Baking and Chocolate

Booze Cakes

What would the holiday season be without desserts? And booze? Fortunately, the sassy ladies behind the spirited cookbook Booze Cakes have got ya covered. Authors Krystina Castella and Terry Lee Stone have created the ultimate fun baking book with over 100 bodacious, boozy confections.

The book is divided into four sections:
1. Classic Booze Cakes such as English Trifle and Tipsy Tiramisu.
2. Cocktail Cakes such as Pumpkin Martini Cakes and Tequila Sunrise Cake.
3. Cake Shots including Rum & Coke and Screwdriver Shots.
4. Cakes with a Twist such as Black Jack Praline Cake and Rosemary Limoncello Cake.

Castella and Stone are girls who want to have fun, and they want you to have fun too. That's why they include helpful icons for special occasion cakes and a cheeky "Booze Meter" that rates cakes as "Lightweight," "Feeling It," or "Totally Tipsy." (In case you're wondering, I picked a "Totally Tipsy" cake.)

Green Market Baking

Laura C. Martin wants you to have your cake and eat it, too. That is, only if it's baked with all-natural, preferably locally sourced ingredients. Think it can't be done? Martin proves it can in her new book, Green Market Baking Book: 100 Delicious Recipes for Naturally Sweet & Savory Treats.

The recipes, some created by Martin and others by influential chefs and food writers including Alice Waters and Dan Barber, are made with all-natural, organic, sustainable ingredients. Refined sugar is out. Brown rice syrup, agave nectar, and barley malt syrup are in. White flour is used, but many recipes suggest substituting at least part of the flour with whole-grain alternatives such as rye or spelt.

This is the type of the cookbook that you really must peruse first before delving right into a recipe. Otherwise, you'll likely find that you don't have many of the listed ingredients in your pantry. Here's where Martin helps: In the book's opening, she explains unfamiliar ingredients, suggests sugar substitutions, provides guidelines for using oils and dairy in baked goods and even tells you how to stock your pantry.

Tartine

Every once in a while, a great cookbook comes along! And it's almost time for spring baking.

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The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Cookies

For the best cookies

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Loving Nancy Silverton: Pastries from the La Brea Bakery

I have purchased a lot of cookbooks over the years and most of them are worn out. I have all sorts of books; baking (obviously), lots of ethnic books, books by famous chefs, including Nancy Silverton. I used to frequent her “grilled cheese” nights at Campanelli, back in the early 90′s and oh do I miss those early morning breakfast’s before heading off to create in my first furniture studio. Tartine in S.F. reminds me of what Campanelli used to be; intimate, delicious and casual.

I like the food at Mozza (not the wait or the crowd) and I have saved every Food and Wine Magazine that she contributed to (a particular Thanksgiving meal in 1994(?) was one of my all time favorites). My most favorite marinade for flank steak is in her book Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton at Home. Also in that book is one of the BEST Meyer Lemon Tarts, ever!!!! I have a meyer lemon tree for this very recipe.

I recently got Nancy Silverton's Pastries from the La Brea Bakery. I read it cover to cover before deciding on what to make first. I started with her scone recipe. I love making scones and have made all kinds. I like to make lots of different flavors at once and then flash freeze. This way, my kids have scones on any given morning and scones are only good when right out of the oven.

Baking and Chocolate