sweet Archives - Page 4 of 4

November 3, 2014

Dark Chocolate Tart with Sea Salt

Do you guys like chocolate? If so, have I got a sweet little something for you! This is one of those things that will kick your chocolate craving in the kaboose, as the kids say these days (do the kids say that?).

I know pumpkin, pecan, and sweet potato pie are the Thanksgiving pies de rigueur, and I’m all for tradition, but what’s wrong with shaking things up a bit from time to time? Take this luscious baby to your next holiday gathering and be ready to shake hands with more adoring fans than a presidential candidate.

AmyK

Hobbit Birthday Cake (Chocolate Stout Cake with Mascarpone Frosting)

I reread The Lord of the Rings every summer. I’ve done this for the past seven years, so at this point, you can probably say that I’m a bit of a fan. And today, my friends, is a very special day: it’s Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday!

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade, these two characters are the intrepid hobbits who found and then helped destroy The One Ring, which was originally created by the villain Sauron during the Second Age of Middle Earth and wait, where are you going?

Hobbits live the kind of life I want to live — they enjoy eating and drinking, followed by more eating and drinking, and then perhaps with a light dabbling of more eating and drinking. I also get the distinct impression that when there’s a celebration to be had, they do things big and dramatic, including the dessert. I mean, did you see Bilbo’s cake in Peter Jackson’s LOTR movies?
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AmyK

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September 8, 2014

Clementine Cake

I love when birthdays roll around — it gives me an excuse to whip up a special cake that might seem too weirdly decadent when the only other occasion is “It is Tuesday.” This month, my wonderful friend Samantha celebrated her survival of another year, thanks in no small part to the absence of overnight zombie apocalypses and/or spontaneous raptor attacks (though I also suspect she’d handle herself juuuust fine in either of those scenarios).

Samantha is also living the gluten-free life, so I made sure her birthday cake was devoid of those pesky flour products. But I didn’t want to just make a cake that tastes good “for a gluten-free dessert,” which is like saying that Leprechaun: In the Hood is good for a movie about a leprechaun in the hood. Just because something is good for what it is doesn’t mean it’s actually good. In my eyes, a truly successful dish is one that is great and wonderful all on its own, to the point where you don’t even notice it is vegetarian, or dairy-free, or is made entirely of kale and corrugated cardboard. Now that is a culinary homerun.

That is why I arrived here at this lovely citrus cake by Nigella Lawson — it is gluten-free, but it isn’t just delicious for a gluten-free cake — it is delicious in general. And that, my friends, is how you do it. And to add to the list of Reasons Why You Should Make This Cake, consider this novel concept: to get all that juicy clementine flavor, this cake uses three entire clementines, peel and all. Whoa.

AmyK

2 Comments

August 25, 2014

Challah French Toast

I admittedly have not really been cooking these past two weeks, and I don’t even have a good reason for it. It’s like I had suddenly reverted back to my college self, having nothing but ramen and instant miso soup for dinner and playing a lot of bad acoustic guitar. (You guys should hear my rendition of “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” it’s excellent. And by “excellent,” I do mean “really awful.”)

But yesterday, I broke the streak by making a monstrous loaf of challah.

Breakfast will always be my favorite meal of the day, though I rarely eat it during actual designated breakfast hours (TOO EARLY, PEOPLE). The food served before noon is so delightfully decadent and absurd; we don’t bat an eye to crispy pieces of fatty bacon, or to stacks of flat cakes smothered in syrup. It’s breakfast, after all, the most important meal of the day.

AmyK

Avocado Paletas

I spent most of last week kicking back in Sunriver, Oregon. You guys, that place is incredible. The sky is vast, and so unmarred by big city light pollution and skyscrapers that at night, the stars look like powdered sugar dusted onto black velvet. And during the day, the sun warms the forests so that everywhere the air smells slightly of pine.

I’ve returned now to Seattle with remnants of many mosquito bites, a wicked farmer’s tan, and a hankering for these avocado paletas (or popsicles, if you will). Something about the high desert climate of Sunriver made me think of these. The hot, arid days there just demand something light and refreshing, but not overwhelmingly sweet like your traditional ice creams and sorbets. Enter the avocado.

I know. Avocado? In a dessert? But trust me, it makes sense. This won’t taste like you just froze some guacamole and put it on a stick. Think about the flavor of an avocado by itself — cool, kind of like a luxurious cucumber. Add in just a bit of simple syrup and lime for tang, and oh my. Summer treat heaven.
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AmyK

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July 14, 2014

Light, Fluffy Pound Cake

When I saw Deb’s recipe on Smitten Kitchen for a lighter, fluffier pound cake, I knew I had to give it a whirl. A pound cake that won’t be so dense and rich that it tastes like delicious regret? SOLD. I like pound cake, but I think I’d like pound cake even more if it wasn’t so assertive in reminding me that it contained a approximately a pound each of butter, flour, sugar, and eggs.

Delusion — I like to live my life in it sometimes.

Luckily, a friend’s birthday was coming up, giving me the perfect excuse to whip up a cake. But why is it that you need a reason to make a cake anyhow? Like if you made some cookies just for the hell of it, people would just all agree on the greatness of homemade cookies. But if you made a cake for no reason, all of a sudden it’s like “You’ve got a problem, do you need to talk to someone?” It’s unjust.

This recipe makes one regular-sized loaf of cake, or two mason jar cakes and one adorable mini-loaf. I sent the tagged jar to Atlanta, where I hope my currently sugar-free friend broke her fast for her own birthday or at least was able to give it to a pro-sugar buddy.

AmyK

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