Just Baking

I don’t remember which one came first: cooking, or the words that came with the recipes.
My mother had a small collection of pocket size French Cookbooks that I loved reading. The cookbooks had no pictures and no stories, just recipes, words and may be some drawing here and there. Yet, these books played a major […]

Valentine’s Day is over, but the bonding of love is eternal. So it really doesn’t matter what time of the year it is for you to make sweet treats for your family! It also gives me a chance to practise my hand at a little culinary art, so this week I made my first edible […]

I have gone mad, as mad as a hatter, completely cracker-pot. I am not certain I have ever done this before, usually I am rather good, buying local(ish) food: fruits and vegetables in season, trying to minimise their carbon foot-prints. Until a few weeks ago, I was happy pushing my trolley in a supermarket, I […]

Did you ever find a recipe that you fell so in love with at first sight that you just had to make it, and then when it didn’t work out, you were determined to make it work?  I had this happen a couple of weeks ago.  I came across a recipe for Jam Crumb Cake […]

The second month of this New Year has kicked in, and we all know that February is the month to celebrate love, as people all around the world have begun to plan for the Valentine’s Day. Love and chocolate go hand in hand, so its natural that I decided to practise my hand at some […]

Every grocery store, coffee shop, bakery, diner, and convenience mart in New Jersey and New York sell crumb cake.  Ask any East Coaster about crumb cake and they will begin to swoon and drool.  Being a native Midwestern transplanted on the East Coast, I created my version of the beloved baked good.
Caramel Apple Crumb Cake is […]

I am in a major funk. I have no idea what is wrong with me lately, but I just feel like getting back into bed each morning and pulling the covers over my head until winter passes. I’m sick of the snow. I’m sick of the frigid temperatures. I’m sick of the gray and gloomy […]

Flipping through the January 2008 issue of Gourmet magazine (which I LOVED, by the way) I came across a section called “Belles of the Ball” featuring true southern desserts. This section featured a Fresh Coconut Layer Cake, Citrus Pound Cake, Pecan Fig Boubon Cake, Mile-High Chocolate Cake and Dried-Apple Stack Cakes. Every single one of […]

The absolute best pound cake ever! While growing up, there was always a homemade cake or plate of cookies sitting on our kitchen counter. Even after we moved out of the house, you could always count on a sweet treat when you unexpectedly dropped by. One of my favorite dessert recipes is courtesy of my […]

The other day, I got a request: “A beer cake, would be nice.” Were my ears deceiving me, beer and cake?  My brain was not making the connection, beer & cake who would have thought it but why not? Don’t you find it strange that wine is top of the list, followed by spirits when […]