Tags
baking soda, Bing cherries, cherry brandy, cocoa, coffee, espresso powder, flour, Greek-style yogurt, salt, sugar, vanilla extract, vegetable oil, vinegar
The Goddess likes cake. Yes, she does. She doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth, but chocolate cake is so good for breakfast. This recipe is a riff on that old Peg Bracken cake from her “I Hate to Cook” cookbook. In her recipe, you mix the cake right in the pan you’re going to bake it in. It was a drop-dead easy recipe and had such a good flavor, so naturally The Goddess tossed in some bing cherries…naturally. Continue reading
These are rich and chewy, with bits of crunchy, toasted pecans, gooey chocolate and coconut…and they’re just plain good. So pour the coffee and invite a friend…. 
Tres Leches is the perfect dessert for entertaining. It’s rich, delicious and must be made ahead of time. Did I mention it’s mind-bendingly delicious? You really can’t overstate the delicious-ness quotient. 
In days past, before measurements were standardized, this is how things were put together. Every woman had her “special” tea cup, she used just for baking, or not. This is the way my grandmother made chocolate cake. And what a cake it is. 
“I don’t think any day is worth living without thinking about what you’re going to eat next at all times.”—Nora Ephron
Mmmmmm…cake! And chocolate cake at that. Isn’t it a delightful way to ring in 2019? Seriously, this is one of the best chocolate cakes I’ve eaten in a long, long time. This lovely cake was baked and decorated by a talented friend and she made it from scratch, too. Oh yes…did I mention she is “almost twelve-years-old”? Isn’t that wonderful? This young woman is a serious baker and should be an inspiration to us all. She reminds us to attempt the things we enjoy, but we perhaps find a bit daunting. To have courage to attempt those daunting things. To challenge ourselves. To look for the good in others. To find joy in simple things.
The Spicy Honey has an office BBQ and thought it would be a good idea for The Goddess to “whip up” dessert. He’s thoughtful that way. But, The Goddess doesn’t mind, because dessert is good, and this is particularly good. It’s rich, creamy and just delicious, so isn’t that just the perfect thing to have at a BBQ? 
I’m a chewy, fudgy brownie-type of woman. Cake brownies are well, just cake, really. Brownies should be dense and moist and rich. These brownies are all that, but they have the added bonus of coffee and bourbon. We’ll say these are “adult” brownies…I think they’re better the next day, but they’re damn fine, just out of the oven and cooled for maybe 15 minutes, too…damn fine! 
It’s stone fruit season…you know the fruits that have a single pit (seed) in the center of the fruit? All the various, and there are quite a number, of varieties of apricots, peaches, plums, and nectarines, are stone fruits. And this time of year, there’s nothing better than biting into a perfectly ripe peach or nectarine, except maybe biting into a nice piece of pie! 
It’s always good to have a nice dessert sauce in your repertoire. This is absolutely spectacular made with local berries, when they’re in season, like right now. And you must slice the berries, sprinkle them with a bit of sugar and that’s all you need. But, some years, the berries aren’t quite as sweet. 
Chocolate and cherry are a natural flavor combination. This is a lovely little recipe to have in your recipe repertoire. It goes together in a flash, it can be a loaf, a cake, bars…whatever you want and oh yes…and it’s delicious. 