Category Archives: Cakes, Cupcakes, and Muffins

mini sugar doughnuts

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Mini Sugar Doughnuts

When it comes to doughnuts, there is a dizzying array of choices, but for me it really comes down to one – a sugar doughnut.  I much prefer the light and airy yeast-based doughnuts to the denser and chewier cake doughnuts.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a maple bar or chocolate doughnut every once in a while, but I really favor the slight crunch of all the sugar that coats the exterior of the fluffy, melt-in-my-mouth goodness of the simple sugar doughnut.  The inspiration for these doughnuts came from a restaurant in Seattle called Lola.  One of the items on the breakfast menu is Made to Order Doughnuts with Seasonal Jam and Vanilla Mascarpone.  The hot mini doughnuts come to the table in a white paper bag and the wait staff vigorously shakes the bag to ensure that copious amounts of sugar adhere to the fried dough. Totally Awesome!

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“cold oven” lemon sour cream pound cake with raspberry sauce

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Life gave me lemons this week…..so I made pound cake!

I harvested 6 meyer lemons this morning from my trusty little tree and there are still about 25 more that will be ready to pick by early next week.  My tree was a little lazy this fall, since I usually harvest around early November, right in time for Thanksgiving.  Nevertheless, I guess I’ll be making more lemon treats this holiday season.  I recently made my first chiffon cake and now I have just made my first pound cake.  Honestly, I don’t know how I got through culinary school without baking either one of these cakes. Continue reading →

pistachio-cranberry chiffon cupcakes with chocolate ganache

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According to legend, the chiffon cake was invented in Los Angeles in the 1920s by Harry Baker (how appropriate!), an insurance salesman. The cake has a wonderfully light and airy texture, much like angel food cake, due to the stiffly-beaten egg whites which acts as a leavening agent.  However, unlike the angel food, the chiffon cake also contains egg yolks and vegetable oil which keeps the cake moist and tender. Baking powder is added to the recipe because the vegetable oil is heavy and needs the extra boost to ensure that the cake will rise properly.  The chiffon cake is typically baked in a tube pan to enable the hot air to circulate and bake the center of the cake.  Once baked, the chiffon cake is inverted until cool to keep the cake from shrinking and deflating. Continue reading →

peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate ganache and peanut butter buttercream

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Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache and Peanut Butter Buttercream
I have been obsessed with peanut butter cupcakes since I tasted the one at Sweet Revenge® in the West Village a couple of weeks ago.  One of the things I loved about that cupcake was that the cake flavor was actually peanut butter.  Also, I liked that there was still a little bit of chocolate, in the form of a chunk of chocolate fudge, baked in the center of the cupcake.  To top it off, the peanut butter buttercream was just right, not too sweet at all.  Continue reading →

molten espresso cake with kahlua buttercream

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It always amazes me how four ingredients – butter, eggs, sugar, and chocolate could be combined to make a wonderful dessert. This deliciously soft and “oozey” chocolate molten cake was invented by celebrity chef, Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The story is that he pulled a tray of individual cakes from the oven before they were completely baked through. As he cut through one, the warm, liquid chocolate center oozed out instead of the dense cake he expected, and just like that, a classic dessert was born. Every restaurant in America now has their own version of this ubiquitous cake, but I am a loyal fan of the original version for not only for its simplicity, but also for its intense chocolate flavor. I am also an ardent admirer of Jean-Georges.

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zucchini muffins

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Partly to combat my aversion to many vegetables, I started growing zucchini, string beans, carrots, beets, and radishes, in the hopes that I might learn to like them.  Well, the thing with actually being successful in  growing my own vegetables is that at some point, I do have to harvest, cook, and eat them.  Today, I would like to share with you my (suprisingly) enjoyable experience cooking the zucchini from last week’s harvest.  I found this recipe for zucchini bread at Smitten Kitchen.  The recipe looked easy to make and garnered many raves reviews from Deb’s readers.  Since I only had one zucchini at the moment, I opted to cut the recipe in half to make a dozen muffins.

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