I’m crazy for rhubarb. I absolutely love recipes that feature a sweet and tart flavor profile and while lemon might be the first ingredient that comes to mind, in Springtime I reach for rhubarb. The tart filling in this pie is counter-balanced nicely with a sweet and very crunchy streusel topping. I harvest mine right […]
No I’m not talking about dumpster diving although, hey, now that I think about it, that could be its own blog! I’m talking about when you are cooking or baking and are left with perfectly good ingredients. Like when you make pastry cream and have leftover egg whites. In this case, I had just finished […]
I have strong feelings about bananas. I eat one every day and it HAS to have black speckles and absolutely no green tinge whatsoever. Typical shopping experiences usually unfold as follows: I walk into my main grocery store, usually Stop & Shop, and the banana bunches are green as can be. I immediately assess how […]
Ahhh, this picture makes me happy. Looks refreshing, doesn’t it? An early March day in New England yet the temperature was warm with the bright sun reflecting off of the snow. Love the way the sun highlights the colors of this hard cider. I had been sent some samples of this new beverage enlivened with the […]
Many months ago I was sent a bag of Zulka Pure Cane Sugar to test and review. I am always interested in new baking ingredients and while sugar is not new, there are more and more sugar products apparing on the market. Many of them are going in the direction of being less processed and I have […]
Red velvet cake has become the darling of the millennium and, due to its red hue, is perfect for a St. Valentine’s Day cake ball.
I developed these Lemon Shortbread Sandwich Cookies with Fresh Raspberry Buttercream for Driscoll’s and as pretty as they might look, they have a short 15- minute prep time and feature the bright flavors of lemon and raspberry, making them a great choice for an easy but impressive homemade gift. I like to make the cookies […]
An ardent fan, Sofia, sent me this fabulous pic! I love the Mocha Toffee Crunch Cake from The Birthday Cake Book and she made a wonderful rendition. I love, love, love seeing your work. Send them along…and please give me permission to post. I would to share the inspiration.
Ahhhh the combination of dark chocolate and a hit of salt is a thing of beauty. If you have ever baked anything from bread to cake to cookies, and forgotten the salt, you know how bland the result can be. But have you ever ramped up the salt to make it more of a feature? […]
Well, Thanksgiving got in the way so it took me some time to hit the kitchen and develop the recipe for our contest winner! I had run a contest for fans to come up with a flavor profile for a cake ball, which I would then develop and name after them. Fans voted and Cameron […]
Image of Teddy Bears cake balls from my book. The head and the body are both cake balls inside! Cake balls are fun. They look cute, they are practically bite-sized, which always seems whimsical for some reason, and kids love ‘em. I think anytime we can enjoy a personal pastry just for ourselves, it feels […]
This Cranberry Toffee Walnut cake ball will be the perfect Thanksgiving treat to make over the holiday weekend!
See the bits of bacon nestled within the chocolate cake that is soaked with bourbon? The whole enrobed in milk chocolate? YES! I’m telling you, these are AWESOME! The combo might sound weird to some of you, but trust me, if you like chocolate and you like bacon, you HAVE to try these. You could […]
Working on the breadth of recipes for Cake Balls was a joy…making sure that many classic cake recipes were represented (German Chocolate Cake Balls, Key Lime Cake Balls, etc.), coming up with new flavor combos (Cassata Cake Balls, Gingerbread Cake Balls, etc.), making sure that many were kid-friendly (Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake Balls, Confetti, […]
The time of year known for sweets and other delectable treats should not be celebrated just by kids! This Halloween put down the sewing kits and inflatable spiders for a bit and have some Halloween fun for adults! From my latest book, Cake Balls, I present to you the Milk Chocolate Bacon Bourbon Cake Balls! […]
People ask me all the time how I come up with recipes. What makes a recipe “new” and worthy of publishing? Well, think about it…how many recipes can you find for chocolate chip cookies? THOUSANDS. But each one brings a nuance that makes it different from the rest – the proportion of brown sugar to […]
Ahhh the history of the cake ball. Not an easy one to figure out as there does not seem to be any definitive answer. There does seem to be a history of cake balls in and around Dallas and articles have referenced The Cake Ball Company owned and run by Robin Ankeny. Before going pro, […]
Ta Da! Both A Baker’s Field Guide to Doughnuts and Cake Balls: More Than 60 Delectable and Whimsical Sweet Spheres of Goodness debut this week. In all my years of authoring books, I have never had two drop at once! Huge Thank You to my publisher, Harvard Common Press, for always doing a great job with the production and […]