Hosting a last-minute event? Skip any sort of panic and save time nostalgic icebox cake — no oven or stove required! With just five ingredients and 15 minutes of active prep, you'll have a stunner of a dessert. Print out the recipe and watch the video to learn how to perfect the presentation on the easiest cake of all time.
Cake pops are a festive touch to just about any occasion, from weddings to birthdays — and that includes, of course, All Hallows' Eve. Learn how to make and decorate a these basic treats on a stick, along with a few of our kitchen techniques for making these treats like the pros. Once you've mastered the technique, discover how to disguise your pops like jack-o'-lanterns for a bite that's truly befitting on Halloween. On Brandi: Jessie Steele Apron.
Chocolate cake cravings are no joke. But neither is committing to your healthy diet. For a cooler afternoon when you want to bake something sweet, try out this low-fat recipe that will satisfy your sweet tooth — without any of the guilt!
This cake calls in some unexpected friends: applesauce and prunes. Combining these two fruit purees helps keep the cake feeling light, rich, and moist. And if you're anything like me, the best part of the cake is always the icing. Instead of reaching for the store-bought stuff with tons of preservatives and unnecessary amounts of sugar, I created an easy icing recipe using just two ingredients. Keep reading for the full recipe.
We've all been there: excited over the prospect of a home-baked cake, you hastily assemble all of the necessary ingredients, read through the instructions, and realize one crucial step was overlooked: how to prep the cake pans. Now you could certainly purchase parchment rounds
We could wax rhapsodic about the wide world of cake for hours (and likely have), but whether we're indulging in a fudgey chocolate-almond stunner or a classic yellow cake, one crucial step in cake prep holds constant. In our less-informed days, we occasionally skipped taking the care and time to prep a cake pan properly, writing it off as a fussy, time consuming step. Let's just say we learned our lesson the hard way . . . and when it comes down to it, this step is a necessity — and actually quite simple. So learn from our mistakes, and do it right.
Believe it or not, tomorrow marks what would have been Julia Child's 100th birthday, a momentous date to be sure. Of course, it only seems fitting to celebrate Julia's centennial with a sliver of cake from her recipe archives.
While the grand dame of French cookery mostly stuck to classic French sponge cakes in her iconic tomes, it was still a challenge to narrow down the variety of options. I was tempted left and right by promises of cakes perfumed with orange zest, studded with glacéed fruit, and topped with glossy apricot glaze, but ultimately, only one cake was deemed fitting for the task. Named for the Queen of Sheba, the reine de Saba is quite literally a cake fit for a queen, and while we may have expressed occasional (the slightest of slight!) misgivings about some of Julia's fussier recipes (and this one surely qualifies), there's no denying that Julia was, and is, a queen in our hearts, and ought to be celebrated as such.
Keep reading for the "extremely good" (Julia's words) recipe.
I recently embarked on a search for Germany's so-called "king of cakes," or baumkuchen, a hollow, concentric cake that's made by applying layer after layer of batter on a rotating spit. I discovered the hard-to-find pastry at Lutz Bakery and Pastry Shop, an old-school Central European bakery in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood.
In the baumkuchen research that followed, I learned that the cake is not just a delicacy in its home country; it's also been one of the most popular pastries in Japan since it was first brought over to the country after World War I. Thanks to its ring shape, baumkuchen is also a popular Japanese wedding staple.
Keep reading for more on Japanese-style baumkuchen.
After eating my way through the cupcake craze, I'm ready to put my muffin tins away and dust off the cake pans that have been sitting at the back of my cupboards.
Don't get me wrong: I love a tiny handheld treat. But there's something very satisfying slicing into — and serving — a full-sized cake.
This time of year, I want something that goes well with a cup of tea or a scoop of fresh berries, something that makes me feel like a real hostess when friends drop in. So when I came across a recipe for a glazed lemon buttermilk cake, I knew I had found the perfect match.
The cake is moist and tangy, thanks to the addition of vegetable oil and buttermilk, but it's the lemon glaze that gives it a real lemony kick. It's great as a dessert, but I enjoy it most as a midafternoon excuse to put off doing laundry for just a little bit longer! For the recipe, just keep reading.
I'm not much of a German food aficionado, but a few years ago, I read a New Yorker article about Germany's "king of cakes" that's been forged in my mind ever since. In the story, Mimi Sheraton embarks on a fervid quest for baumkuchen, a ringed, hollow cake that's made on a spit with layer after painstaking layer of batter, then iced with a coating of chocolate or sugar.
Photo: Susannah Chen
Her pursuit of the dying art led her to Lutz Café and Pastry Shop, which she proclaimed to be "the closest to Kreutzkamm's famous German bakery that I have found." When I was in Chicago last weekend, I made a trip to Lutz to see what the hype was all about.
Despite the busy street it's on, the Germanic bakery was quiet and unassuming, which allowed all of its baked goods to speak for themselves. Of course, I made a beeline for the baumkuchen. While Lutz makes its cakes on the premises, I wasn't able to see the rare spit machine in action. But I did admire the whole baumkuchen, over a foot tall, in their completed state; the sugar-glazed and chocolate-coated versions were treelike in stature.
Source: Flickr User RuckSackKruemel
But it was cutting into a cross-sectioned slice that truly revealed the cake's intricate construction: crepe-thin layer after crepe-thin layer formed delicate concentric circles, not unlike a California redwood. The composition factored into the texture of the baumkuchen, which was both springy and dense. Its flavor — mildly sweet vanilla with a almond aftertaste — called for a cup of coffee. As I left Chicago, I prepared to mourn my new breakfast ritual — that is, until I learned that Lutz ships across America, even overnight.
Have you ever tried baumkuchen?
I like to keep a few well-loved recipes in my repertoire to make time and time again, and birthday cake is something that I find myself happily making several times a year. I typically turn to a very rich chocolate cake from Ina Garten or a simple vanilla cake from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook. I've noticed, however, that yellow cake is a favorite of many, but until now I'd never thought to make it from scratch.
Most recipes for yellow cake use buttermilk, which differentiates it from a standard vanilla cake. I noticed a particularly mouthwatering photo floating around on Pinterest months ago that I couldn't get out of my head. Rather than buttermilk, this specific recipe calls for butter flavoring, which you can find at cake supply stores or online.
This cake comes together easily. I used two seven-inch cake pans and had a little bit of leftover batter for a few cupcakes. The simple vanilla buttercream frosting is delicious and rich, but I'd like to experiment with some more exciting flavors in the future. It tasted rich, buttery, and slightly sinful. The cake itself was moist and dense, which I appreciated, and one piece was more than enough to keep me satisfied.
For the recipe, keep reading!
