This has been my birthday cake for almost a decade: it’s simple, quick, and utterly delicious. The fudgy cocoa-and-cinnamon cake combines with a thin, crackly icing studded with chopped pecans, and it takes only 20 minutes in the oven
This cake is great for showcasing the fruit flavors of summer: sweet cherries nestled in a light, fluffy batter with just a bit of crunch from cornmeal and a rich fruitiness from a generous glug of olive oil.
Sweet-tart rhubarb and snappy fresh ginger. Crisp, buttery gingersnap crumbs. Cool, thick chocolate sandwiched between the two. Yes, it’s probably a two-day project, but the reward at the end is all the better for dreaming about it overnight.
This is one of those old-fashioned desserts that deserves a comeback tour: it’s simple, satisfying, and done in an hour. (And your guests will devour it, so make double.)
Rich, chewy bites of buttery cookie with chopped pecans and ribbons of caramel — maybe a little over-the-top, but what’s wrong with that?
Ever had a culinary white whale? Wait, step back: I’m showing my literature scholar roots here. For those who haven’t been exposed to Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, that’s a reference to the […]
Sometimes writing the headnotes to these recipes is fairly straightforward: I say why I like the food, describe why someone else might also like the food, add in an interesting […]
[When I went to take some additional plated photos, I realized a sad truth: I’d been using manual focus for some of the pumpkin-turkey taco images, and never set the camera […]
Optional Kitchen 