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Easter Cake 2026

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Hulking-bunny cake. Dieu merci this Easter we are not going to Grandpa's house. For a variety of reasons, and I am thrilled to stay home. It's much less work, and last year's blowout with SIL still rankles me. We simplified our plans further, from the initial thought of inviting friends over for brunch, to deciding to make a simple brunch for the three of us. On the menu: asparagus, green salad, cod cakes, And for dessert, Carrot Cake ! I decided to go with  this recipe  from Sallys Bake Blog. I've this cupcake recipe before in two six-inch pans, hoping to get tall layers and not have to use too much frosting in between. Results have been mixed, with sometimes the cakes coming out perfectly, others with a dry exterior and not entire cooked middle. It's a lot of batter for two pans, so I decided to try it in three pans. It worked very well in terms of amounts! I followed the recipe to the letter and baked it in three 6-inch pans. The baking time was almost 25 minutes...
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Basketball cupcakes 2026

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Chocolate cupcakes with basketball decoration. It was the end of another season for Bubby's basketball team and after the last practice there was a pizza party to celebrate. We were asked to contribute desserts.  Last year it was so much fun to make a cake, but this year I only had time for cupcakes.  But they were fun to make too! And best of all, quick. I used  this recipe  for Chocolate Cupcake s from Sugar and Sparrow. It's so easy and uses all pantry ingredients.  The batter is very liquid, and last time I made it the cups were 2/3 full and the resulting cupcakes were too big. This time instead of 12 I made 13. And even then, some of them were a bit too tall. So I think with this recipe I can try for 14 next time.  As it is, when they came out of the oven I had to smush down the tops of some of them that had domed a bit. I needed to be flat. I used  the usual recipe  for buttercream, from Preppy Kitchen. I made one batch, reserving some to co...
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Chocolate Doughnuts for Valentine's day 2026

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  Chocolate Doughnuts  with Vanilla Glaze and Fondant Hearts On this Valentine's day I decided to make a small batch dessert that still felt special. We hadn't had home made doughnuts in a long time, so that gave me the idea to make Chocolate Doughnuts . I used  this recip e from Preppy Kitchen. I followed it to the letter but cut the amount to only make six doughnuts. Here they are right before going into the oven. Filling doughnut pans is always a bit of a pain to me, so I only enjoy making them in small batches. Doughnut batter in the pan. I was surprised, since our new oven bakes so hot, that the doughnuts took a full 12 minutes to bake. I checked them at 8 minutes, which is the minimum baking time according to the recipe. But they were raw inside. Not wanting them to get dry, I turned oven down to 340 and checked again at 10 minutes then at 12.  At 12 minutes a toothpick came out clean. After the doughnuts were cool I coated them with a vanilla glaze. I love...
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A different Banana Bread recipe

 Recently I made a Banana Bread from a different recipe that uses less butter.  Here it is: Ingredients:  2 cups flour  3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup butter 2 eggs 1 cup mashed bananas 1/3 cup yogurt 1 teaspoon vanilla Directions 1. Combine dry ngredients. 2. Beat butter and sugar 1 minute. 3. Add eggs, one at a time. Add bananas, yogurt and vanilla.  4. Bake 1 hour at 350F. Modifications I made: 1.5 cups whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour. Slightly less banana because that's all I had. Two teaspoons vanilla instead of one. Dash of cinnamon It turned out pretty good! Denser than my usual Martha Stewart recipe, so a little bit dryer. I'd bake it a little less next time, or at a lower temperature. But it's also a bit more filling than my usual recipe. Great for mornings when I have to rush to art class in Connecticut and eat breakfast in the car.
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First Galette des Rois

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Galette des Rois I volunteered to make a Galette des Rois for my book club and then I began to have second thoughts. Puff pastry has always intimidated me and I've never worked with it.  But I couldn't backtrack, so I did it. It came out pretty good too! I made the frangipane the day before. Here is the recipe I used:  108g almond flour 1.5 tablespoons all-purpose flour 100g sugar 100g butter, room temperature 2 eggs, room temperature 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon almond extract 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1. Cream butter and sugar for 3 minutes. 2. Add eggs, vanilla and almond extract 3. Add dry ingredients 4. Beat until smooth 5. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight. I didn't want to make the dough myself, so I bought Dufour pastry sheets. First and last time, too, because it was damned expensive.  I needed two boxes, and each box was $13.99 at Whole Foods. Ouch! Each box contains one 9/14 x 13" sheet of 1/4 inch thick dough. So, there's minimal rolling out to do...
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Charlotte Cake for Epiphany 2026

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Vanilla sponge and chocolate "Charlotte". On this day of Epiphany 2026, we're not having our usual festive dinner.  We're all still tired from the holidays, my elbow is injured, R* has to work late, on and on.  We're just having salmon patties and a salad, so it's extra important to have a nice dessert. And yet, I haven't been to the store and am trying to avoid shopping, so I needed to make do with what I have at hand. Pantry ingredients, 3 squares of bakers chocolate, and 1/2 cup of whipping cream.  I thought of my Nordic Ware Charlotte Cake pan! It's easy to make a sponge cake and it looks beautiful right out of the pan. I didn't have any fruit for the topping but a bit of chocolate ganache and some whipped cream will put it over the top! I found  this recipe  on the Nordic Ware website. Here are the directions: From reading the reviews, it was evident the recipe makes too much batter and the pan overflows.  I modified the recipe as follows: 3 e...
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New Year's Eve 2026: Lemon Roll Cake recipes

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Since I didn't get to make a Buche de Noel this Christmas I decided to make a roll cake for New Year's Eve.  Originally I wanted to try  this  Lemon Roulade recipe by David Tanis which appeared in the NEw York Times.   Here is that recipe and the picture that seduced me: For the Lemon Curd 1 teaspoon orange zest 1 tablespoon lemon zest ¾ cup/150 grams sugar ¾ cup/170 grams unsalted butter   ¾ cup/180 milliliters lemon juice (from 5 or 6 large lemons) ¼ cup/60 milliliters orange juice (from 2 large oranges) 4 large eggs, at room temperature For the Sponge Cake Softened butter, for greasing the pan 4 large eggs, at room temperature ⅔ cup/130 grams sugar ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup/130 grams all-purpose flour or cake flour 1 teaspoon baking powder Pinch of salt For Frosting 1 cup/240 milliliters heavy cream 2 teaspoons sugar ½ teaspoon vanilla extract Preparation Step 1 Heat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the lemon curd: Put lemon zest, orange zes...
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