The pies my mom did make were never, ever, double-crusted fruit pies. If we did have a pie for dessert, it was typically composed of a pre-made graham cracker crust, a box of pudding mix, and a mound of Cool Whip.

And you know what I freakin’ loved it.

To this day, while I will certainly eat a slice of apple, cherry, or other fruity pie if it’s presented to me with a sizable scoop of vanilla ice cream, the pies that I dream of are the cold, creamy, pudding-ish pies that I grew up on.

This pie follows in that tradition, though with some notable modifications. First, I love making my own graham cracker crusts. I like a heavier crumb with more crunch, and I like that I can control the level of sweetness and stickiness by adding as much or as little sugar and butter as I like when whirling it together myself.

A food processor makes this a very simple task, but I made my own crusts for years with a gallon-size ziploc bag and a rolling pin, so don’t feel that a food processor is required to make a delightful crust.

The biggest shock value of this pie is that its bulk comes not from cream, nor milk, nor eggs. It’s tofu. Combined with a bag of semisweet chocolate chips and a bit of amaretto, it provides a blank canvas with a delightfully smooth texture.

My favorite, favorite aspect of this pie is the prep. It’s a cinch! The crust bakes for a bit, and you’ll have to melt the chocolate, but beyond that there is no cooking required. No lengthy bake in the oven, no day-long cooling. After a couple hours in the fridge to firm it up, this pie is ready for serving.

My advice Let your friends and family taste this rich delight of a dessert, and then tell them it’s made of tofu. They won’t believe you!

Dark Chocolate Amaretto Pie
Adapted from Alton Brown

Note: The original recipe calls for coffee liqueur rather than amaretto. I prefer amaretto, but you could really try any liqueur you like that pairs nicely with chocolate.

6 oz graham crackers
1 T granulated sugar
5 T unsalted butter, melted
12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
scant 1/3 c amaretto liqueur
2 tsp vanilla extract
14 oz package silken (or soft) tofu, drained
1 T honey

Preheat oven to 350°F. Use a food processor or a plastic bag and rolling pin to reduce graham crackers into crumbs. Add granulated sugar and melted butter to crumbs and pulse a few more times until combined. Press the crumb mixture into the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate and bake for 15 minutes.

While the crust bakes, wash the food processor bowl and blade so they can be used for the filling. Remove the crust form the oven, set aside, and allow to cool completely.

Combine chocolate chips, amaretto, and vanilla extract in a small saucepan. Heat over medium low and stir with a rubber spatula just until chips have melted. Remove from heat and set aside.

Cut the tofu into chunks and add them to the food processor bowl. Add the chocolate mixture and the honey to the food processor bowl. Spin until mixture is smooth, then pour it into the cooled crust. Refrigerate for at least two hours or until the filling sets firm.

Serve cold in thin slices – it’s quite rich!

Friends, I have a confession.

A lot of the recipes I post on this blog are ones that I cook quite often. Lots of dinners, side dishes, breakfasts, and even desserts that you’ve seen in the last three years make regular appearances in my kitchen or in the kitchen’s of friends and family when I’m visiting. It’s actually pretty convenient to have my very own personal recipe book at my fingertips in any kitchen, grocery store, or farmers market that has data or free wifi.

But I’ve been holding out on you. I haven’t shared with you one of the treats I cook most often, a recipe that I know so well I haven’t looked at the recipe card in years, a recipe that continues to be Brad’s most-requested dessert.

My mom’s chocolate chip cookies.

My mom has been baking these cookies since long before I was born, and truth be told, they’ve gained rather a lot of fame at the staff meetings, potlucks, and holiday gatherings in her little corner of Southwest Colorado. This is also one of my mom’s memorized recipes, complete with a snappy little mnemonic jingle that I learned growing up and use to this day to remember the order of ingredients.

So why wasn’t this recipe at the top of my list to share when I started this blog I’ve shared numerous other treasured recipes from my childhood: Almond Toffee, Lasagne, Favorite Party Mix, to name a few.

Here’s the truth. Most of my life, my mom used butter-flavored Crisco for her magical chocolate chip cookies. And while I had tried using butter and liked the results, it just felt odd to make such a vast departure from her recipe and then post it as “hers”. Irrational Probably. But it held me back. I was writing a blog about eating less-processed, locally sourced ingredients. Butter-flavored Crisco is none of those things.

But then, a few months ago, my mom informed me that she had switched to butter for her cookies. Liberation! Now I could honor this, my “Mom’s recipe”, without the mysterious yellow shortening. I’m so excited to finally share these with you.

These cookies are composed of fairly basic ingredients that, if you bake, I’ll wager you already have around. There’s two really, really important tips I can’t stress enough. The first: use DARK brown sugar, as opposed to light brown sugar. The additional molasses in dark brown sugar not only provides lovely color to these finished cookies, but also a lovely caramel-y flavor you just don’t get when using light brown. Trust me, Sierra and I experimented to find out.

The second tip is to cream the crap out of your butter and sugar. If you’ve ever seen a recipe cautioning against over-mixing, it’s referring to the addition of flour at the end. The initial mixing of butter and sugar, on the other hand, will incorporate more air into your dough to create a fluffier, softer cookie. If you have a stand mixer, add your butter and sugar and blast them for at least five minutes. If you’re using a standard mixing bowl and a spoon, get ready for a good arm workout!

Once the creaming is done, the remaining ingredients go in fairly quickly. An egg, and then some salt, baking soda, and vanilla will give you a lovely tasting dough. Then some chocolate chips (obviously) and flour, and you’re ready to go.

These cookies don’t need to be shaped, you can just drop a wad of dough on a cookie sheet. On a normal basis, I usually only cook 6-8 at a time because Brad is partial to fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies, and the dough refrigerates well so we can have cookies on demand later in the week. Just store the extra dough in an airtight container.

Once the cookies are beginning to brown around the edges, they’re done! My mom likes these cookies very well done, though I prefer them a bit on the lighter side. Just a minute or two will make the difference.

These cookies are not a baking project you need to delay to the weekend: when I use my mixer, I can have a batch in the oven in ten minutes flat. And I’m gonna be totally honest with you: if you’re into eating raw cookie dough, like I am, this dough is for you. Of course I can’t officially recommend it since the dough has a raw egg, but… it’s BONKERS delicious.

And the finished cookies aren’t half-bad either.

Mom’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted just a smidge from my Mom

Makes 16-20 cookies

Note: After several years of flat cookies, I finally wised up and added more baking soda to my recipe. The lower altitude of my kitchen means that my recipes require more leavening agents when preparing recipes that were developed or perfected in my mom’s or grandmother’s high altitude kitchens. If you live at high altitudes, knock the backing soda back to a 1/2 teaspoon. Because science.

1/2 c hard-packed dark brown sugar
1/4 granulated white sugar
1/2 c unsalted butter (1 stick) at room temperature
1 large egg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c milk chocolate chips
1 1/4 c all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine brown sugar, white sugar, and butter in the bowl of a standing mixer or other medium mixing bowl. Cream together very well until mixture has lightened in color and is somewhat fluffy. Add egg and combine thoroughly. Mix in salt, baking soda, and vanilla. Mix in chocolate chips. Add the flour and mix just until combined.

Drop heaping tablespoons of cookie dough onto a cookie sheet, about two inches apart. Bake on a center rack for 10-11 minutes until cookies begin to brown around the edges. Remove cookie sheet from the oven and let the cookies sit for 1-2 minutes, then lift the cookies onto a serving tray with a spatula.

Cookies can be baked all at once, or, dough can be refrigerated and baked within a week.

A little over two months ago (gah, has it already been that long?) one of Brad’s friends from law school invited us over for a dinner with him and his wife, and we were asked to bring dessert. I had a busy week at work, so Brad volunteered to make our contribution. How kind of him to volunteer to prepare a dish to represent us at a dinner with his friends, yes?

*twitch* *baking-control-twitch*

It really was very nice of him. But you see I have this slight love of baking cakes, and the night before the dinner, I my control-freak-baking-nature took hold. I wanted to make something easy, tasty, and pretty, and I wanted to make it now.

This cake, you guys, is all of the above.

To be honest, I put this combo together the weekend before when testing a final batch of recipes for Scott & Crystal’s wedding cake. Enrobed in Swiss Meringue Buttercream, this chocolate cake with strawberries and whipped cream was a favorite and made it into the ceremony cake.

But it’s far too good to reserve only for wedding cake. This version is doable in less than 2 hours and doesn’t require the effort of icing the exterior. The cream and berries are icing enough, and it makes a stunning, seasonal dessert for dinner parties, summer barbecues, or birthdays.

It begins with my favorite, favorite recipe for chocolate cake. If you’ve been reading for a while (or browsing the recipe archives), you’ve seen it before in the Rich Dark Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Buttercream. It also played the principle role in the groom’s cake I made for Sierra & Sean last October.

I really can’t speak highly enough about this chocolate cake. It’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of: moist, stable, easy to make, dark and beautiful, and very chocolatey.

To make this a reasonably-sized dessert for a summer party, this recipe only makes two, eight-inch rounds. Since I like a thinner layer of cake, however, I sliced each layer in half. Once the cakes have cooled, storing them in the fridge for a hour or so makes this process a little easier as the cake will firm up a bit.

The “icing” for this cake is essentially whipped cream, but it has a small amount of gelatin mixed in. Though I was at first skeptical and sure that only pure whipped cream would be required, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by this addition. The small amount of gelatin helps the whipped cream hold it’s structure, and it gives it a lovely, fluffy consistency rather like Cool Whip.

And of course, the best part The strawberries! In my opinion, summer’s most photogenic berry. Strawberry season is almost over here in North Carolina, but many of you farther north still have several weeks of these blushing little gems just waiting to be sliced and spread across the surface of this cake.

While I would normally add just a bit of sugar to these berries to help them release their juices, this cake doesn’t need it. For one thing, I didn’t want red juices dripping down the sides of the cake. For another, the slightly tart bite of the berries is lovely against clouds of whipped cream and rich chocolate cake.

Putting this cake together, once everything is prepped, is quite simple. I used a similarly rustic approach for a strawberry shortcake I made last year, and I never get tired of how pretty it looks.

Layer by layer, this cake stacks up to be beautiful and delicious. You could easily swap out a different berry, too: it would be a dream with raspberries, or even a mixture of raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, or blueberries.

Put one together for your Fourth of July celebrations… it’s worth the effort!

Chocolate Strawberry Cream Cake
Adapted from an earlier project and Sweetapolita

For the Cake
1 3/8 c all-purpose flour
1 1/3 c granulated sugar
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/8 tsp baking powder
1 3/8 tsp baking soda
1 3/8 tsp salt
1/3 c canola oil
5/8 c buttermilk
2 large eggs
1/2 c hot coffee
1 T vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Generously grease two eight-inch round pans with pan coating and set aside. For flatter layers, wrap the pans with damp strips of tea towel.

Sift all dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer or other large mixing bowl. Add all remaining ingredients and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes (use the paddle attachment if using a stand mixer). Scrape sides of bowl with a spatula and mix for 30 seconds more. Batter will be very fluid. Pour batter into the greased cake pans, using a kitchen scale to ensure you have the same quantity of batter in each pan.

Bake for 25-35 minutes on middle oven rack or until a toothpick comes clean. Remove pans to a cooling rack and let cool for 10 minutes or until sides of cakes have pulled away from the pans. Using another cooling rack placed on top of each cake pan, flip the racks and pans over and press on the bottoms of the pans to remove cakes. Let cake cool to room temperature.

For the Filling/Topping
1 pound fresh strawberries
1/8 c cold water
2 tsp gelatin
1 5/8 c whipping cream, very cold
3/4 c powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt

While the cake cools, wash strawberries and allow to dry slightly in a colander. Trim off the greens and slice the strawberries into a bowl and set aside.

Once the cake has cooled to room temperature, pour gelatin and water into a stainless steel bowl. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Place 1/3 c of cream in a small pot over medium-low heat. Once cream comes to a simmer, pour slowly over the gelatin. Mix with a fork until gelatin has dissolved. Place the bowl in the fridge and allow to cool until the outside of the bowl is neutral in temperature. Stir the bowl often or the cream will begin to gel.

Using the whisk attachment of a standing mixer, beat the remaining cream, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt on high until soft peaks form, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Reduce to medium-speed and drizzle the gelatin mixture into mixer bowl. Return to high and beat until firm peaks form. Mixture will resemble Cool Whip.

Assembly
Once your strawberries are sliced and your whipped cream is prepared, slice each layer of chocolate cake into two using a good bread knife. I find it’s easiest to rotate the layer while you are slicing, making sure you keep the knife level as it slices around the cake.

Place one of your new, small layers onto a plate or serving platter. Spread one fourth of the whipped cream over the top of the cake layer to the edges, leaving the sides bare. Spread one fourth of the strawberries evenly over the whipped cream. Repeat the order for the next three layers.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I’ve never been a particularly voracious celebrator of Valentine’s Day. Perhaps I spent too many years as a single teenage girl, pining for the magic of rom com love and commiserating with fellow single teenage girls about the fairy tale love affairs we surely were soon to have. I supposed that Valentine’s Day for those lucky ladies in relationships were whimsically romantic and that I was sure to celebrate this holiday with fervor when I, someday, became an un-single lady.

What’s interesting is that, once I did find a smart lad to be my companion, I virtually stopped caring about Valentine’s Day all together. Those romantic candle-lit dinners at tables with red rose centerpieces were wildly extravagant for college students on a budget (and I was probably in rehearsal anyway). The idea of receiving gushy Valentine’s gifts, which seemed so appealing when I was younger, seemed borderline silly. You’re more likely to find Brad and I ordering pizza in and laughing ourselves to tears watching funny YouTube videos this Thursday night. And you know what I wouldn’t want it any other way.

What I do love about Valentine’s Day is the opportunity it offers me to bake pink, chocolatey, heart-shaped little treats to share with the people around me. These cookie sandwiches have it all. Crisp, deeply chocolate cookies sprinkled with course red sugar press together around a layer of creamy icing studded with raspberries. And despite their showy appearance, they are incredibly easy to make.

We start by making the crisp, chocolate cookies. I’ve been eyeballing this recipe from Smitten Kitchen since she posted it a couple weeks ago. In addition to cocoa, these chocolate sables contain a whole bar of rich, dark chocolate.

This dough is a little more delicate than, say, sugar cookie dough. However, it holds its shape nicely during baking, even without re-chilling the dough before it goes in the oven. For obvious holiday reasons, I chose to shape my cookies into little hearts, but any small cookie cutter shape will do.

In the midst of chilling dough and cooking sheets of cookies, you can quickly whip up the filling. It’s based on a cream cheese icing I use for Carrot Cupcakes, and I can’t get enough of it. I still had some raspberries frozen from the summer, and they lend both a tart fruitiness and a stunning pink shade to this creamy icing.

I ended up with extra icing, but I don’t foresee any problems putting it to good use for other snacking. Perhaps even a second batch of cookies is in order.

These cookies are best served cold, with your favorite companion, and with a box of pizza and some YouTube videos.

Chocolate & Raspberry Cream Cookie Sandwiches
Adapted liberally from Smitten Kitchen

3 oz semi-sweet chocolate
1 c all-purpose flour
1/3 c Dutch-process cocoa
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
course red sugar

8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
2 T unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 c powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 c fresh or frozen raspberries

Break chocolate into chunks and place in the bowl of a food processor with the blade attachment. Pulse several times until chocolate resembles a powdery, coarse meal. Sift together flour, cocoa, and baking soda onto a sheet of parchment paper and set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer or in another large bowl, cream together butter, salt, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix well. Scape down the sides of the bowl and add the ground chocolate and sifted cocoa mixture. Mix until a crumbly dough is formed, scraping down the sides of the bowl to incorporate all ingredients. Dump the dough onto a sheet of waxed paper and wrap tightly, which will help the dough to come together. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes to allow the dough to firm up a bit (not too much or it will be hard to roll).

While the dough is chilling, you can prepare the filling. Clean out the mixer bowl and beat cream cheese and butter on high speed for about 5 minutes until light and creamy. Add powdered sugar and beat for 5-8 more minutes on high. Reduce speed to low and add raspberries, blending until thoroughly combined. Place bowl in the refrigerator until the cookies have been baked.

Line 2-3 cookie sheets with parchment paper and preheat oven to 350°F. On a floured surface, roll dough out until it is about 1/8-inch thick. Roll it out slowly, as the dough will still be somewhat crumbly. Use your favorite cookie cutter to cut the dough into shapes and carefully lift each cookie to the lined cookie sheets, spacing them about an inch apart. Gather all dough scraps together and roll out again, continuing this process until all dough has been used. Sprinkle each cookie with some course red sugar.

Bake for 10 minutes, then remove cookie sheets from oven. Leave cookies on the trays for about 5 minutes, then carefully remove them to cooling racks and allow to cool completely.

Spoon filling into a piping bag (you can also use a sandwich bag with the corner trimmed off). Flip over one cookie and pipe a mound of filling onto it, making sure to keep the filling 1/4-inch away from the edge. Gently press another cookie on top until the filling squeezes to the edges. Repeat until all cookies have been used. You will have some leftover filling, which makes a wonderful dip for everything from graham crackers to apples.

Store cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Durangoans are particularly proud of our beautiful state around the holidays. While many people send seasons greeting cards adorned with wintery vistas, evergreen trees weighed down with glistening mounds of snow, and woodland animals making their way silently through the drifts, those of us who spend Christmas in Colorado usually have the great fortune of watching those holiday cards come to life around us. This year, the first major snow of the season hit my hometown just a few days before I came home, and a gentle snowfall on Christmas Eve really sealed the deal for a white Christmas.

Having resided primarily in non-mountainous locations outside of Colorado for the better part of the last decade, I start getting really antsy for snow right around Thanksgiving but rarely actually see any until I’m flying over the Rockies a few weeks later on my way home for the holidays. For my holiday party (I swear, I’m almost done posting recipes from that dang party) in early December, I wanted to pay some small homage to the spectacular winter beauty of my home state, and I also was lacking a chocolate-y dish on my menu.

Enter the brownie.

Most often, I see brownies served with a light dusting of powdered sugar arranged in a pyramid of sorts on a serving tray. And boy, they never last long, do they But what if, I thought, I rearrange those brownies like a little mountain And top them with funny little trees! And DEER?

I was committed.

But despite all the décor, the truth of the matter is that this is a REALLY yummy brownie recipe. It’s rich, fudgy (as brownies should be, sorry Mom), hugely chocolate-y, and is honest-to-god just as fast as using a brownie mix. It starts with, not cocoa, but a mound of unsweetened cocoa melted into some butter.

With the chocolate melted, the rest of the prep is really the easiest thing you’ll ever meet. Whisk in some sugar, eggs, salt, vanilla, and flour, and you’re just about half an hour away from brownies.

Now, if you’re not having a bout of nostalgia for snow-covered mountains, you can just stop right here, dust the whole pan with powdered sugar, and slice these brownies up for eating. But let’s operate under the assumption that you DO want to turn your brownies into a little wonderland, shall we?

Okay!

First, you need some trees. Otherwise you’ll just have snow-covered rocky crags, which are interesting but probably will just alarm your guests into thinking you had some sort of accident when arranging your brownies. I found my trees in the miniature ornament section at a craft store. They came with adorable wooden bases that I chopped off immediately so I could stab them into the brownies. And I couldn’t resist adding a couple of deer, as well. To celebrate Bambi. Or James Potter. Or just because deer live in the forest.

I arranged my mountain in a long panorama, but this could also be a round-ish mountain. However you arrange them, I do hope you serve them at a party or gathering where you can watch people pick up the brownie of their choice. It’s quite amusing to watch the trees and deer gather closer together as people work their way in.

And there you have it! A winter wonderland of chocolate, sugar, and butter inspired by Colorado scenery.

I can promise it tastes much better than actual mountain.

Winter Wonderland Brownies
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes one 13”x9” pan of brownies about one inch thick

6 oz unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chopped
2 2/3 c granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 ½ tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp sea salt
1 1/3 c all-purpose flour
powdered sugar for dusting
miniature tree decorations, and forest animals if desired

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 13”x9” pan with parchment paper that extends up all four sides. Spray parchment lightly with cooking spray and set aside.

In a large microwavable bowl, combine chopped chocolate and butter. Heat in 30 second bursts at 50% power in the microwave, stirring between each burst. When the mixture is about 2/3 melted, stir without any further heating until all butter and chocolate is melted. Whisk in sugar, eggs, vanilla, and salt. Shake off whisk and switch to a rubber spatula. Add flour and mix well. Scrape batter into the lined baking pan and spread evenly throughout pan.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the pan comes out with just a speck or two of brownie. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

Once brownies have cooled, lift the parchment from the pan. If using decorative trees, snip off any wooden bases and shake thoroughly over a trashcan to remove loose “snow”. Cut brownies into two-inch squares. Arrange about half of the brownies on a narrow, rectangular serving platter or plate. Place 2-3 tablespoons of powdered sugar into a fine mesh strainer or sifter and dust the bottom layer of brownies until sugar coats the top. Arrange remaining brownies as desired to create multiple levels and a mountainous effect. Continue dusting the tops of the brownies as you place each layer down so that every brownies is dusted with sugar.

Carefully arrange trees and forest animals as desired just before serving.

Leftover brownies should be covered with foil or plastic wrap or can be stored in an airtight container or zippered bag.

The various food blogs and aggregates I browse are alight with red, white, and blue this week. And it’s no surprise! What better way to celebrate America’s Independence Day than with some desserts that feature fresh fruit that coordinates so well with Old Glory You probably already have your plans in place for whatever festivities await you today, but if you don’t, get out your baking gear and try this one.

These little desserts are based on a recipe out of the Joy the Baker Cookbook. I’ve mentioned before that the blog of the same name is one of my favorites to follow, and I was thrilled to finally get my hands on her cookbook. I find it inspiring that someone who is not classically trained in culinary technique, photography, or writing has created such a mind-blowingly successful blog and now has a published book to show for it.

It’s the first of many recipes in the book I’m eager to try.

I’ve never made a tart before, but a happy stroke of fate found the cookbook in my hands and a pack of miniature tart pans on sale at the same time. With removable bottoms, these fancy little pans allow for a cute and classy presentation of an already pretty dessert.

The tart crusts are surprisingly easy to make… no rolling of pie dough required! They do need an hour-long chill in the freezer so they don’t get all puffy in the oven. But that will give you plenty of time to prepare the rest of the tart filling and topping.

Chocolate ganache, which plays a starring role in this dessert, is also really easy. Dangerously easy. Some good dark chocolate, some cream, and a bit of butter create a smooth and creamy ganache that spreads like magic.

And the toppings, of course, come together with hardly any effort at all. The whipped cream can be done by hand in several minutes, or if you have a mixer, several seconds. The berries hardly need any help at all at this time of year.

And before you know it, you’ll have a pretty little treat to bring to your Fourth of July gathering. The spicy crust and rich chocolate are complimented nicely by the cool, fresh berries and cream.

Happy Independence Day!

Chocolate Ganache Berry Tartelettes
Adapted from Joy the Baker Cookbook

Makes 4, 4-inch tartelettes

For the Crusts
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/2 c unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1 large egg yolk, beaten

In a large, wide bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and ginger. Add butter cubes and work into the flower using your fingers. Work butter into the dry mixture until a consistency of very coarse meal is achieved. Using a fork, add the beaten egg yolk and combine well. Mixture will appear to be quite dry and crumbly.

Spoon the mixture into 4 miniature tart pans with removable bottoms. Using your fingertips, press mixture into the bottom and sides of the pan evenly all the way around. Remove any excess dough from the top to form a flush, horizontal edge around the rim of the pan. Place pans in the freezer for at least an hour. Chilling the dough will help to prevent the crusts from puffing up. While crusts chill, prepare ganache below.

After ganache is prepared and crusts have chilled, preheat oven to 350 F. Cut four squares of aluminum foil, each one large enough to lay on top of a tart pan, and grease one side of each square with butter. Remove tart pans from freezer and cover with aluminum squares, buttered side down. Bake covered pans for 18 minutes. Remove aluminum squares and bake for another 12 minutes or until crusts are golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

For the Ganache Filling
6 oz dark chocolate, roughly chopped
Scant 1 c heavy cream
3 T unsalted butter, at room temperature and cubed

Chop chocolate and place in a medium bowl. Heat cream in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat until it comes to a simmer. Pour half of the cream slowly over the chocolate pieces and allow to sit for 1-2 minutes. Gently whisk chocolate and cream mixture until combined, starting at the center of the bowl and moving out. Continuing to whisk, add remaining cream and mix until combined. Add butter cubes and stir with a spatula until all butter has melted. Ganache should be smooth and shiny. Set aside at room temperature.

For the Toppings
1 c fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
1 c fresh blackberries
1/2 c heavy cream, very cold
1 1/2 T powdered sugar, sifted

After crusts have been removed from the oven and are cooling, wash and prepare berries. If you are using large blackberries, carefully cut them in half. Set berries aside.

In a medium bowl, combine very cold heavy cream and powdered sugar. Whisk or beat vigorously until cream forms soft peaks. It is helpful to place the entire bowl in the fridge for a few minutes during this process to cool the cream, which will help it whip up faster.

Assembly
Carefully remove crusts from tart pans and remove the bottom, as well. By this point, ganache should be thick but spreadable. Spoon a large dollop of ganache into each crust and spread evenly. Top each tartelette generously with berries, keeping one berry of each type set aside. Dollop whipped cream onto each tartlette. Add a strawberry and a blackberry to the top of the cream on each to make ’em pretty.

Tart is best served immediately, but can also be stored in the refrigerator for several days. If storing, remove from the fridge for 30 minutes prior to serving.

Here’s the thing.

Most of my choices of meals to make revolve around what I want for dinner, what features a local ingredient at the peak of its season, or what has been leering at me the strongest from my list of recipes to try.

But sometimes I just want to make cake. Unnecessary, frivolous, decadent, indulgent, cake.

I don’t often make desserts, partially because we rarely have more than the two of us at dinner. But when I threw my pizza party a couple weeks ago, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to make something fancy.

Both the recipes and the inspiration for this cake came from a blog I recently stumbled across (and have subsequently become obsessed with) called Sweetapolita. These cakes are something. else. Miracles of butter and sugar. They are simple yet stunning, classic yet unique.

And the best part This particular chocolate cake recipe is, hands down, the easiest cake recipe I have ever made. Many cakes recipes have intricate patterns of adding dry ingredients, folding in damp ones, carefully mixing until consistency is just so… not this one.

First the dry ingredients are sifted together…

…then the wet ingredients are added…

…and then the whole mess is poured into a pan. Presto!

But first.

Before any of that, actually, one key to making presentation cakes such as this one is to have a really, really reliable way to get that cake out of the pan in one piece.

I’ve been using the same recipe for pan coating since I began learning to decorate cakes as a nine-year-old, and I have yet to find a method that is both as reliable and as simple as this one. Composed of ingredients that I typically have on hand anyway, I always keep a batch mixed up.

Also, these old strips of tea towels (which are moistened and wrapped around the pan while the cake bakes) keep the outer edges of the cake from cooking faster than the center, allowing the cake to bake more evenly and preventing a dome in the middle. These old tricks help to produce a flat-topped, easily removable cake every single time.

So the cake Easy peasy.

The buttercream is a slightly more complicated matter.

This was my first attempt at Swiss Meringue Buttercream, a mountain I’ve been hoping to summit for some time now. Though it’s not the easiest icing to work with and take a bit of time to prepare, I was pleased with the final result both in look and flavor.

Swiss Meringue buttercream is essentially sugar, egg white, and butter.

Lots. And lots. Of butter. Try not to think about it too much, it’s for the best.

Since I also needed the whites of 10 eggs, I opted to buy a bottle of egg whites rather than figure out what to do with 10 yolks. I know, I know there are loads of things I could do with them, but since I had just swallowed the fact that I was using two pounds of butter for this icing, I decided I didn’t need a yolk-rich recipe anytime in the future.

Swiss Meringue buttercream starts over the stove. Egg whites and sugar are heated before being whipped into a silky meringue. Meringue is one thing I almost can’t imagine making without a stand mixer. It’s lovely to blast that thing up to medium-high, do a batch of dishes, and come back to a bowl of thick, fluffy meringue without an arm of jelly.

Once the meringue holds stiff peaks, the butter is added, slowly but surely, to create the final product. It’s sort of miraculous, really, that the icing ever comes to fruition. The addition of butter to the meringue created a gross, curdled mess, but just a few more minutes of mixing and suddenly, the smoothest silkiest icing I’ve every created was sitting before my eyes.

Buttercream!

And last but not least, the ganache.

Ganache is fairly simple, and quite versatile. All it takes is a yummy dark chocolate and cream.

Once you have cake and icing and ganache, it’s assembly time.

Big flat sheet cake suddenly becomes four narrow cakelets! But not without measuring. Are you mad?

Prizes if you recognize this tape measure.

Yes, there is more to the assembly than just the stacking. But there’s only so many pictures you can take when trying to spread buttercream over an 8″ tall cake.

But finally, finally, after all the hard work and the many ingredients, a pretty final product is ready to serve.

The chocolate cake is moist, flavorful, and tender. The icing is smooth, not overly sweet, and tangy.

If I dreamed in cakes (a likely possibility), this would be a cake dream come true.

Rich Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Buttercream
Adapted from Sweetapolita

Rich Chocolate Cake
Makes one 1/2 sheet cake

2 3/4 c all purpose flour
2 2/3 c granulated sugar
2 3/4 tsp baking powder
2 3/4 tsp baking soda
1 c unsweetened cocoa (can be dutch-processed or not)
1 3/4 tsp salt
2/3 c canola oil
1 1/4 c buttermilk
4 large eggs
1 1/8 c hot coffee (I used Starbucks Via)
2 T vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Generously grease a half sheet pan with pan coating and set aside.

Sift all dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer or other large mixing bowl. Add all remaining ingredients and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes (use the paddle attachment if using a stand mixer). Scrape sides of bowl with a spatula and mix for 30 seconds more. Batter will be very fluid. Pour batter into greased cake pan. If using, moisten thin strips of tea towel tied together and wrap around outer wall of cake pan.

Bake for 25-35 minutes on middle oven rack or until a toothpick barely comes clean. Overbaking will cause the cake to dry out, so be sure to check often once you’ve reached 25 minutes. Remove pan to a cooling rack and let cool for 10 minutes or until sides of cake have pulled away from the cake pan. Using another cooling rack placed on top of the cake, flip the racks and pan over and press on the bottom of the cake pan to remove cake from the pan. Let cake cool to the touch and then place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or the freezer for 30 minutes. Keep the cake cold until your icing is prepared and you are ready to begin constructing the cake.

Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream Icing
Makes about 10 cups of icing (you’ll need it all if you’re building the 4-layer rectangular cake)

10 large egg whites (about 300 grams total)
2 1/4 c granulated sugar
2 pounds (8 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (NOT melted) and chopped into cubes
2 T vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 c fresh raspberries, mostly dry

Lightly wipe the bowl of a stand mixer with vinegar to remove all traces of grease. Using a pot that does not allow the stand mixer bowl to touch the bottom, add 2-3 inches of water in the base of the pot. Then, place the mixer bowl in the pot and heat over medium heat. Add sugar and egg whites to the mixer bowl and simmer, stirring constantly, until temperature of the mixture reaches 140 °F.

Move bowl to mixer and use whisk attachment. Whip at medium-high speed until mixture is thick, glossy, cool to the touch and forms stiff peaks. Switch over to paddle attachment and beat on medium speed. Add 2-3 cubes of butter at a time until incorporated, never turning off the mixer. The mixture will appear to curdle, but just keep mixing! Once icing has come to a silky, smooth texture, add vanilla & salt.

Set icing aside until ready to construct and ice the cake. Then, add raspberries and mix on low. Be careful not to over-mix so that you keep the mottled, streaked effect in the icing.

Dark Chocolate Ganache
Makes about 1 cup

1/2 c heavy cream
5 oz dark chocolate, chopped into very small pieces

In a small sauce pan, bring heavy cream just to boiling and remove from heat. Add chocolate to hot cream and let rest, without stirring for 3-4 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, stir to incorporate cream into chocolate.

Assembly
Remove cake from fridge or freezer. Using a serrated bread knife, slice cake into 4 sections of equal width. To ensure they are the same width, stack sections on top of one another and make additional cuts as needed. Place one section, flat side down, on a rectangular platter or cake stand and spread icing about 1/3″ thick over the top. When spreading icing, be sure to spoon icing from main bowl onto a small plate and applying from there to avoid getting crumbs in your main icing supply. Add the remaining sections, spreading icing between each section, with the final section sitting flat side up.

Spread a very thin coat of icing over the entire cake to create a crumb coat. Chill entire cake in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to set crumb coat. This will make the application of the final layer of icing easier. While cake chills, wash icing knife to ensure that all crumbs are removed.

Once crumb coat has set, remove cake from refrigerator. Starting with the top of the cake, add a thick layer of buttercream. Work icing over the edges of the cake and ice the side. Add buttercream generously, as much of it will be scraped off as you smooth the cake. Once icing is applied, wipe edges of the plate to remove any stray icing or crumbs.

Chill cake for 15 minutes to set buttercream. Remove from refrigerator and slowly drizzle liquid (but not hot) ganache  on top of the cake. Start with just a little bit, and spread ganache gently toward the edges of the cake so that it drips down the sides and thinly coats the top of the cake.

To finish, line the base of the cake with fresh raspberries and place three raspberries on the center of the cake. Chill cake until about two hours before serving. Then, allow cake to come to room temperature before slicing.

Pan Coating (for easy cake release)

1/2 c shortening
3 T corn startch
3 T all purpose flour

Combine ingredients thoroughly. Store in an airtight container in the pantry. Coat inside of cake pan, focusing on the corners, for an easy way to ensure your cakes will come out in one piece.

I’m about to get real crafty on you.

I love making gifts. Buying a gift is fun, especially if you get to see the recipient open it, but making gifts is hugely entertaining. For me, it’s an excuse to try ridiculous and absurd and totally unnecessary edibles. Like this.

I’ve been wanting to make homemade hot chocolate as a gift now for some time, but felt somewhat neutral on the idea of mixing together cocoa and sugar in a jar to create a mix. Finally, I found what I was looking for: a cube of chocolate ON A STICK melted into hot milk, for a creamy, interactive hot chocolate experience. After making a double batch for my friends and family, I most certainly now want to make a batch for myself, and I thought you might, too.

The concept is simple enough: take a really, really good chocolate, melt it, add cocoa and powdered sugar, pipe into mold, add a stick, and call yourself Willy Wonka.

But first, let’s talk about chocolate for a minute. Or rather, melting it. When melting chocolate, water is like poison: a single drop can cause the whole batch to seize up, leaving you with an awkward, clumpy glob. The common impulse at this point is to increase the heat, which only makes matters worse. Traditionally, home bakers have melted chocolate in a double boiler, which produces steam and as you may know, steam is WATER. Not really good for steam to billow out from a double boiler only to collapse immediately into your chocolate. Solution Microwave. Not the most sophisticated sounding solution, but definitely the easiest and fastest way to get chocolate that is perfectly melted.

Yummers.

Next! Your beautifully melted chocolate is about to turn into a thick, brown, glob that seems unusable. This is exactly the way that it should be. Remember, we’re not going for chocolate milk, we’re going for a rich, thick, creamy mug of miracle, and the cocoa and powdered sugar push us closer to that end.

Getting the chocolate into the molds (these ice cube trays work perrrrfectly) is the next challenge. My first batch was a bit too thick with too many dry ingredients, which produced a sensation in my arms that I was actually squeezing mostly dry concrete out of my piping bag. Keep those dry ingredients loosely packed for a more successful project.

Then prod each with a stick and add four little marshmallows to the top. The marshmallows are not technically required, I suppose, but they do make them look a lot more like hot chocolate and a lot less like a chocolate lollipop. Right Plus who doesn’t like a few little mallows?

After a few hours of waiting…

*waiting*

*waiting*

they can come out of their little mold, solid as a rock.

Now I suppose you could stop here. But after making such a clever little gift, shouldn’t you give it the courtesy of some fancypants ribbon and some little instructions?

Yes. Yes you should. You’ll have a whole little fleet of gifts so purty you won’t want anyone to unwrap them.

Except that you do. Because otherwise, there would be none of this. Which is really just quite unacceptable.

Hot Chocolate Sticks
Adapted from Giver’slog

Makes 15-16 sticks

Update: It seems that some people have had trouble with the consistency of the mixture becoming too thick. I made another batch and weighed the dry ingredients and have included the measurements below. This should help to remove any issues caused by inconsistencies in measuring cup sizes or method of packing those cups.

Supplies
sticks (at least 5 inches long)
piping bag or sandwich bag with 1/2″ corner cut off
ice cube tray or deep candy mold, each cavity approximately 1 ounce

Ingredients
9 oz. milk chocolate (not chips)
7 oz. semi-sweet chocolate (not chips)
1/2 c (1.5 oz) loosely packed cocoa
1 c (4.5 oz) loosely packed powdered sugar
1/8 tsp salt
mini marshmallows

In a medium bowl, sift together cocoa, powdered sugar, and salt. Set aside

Chop chocolate into small pieces (no larger than about 3/4″ inch long) and combine in a glass bowl that is completely dry. Microwave in 30 second bursts on 50% power, stirring between each burst, ensuring that your spatula is also completely dry. Once chocolate is about 2/3 melted (there are still some chunks in the melted chocolate), stir until remaining chunks melt. This prevents the chocolate from getting too hot.

Pour melted chocolate into the mixing bowl containing the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Mixture will be very thick, similar to brownie batter. Spoon mixture into a piping bag (no coupler or tip is needed) or into a sandwich bag with the corner sliced off. Pipe the chocolate into an ice cube tray.

Once all chocolate has been piped, pound the tray lightly on the counter to eliminate air bubbles and to flatten the tops of the cubes if they are uneven. Working one cube at a time, insert a stick and place four mini marshmallows onto the top of the cube. Once all cubes are complete, set aside until cubes are completely dry. You can also place them in the fridge if you are in a hurry.

Once all cubes are dry, remove carefully from the molds. Wrap pretty and store in the cupboard.

To Use:
Heat up 1 cup milk (approximately 1 ounce of chocolate should be used for each cup of milk, so adjust based on the weight of your cube) and stir in. Cube will take several minutes to dissolve completely.