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Little Biscoff Cheesecakes

Biscoff Cheesecake

Performance Art

“You know, Lee I think of my life as a kind of music, not always good music but still having form and melody.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

Cooking and baking is live performance art. If you never thought you were an artist, I’m taking this opportunity to say that yes you are! We create and share and then it all disappears. Each individual act of cooking and baking is never repeated. Like a long running Broadway show, the more practice, the more consistent the performance. There are so many variables—timing, ingredients, attention to detail, experience, technique, equipment. Some performances are better than others, its real theatre. There are days when my performance is dismal. Even when I’m totally submerged in the process, it can fail. It’s a smooth performance in my kitchen theatre when a new recipe comes together easily. Little Biscoff Cheesecakes are from one such performance. READ MORE . . .

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Pumpkin Almond Cake with Almond Butter Frosting

Pumpkin Almond Cake with Almond Butter

The Pumpkin Chapter

“The rain started late in the afternoon. Adam huddled under his oilskin, waiting for the dark to come, and when it did he walked through the dripping night into the town of Valdosta. His black hat was pulled down over his eyes and his yellow oilskin was strapped tight against his throat.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

It rained again! And snowed in the high Sierras! Our garden has soaked up every last drop, the trees are dropping leaves and it is much colder at night. This dramatic change of seasons has me baking and cooking warm and comforting recipes. Here is a sweet little pumpkin cake that has found a special place on my fall “must-bake” list. (Disclaimer, this list does not include fall pies. For pies there is no list, they are all worthy of making.) There are three cakes I make each fall: Spiced Cranberry Buttermilk Bundt Cake, Brown Sugar Pear Pound Cake and this Pumpkin Almond Cake with Almond Butter Frosting. What sets this cake apart from the abundance of seasonal pumpkin recipes is the almond butter frosting. I would have never thought to pair pumpkin with almond but Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito did and pumpkin cakes will never be the same. The recipe can be found here. READ MORE . . .

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Spiced Cranberry Buttermilk Bundt Cake

Spiced Cranberry Bundt

A Cake for Autumn

“But in California it does ordinarily rain at all between the end of May and the first of November.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

It’s raining today and I couldn’t be happier. By the time I publish this post it will probably be sunny again. But such a nice big rain the first week in November is a very good thing. California is parched and ready for good news. READ MORE . . .

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Betty Pretzer’s Apple Coffee Cake with Sour Cream

Betty Pretzer's AppleCoffee Cake with Sour Cream

The season of apples and cinnamon

“The long Salinas Valley was part of the exploitation. Adam had seen and studied a fine color broadside which set forth the valley as that region which heaven unsuccessfully imitated. After reading the literature, anyone who did not want to settle in the Salinas Valley was crazy.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

Way back when (I am not divulging any dates) I worked for woman who loved to bake. She was single and new to the area so all her baking adventures were shared at the office. She was fiercely independent, having taken this new job, with a new company, in a new community. One of my favorite bosses had just been promoted and she took his place. And she arrived, a feminist in a male dominated workplace. We worked at a factory and I had been able to move from the warehouse to the accounting office. It was a lateral transfer but I no longer had to wear a hardhat or alternate working day and swing shift. We got off to a rocky start. She wanted me to take accounting classes, I resisted, she insisted. In the end she won and I took the classes. READ MORE . . .

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Creme Fraiche Cake with Plums and Pistachios in Olive Oil

Creme Fraiche Cake with Plums and Pistachios in Olive Oil

The excess of late summer

“And the books that came into the house, some of them secretly— well, Samuel rode lightly on top of a book and he balanced happily among ideas the way a man rides white rapids in a canoe. But Tom got into a book, crawled and groveled between the covers, tunneled like a mole among the thoughts, and came up with the book all over his face and hands.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

When the recipe for Creme Fraiche Cake with Plum Caramel landed in my in-box I went to my bookshelf and found my copy of the A.O.C. Cookbook by Suzanne Goin to discover what the fuss was all about. I realized the original recipe had two more components, whipped cream and pistachios in olive oil. Raves about the plum cake made with plum caramel had me wondering, what if the cake was smothered in caramel, pistachios AND whipped cream? I just had to make this cake and everything else. READ MORE . . .