Pear Spice Cake with Walnut Praline Topping

I think pears are very underrated.  They are so very much overshadowed by apples when it comes to desserts.  There are so many apple cakes out there, and you have apple pie, apple crisp, but just not a lot of pear recipes.  So when I saw this pear cake back in December, I knew I [...]

January Daring Bakers: Tuiles

This month’s challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux. I had been wanting to make tuiles for a while.  More accurately, my husband has [...]

Turbo-Charged Brownies with Praline Topping

There is no picture of these brownies in The Pastry Queen, but I knew from the title that I had to make them.  I guess I’m a sucker for anything with the word “praline” in it.  I thought the combination of flavors sounded really good.  These brownies have a little bit of coffee in them, [...]

Oreo Cheesecake

I made this cheesecake a long while ago for that church dinner where I was in charge of all the desserts, but got so busy with other more seasonal posts that I wanted to get in that I never posted it.  This was a great choice for a dessert to serve a crowd.  Cheesecake generally [...]

Mexican Rice

David and I are big fans of Mexican food. We eat at Mexican restaurants often, but lately have been making more Mexican food at home. One of the things we love most at Mexican restaurants is the rice.  I love eating rice and refried beans together along with a delicious, warm Mexican dish (usually enchiladas [...]

Chocolate Malted Cupcakes

I had been wanting to make the Chocolate Malted Layer Cake from the Sweet Melissa Baking Book for a while now.  When a friend asked me to make a dessert for her graduation party back in December (she finished with her PhD in Policy Studies), I thought about several different desserts before deciding to make [...]

Tuesdays with Dorie: Berry Surprise Cake

This week’s recipe is the Berry Surprise Cake, chosen by Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen.  When I first heard the name of this cake, the first thing that popped in my mind was the Perfect Party Cake.  I thought they would be similar, but instead I saw that the Berry Surprise Cake [...]

Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies

I had a craving for chocolate cookies, and luckily I remembered seeing these in Bridget’s blog over the summer.  These looked so good, and they were even flourless, which was a bonus.  I thought the ingredients list looked interesting- egg whites, no butter, but a lot of chocolate.  The egg white mixture got to a [...]

Buckeyes

I love buckeyes.  Anything with chocolate and peanut butter has to be good, and it’s my favorite combination.  I had been wanting to make buckeyes for a long time, but hadn’t really looked for a good recipe to try.  When Bridget posted them in December, I knew I had to make them.  They were pretty [...]

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

I made these before Christmas, but forgot about posting them, so here they are!  I saw these in the December 2008 issue of Martha Stewart Living and knew that I just had to try them.  I love the combination of mint, and it’s perfect for Christmas.  David was pretty excited about these and couldn’t wait [...]