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Archive for the ‘dessert’ Category

watermelon bowl

Summer’s coming! Well for those of us living in the non-temperate Northern Hemisphere it is anyway. And with summer comes the bountiful fresh fruit and frequent summer barbecues. Usually when I go to a barbeque I’ll like to bring some sort of dish with substance, to show off the homemade veggie burgers and quiches, but sometimes, you just gotta be lazy. Let someone else do that work for you.

When that happens my go-to dish is often a fruit salad. Because they’re delicious and healthy and there’s almost nothing better than fresh fruit! And it’s really something you can’t have too much of.

If I’m bringing a fruit salad, I still have my pride to look after, and can’t bring just your average fruit salad. There are, however, limited ways that you can dress up a fruit salad! Sure you can add some exciting tropical fruit, but it’s still a bunch of fruit mixed in a tupperware. So about 10 years ago, while I was in high school, I came up with the idea of making a bowl out of a watermelon. While I’m sure countless people had come up with the idea before, it was novel to me, being before the time where I started looking up absolutely everything up on the internet.

It’s extremely easy to make a watermelon bowl and sure does a lot to make fruit salad more exciting. I’ve included some easy step-by-step picture instructions. Feel free to experiment and change up the cut or design of the bowl and make it your own! (more…)

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lemon scented earl grey pound cake

Monday morning I woke up 2 hours before my alarm went off with a hankering for some cake. My stomach was grumbling and I could not fall back asleep. I had a decision to make. Should I (a) get ready and go to work early or (b) bake a cake? Clearly, I was not about to go to work early. Who even does that? So instead I baked a breakfast cake and watched the sunrise over Lake Michigan from my living room window.

The thought that came to my mind: earl grey paired with refreshing lemon in a moist delicate pound cake. Lately I’ve been enjoying the Teavana Earl Grey Creme tea that my mom gave me for Christmas. I can’t get enough of the stuff. Smooth flavors of vanilla and citrus bergamot. Thoughts of this tea are forever dancing around in my head–probably why I’ve been wanting to bake a cake with earl grey flavors for the past couple of months.

The results of the cake were stunning. The texture of the cake was oh-so-perfect with a practically melt-in-your-mouth crumb. The flavors were a perfect pairing (well duh, it’s not like I came up with that idea… thank you, England). The earl grey tea is the focus of this cake and there is a subtle zesty lemony aftertaste. The cake rose up higher than my loaf pan during baking and had a nice crispy edge on top, just like a cupcake or muffin.

lemon scented earl grey cake

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A couple of weeks ago I was sitting on my couch petting my cat after dinner dreaming of desserts. I often do this. That is, think about desserts and without actually making any or eating any. It’s just kind of a thing to do.

Anyway, as I was sitting there, I had this sudden desire to eat a blueberry coffee cake with a big topping of limey-fresh crumb. I’m not sure where this desire came from, seeing as I have never been a big coffee cake girl. (This might be related to the fact that I’m not a coffee person in general). I let the idea simmer in the back of my mind over the next couple of weeks, almost forgetting about it, dealing with other life-events.

Blueberry Key Lime Crumb Cake (more…)

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If there was ever a sassy cupcake, this would be the one. A dash (well, maybe more) of peppery cayenne, a sprinkle (okay, more than that) of spicy sweet cinnamon and the smoothness of the delectable chocolate. I used your traditional moist and rich chocolate crazy-cake recipe as the base, just adding the cinnamon and cayenne for flavor. It pairs perfectly with the cinnamon buttercream frosting I’ve topped it with.

I first made these cupcakes on Día de los Muertos, but they were gobbled up too quickly for any pictures. Today isn’t Mexico’s Day of the Dead, but it has been a super cold month here in Chicago, and we could all use a little warming up and what better way to do it than by eating cupcakes with a kick? If a little spice in your belly doesn’t warm you up, an extra pound or two might. Okay, but really, Chicago weather gods, it’s been way too cold and grey lately! Send us some nicer weather! (more…)

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Florentine Cookies

Have you ever had a florentine?  A lacy, crisp little cookie with caramelized sugar, almonds, and a swirl of dark chocolate. These are one of my husband’s all-time favorite cookies. They sell them in a quaint little bakery in Boston’s Italian North End neighborhood that is both a local favorite and a magnet for tourists.

Florentine Cookies

In fact, when we were in Florence on our honeymoon, Josh had us stop in every bakery we passed, searching for the city’s namesake cookie. Desperately hoping to try the “real thing,” we were sorely disappointed. We found plenty of delicious treats in Florence–hearty Tuscan ribollita, killer dark chocolate sorbetto, complex Chianti–but no florentines.

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