Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting and Chocolate Ganache

I have a confession to make. I don’t usually like cake. Cookies, yes; brownies, absolutely; ice cream, of course. But cake? Cake is usually dry and bland and the only part that’s worth anything is the frosting. Assuming of course that it’s not the typical bakery frosting which tastes of [...]

Sautéed Strawberries

A visit to Oh Yumm opened my eyes to how delicious sautéed strawberries could be, and I knew I’d have to try and recreate the dish at home.
I found a recipe from Terra Restaurant, and used it with slight modifications. Specifically, the wine – I’ve never like Cabernet (too oaky) and so [...]

Nigella’s Cream Cheese Brownies

I love reading Nigella Lawson’s cookbooks. Yes, I said “reading” – for whatever reason her writing just delights me and I can curl up with the cookbooks quite happily and slip into a contented state.
I just had never bothered making any of her recipes before, but finally decided that I had to [...]

Banana Cake

If you pay any attention at all to food blogs (or at least those on baking), you’ve most likely heard of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home To Yours book. There’s even a group dedicated to working their way through the book. How could I not check out the book and see what [...]

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

For birthdays, our department at work always provides treats for the celebrant. This year, I requested cupcakes from a specialty store that opened not all that long ago. They posted a menu with some of the flavors that they offered, and I shared some that sounded good, expecting one or two types to [...]

Killer Crack Peanut Butter Fudge

The title isn’t mine. I’m just repeating the title Cookie Baker Lynn gives this delight. I suppose you-will-never-fit-into-your-old-pants-again peanut butter fudge was just a little too long.
I’ve never really made fudge before (I have made a microwave “fudge” with condensed milk but that’s as close as I’ve come), so I have no idea [...]

Ginger Cake

So I’m going to go ahead and admit my baking disaster. Ginger cake did me in.
The recipe came from Baking Boot Camp: Five Days of Basic Training at the Culinary Institute of America. The book was very interesting, although I did have some real complaints about it. But the baked [...]

Peanut Butter Brownies

I don’t know where I found this recipe. I’ve got it written out so I obviously copied it from somewhere or someone, but the exact origin is shrouded in mystery. Well, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but it’s forgotten in the dusty corners of my brain at the very least.
What I do know [...]

Real Simple Brownies

Real Simple as in the name of the magazine where the recipe was published, as well as how the brownies are to make.
1 stick unsalted butter
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped (or substitute 3/4 c. cocoa, 1/4 c. oil and 1/4 c. sugar)
2 lg. eggs
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. flour
4 lg. peanut butter cups, [...]

Apple Pear Crisp

This recipe started life as one for French Apple Pie from my mom’s cookbook. During one of her trips to visit me in the far northern realms of Indianapolis (her perspective anyway), she modified it into a crisp and very thoughtfully wrote in the margins what she’d done to modify the recipe and create [...]