Since childhood I’ve been amazed at the way carrots transform themselves when baked into a cake. You don’t even know they’re there. I remember thinking when I was a boy: someone’s gotta be pulling my leg. This carrot cake is a far cry from the overly dense, overly moist cakes that I ate as a […]
READ ONThe nuts and bolts of this cake recipe are pure Rose Levy Beranbaum, as found in her latest book, Rose’s Heavely Cakes. It differs mainly in the spicing, since in my universe a carrot cake is really a classic spice cake dressed up in hippie garb. This cake is moist but not overly so, and […]
READ ONIt’s been a long and demanding week, friends, but the missus arrived back home over the weekend. I was relieved, but not nearly to the degree that my young daughters were. They were well tired of being sent to school looking like 1930’s-era Dust Bowl survivors. What can I say, I’m not skilled at laundry […]
READ ONThis is something of a Southern treatment of a classic coffee cake, as it calls for both buttermilk and pecans. If you like, you can substitute either yogurt or sour cream in the batter, and swap the pecans in the streusel for walnuts — even almonds — if they’re more convenient. All the egg yolks […]
READ ONThough Danish-style coffee cakes are very close to my heart, I must confess that there’s nothing like the comfort of a piece of simple “crumb” cake with a nice hot cup in the morning. Make this exactly as you would a layer of butter cake. The formula is: 7 ounces (1 1/3 cups) all-purpose flour […]
READ ONCome on baby let’s do the…oh that’s too corny for Wednesday morning. The twist can be an intimidating thing for beginning coffeecake shapers, since it’s sort of like open heart surgery on a piece of dough. The first time you do it you feel like all you’re doing is making a big mess. But as […]
READ ONIf you’re looking for a coffeecake that will amaze your friends and terrify your enemies, this is the one. Actually quite simple, it will make you look like a true master of the breakfast pastry-shaping arts. It works very well with chocolate. Start by making a simple filling out of three ounces of chocolate and […]
READ ONJust like the kind that comes in the box at the grocery store, only much, much, much, much better. This is the easiest kind of all to shape, and can be filled with pretty much anything from jam to chocolate to cheese to fruit. This one will be raspberry. Start with about a third cup […]
READ ONAll the shapes I’m about to show you have a common point of origin: a roughly square piece of Danish pastry dough. So instead of having a 6-shot intro for every coffee cake tutorial, I thought I’d make things easy and put the rolling tutorial into just one post. Start with your dough piece, about […]
READ ONDanish dough, since my favorite coffee cakes are made with laminated pastry. The recipe on the site will make enough for two coffee cakes of medium size. The great thing about laminated dough is that while it’s time-intensive to make it freezes beautifully. I like to make a whole lot, cut it up and freeze […]
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