My friend Laura likes chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting. I told her husband I would surprise her with a very special version of that flavor combination so I made her some homemade Hostess cupcakes. These are fun because they look like a boring chocolate cupcake with shiny glaze, but they have a surprise inside- a big yummy blob of vanilla frosting!

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This recipe is:

• super easy
• gluten-free
• dairy-free
• eaten up in mere moments
• good for passover, as they are not leavened (I’m not Jewish, but I know how that stuff works)

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I saw this strawberry sour cream pie mentioned on my Twitter feed and the name alone had me clicking through to Worth the Whisk before I knew it. A quick read of the recipe and it was bookmarked. Then I used the husband’s iPad in the kitchen to make the pie. So I say, thank you, technology for helping me get to this tasty and tantalizing pie!

It was near perfect… the sour cream filling comes out kind of like a cookie texture, studded with strawberries. Next time I will probably add vanilla extract to the filling, and a few more strawberries. It was a big hit with the guests.

A note: it would be a CRIME to serve this pie without ice cream.

Get the recipe from Worth the Whisk here

Mark Bittman seldom disappoints- and he certainly didn’t in this instance. Inclined as I am to trust his recipes, I will admit that I was skeptical about this one. I mean only 6 tablespoons of butter for a whole crisp? That’s not even a whole cube! How could it possibly make a compelling crisp?

I’m happy to report that my worries were totally unfounded. This is a case where the sum of the parts greatly exceeds the parts on their own. This is a fantastic crisp recipe- perfectly balanced sweetness, a nice contrast of textures, and easy as heck to put together. And in case you were wondering, pairing it with Bi-Rite Creamery’s brown sugar ice cream with a ginger caramel swirl is not the worst idea, either.

You can get the recipe here (posted in the New York Times.)

After a month of putting up only photos, I decided I couldn’t go another day without putting up a recipe. I’m wracked with guilt over my inattention to creating useful contributions to the blogosphere. OK, not really. But here’s a recipe anyway!

This recipe combines two delicious things: wine and cake! This cake is moist and flavorful, with a tender crumb and rich flavor- thanks in part to the “secret” ingredient: red wine in both the cake batter and the glaze.

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A few weeks ago I posted about this Banana Caramel Upside Down Cake. I made it again recently, but instead of bananas I upside downed pears sliced on a mandoline, put some orange zest in the caramel, and used whole wheat pastry flour instead of white flour.

Divine! Although I did dump it out and realize it wasn’t done yet, so I had to re-upside-down it, cook it some more, then re-un-upside-down it. It worked surprisingly well in the end although there was a period of severe swearing that involved liquid hot caramel magma all over the kitchen and my pants, but the cake looked good after all that so no big deal in the end.

This is a pretty easy cake that was inspired by a delicious, gooey pear-ginger cake we used to make at Rose Pistola. I had no recollection of the recipe so I made a few attempts and came up with this excellent facsimile of the original cake. Of course, it doesn’t have to be made with bananas, you can use another kind of tasty fruit like peaches, mangoes, pears, plums, or apples. You can get creative with adding citrus zest, toasted coconut, or chopped nuts into the batter as well.

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Think I’m talking about pancakes? Think again. I’m talking about one of the best and easiest sweet treats I’ve come across in a long time: the flapjack. It’s a tantalizing triangle o’ tasty.

I received an issue of Bon Appetit in the mail the other day. I have no idea why since I don’t subscribe to it or any other food magazines because if I did, then what would I read at my Mom’s house? I thank the magazine gods because in this particular issue Molly from Orangette wrote a story about British flapjacks and included a recipe. I give it four thumbs up: 2 for the story and 2 for the recipe.

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My aunt Sherrie and I made these together. I think it’s kind of weird that red velvet everything is in vogue right now. It must be some irony-induced backlash to the organic/natural movement that makes us want to pump our bodies full of whole bottles of evil red food coloring. Or maybe it’s just because they are so pretty!

They weren’t quite as dark red as we wanted but they sure were velvety! They were kind of dense and pound cake-y. Yum! The recipe is adapted from a Paula Deen recipe- I mean, how can you NOT trust a woman who puts Velveeta in chocolate fudge?

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My last couple posts have been kind of weird and gross! As individual posts, they are OK, as a gestalt, notsomuch. I’m pleased to say that things are looking up for everyone, as I have something that is decidedly NOT gross and in fact  SUPER delicious- a recipe for Pancake Ice Cream with Bacon Candy.

I put this beloved recipe up as a guest post on Thursday Night Smackdown, which is known for its witty proprietress Michelle, who swears like a stevedore. Ergo, don’t be surprised if I seem a little grittier over there. Or funnier. I think I tried harder to be funny because she’s really funny and I wanted to impress her, and you. Hopefully it worked. If not, just think about the bacon candy some more. Bacon. Plus candy. Bacon candy!