Seasonal, Adventurous Home Cooking
This French Apple Gateau, or Invisible Apple Cake, is an ideal fall dessert featuring delicate apple slices blended into a custard base, topped with a sponge-like vanilla cake and a golden sugar crust. Enhanced with vanilla bean paste and apple-flavored brandy, it promises to be irresistibly delicious!
Who says Guinness is just for St. Patrick’s Day. This moist and flavorful chocolate cake makes use of Guinness to add a distinct flavor and delicate crumb. Combined with cocoa-flavored French buttercream, this cake is perfect for year round occasions!
A few months ago, my cousin very kindly shared a slice of her specially ordered flourless chocolate birthday cake. It was super rich, dense and intensely chocolately! Ever since, I have been obsessed with pure chocolate desserts. I’ve made everything from chocolate lava cake to …
I have been on a lifelong search for the perfect blueberry muffin, testing and retesting dozens upon dozens of recipes. I can now state with certainty that I have at long last cracked the code for the perfect Blueberry Muffins. I use a combination of …
Every year at Christmas time, my family makes cranberry almond cake- a soft, moist cake studded with ruby red cranberries and imbued with sweet almond flavor. It is absolute perfection and for quite some time, I didn’t think it required any changes. However, when I …
First things first… what is Bostock? Bostock dates back to 1930s France, where a genius patisserie combined day-old brioche or challah, sweet almond frangipane, fruit, and a generous dusting of confectioner’s sugar to make an ideal brunch or dessert pastry. Somewhere between French toast and …
This Spring Fruit Tart may just be the prettiest thing that I’ve ever made. It’s beautiful in its simplicity as it highlights seasonal fruit, including sweet berries and tropical kiwi, as well as luscious vanilla-bean pastry cream, and almond-flour-infused tender tart crust. Make this tart …
For a traditional Irish Tea befitting St. Patrick’s Day, I decorate my kitchen table with my green and white fine china. I also found several cake stands in various shades of green. Though the plates and cake stands don’t match exactly, they provide a beautiful …
I first tried making Irish Soda Bread during a year-long course studying the Irish Gaelic language. In an attempt to capture the full Irish cultural experience, I baked up Ina Garten’s recipe for Soda Bread with golden raisins, buttermilk, and orange zest. While this isn’t …
Remember that lovely little Chocolate, Pear, and Walnut Tart I shared from Molly Wilkinson’s French Pastry Made Simple last month. Well, I thought it was such a wonderful base recipe that I decided to change it around a bit to create these mini chocolate heart tarts for …