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Ever since its debut in the 1950s, the bundt cake pan has become de rigeur in every baker’s equipment stable. Originally a whimsical alternate to the smooth angel food cake tube pan, the bundt mold with its fetching large-lobed flute design transforms a simple tube cake into a gourmet gateaux by visuals alone.
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Robert is my friend Robert Lambert, who is a wiz in the kitchen. He knows his stuff about chocolate, having been a private dessert chef making designer-style, lip-smacking good fantasy chocolate desserts for the likes of Joan Collins and Lily Tomlin in his cooking-in-Hollywood days.
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Genuine fruit shortcakes are an American summer passion. It is the harmonious balance of sweet, juicy fruit in season, fluffy whipped cream, and crumby, rich biscuits that make them irresistible. No matter how many fancy desserts I make or taste, no matter how many different fruits I showcase in a shortcake, strawberry shortcake is still supreme. It will never go out of style. It is a dessert that is new fashioned as it is old fashioned.
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The other day in the check out line while perusing the scandal sheets, I realized the person in front of me and the one behind me were both buying big bags of fresh sweet cherries. Voila. Cherry season has arrived. Spring is officially here and with it, the first little stone fruit. So buy enough to eat fresh out of hand, then some for cooking a crisp or cobbler (easier than pie), muffins, and some savory dish like duck with cherries.
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One day while I was working at the bakery, one of my customers asked if I would do a special cake for their birthday. It would be a three-tiered construction, something I had never attempted before. The price was negotiated at $45, a large amount in 1979 for a cake and almost a whole day’s pay for me at the time.
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I can tell I am getting wound up about the upcoming royal wedding when I have buttercream on my mind. Mousseline Buttercream are two sweet words that slide off the tongue. Also called a French buttercream or Swiss buttercream, leave it to the French to find a way to make one of the richest, most luxurious frosting preparations in all of pastrydom. How do they do that?
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Butterscotch sauce is something you make when you want to impress guests. Authentic (not artificially flavored) butterscotch sauce isn’t like the thick stuff you buy in the jar; it is silky and pourable, not cloyingly sweet. And positively addicting as far as a sweet attack goes. Part of the nostalgic soda fountain ice cream sundaes, the retro sauce is now the rage. Since it is one of my favorite flavors, I couldn’t be more pleased.
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Trifle is the quintessential winter holiday dessert and positively addicting. It might as well be the official state dessert in Great Britain. Every home, school lunchroom, tea parlor, and restaurant have a version it is so beloved.
My mom is known for her trifle, which is a cold dessert with layers of dense-textured plain cake soaked with cream sherry and a vanilla English custard, which she has made every Christmas for decades ever since she got her first microwave in the early 1980s.
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Another winner out of the old McCall’s Cookbook I have been making since about 1980 that I learned from my mother. It is so perfect a cake, I have never had to make another recipe for devil’s food. Devil’s food…
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Everyone thinks that just because I was trained as a professional pastry baker, worked in a host of bakeries, was a caterer for close to 20 years, and write about baking, that when I want to make a little something…
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