Instagram has spoken and these are the Top Nine ZoeBakes Desserts 2019, as determined by your 1 million likes. Thank you so much for following and I look forward to baking with you in 2020!
These are in no particular order of popularity. Find the list and recipes below: Read More
This beautiful Roasted Squash Brown Butter Cake just happens to be gluten-free, as is everything in Aran Goyoaga’s new book Cannelle et Vanille. If you don’t happen to follow a gluten-free diet, this book is still for you, in fact, you’ll not even notice the wheat is missing from any of Aran’s recipes, they are purely delicious and gorgeous. Her work needs no introduction, she has been blogging and inspiring us all for over a decade. This book is a culmination of that journey as a chef, food photographer, mom and pastry chef who switched to working with foods that made her feel healthier and in turn happier.
This gorgeous cake comes from the pages of her book and I added a cranberry relish that has fresh strawberries and pink peppercorns, a lovely compliment to the roasted squash brown butter cake.
The magic trick of cake decorating was revealed to me 21 years ago when I attended a week-long class at the Wilton School of Cake Decorating and Confectionery Art outside of Chicago. Anyone who loves cake and piping icing knows the Wilton name and reaches for their products to get the job done. This Cherry Blossom Cake came to me instantly, because I wanted to utilize the piping skills I learned from their classes all those years ago. I had just been on a trip to NYC and the cherry trees were in full bloom with their sweet, delicate blossoms. The inside of the cake is a spiral of sponge cake filled with a simple whipped cream and cherry sauce.
I piped simple cherry blossoms with lemon royal icing and stuck them to the buttercream-covered cake. There are a few steps to this Cherry Blossom Cake, but it is such a fun project and the results are stunning.
You can watch my YouTube Videos on how to Decorate with Buttercream for tips on getting a smooth finish and the recipe below.
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I purposely waited until after April 1st to post this little Disco Party of a Chocolate Microwave Mug Cake, because I didn’t think you’d take it seriously enough. It’s very serious! 😉
The recipe was inspired by one of the most celebrated pastry chefs of our time, Christina Tosi. Her new Milk Bar book, all about cake
, is full of playful, but delicious cakes. Her molten chocolate microwave mug cake is in the same chapter as crock-pot cakes and there are 50 pages dedicated to cake pops, sans the stick.
Oh, you know me, I love a flourish. Sometimes it’s a rose crown on a bundt cake or a ruffle of gossamer apples topping a tart or maybe, just maybe a crazy swirl of toasted meringue on anything! But, sometimes simple is best. A summer snack at the lake, a slice of cake in a lunchbox or a midnight treat with a glass of milk. Those are the cakes we’ll make at the last minute, after a long day of work, just because we want a treat and cake makes everything good. Odette Williams wrote Simple Cake
, a book about those cakes; the simple ones that are pure joy. Her book is filled with lots of delicious cakes and simple toppings that are great for a special occasion, but just as good if nothing in particular is going on. This simple chocolate cake is elegant and warm and makes me want to eat all the cake.
At the core this is a pound cake that has a perfectly dense crumb and is rich with almond paste, but it is also a tribute to spring, which is on its way. The decoration came to me after I made the blood orange glaze, that is the prettiest pink you can find in nature. The color is from the red fruit, without use of any food color (the season is short, so you can recreate this color with all natural food color that I link to below).
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