Good Things by David

You can never go wrong with a chocolate layer cake.  Whether you make one for a birthday or to celebrate someone fantastic in your life, a tall, dark chocolate cake covered in a delicious buttercream is the way to go.  I have yet to find someone who refuses a slice of chocolate cake. Plan ahead: bake and cool the cake layers, and if not icing that day, wrap each layer in plastic wrap and chill until ready to use.  You can freeze the layers for up to one month (thaw overnight in the refrigerator).   For this cake, I used Martha Stewart's Ultimate Chocolate Cake.   Click here for the recipe.   I find that chilled cake layers are key for applying flawless Swiss meringue buttercream.  You can do it on room temperature cakes, but crumbs are more likely to come off if the layers aren't hardened a bit. Swiss meringue buttercream is perhaps one of the easiest buttercreams to make, because the preparation is straightforward and basic.  Egg whites and sugar...

Lingonberries, also known as mountain cranberries, cowberries and partridgeberries, are small red fruits native to Scandinavian countries, areas of Canada and in parts of Alaska.  Recognized for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, these tiny berries grow wild on an evergreen bush called Vaccinium vitis-idaea , a member of the heath family.  At first glance they are very reminiscent of cranberries, and yet, they are less tart, a bit more delicate in aroma and infinitely edible.   I had the pleasure of using wild lingonberries (I used frozen) a few days ago to make an upside down cake for a gathering at a neighbor's house.  The results were well worth the effort of tracking down wild lingonberries.   Click here to buy the exact berries that I used from Northwest Wild Foods.   For the recipe itself, I turned to the trusted experts at King Arthur Flour.  Their Harvest Apple Cranberry Cake looked like the perfect base to use...

Are you thinking of surprising someone with a homemade birthday cake this year?  Try making a layer cake decorated with iced sugar cookies in whatever shapes the recipient may like, but go the extra mile and add their nickname in cookie form as well.  Whenever I hear the term, "cookie cake", I think of either a layer cake or sheet cake with cookies attached to it.  A flat chocolate chip cookie 'pizza' iced and decorated to look like a cake is not a cake in my opinion.   Having alphabet cookie cutters in one's pantry is a must if you are a cookie crafter, cookie baker and cake decorator.  They allow you to spell out a person's name, a greeting or even their nickname.  They come in various fonts and sizes, so pick and choose whatever you like, and then create personalized cookies or cakes. This past week I baked a delicious chocolate layer cake and iced it in delicate Swiss meringue buttercream.  To this I attached royal icing cookies in the sh...

It seems as if steamed puddings are rather underrated these days.  Most of us have abandoned the tradition of steaming desserts over a burner for hours on end, opting for baking our delicious sweets instead.  I admit that I don't steam puddings too often, but whenever I do, I know that the end results are always unbelievably good. In essence, steamed puddings are nothing more than cakes which have been steamed in bowls, molds or cake pans.  Just about any good butter cake recipe can be made this way if so wish.  However, it's always best to choose those which have deep, spicy flavors.  Pumpkin, persimmon, ginger, chocolate, apple and fig are just some examples of steamed puddings that have the perfect assertive flavors for steaming. An apple spice cake recipe that I make every single year was turned into a set of steamed puddings over the weekend, and the results were well worth the effort. From the eggs, flour, butter, sugar, fruits and spices...

It was National Dessert Day this past weekend and I began to reminisce over the sweets that I've indulged in and shared here on the blog.  It's impossible to photograph and write about everything that I bake and serve, but thankfully I've managed to do so for some of my all-time favorite desserts  For those of us who can't pass up an occasional sweet, this post is for you.  I like just about every type of dessert, with the exception of a couple of pies and/or flavors, and am willing to try something if I've never had it before. When all is said and done, I like those things that I enjoyed from my childhood, like a layer cake, some freshly-baked cookies, a hand pie or two, and cupcakes just like the ones mom used to make for our elementary school parties.   Cakes, cupcakes, puddings, souffles, pies, tarts and cookies can be as elaborate or as simple as you want them to be.  Depending on the occasion and the season, I like to mix things up based on what I...