Recent Posts

Spice Cake from Silvana’s Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Kitchen

This gorgeous gluten-free spice cake is from Silvana Nardone’s most recent cookbook, Silvana’s Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Kitchen. She has created incredible recipes for those who are sensitive to wheat and dairy, using her own gluten-free AP flour mix and a simple recipe for homemade almond milk.  Of course, I headed straight […]

Sour Cherry Pie

Cherry Pie (With A Secret Ingredient)

The not-so-secret secret to this recipe is using sour cherries to cut through some of the sweetness. Find out why sour cherries make for the best pie and get the full recipe below! Cherry Pie Tip: Sour Cherries The key to success with this sweet, but not too sweet, cherry […]

Trix Cake

We really have David Chang and Christina Tosi of the Momokuku restaurant group in NYC to thank for elevating breakfast cereal from a mere bowl of milk to high-end desserts. They’ve been serving cereal milk (you know the flavored milk at the end of a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios) […]

Blueberry Cake

Sometimes the best ideas come from happy accidents. I had set out to make blueberry sauce for the boys’ pancakes, instead this purple, berry-stuffed cake materialized. I’d been testing a recipe for the perfect white cake, which I am always on the hunt for. (I think, in my humble opinion, […]

Cherry Cheesecake

This is a classic cherry cheesecake. It’s shaped like a heart for Valentine’s day, but you can make it any time of year in a regular pan. It has all the classic cheesecake flavors, with a graham cracker crust creamy filling. The addition of fresh cherries for a topping gives […]

My Kitchen Remodel (Before and After)

In 2013 my husband and I bought a house. It’s a gob-smacking piece of 1902 architecture with ornate woodwork, the likes of which I’d never seen before. It was built by T.P. Healy, who made a name for himself in Minneapolis building homes for the flour barons and other folks […]

Éclairs

“Lightning!” That’s the literal translation from French I got when I put éclair into google translate. I’ve read a couple of explanations for this name, but only one makes any sense to me. “They disappear in a flash, quicker than a bolt of lightning.” This is the absolute truth. Eclairs […]

Pumpkin Cake For Halloween or Thanksgiving

I first made this fun pumpkin cake with my kids for Halloween (they’re adults now!). It’s a fun and festive cake that can be dressed up for adults or made just for kids. Pumpkin season is here, which is the only reason I can send this short summer off with […]

Tiramisu

By the time I became a pastry chef in the mid 1990s tiramisu, the decadent Italian dessert that defined the 80s, was banned from all high-end restaurants. It was a matter of bad PR, not because it wasn’t well liked or frequently requested. In fact, it was its very popularity […]

Tomato Water Sorbet with a Sweet Tomato Chip

It is the end of the growing season in Minnesota and time to harvest all the last hanging fruit from the tomato vines. Any day now we’ll get a killing frost, and I’m bracing myself for it.

Peanut butter cookies doused in sugar

Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies are a classic for a reason. This is a fun throwback post that features my now adult son when he was little! Plus, you’ll find a gluten free peanut butter cookie recipe variation using peanut flour. For more amazing cookie recipes, order my cookbook, Zoë Bakes Cookies, […]