Pumpkin & Cookie Butter Sheet Cake with Toasted Meringue

You’re already preparing for Thanksgiving dinner, aren’t you. On the off chance that you haven’t started on dessert yet, I highly recommend walking over to the pantry and pulling out the jar of speculoos that you’ve been saving for something special. (Or is that just me??) Let’s all stay cool and calm and collected– Pumpkin […]

Tuscany: Torta di Mele (Apple Cake)

I’ve been writing about Italy for several weeks now (except for a little hiatus due to work craziness), and I know every place I write about is all amazing and beautiful and historic and delicious and OMG-level. But I hadn’t gotten to Tuscany yet. And all the stuff about those other regions was 100% true, […]

Rainbow Sprinkle Bread with Birthday Cake Crumb Topping

I know I’m supposed to be telling you more about what people bake in Italy, but two things are happening this week: 1) I’m leaving for a week for a family wedding in Israel, which means a) cramming in as many baking projects as possible before I go and b) procrastinating when I should be […]

Apple Orange Rye Honey Cake

We interrupt this regularly scheduled Italian Desserts blog post to wish you a Belated Shana Tova! If you celebrate the Jewish High Holy Days, I hope your Jewish New Year is off to an excellent start. I was planning to post a spiffy honey cake for you before the holiday, but it didn’t quite work out as […]

Baked Sunday Mornings: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Loaf

Today is a special baking day. My baking-blogging group, Baked Sunday Mornings, has just wrapped three years of working our way through all 75 recipes in Baked Occasions, the 4th cookbook from BAKED in New York City. We are now going old-school and taking it back to Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, the very first book published […]

Amalfi Coast & Positano: Wild Strawberry Ricotta Cheesecakes

Everyone has their own idea of paradise, whether it’s a tropical island, a lake in the mountains, a tranquil forest, or whatever place brings you pure joy. Maybe even one’s own backyard. My happiest Happy Place is of the Italian persuasion… which you might have guessed by now. 😉 One place in particular that I […]

Lombardia: Torta Sbriciolata with Cocoa, Ricotta & Chocolate Chips

Last year I waxed poetic about a cake from northern Italy that I had discovered called torta sbriciolata (sbree-cho-LAH-tah), which consists of a crumbly base and top layer sandwiching a creamy or fruity filling. And I was all, “This cake is amazing!” and “This cake is so easy!” and “I’m going to post so many flavors […]

Baked Sunday Mornings: Hot Chocolate Pudding Cake

What. The. Effff… is what I thought when I was putting together this cake batter. Never before had I stared down so confusedly at a cake pan, wondering how the batter in front of me was supposed to bake into a cake. And yet, magically it sure did. If I were naming this bastion of […]

Classic Passover Decadence: Flourless Chocolate Cake

Chocolate. Butter. Eggs. Sugar. That is all you need to make this wickedly dark and decadent Flourless Chocolate Cake. I don’t think that much about flourless chocolate cake when it isn’t Passover (I know, I need to get my priorities straight), but during this week when the only bread product allowed is literally known as […]

Baked Sunday Mornings: Tricolor Cake

I’ve made no secret of the fact that Italy tugs at my heartstrings on a daily basis. In fact, I hope to live there one day… However, there’s one little problem with that. (I mean, in addition to not being a citizen, learning better Italian, getting a job there, and a host of other minor […]