Cakes

Peach, Plum and Blueberry Cake and a Young Man with a Man Bun

  I was shopping in Sprouts recently and found myself following the wonderful scent of fresh nectarines wafting across the store when I ran into a young man with a man bun who was on the same mission. “I could smell the nectarines from across…

Cherry Upside-Down Cake, Immortality and Sarah’s Birthday

According to Chinese mythology,  Goddess Xi Wang Mu grew immortality fruits in her garden. Most sources say they were peaches. Some say they were cherries. (Both are stone fruits.) Whatever immortality fruit it was, there was one very big problem. The fruits ripened every thousand…

Pavlova with Lemon Curd, Berries and a bit of attitude

  No. This is not a photo of Bjork. This is a photo of Anna Pavlova, the Russian prima ballerina after whom New Zealand’s national dessert was named.  (Disclaimer: The Australians and the New Zealanders have been coming to culinary blows for years over credit for…

Fresh Pear Cake

Homer (of The Odyssey not of The Simpsons) loved them. He called pears “a gift of the gods.” By the time the Renaissance came along, Europeans were even more in love with pears. The powerful Medici dukes, for example, had fruit gardens with expansive collections of…

Almond Cake

    This recipe recently appeared on a website that I read regularly, David Lebovitz’ site. I’m a sucker for a great review and Lebovitz prefaces this recipe by writing that this cake is his “desert island” recipe, the one cake he would choose were…

Marie-Helene’s Apple Cake

  I am an admirer of pastry chef and cookbook author Dorie Greenspan. Julia Child chose her to write Baking with Julia. Her credentials can’t get any better than that. Greenspan writes a prominent food blog that you might enjoy reading, Dorie Greenspan’s Food Blog and…

Classic Cheesecake

I love cheesecake. For many years, I celebrated the end of a successful school year by sharing this cheesecake with my Advanced Placement European History students after they took their tests. I’ve taken it to my friends at my pups’ veterinary hospital. It has been…

Plum Torte

I am dreading the moment this season when the stone fruits disappear from the farmers markets. Luckily, as I was looking for a new plum recipe to use the plums I bought at Sunday’s market, I came across Marian Burros’ classic plum torte recipe. What…