Baked Sunday Mornings: Blood Orange Tiramisu… & Recipe Testing!

Does there exist a more iconic Italian dessert than tiramisu? The mingling layers of mascarpone cream and espresso-soaked ladyfingers dusted with cocoa powder conjure memories of sipping cappuccino at Italian cafés and digging into my very own petite square of deliciousness. (And no, I’m not partial to sharing.) A good tiramisu has a certain ethereal quality, […]
Baked Sunday Mornings: Cherry Almond (Vanilla) Crisp

Fact: Winter cherries are sad, sad little creatures. This week’s Baked Occasions recipe for Baked Sunday Mornings is Cherry-Almond Crisp for President’s Day, because you know, George Washington and cherry trees and all. Unfortunately, cherry season is a few months out, and the quality of cherries makes all the difference here. I made this a few weeks ago when […]
Baked Sunday Mornings: Date Squares… with Toffee Sauce

Let’s begin with a quote from the illustrious Ms. Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen: “Prior to last month, I had spent exactly zero minutes of my life thinking about date cake, craving date cake or noting the absence of date cake in my life and/or site archives.” This precisely sums up my feelings about baked goods […]
Autumn’s Last Stand: Salted Apple Bread with Brown Butter & Hazelnuts

Oh Autumn, you are ever fair and fleeting; I am not inclined to give you up after such a brief encounter. Even here in California, where the seasons quietly and seamlessly blend into one another, you are trying your hardest to chill the air and flaunt your stunning colors… And so, I shall prolong your loveliness just a […]
How ’bout Them Apples: Brandy Apple Pie Cupcakes

When I think back to the wonderful Thanksgivukkah feast that I shared with my family last year, there are so many great food memories that we decided to make it an annual tradition, regardless of the date on which Chanukah falls (which varies based on the Jewish calendar). Who knew that the foods of Thanksgiving […]
Baked Sunday Mornings: Chocolate Banana Tart

Dear Banana, We meet yet again. I have come to accept that other people eat you, enjoy you, like you, and dare I say… even LOVE you. After much soul-searching and pastry indulgence, I am pleased to report that I have arrived at a place of tolerance. I can tolerate your existence, and I can now […]
Baked Sunday Mornings: Banana Caramel Pudding with Meringue Topping

Bananas… again? *sigh* Why MUST there be more bananas?? I usually cringe when I see a banana recipe coming up on our Baked Sunday Mornings schedule, but the recent ones have had bananas mashed up into cake or whoopie pie batter, which I’ve actually grown to like quite a lot (though I’m reluctant to admit it). However, […]
Baked Sunday Mornings: Banana Whoopie Pies

Sometimes life places opportunities in your path to help you see things from a different perspective or re-evaluate what’s important; this week’s Baked Sunday Mornings recipe for Banana Whoopie Pies (from the Banana chapter of Baked Elements) forced me to come to terms with a very jarring reality. I needed to face the cold, hard truth that I don’t […]
Baked Sunday Mornings: Bananas Cake

Yeahhh… bananas are really not my thing. They creep me out with their mushy texture and their stinky banana stink and their brown spots and their slimy peels… I waxed poetic about my disdain towards bananas when Baked Sunday Mornings made Bananas Foster Fritters last year… but OHMYGODILOVEDTHEM. I slowly came to realize that although I […]
Slice of Summer: Peach-Vanilla Bean Lattice Pie

I wish I had a charming, nostalgic story to tell you about pie; something like, ‘I used to watch hungrily over the edge of the countertop when I was a little girl as my grandmother lovingly crimped her pie dough edges while humming’… but I don’t. I didn’t eat much pie growing up, and it’s […]