american baking enthusiast and keeper of the flame
If you are near Sandy’s path, we hope you are safe, sound, well-fed, and occupied (i.e. movie marathon). The wind has picked up in Brooklyn (I live in Dumbo) and the rain appears on the horizon. Fingers crossed for this thing to blow over with minimal damage… I thought I would interrupt our regularly scheduled [...]
Oh, I did some unspeakable things to this cake. Horrible, horrible things. This Twinkie Cake (via the incredible Shauna Sever) was both my salvation and my undoing. It was the kind of cake that would wake me from a deep slumber at 2am and demand attention. It inspired several bouts of sleep eating – hastily [...]
Since bathing suit season is officially over, I have preoccupied my waking hours with devouring almost anything and everything. Over the fall and winter months, I will most likely gain 10 to 20 pounds and I will enjoy it. But it doesn’t have to be this way. I could make choices…smarter choices. For instance, I [...]
[Ed note: The recipe for the Baked Banana Whoopie Pie - in the post below - appears in Baked Elements. And now one of my favorite posts from Diana...] I can be a very particular, habitual person. I have methods for eating almost anything, especially the foods that I eat regularly. Some of my food-eating [...]
And just who says cornbread can’t be classy? Adorned with rosemary sprigs and coarse sea salt this is a dressed up version of the classic we’ve all come to know and love. And check out these adorable little loaves! They’re fabulously moist and downright heavenly whether paired with a heaping bowl of hearty stew or [...]
We fell hard for Terrain. Real hard. Maybe it was the ubiquitous pumpkins, or the adorable cafe, or the terrarium delirium - but whatever it was, our first outing to the original store near Philly induced shopping blackout (i.e. we woke up the following morning covered in Terrain shopping bags and hazy half-remembered memories). image courtesy Terrain [...]
Gwyneth Paltrow leads an enviable and balanced life (her life is not a runaway train of tabloid fare). And she does everything….actress, blogger, mother, author, and (my personal fave) country western singer. She first won me over as “Young Wendy” in Steven Spielberg’s Hook and 20 years later she still reverberates charm, youth and innocence. [...]
Gougères. Pronounced goo/zheres. Does that clear things up for you? It’s French for deliciously puffy cheese balls. These little puffs are the perfect pass around for your next cocktail party or heck, bake up a batch for an evening on the couch watching your favorite flick. They’re extremely pop-able. The tangy blue cheese and mild [...]
When dark clouds approach Brooklyn (a not uncommon occurrence these past few months), I seek refuge. I am not a thunder and lightening guy. In fact, I am downright terrified of it. At least in Las Vegas (yes, born and raised in Sin City) I had the comfort of family to surround me during the [...]
I have never been fond of cake — most likely because I had one too many birthday party/birthday cake-induced sugar tummy aches at a young age. The root of the problem, I believe, is that these celebratory cakes that I ate were rarely homemade. As opposed to being moist, fresh, well-balanced cakes, they were [...]
