For July 4th last year (yes, I’m 6 months behind on posts) I made bite-size boccone dolce. I hadn’t remade this recipe since I posted it in 2015, but did recall that the meringue moistened up really quickly, so I made the components ahead of time and had a DIY boccone dolce set-up when dessert o’clock rolled around. These were little bite-sized red, white and blue desserts with a simple, sweet kick. Not sure how feasible these are for a larger potluck (typical of July 4th) but might work fine if you skip the whipped cream entirely.
half day
cookies and cream cake
A cake that looks like a baseball! Sports! Heh. Made this for a friend’s birthday a few months ago, a small cookies and cream cake, with swiss buttercream frosting (separate post). The cake was pretty moist. Cookies and cream buttercream was good, but I think could be a bit sweeter like a real Oreo. Overall, I thought it was delicious!
method – roll cake
A roll cake! My favorite treat from an Asian supermarket is the coffee flavored roll cakes. But I try not to buy them because that means finishing the entire thing in a few days… I think this was pretty successful! Maybe overbaked the cake just a tad, but relatively easy assembly with fun serving 🙂 This was also my first chiffon cake! Which I haven’t tried in a regular cake shape, but plan on doing soon as the search for a white cake recipe continues.
chocolate crinkles
I haven’t made chocolate crinkles in years, and I have no idea why not. They’re freaking delicious bites of chocolatey goodness, basically cake in cookie form, with powdered sugar “frosting” to boot. This recipe pretty much inspired me to buy 5 more pounds of Valrhona cocoa powder “just in case” – whatever that means. I’ve adapted this to a one-bowl recipe, which pretty much means I’m going to ignore the fact that they’re considered winter seasonal cookies. The chocolate life discriminates against no season.
junior’s cheesecake
Well, to be more specific: Junior’s White Chocolate & Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake with Junior’s Sponge Cake Crust. This is the longest recipe I’ve logged on Butter.City so far. It’s probably the longest a recipe can be in its entirety before I lose interest and. I guess it didn’t help that I made the full portion of this cheesecake, which is a lot of cheesecake. Volumes were much larger than typical for me. But you know, I did it, with just a teeny tiny snafu (overbaked the cheesecake – but luckily no burnt aroma). If you are up for a challenge, this cheesecake was definitely pretty delicious. It was on the sweet side though, I’d probably take out a third of the sugar next time.
macarons
Supposedly one of the most challenging pastries to make at home, macarons are famed to need extreme precision and effort. But in my typical way, I lazied this recipe down to its very minimum, and it came out delicious and with really good texture! Great success for a first effort, and I will be working on other flavors! Hojicha macarons, anyone?
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5 minute artisan bread
I made bread! With yeast!! My very first homemade bread, and it was really tasty! I followed the recipe exactly from that book that came out a few years ago. It was tasty, and I will try again, perhaps with some rosemary and parm mixed in next time? 🙂 Read more
cheesecake
Yeahhhh buddy, cheesecake! This cheesecake has neutral flavor (not too creamy or cheesy) and medium texture – not too soft and not too hard. That might sound boring but it’s actually a great go-to cheesecake recipe that never disappoints.
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burnt almond cake
I tried my hand at a burnt almond cake! The one from La Patisserie is soooo good. Best birthday cake(s) ever, highly recommend. But after a few tries (and no complaints from Stanley) I think I’ve found a reasonable #homemade alternative.
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sprinkles’ chocolate marshmallow cupcakes
My first attempt at marshmallow frosting! It went much more smoothly than I expected, and I guess my fear of whisking egg whites on active heat was kind of unfounded. My favorite Sprinkles cupcake is the Chocolate Marshmallow, but the closest Sprinkles is about 30 minutes away driving. The solution for my lazy butt is to Google a recipe and make my own! I used my own ganache and chocolate cake recipes, per the links below, and just borrowed a marshmallow filling recipe from the Internet. I found it to be a little undersweet, which was surprising, so next time I may add a tad more sugar…
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