I kept hoping September would be hot and I’d get to do a little more swimming in the lake, especially since I got some wild swim shoes or water shoes or whatever they’re called! I waited and waited for them and now it’s cool. There’s no denying fall is in the air, and right on time this year and I’m already thinking about pears and apples. In the meantime, though, I’m pulling out one last summer hurrah. I’m breaking out with this Strawberry Dream Cake.
Strawberry Dream Cake
Finally, it’s here. The Cafe Lattes Tres Leches Cake. If you follow me (please do!) you might remember a blogging fail when I dropped the Cafe Lattes Tres Leches Cake in February, The Cake of Broken Dreams.
Caffe Latte’s Tres Leches Cake,
It might be time to take a little break from all things “fall” and food made with pumpkin and thoughts about Thanksgiving (coming up so fast!) and have a little sumpin sumpin that’s chocolate,
Best Chocolate Cupcakes
Well, some of you may have noticed I’ve been a little awol over the past few weeks. After my fave octogenarians, the folks, moved into a gorgeous assisted living center, their house was settled and I came back to the Twin Cities – along with Homer & Chance, of course.
Pumpkin Bundt Cake With Maple Bourbon Brown-Butter Glaze
I’ve been making little summer cakes all summer long, and one I especially wanted to make was the famous Original Plum Torte by Marion Burros of the New York Times. The times published this recipe every year from 1983 to 1989 and pledges every year the recipe will be available to all.
Original Blackberry Torte – a riff off of Marion Burros Original Plum Torte
It must be a really good year for blueberries and I swear I’ve made a ton of blueberry desserts – some with success, some not. This Blueberry Nectarine Buckle was perfect (even if the pics aren’t the greatest) and just loaded with fruit.
Blueberry Nectarine Buckle
It seems like I’ve been doing a lot with desserts lately, partially because I updated all my dessert menus which took weeks! So, in way of saying thanks for your patience about post after post, I’m posting another dessert! Peach Upside Down Cake.
Peach Upside Down Cake – Impossibly good, caramelly deliciousness.
I so hoped to get these darling Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes out last week because I thought they’d be perfect for the 4th of July. I think they’d be perfect for any summer party, though, decorated however you’d like. These you’ll want to pin!
Ice Cream Cone Cupcake – Filled with home-made cake and frosted with Buttercream
Here’s my collection of cakes and cupcakes, some old family recipes and some new favorites – there’s a little something for almost any occasion whether it’s just for family, for birthdays or for special occasions. I hope you’ll find something you like.
Every spring I hafta make this coffee cake and this is not just any old coffee cake, it’s my Rhubarb Coffee Cake with a Vanilla Streusel and to top it all off, a Vanilla Sauce. Did you get all that? It’s a one, two, three punch of sweet tart goodness.
Rhubarb Streusel Coffee Cake with Vanilla Sauce
Happy Valentine’s Day! Valentine’s Day is often thought of as the day we celebrate our sweetheart. Flowers, chocolate, cards and cupcakes are all appropriate. Yeah, see how I worked that Cupcake in? Slick, huh? In my defense, this is a Raspberry Filled Cupcake topped with Carlee’s White Chocolate Buttercream. It’s not to be missed.
Raspberry filled Vanilla Cupcakes with White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Gosh I love chocolate, but caramelly goodness comes a close second. It doesn’t matter what form that caramel taste comes in, but one of my faves is English Toffee. Especially my Aunt Ginny’s English Toffee, but if I can’t have that, I’ll settle for a Heath or a Skor…you won’t have to twist my arm.
Toffee Bar Cake
There’s something about a simple cake that just warms the cockles of my heart. This one is very straight-forward in flavor – just cake and lovely pear. You could add a whisper of almond, if you’d like.
Old-Fashioned Pear Cake
I’ve been going nuts over a Midwest Living magazine this summer and you’ll see more recipes inspired from them in the coming days and weeks. This recipe, Orange Apricot Snack Cake, was inspired by their Vanilla Orange Snack Cake and is so much more than it sounds!
Orange Apricot Snack Cake
Images. They can be seared into our consciousness in a heartbeat, so intensely that it seems they can never be forgotten. Riots, shootings, protests. Senseless death. It can all be a bit much. Overwhelming. Positive images can do the same thing, and I think we need more of them.
Angel Food Cake with Strawberries and a Mock Mascarpone Filling
Happy Fourth of July, Everyone. When I think of the 4th, I always think of fireworks, bonfires and S’mores! I seriously couldn’t help myself when I saw S’more Cupcakes! Wow! So many recipes and they all look so good! I made a couple. And then I knew…I had to come up with MY ultimate S’more Cupcakes.
S’more Cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Frosting and truffle filling
Rhubarb Pistachio Cake. came about because there’s a “perfect storm” of ingredients! A neighbor volunteered some rhubarb, I had just picked up a new carton of yogurt and I knew I had a stash of pistachios in the freezer. Then I happened to open up the April Martha Stewart magazine.
Rhubarb Pistachio Cake
There are several Buttercream Frostings, and one that has increased in popularity recently is not very well-known. Ermine Buttercream Frosting, a flour-based buttercream, sometimes called Boiled Flour Frosting or Pudding Based.
Grandma’s Applesauce Cupcakes with Ermine Buttercream
If you’re like me and love to bake, you’re probably open to trying new recipes – just to see if they’re as good (or maybe even better) than your old standbys. It’s a road sometimes fraught with danger!
Basic Yellow Cupcake
If there was ever a luscious bit of airy, foamy heaven this Lemon Curd Mousse Cake has got to be it! Crumbled shortbread cookies form the bottom crust, topped with a creamy, dreamy Lemon Mousse filling. What really seals the deal, though, is the bright lemon curd shimmering across the top. Just to pretty it up, it’s decorated with rosettes of the lemon mousse and slices of lemon.
Lemon Curd Mousse Cake
St. Paddy’s is just around the corner, so it’s time to think about partying just a little, isn’t it? When I was a kid, that meant anything green. Green ice-cream cones, cupcakes tinted green, and green beer.
Nigella’s Chocolate Guinness Cake
For years I made Boston Cream Pie on Valentine’s Day for my kids. I loved putting little chocolate hearts around the edge of the cake and I loved that it had such a gorgeous old fashioned look with the glaze dripping down and the custard peeping out. It reminded me of those cakes that Yogi Bear stole along with the Pahnicanic baskets.
Boston Cream Pie
When I made Boston Cream Pie last week, I started thinking of all the different versions of white cake I’ve made over the years. I use this one in my Boston Cream Pie mainly because it’s a rather plain foil for the cool creamy custard and gorgeous ganache icing.
Boston Cream Pie
I try to make this cake every Christmas season – from Martha Stewart’s 2003 Christmas Book. She calls it Birch de Noel, and I always thought it was fitting because up here in the North Country all the logs are generally covered with white in the winter. Of course, it’s divine, with the chocolate cake wrapped around a White Chocolate Mousse filling, all topped by sparkling billows of snowy white Seven Minute Frosting.
Buche de Noel Yule Log, slightly adapted from Martha Stewart’s Birch de Noel
This is our “go to” birthday cake, Cafe Latte’s Turtle Cake. Now, since my birthday is smack dab in the middle of Christmas preparations, you know any cake I serve has a) got to stand out and b) be relatively simple. This year I’m at the folks and made it for all of us, and I wanted to share it with you, too!
Cafe Latte’s Turtle Cake
Did you know the Bundt cake pan was developed in Minnesota? It’s true. You betcha. And guess what? This Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake was, too. By moi! It has a surprise inside: a Rum spiked Cream Cheese, Chocolate Chip Tunnel. And to take it to the next level, it has two glazes, and not your ordinary plain old tired glazes. Nope, nope, nope! This one has a Chocolate Ganache Glaze topped off by Rum Vanilla Glaze. Uff-dah!
Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake with a Rum Spiked Cream Cheese, Chocolate Chip Tunnel, Chocolate Ganache & Vanilla Rum Glazes
I remember nothing else about the day – but this I do remember: I came home and the November 1997 issue of Gourmet was in the mail. I leafed through, as I often do, looking at the photos before a more (hopefully) thorough reading later on. I was instantly captivated by this humble little five ingredient cake. I made it that night, and many, many times since. Too many times to count. This is “our” cake.
Inner Sanctum Chocolate Cake – so ridiculously homely, so delicious!
My brother reminds me now and then that any dessert that isn’t chocolate is just a waste of calories. I think I may have very well proved him wrong with this Coconut Tres Leches Cake with Caramelized Bananas, and proving my brother wrong is something that happens once a decade or so…if that! Sorry, bro, you know I love you!
Coconut Tres Leches Cake
