Everybody has a first time. Mine was the summer after fifth grade when I took a special painting class with my fifth-grade art teacher. And then I did it. I asked someone for a recipe…
Tag Archives | desserts
Tips on Icing a Cake, Sort Of…
I have always been a horrible cake icer. Horrible. My kids have said my cakes look like a dog vomited on them (although they eat them with glee and joy). The other week when I was making my own damn birthday banana cake, it happened to be the Monday of Martin Luther King Day, so my babysitter and cleaning lady in the house. They waited until I was done icing my cake, and then started giving me advice. In that few minutes of advice, I learned more about icing a cake than I had learned in a lifetime.
Light and Fluffy Banana Cake
I’ve been making banana muffins for years (aka “happy cakes”) but have been craving a good banana cake that is light and slathered in butter cream icing (NOT cream cheese icing! There is a time and place for that, but it is way overdone, if you ask me—kind of like balsamic vinegar). And since it was my birthday recently, I thought I would make it myself. And it was so good!
Heirloom Molasses Cake
I get cravings for molasses things—not gingerbread (too wintry), but the kind of cakey stuff that’s inside a shoofly pie, but without the pie’s crust and the wetness. The first time I made this recipe it was too dry, and it collapsed under the crumbs. So the second time, I added eggs and more butter. It was good! It was moist! It was dark and rich because I use organic molasses, and it’s the dark stuff that’s filled with nutritional goodness. It’s total yumness and very quick and easy to make.
Inside S’mores
by guest blogger Maya Rodale. Inside S’mores—or Baked S’mores—were invented by necessity on a rainy day, but now they are one of my go-to treats.
Grandma’s Crumb Cake Recipe
For some reason lately, I haven’t been able to get the idea and taste of this cake out of my head. More of a traditional “coffee cake” than a dessert cake, it’s the taste of my childhood.
Chocolate Chip Molasses Cookies:
Hurricane Comfort Food
I don’t usually bake much, but something about an impending hurricane (Irene) made me want to have some cookies on hand. Once, a long time ago I combined molasses and chocolate chips and made a really good cookie, so my goal on the Friday night before the storm hit was to replicate that taste memory. […]
The Easiest Fresh Summer Fruit Pie
This pie was born out of frustration, deception, and laziness. I was all set to try to recreate the famous Hess’s Patio Restaurant fresh strawberry pie (even if you don’t know Hess’s Department Store, you know the kind of pie I’m talking about—giant raw strawberries with candy-color glaze and whipped cream a mile high on […]
Scratch
Raised on America’s first organic farm, Scratch author Maria Rodale learned how to make everyday favorites from, yes, scratch — the way you remember them; the way they turn out best.
Order NowOrganic Manifesto
Drawing on findings from leading health researchers as well as conversations with both chemical and organic farmers from coast to coast, Maria Rodale irrefutably outlines the unacceptably high cost of chemical farming on our health and our environment.
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