat and down jacket that strangles me. Snow flurries induce the dizzying trance that has me zombie-walking to and from my car, never outside, never free, […]