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sweet

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November 11, 2023

Caramel Apple Cake

This cake began with me flipping through my well-loved copy of Tartine’s first cookbook and finding myself suddenly intrigued by their recipe for caramel apples. Up until then, I had never had a caramel apple. I had never wanted a caramel apple. I had never understood why anyone would want an apple dunked in sweet, sticky goo. But for whatever reason, because my brain is the way it is, I suddenly very much wanted a caramel apple. And not just any caramel apple, but Tartine’s caramel apples.

So… why not make an entire cake to go with it? Let’s break it down:

  • Cake: Lightly spiced cake studded with fresh apple chunks
  • Filling: Italian buttercream whipped with tangy sour cream and honey
  • Outer: Italian buttercream
  • Topping: Tart and buttery apple cider caramel

All together, you get a cake that just bursts with proper apple goodness.

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April 13, 2023

Extra Devil’s Food Cake For the Winter

If this seems weirdly out of season, it’s because it is. If you look at the time stamps on this site, it’ll become very clear that I am erratic at best on when I post — and a lot of that has to do with my own personal incompetence, but also because I never knew why I had this site to begin with. Who is it for? What do I hope to achieve? All good questions for life and frivolous “recipe blogs”, though applying that label to hellokelinda.com is rather generous.

The long identity crisis may be finally over, though, as I find myself wishing more and more that I had some sort of archive by which to track my own favorite past creations, be it a towering cake or cozy stew. So who is this for? Me. Or more specifically, Future Me.

 

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April 11, 2023

Yellow Cake with Nutella Meringue Buttercream

I had two jars of Nutella in the pantry for some now long-forgotten project, and I came across them over the weekend while digging around looking for a sleeve of Saltine crackers. Saltine crackers were obtained and duly dispatched, but the Nutella whispered its sweet siren song from the depths of my canned and jarred goods: Ammmmmmmmmy…. Ammmmmmmmmmy……..

No good. They had to be gotten rid of.

And by what method did I decide to do this? Making an entire cake just to slather it in some deliciously fluffy Nutella meringue buttercream. And sharing it with my coworkers, of course.

 

 

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April 10, 2023

My Favorite Birthday Cake: Yellow Cake with Pastry Cream Filling

I saw this goose candle holder (from Camp Hollow) earlier this year, and how could I resist? He’s even wearing a tiny party hat! I knew the little guy had to take a starring role on my birthday cake this year, and it also gave me an excuse to get a little over-the-top with the decoration.

If you’re interested in doing something similar, you’ll need candy melts for the dramatic swishes (swipe it onto a piece of parchment like you’re a chef plating a fancy sauce), star sprinkles, two piping nozzles (I use a round and a star), and to try your hand at color-matching your frosting with food coloring.

 

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February 17, 2022

Black Forest Cake-ish

My friend Katie is celebrating her 30-mumbles birthday and her absolute favorite cake is a black forest cake.

Personal confession: I am indifferent towards black forest cake. I am, at best, lukewarm towards black forest cake, which I suppose is better than my violently-in-opposition-of feelings towards German chocolate cake and hummingbird cake. If I am being paid to create a cake for someone, I will readily put such opinions aside and do exactly what they’ve requested. But since I was baking this cake out of the goodness of my admittedly cold, unfeeling heart, I decided that it was perfectly fine to be just a little selfish. So here is black forest cake-ish: all the basic elements of black forest cake, but done how I would like it.

 

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March 30, 2020

chocolate chip cookies

If I go to a bakery and there is a chocolate chip cookie available, I must try it. It is my duty, and I will not fail. As such, I have eaten many chocolate chip cookies, and friends, they come in so many textures, densities, flavor profiles, shapes, and sizes that it’s strange they are all supposedly the same kind of cookie. I have tasted cakey versions, crispy versions, versions that are more chocolate than cookie, kinds with huge flecks of salt on top and ones made with half white and half whole wheat flour.

Through this very meticulous, science-based cookie eating research, I have come to a conclusion as to what is the best kind of chocolate chip cookie. According to me, a professional, a chewy chocolate chip cookie is best. The edges should be crispy, but give way easily to a center that is just set. The cookie itself should taste of toffee and golden butter, with generous pockets of melty bittersweet chocolate.

 

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March 25, 2019

homemade horchata

I was in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico a few weeks ago for my friend’s bachelorette party. We all ate a ton of delicious tacos, but this post is not about that. This post is about the beguilingly creamy, cinnamon-y drink we were served at two of the taco stands: horchata.

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March 19, 2018

no-churn ice cream: fruity pebbles, mint cookies & cream

I have made ice cream approximately… *counts on fingers*… one time in my life, and that was in elementary school. We filled a bag with the ice cream mix, then put that bag inside another bag, then put that bag inside yet another bag full of ice and rock salt, and tossed it around to each other until it solidified through a combination of physics and magic. This blew Grade School Amy’s mind, but a later attempt to recreate the process at home ended in a burst-bag-salty-ice-water-all-over-the-kitchen-floor tragedy.

A mere two decades later, I finally have redemption.


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November 20, 2017

rohan’s spiced honey cake

This post is several months late, but you know, it’s a spice cake and those are very winter appropriate (not to mention Thanksgiving appropriate if you want an alternative to pumpkin pie!) so here it is nonetheless. This past summer was the 11th year of my annual reread of Lord of the Rings, and this time my friend Katie joined me. To make it a truly immersive Middle Earth experience, every time we finished one of the books, we’d prepare a themed meal and watch the corresponding movie. For Fellowship of the Ring, we had a dinner of mushrooms that even Farmer Maggot would envy. But for The Two Towers, we wanted something sweet.


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April 14, 2017

“One Chocolate Cake to Rule Them All” Cake

Birthday cake, round two: weekend edition. To drag my birthday week out and end it on a high note, my friends and I had a great meal at Oddfellows on Saturday night. I highly recommend that place for any gathering — the service was great and the food and drinks were delicious!


Hello, party people!

I used to go there just for casual lunches and snacks when I still lived in that neighborhood, and it doesn’t hurt that Oddfellows is next to my favorite bookstore in the city, either. Work up an appetite browsing and purchasing new lovely things to read, then pop over next door for a meal — that’s the ideal weekend activity, if you ask me.

But I’m still of the mindset that anything calling itself a birthday celebration is incomplete without cake, so I made something I’ve been meaning to make for a long time: an intensely chocolate cake.


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