After many years of French classes, Kings Cakes aren’t a foreign concept to me. These cakes are traditional to New Orleans and they have their own season: from the Epiphany (King’s Day, January 6th) through Mardi Gras. 

The cake is normally made with a rich, buttery dough and topped with a milk glaze. They can be made plain, with a cinnamon filling, or, more recently, with a variety of other fillings like chocolate, cream cheese or fruit.  (more…)

Brooklyn blackout cake is a chocolate cake characterized by its rich pudding-frosting and its coat of chocolate cake crumbs.

This cake took me a couple tries to get just right, because the pudding has to be thick enough to hold the cake together while the cake has to be light enough to remain soft after being stored in the fridge.

Given the constraints, I’d say this cake is a winner: the chocolate cake is both fluffy and rich, and the pudding is made decadent with the help of whole milk. (more…)

This recipe has been in storage for a while, mostly because it’s the first video I have made for this blog and it took me a while to put it all together. Luckily, I had good footage and an amazing baking assistant (thanks Morgan!!), so hopefully you will enjoy this video! 

This gluten-free cinnamon cake is loosely based off a recipe from Anna Jones’ cookbook A Modern Way to Cook. I improvised a bit, using garbanzo beans instead of cannellini and all-purpose gluten free flour instead of almond flour. The result was great: a hearty, yet tasty and sweet cinnamon cake.

A Modern Way to Cook is a thick, 300+ page cookbook filled with tons of inventive recipes and vibrant pictures. The book is mostly not desserts, but is filled with vegetarian recipes with a focus on wholesome eating. (more…)

In my house, apples are a staple fruit year-round. Of course, they are not always eaten when they should be and, throughout the year, I end up having to try out all kinds of apple recipes so that none are put to waste. 

And this recipe is definitely a way to put apples to good use! It is light and sweet, while also being loaded with layers and layers of thinly cut apples. 

It has a soft crunch on the outer layer, similar to that of a bakery-style muffin, and is soft on the inside. A little bit of rum and vanilla also perfectly complement the apples for amazing flavor.  (more…)

I’m a huge fan of lemon meringue pie, but it seems like it’s very difficult to buy it well-made. I’ve tried freezer-section versions and “fresher” grocery store versions, but nothing out there that I’ve tried seems to come even close to a homemade version.

But this isn’t quite lemon meringue pie. Instead, it’s a lemon curd tart. It’s a lot like a lemon meringue pie, but the filling is much more flavorful and rich. It’s creamy and sweet and smooth and tart and sour all at the same time. It isn’t topped with a mountain of meringue, like most of the pies normally are, but just a light dollop. Instead of a pie crust, you’ve got two options with this tart: shortbread crust or almond crust.

I made this a couple weeks ago when we had some guests over for dinner, and I’m often a bit apprehensive about making something new when we have guests, but this recipe did not disappoint! I was glad I made two tarts because everyone asked for seconds and the dessert was gone in no time. (more…)

Maybe you’ve had a lemon pudding cake before. If you have, you already know how amazing they are: baked in a cute little ramekin with a water bath like crème brulee, tangy and creamy like lemon curd, and topped with a delicious and light lemon cake. I guess you could call this the original trifle, given its layers and depth (only that the preparation is a whole lot simpler for lemon pudding cakes). And maybe the comparisons that I’ve written makes it sound like this is a super rich, calorie-ridden dessert, but don’t worry, this is definitely not the case!

Some versions of lemon pudding cake are made needlessly rich and loaded with sugar, but this recipe limits unhealthy ingredients to a minimum while taste and flavor are kept to a max!

This recipe is from Lighten Up, Y’all by Virginia Willis, where all the recipes are made with both taste and health in mind. It features classic Southern recipes that most people consider too unhealthy for everyday consumption (like macaroni and cheese, potato gratin, or grits) and spins them around to make them lighter. (more…)

Cheesecakes in our house are always a special treat. Because they’re so rich and dense, they’re not really the type of dessert that you can have every night — they’re something that should be savored and eaten slowly. When made well, the cream practically melts in your mouth. And the graham cracker crust adds a nice crunchy contrast of texture. And, with this recipe, a light and milky topping perfectly completes the dessert.

Cheesecakes are commitments. Not only does making one require some patience, but eating one does too. Even when you just buy one, you’re committing you and your family to eating the whole thing (not that that’s a scary commitment to make ;).  (more…)

I have only eaten tres leches cake a handful of times, and to be completely honest, I have never actually tried a good one. Maybe I did when I was little, before I had a true appreciation for good desserts, but in my recent years all the ones I have tried have either been bad or just mediocre. 

That being said, I can assure you that this recipe is so different from the cakes I have tried before. These tres leches cupcakes are made with a whipped egg-white batter that gives them a spongy texture. The sponge cupcakes are then filled with milk. The milk sets over a few hours and is able to suffuse throughout the entire cake. 

Instead of icing, these cupcakes are topped with a homemade whipped cream, perfectly complementing the light and fluffy cake.

For a tutorial on how to make these, continue reading.  (more…)

Some people think that putting frosting on top of brownies is weird. They think that icing is just for cake or maybe sugar cookies, but never for something as sweet and rich as brownies. 

I think that people who say crazy things like that have never tried a good iced brownie (like this one). Sure, no one likes stomach-ache-inducing sugar-bomb sweets, but it is possible to make rich desserts that don’t leave you feeling this way. 

Take this mocha mousse brownie, for example. It is a rich brownie with a mousse icing. But this mousse icing is, well, mousse. It’s creamy and light and fluffy and sweet and chocolatey… the icing itself is like a cloud. It balances the dense chocolate of the brownie. It adds a touch of class, a taste of fancy, to this ubiquitous American dessert.  (more…)

I have two great things for you today: an amazing (and healthy!) almond cake recipe along with a review of the cookbook, Vibrant Food by Kimberely Hasselbrink. 

First, let’s talk about this almond cake: it’s a dense cake made with pure almond flour (so it’s gluten-free), lightly sweetened with honey, and made with olive oil. Thought it’s a dense cake, it’s far from heavy; this would still be considered a light dessert. I can assure you that this was an amazing cake because it was finished in my house before the end of breakfast – this only happens when true perfection has been created! Scroll down for the full recipe. 

Onto the book review: 

If you haven’t heard of Vibrant Food, it’s cookbook showcasing the various fruits and vegetables of each season. The book has four main sections, one for each season. Recipes coordinate with the vegetables and fruits that tend to grow during those seasons.  (more…)