Spongy, light, and sweet.  Just as it should be.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
12 large egg whites, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Don’t grease or flour your angel food cake pan. A 10″ round pan or an angel food loaf pan will fit this recipe well.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and 3/4 cup of the sugar. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the egg whites, salt, and extract. Beat until the mixture is just frothy, then sprinkle the cream of tartar on top and continue beating until the mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks.

Add the remaining sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, then gradually fold in the dry ingredients.

Spoon the batter into the pan, and bake the cake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until it’s golden brown and the top springs back when lightly touched.

Remove the cake from the oven, and set it upside down with a bottle through its center cone to keep its top from flattening on the counter. Let the cake cool for 1 1/2 hours. This cooling period sets the structure, and keeps the cake from collapsing.

Loosen the edges of the cake with a knife, and remove it from the pan. Glaze and decorate as you like. 

Feliz cumpleaños, Jorge.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup  unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 cup  buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons espresso powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup melted chocolate (whatever leftover chips or scraps you may have)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter and lightly flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy.  Add the egg and beat well, then the buttermilk and vanilla. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, espresso powder and salt together right into your wet ingredients. Stir together with a spoon until well-blended but do not overmix. Fold in melted chocolate. Scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure everything is mixed in.

Pour the batter into loaf pan and bake for 70 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan on a rack for about 10 to 15 minutes before you turn out.

I got the recipe here.

Parmis showed me this awesome middle eastern cookbook and I couldn’t resist.

INGREDIENTS

6 oz. room temperature butter
1 teaspoon cardamom
4 ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup of caster sugar
3 eggs
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 3/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a non-stick square cake pan.
Mash the bananas in a bowl and stir in cardamom.
Combine the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time and continue to beat. Next, add the walnuts and mashed banana and fold in. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt over the mixture and gently fold all the ingredients together. Spoon the batter into the buttered cake pan and smooth the surface. Bake for 35-40 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Let cook for 10 minutes in the pan then turn out to cool completely.

Pain au Chocolat done my way.

INGREDIENTS

Starter:
1 teaspoon active yeast
1 cup flour
1/4 cup water

540 g bread flour
60 grams of good-quality cocoa powder
1 teaspoon yeast
14 ounces room-temperature water
2 teaspoons sea salt
5 oz chocolate, chopped

DIRECTIONS

Mix the starter ingredients together and let them sit for 30 minutes.

Place the flour, cocoa powder, and yeast in a large bowl. Add the starter and the water and knead by machine for 5 minutes.  Add the salt, then the chopped chocolate.  Once mixed it, cover for two hours.

Punch down and place in refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, take the dough out of refrigerator and let it come to room temperature. Preheat oven to 450 degrees with the dutch oven heating in the oven.  Place the dough into the dutch oven and bake with the lid on for 25 minutes.  Take off the lid and continue to cook for 15 minutes more until bread sounds hallow.  Let cool on rack for 30 minutes before cutting.

Start this the night before and your family and friends will love you in the morning.

INGREDIENTS

6 cups flour
4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoon instant yeast
Approx. 3 cups water

DIRECTIONS

Mix together the first 3 ingredients. Slowly add the water until dough is wet and a little loose.  Cover and let sit on the counter overnight.  In the morning heat oven to 500 degrees with dutch oven in it so it gets hot too.  Once the oven and pot have been heating for about 30 minutes, plop the dough into the dutch oven, sprinkle with additional seeds and onion if desired. Cook covered for 30 minutes.  Take lid off and let the top of the bread brown for about 10-15 minutes.

Imagine if an espresso and a brownie hooked up and made a cookie together.

INGREDIENTS

150g dark chocolate
50 g butter
2 eggs
125 g sugar 
3 tsp powdered espresso
1 tbsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking powder
60 g flour
Sea salt flakes

DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, add the butter, chocolate and coffee powder. Melt it in the microwave or in a double boiler, till it is fully melted.

In a separate bowl, add the eggs, sugar, and vanilla and using a whisk or a hand mixer, mix for 3 minutes, till the mixture becomes pale and fluffy.

Pour the cooled chocolate mixture and keep whisking continuously.

Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold the dry ingredients in. Once you no longer see any dry ingredients, chill the dough for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, scoop out the dough using an ice cream scoop and bake the cookies for about 15-17 minutes or until the edges are set.

Sprinkle the cookies with sea salt as soon as they are out of the oven, let them cool on the pan for 3-4 minutes and shift them to a wire rack to cool completely.

I decided to play with the new Russian tips I got. Happy Birthday, Amanda!

INGREDIENTS

Cake
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups flour
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind (about 2 lemons)

Glaze
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar

Buttercream
150 grams of room temperature butter
340 grams of powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3-4 tablespoons milk

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Beat together the butter, sugar, and salt, first until combined, then until fluffy and lightened in color. 

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl once all the eggs have been added, and beat briefly to re-combine any residue.

Measure the flour by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess. Whisk the baking powder into the flour. Add the flour mixture to the batter in three parts alternately with the milk, starting and ending with the flour. The batter may look slightly curdled when you add the milk. That’s OK; it’ll smooth out as you add the flour. Mix until everything is well combined; the batter will look a bit rough, but shouldn’t have any large lumps. Stir in the grated lemon rind or lemon oil.

Thoroughly grease a 10- to 12-cup Bundt pan. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, leveling it and smoothing the top with a spatula.

Bake the cake for 45 to 60 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. A pan with a dark interior will bake cake more quickly; start checking at 40 minutes.

While the cake is baking, make the glaze by stirring together the lemon juice and sugar. Microwave or heat over a burner briefly, stirring to dissolve the sugar. You don’t want to cook the lemon juice, so microwave just until very warm, but not uncomfortably hot — less than 1 minute should do it. Set the glaze aside.

Remove the cake from the oven, and carefully run a knife between cake and pan all around the edge. Place the pan upside down on a cooling rack. If the cake drops out of the pan onto the rack, remove the pan. If the cake doesn’t drop onto the rack, let it rest for 5 minutes, then carefully lift the pan off the cake. If the cake still feels like it’s sticking, give it another 5 minutes upside down, then very gently shake the pan back and forth to loosen and remove it.

Brush the glaze all over the hot cake, both top and sides. Let it sink in, then brush on more glaze, continuing until all the glaze is used up.

Allow the cake to cool completely before decorating. 

To make the butter cream: Mix the butter for approximately 5 minutes in a mixer until light and smooth.  It should turn much lighter in color.  Add the powdered sugar in two parts making sure to mix on med-high for 5 minutes each time.  In a small bowl, mix the vanilla and milk.  Add a tablespoon at a time until you get the desired consistency.  Cover it until you are ready to use it.  Pipe or frost as you desire.  I used the russian tips to make the flowers.  

I worked with this recipe.

This is the good stuff.

INGREDIENTS

4over-ripe bananasmashed
1cupdark brown sugar
8tablespoonssalted butter,room temperature
2large eggs
1 1/2cups flour
1teaspoonbaking soda
1/2teaspoonkosher salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350º F. Spray a 9-inch loaf pan with baking spray.

She wanted a Tuxedo Cake, she got one.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups water
1 cup canola oil
4 cups sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 cups flour
4 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon baking soda
¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

WHIPPED CREAM FROSTING

4 cups chilled heavy whipping cream
1 ¹⁄₄ cups powdered sugar

FOR THE CHOCOLATE GLAZE

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
¹⁄₂cup heavy whipping cream
¹⁄₄ cup light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

Line the bottom of three 9-inch pans with parchment paper rounds, butter and flour pans.

Combine the butter, water and canola oil in a medium saucepan set over medium heat. When butter is melted, set aside, being careful not to boil over.

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, cocoa and flour.

Pour the butter mixture into the sugar mixture and whisk until smooth.

Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, then whisk in the buttermilk.

Whisk in the baking soda, salt and vanilla all at once.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pans.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let cakes cool on racks for about 15 minutes before turning out to cool completely.

To Make Frosting: Using a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the cream in a large bowl on high speed until soft peaks form.

Add the powdered sugar and whip until thoroughly combined.

Frost cake and refrigerate at least one hour.

To Make The Glaze: Place the chocolate in a medium bowl.

Heat the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until it is very hot and just beginning to steam.

Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until it has melted completely.

Stir in the syrup and the vanilla.

Pour the glaze into a medium pitcher or measuring cup and let cool for ten minutes.

Slowly pour the glaze over the cake, ensuring that it covers the top of the cake entirely, but make sure some of the cream frosting shows through the drizzles on the sides.

Refrigerate the cake until the glaze is set and the whipped cream frosting is firm, at least one hour.

I worked with this recipe.