Not Your Mother's Cookbooks

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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This is my friend Ilana Sharum’s grandmother’s recipe from Russia, which she had transcribed over the phone to me from her recipe written in cursive Hebrew. It is one of my most treasured recipes and I make it for just about every special occasion. There is a saying that when you make this traditional bread (every Friday), you are creating an atmosphere, not just food.

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Wills and Kate are back from their honeymoon already (and their first official state duty of greeting the Obamas in the palace behind them and a visit to Los Angeles with dinner prepared by Giada De Laurentiis. What was on the menu? Pea pesto crostini, California chopped salad, and chicken Milanese.) and I haven’t even made my statement on their wedding cake yet! Soooo here is my spring/summer 2011 royal wedding cake extravaganza recap…

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And then there’s the groom’s cake. For this wedding, McVitie’s part of the British conglomerate United Biscuits Group that make those barely sweet wholemeal tea biscuits that have the texture of a graham cracker, will make a chocolate biscuit cake specially requested by Prince William. This is a family favorite for tea time with Earl Grey Tea.

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Here is the recipe for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s vintage glamour wedding cake, which includes the instructions by Fiona Cairnes for making the tamarind fruit cake batter, icing, cake decorations and assembly, so now you can recreate the royal wedding cake in your own home.

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Back when I was learning how to bake, around 1970 or so, I was always on the look out for good recipes. Especially cakes and quick loaves. I wanted cakes that garnered praise and not a crumb left on any plate. One of the most elusive cakes was poppy seed cake, the kind you could buy a slice in a Jewish deli, have on a Jewish holiday, or have at someone’s grandmothers’ house for brunch.

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It’s September and still hot as blazes. While we often think of the slow cooker for those long cooked winter stews, the slow cooker is the premier tool for summer cooking as well. Think of turkey breast, pork roasts, even lamb shanks.

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What are crostini? Literally translated to “little crusts,” they are Italian-style appetizer croutons. Usually slices of bread are toasted slowly until golden and then spread with a variety of tasty savory toppings, they are a clever way to use up day-old bread.

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It seems like burgers are in vogue. Teheheheh. Summer BBQ and usually there are a few burgers on the grill. Beef, turkey, bison, lamb, crab, salmon, portobellos, even meatloaf mix. There are even an astounding library of cookbooks just on burgers now. A burger for every day of the year.

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