ZoëBakes

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Malt Buttercream

Henri Turned 10 this month and the celebrating has been at a feverish pitch for weeks. It is a big year when your little baby hits double digits and becomes a tweenager. On his actual birthday we celebrated with our family. He wanted to rent the movie Grease (one of […]

Rhubarb Fool

It is officially spring when I walk outside my door and there are stalks of rhubarb standing tall in my garden. To date, rhubarb and strawberries are the only edible things I’ve managed to grow. Every year the rabbits and squirrels wait until the strawberries are perfectly formed and just […]

Chocolate-Ginger Marbled Cheesecake “Bars”

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. These chocolate-ginger marbled cheesecake bars are my contribution.

Springtime Flower Cake

This weekend was my neighbor’s birthday. Her husband asked me to bake her a decadent chocolate cake and decorate it with “Spring Flowers.” Here in MN it isn’t exactly bursting with flora yet. In fact, as I was working on this flower cake it started to snow. But Easter is […]

Coconut Macaroons or Haystack Cookies piled on a cake stand

Coconut Macaroons (Haystack Cookies)

You’ll find this Coconut Macaroons recipe, among may of my other favorite cookies, in Zoë Bakes Cookies. I know, the whole macaroon/macaron thing is rather confusing. It’s helpful to think of both as derivatives of a cookie that has evolved over hundreds of years with each version maintaining that base […]

Chicken Pot Pie with Homemade Puff Pastry

There are very few things that say comfort food like a chicken pot pie. I go for the classic combination with chicken, peas, carrots and a parsnip for flare, in a rich creamy white sauce that is made with fresh thyme and parsley. The whole thing is draped in a […]

Sticky Rice with Mango and Coconut Cream

Earlier this month I went on a mom only junket with my friend Jen. We went to Vegas! Our trip there was for the food and not all of the other more “sinful” elements it is known for. We stayed at the ultra *fabulous* Wynn hotel, which has some of […]

Baklava

Thanks to Peter of kalofagas.ca (I follow his culinary journey on Twitter), I’ve been craving Greek food, and baklava in particular. For some crazy reason I haven’t made it since I was in college, about 20 years ago. I love the crisp phyllo, which is layered with ground nuts, sweet […]

Pineapple Polenta Upside-Down Cake

Recently I participated in a benefit auction for one of my favorite charities, the Children’s Heartlink. We auctioned off a “celebrity” chef bake-off to be held at General Mills test kitchen. Assembled were a team of my favorite pastry chefs in the Twin Cities as the coaches and some heavy […]

Black and White Sesame Tuile

Last summer Graham and I went to NYC to eat, take in a few museums, visit with cousins and eat some more. Graham’s cousin Riad is the executive chef at Pastis and Balthazar (and the author of the The Balthazar Cookbook). It goes without saying that Riad is an amazing […]

Saffron Panna Cotta

My husband is going to have a fit when he realizes that I’m talking about his diet on my website. It really does have some relevance to this post, so I hope he will forgive me! He went to the doctor recently and was basically told he needed to cut […]

Cups of Butterscotch Pudding with Bananas

Butterscotch Pudding with Coffee-Caramel Bananas

Butterscotch is one of those flavors that can make you travel through time. I remember eating it, still warm off the stove, when I was just a kid. It was straight from the box of Jell-O instant pudding and it was fabulous to my 7-year-old taste buds. Today I’d probably […]