Cakes

Let Them Eat Bundt Cake

Let Them Eat Bundt Cake

Ahhh. When to eat bundt cake? Breakfast? Snack? Dinner? Middle of the night? I’ve done it all. I assume that when Marie Antoinette counseled “Let them eat cake” she meant bundt cake. (OK. OK. I know she probably didn’t say that, but it works here…

It’s a Beaut! Carrot-Orange Olive Oil Cake

It’s a Beaut! Carrot-Orange Olive Oil Cake

I was having an “off” cooking day yesterday. A recipe from one of my favorite cooks, Eric Kim, just wasn’t turning out for me. Hate that. So, I had a Marie Antoinette moment. I let myself eat cake for comfort. As it turned out, my…

One More Time: Pavlova

One More Time: Pavlova

Pavlova:  A meringue-based “cake” with a soft marshmallow-like center and a crisp crust. How good does that sound? Throw in a story about a famed Russian ballerina and a century-long petty diplomatic dispute between Australia and New Zealand about the origin of the recipe and…

It’s Delish: Persimmon Cardamom Cake

It’s Delish: Persimmon Cardamom Cake

  Persimmons! My kitchen fruit bowls are brimming with persimmons this year.  In the past, finding myself with persimmons in the winter, I’ve pretty much defaulted  to making the usual fruit-cake-like loaves of persimmon bread. Those loaves have been good–sometimes very good–but eventually that iteration…

Oldies But Goodies: RIP Marian Burros and Long Live Her Plum Torte

Oldies But Goodies: RIP Marian Burros and Long Live Her Plum Torte

Marian Burros has died. She developed the famous Plum Torte recipe that ran for years in The New York Times Cooking Section. It is a wonderful recipe. It would be perfect to make right now as this year’s plum season winds down. Here is Burros’…

Lemon-Strawberry Cake

Lemon-Strawberry Cake

OK. It’s another cake. It’s been THAT kind of month. This is a recipe from The New York Times Sunday Magazine. You will find the original recipe here. The original recipe gave permission to use blackberries, blueberries, raspberries or  chopped strawberries in this recipe. You have…

Soft Chocolate and Fig Cake

Soft Chocolate and Fig Cake

My husband could talk incessantly about his love for home-grown figs. Seems there was a fig tree in the yard of the house he lived in in Berkeley while in college. So, for him, there were glorious memories of fresh figs galore—jams, pastries, au naturel.…

Birthdays and Apricot Cakes

Birthdays and Apricot Cakes

Apricots and I go back a long way.  Growing up, I always had a “Paradise Cake” for my birthday. The cake was two layers of yellow cake slathered with a tangy dried apricot puree and covered in coconut. I’ve tried to find the recipe online…

Oldies But Goodies: Plum Cakes

Oldies But Goodies: Plum Cakes

  Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipes are for plum cakes–two different plum cakes but equally delicious. Your call.  ( Here is the recipe.)  Want…

Baked Red Bean Nian Gao (Mochi Cake)

Baked Red Bean Nian Gao (Mochi Cake)

I’ve had this recipe in my burgeoning to-do file for some time. The original recipe is from The New York Times and the reviews are pretty strong.  A reader named  Isabel, for example, wrote that this cake may be one of the best things she’s…