Recent Posts

Tres Leches

Tres Leches Cake is a light sponge cake soaked with three kinds of milk: sweetened condensed, evaporated and heavy cream (milk-ish enough to count), hence the name. Today is Cinco de Mayo and this cake seemed just the thing to celebrate with.

Coffee No-Churn Ice Cream Sandwiches

We went from 16″ of snow to 80 degrees in two weeks. My mind spun into summer mode in about 10 seconds flat. We Minnesotans can’t adjust to the warm slowly or we may miss it. So, in my mind it’s summer and that means ice cream season. My friend, Sarah […]

Cajeta Cake with cinnamon buttercream

Cajeta Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream

Looking for video tutorials? Check out my Cake Basics series on YouTube! You’ll learn how to trim and slice, how to fill a layer cake, how to crumb coat and how to decorate! This week I finished the second round of edits on my new book. That’s about halfway through […]

Butterscotch Pot de Creme

Butterscotch Pot de Crème

I developed this butterscotch pot de crème recipe for Tilia‘s dessert menu. Steven Brown, the chef/owner wanted a turbo charged version of the butterscotch pudding from his childhood. We went with a Pot de crème, which is essentially as decadent as creme brulee, without the crack of caramel resting on […]

Chocolate raspberry bundt

Chocolate Bundt with White Chocolate-Raspberry Cream

This Nordic Ware Brilliance Bundt Pan is my recent favorite piece of kitchen equipment. It is so elegant and fun. A simple cake baked in it really is worthy of standing alone on a pedestal. However, I decided to gild the lily and add white chocolate raspberry cream to the inside. […]

Flan on a plate with one slice cut out, sitting on a server.

Easy Homemade Flan

This simple flan recipe is beloved by my son, and I hope your family loves it just as much. It’s a great dessert for Cinco de Mayo, and simple enough to whip together any time. A Family Favorite Flan is one of my youngest son’s favorite desserts. He orders it […]

Super “Light” Cheesecake with Armagnac Prunes

There are many styles of cheesecake. I often go for a super dense, silky smooth, custardy cheesecake, but other times I want something a bit lighter with more of a soufflé texture. This cheesecake falls into that second camp.

Lemon Mascarpone Crêpe Cake | ZoeBakes by Zoë François

Lemon Mascarpone Crêpe Cake

Crêpes are a beloved food group in my household. My boys have grown up eating them with everything from sweet to savory fillings, sometimes dozens at a time. When I couldn’t get them to eat as little kids I’d make a batch of crêpes and watch as they disappeared. Stacking […]

Carrot Cupcakes (from The Minimalist Kitchen)

If you’ve ever seen my kitchen, you’ll know I am not a minimalist. The abundance just sort of happened. I’ve lived a full life and gathered stuff along the way. Too much stuff, perhaps. I just got Melissa Coleman’s (thefauxmartha) beautiful new book and I am determined to declutter, downsize […]

profiteroles with ice cream and ganache

Profiteroles

Pâte à choux translates from French to mean “cabbage” in English. It is a far less romantic word, so we stick to the French. The truth is the puffs look just like little cabbages when piped and baked. Pâte à choux is the dough used for cream puffs (profiteroles) and […]

Raspberry Custard Tart | Zoe Francois

Raspberry Custard Tart (Flan Parisien)

This is a wonderful tart filled with vanilla custard. You’ll find custard tart in every patisserie in Paris, but have likely never come across one here in the states. Its rustic simplicity is exactly the kind of pastry I love. It’s really quite easy to create; a tart dough (this […]

Birthday Cake

Looking for video tutorials? Check out my Cake Basics series on YouTube! You’ll learn how to trim and slice, how to fill a layer cake, how to crumb coat and how to decorate! Tomorrow is my son’s birthday and this is the cake he requested. My kids have always been […]