From the category archives:

Cakes & Muffins

Kahlua Chocolate Decadence Brownie– A Perfect 5-Inch Cake to Save You Forevermore From Sending Pricey Mail Order Baked Goods

Success is sweet. I feel like I kinda beat the system. My scratch-baked 5-inch Kahlua Chocolate Decadence Brownie fits in a mailable flat rate box. What started me on this project was the Harry and David cake ordered for my sis’s sinus surgery “get well” gift. GULP!

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins ~ Guest Post by In Erika’s Kitchen

Thank you to Southern California food writer and working mom Erika Kerekes for these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins and guest post. Erika publishes the family-friendly food blog In Erika’s Kitchen as often as her schedule permits. She’s proud to have two boys who are equally skilled at making messes in the kitchen and cleaning [...]

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Thelma’s Famous Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting ~ Larry’s Little Layer Versions

Thelma’s Carrot Cake is truly phenomenal. Full fat, full sugar, full egg type of recipe from the 60s. Thelma is Larry’s mom, age 91, loves sweets and is still going strong. This is some miracle carrot cake! It’s Larry’s fav but, sadly for him, a healthy diet means he doesn’t get it often. Uh, did [...]

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Mini Glazed Lemon Corncakes

Holy Moly, these Mini Glazed Lemon Corncakes are fab!! {TWO exclamation points.} Dense, moist, lemony, sweet. Here’s the brainstorm… first, a too-large bag of cornbread mix in the pantry, left over from Easter. Next, lemon tree, loaded with fruit. I was on my 3-mile Sunday walk (good girl), pondering cooking (natch). There HAD to be [...]

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Tangerine Upside Down Cake

Tangerine slices, I came to realize, are beautiful on a cake but I screwed up. In order to get the bitter flavor out of the rind before I assembled this, I should have blanched the slices. I’d simply substituted them for the lemons in the Lemon Upside Down Cake recipe published in the LA Times [...]

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Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake ~ a Southern Cake for the Groom

This Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake was the companion cake at my sister’s Friday night pre-wedding family shindig. Groom, Mike likes chocolate. I like chocolate. I like Mike and wanted to make him a chocolatey cake from Nancie McDermott’s Southern Cakes – Sweet and Irresistible Recipes for Everyday Celebrations. But OOPS — three mistakes got me THIS [...]

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Pineapple-Coconut Cake ~ a Southern Cake for a California Bride

This bride-inspired Pineapple-Coconut Cake is from Nancie McDermott’s dreamy Southern Cakes – Sweet and Irresistible Recipes for Everyday Celebrations (will post the groom’s little cake, behind, soon). My sister remarried on 9-10-11-12. September 10, 2011 at noon. No, no, this isn’t the “wedding cake.” Janie and Mike tied the knot at the house (Mike’s). But [...]

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Kahlua Ice Cream Layered Cake ~ A Tutorial

Step-by-step, make this killer Kahlua Ice Cream Layered Cake by following my photos. The idea has been in my recipe binder since 2004, a Family Circle cover recipe made with kid-friendly flavors. No way, this had Kahlua potential, requiring a dinner party at home for obvious melting challenges.

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Chestnut Cakes

Do you remember THIS THROWDOWN (to myself)? My jar of Roland chestnuts was befuddling. What the heck does a California girl make with chestnuts? Plenty of folks tweeted suggestions; most were savory (as in, toss with brussel sprouts. Seriously?). A few readers told me to eat them from the jar. Tempting, but I envisioned something [...]

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Citrusy Olive Oil Cake with Limoncello Drizzle

This cake was such a surprise! It’s not a fluffy commercial texture, nor is it a brick – which was my first thought when I heard we’d be making an Olive Oil Cake with Limoncello Drizzle at our “Date Night Romantic Mediterranean” cooking class with Chef Diane Brown. If you haven’t noticed, we’re a [...]

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Look: My Glazed Lemon Pound Cake Recipe Is Now An Illustration

This blogger is an artist with a delightful idea – draw high-quality illustrations of food bloggers’ recipes and post the art on her blog. Then, allow visitors to click to the source recipe. This is the work of the talented Lisa Orgler at The Lunchbox Project. Her artwork and products are available here on Etsy. [...]

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Triple Citrus Cupcakes with Lime Glaze

Culinary throw-down: prepare a dessert elegant enough to complement friends’ upscale picnic contributions, portable, and cannot compete in flavor with the other two desserts: Larry’s Famous Brownies As Seen In Bon Appétit, plus a batch of caramel corn. The venue? A cemetery, but not to visit dearly departed. We were there to picnic and [...]

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Namibia Sunset Orange Blossom Cake

African sunsets go on forever; the sun drops behind the horizon quickly, then melts the sky into a full hour of magnificence. Considering there are no buildings to block the view, hundreds of miles of horizon can (and do) glow every night.