Sweet And Crumby

Baking, a Love Story

Category Archives: Cakes


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When Life Gives You Lemons—Make Lemon Rosemary Cake!

Lemonade is refreshing, yes, but lemon cake is memorable; especially this one. This lemon cake is NOT the syrup-y sweet kind that tastes like a lemon lollipop.  This one  is tart, blooming with hints of rosemary and the lightest, almost translucent, flavor of olive oil.   The texture is exquisite.  It’s full and solid,  yet also soft and moist.

I’m in a lemon phase.  Maybe it’s because it has been so cold and dark most of the month, and I am now basking in the warm weather here in sunny So. Cal, or maybe it’s because of the book I have just finished reading, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.

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Happy Chocolate Peanut Butter Birthday Cake!

I know, you have seen this magnificent cake before.  It is not new, nor terribly original in the blogosphere, but this Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake  is a magical cake so just in case there are a handful of you newbie blog readers out there, or if you have just come off a long trip from the NASA space station, here it is adapted from Smitten Kitchen, but with my own tweaks.

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My Favorite Chocolate Ganache — A Baker’s Superhero


Just like Super Glue or duct tape can hold anything together in the non food world, I am convinced that chocolate ganache can shore up just about any dessert mishap.   Trust me, I have put it through more than its share of test trials, and chocolate ganache can and will most assuredly save the day.  Your cake is a bit on the dry side?  Chocolate ganache!  Is there a crater running through your cake the size of the San Andreas Fault line?  Chocolate Ganache!   I think you get the picture.  You’re smart like that.

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Aunt Bette’s Dangerous German Chocolate Cake

Aunt Bette is my husband’s aunt, and as far as my dad is concerned, her German Chocolate cake is the best dowry any dad could ask for.  It is actually airy and spongy, with the best ooey, gooey coconut and pecan topping.  If that’s not enough, it also has a luxurious chocolate butter cream frosting on the sides just to send it over the top.

After eating a slice of this superstar cake, you do something radical—you are not yourself, you lose all control and you go in for seconds…yes seconds.   A little tiny bit more is shaved off the cake and delicately placed on your plate…a smidgen more couldn’t hurt, could it? Continue reading →


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Traditions Reinvented—A Cranberry Chocolate Devil’s Food Cake

Are you in the Thanksgiving spirit yet?  Perhaps dreaming of cranberries and pumpkin pie?  Cranberries are so nice and tart that they are the perfect accompaniment to a deep, dark Devil’s Food cake laced with both white and dark chocolate ganache.

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Fluffy, the Tarantula, and one Not-So-Scary Bundt Cake

I absolutely adore Halloween.  The next few posts will be devoted to my creatively borrowed ideas from all sorts of places for Halloween treats and fare, and this particular post is dedicated in “loving” memory of our pet tarantula, Fluffy.

“WHO has a pet tarantula?!!!”, you ask yourself.  Am I right?  Well, it didn’t happen on purpose, I can tell you that, and technically she ended up being my husband’s pet tarantula since he kept her at work per my not-so-gentle request. Continue reading →


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The Hot Cocoa Cake and the Girl Who Cured My Fear of Marshmallows

O.K. if you need a superstar of a cake to bring somewhere, and you want lavish praise and adulation, this one is IT.  It is named the Hot Chocolate Cake and is from Fine Cooking Magazine.  The crazy thing is this cake actually does remind me of the world’s best homemade decadent cup of hot cocoa.

This particular issue of Fine Cooking has been sitting on my nightstand, taunting me for months.  Why I haven’t made it until now were those homemade marshmallows you see there.  YES, those are homemade marshmallows…do I need to say that again for effect…HOMEMADE MARSHMALLOWS!!!! They frightened me.

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A Spicy Apple Cake Gets Soused

How could something NOT CHOCOLATE be this delicious? It has taken absolutely every ounce of strength I have NOT to lick my fingers when frosting this cake. It is a decadent creamy, caramel icing, and the cake itself is soft, rich and full of the spices of fall.

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Chocolate Strawberry Truffle Cake and the Speed of Life

Imagine biting into the perfect strawberry chocolate truffle from a ridiculously expensive box of chocolates but in cake form. That is what I was going for when my daughter requested a strawberry chocolate cake for her twelfth birthday celebration.  I looked all over the internet and searched through my cookbooks, but did not quite find what I had in mind.  So I pieced together recipes from three different sources to get exactly what I was imagining…a chocolate strawberry truffle in a lovely slice of cake.

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Lindsey’s Lick the Plate Butter Cake

This rich, moist, golden cake is a butter cake, not a pound cake, but a spongy, soft and fancy bundt version.  This beautiful cake was baked by my own blog super-fan and chef extraordinaire, Lindsey.  She is my twelve-year-old niece, and she can whip up anything flat…just try her!  I dare you.

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