Category Archives: sweets

Strawberry summer cake from smitten kitchen

Posted on by
strawberry barley summer cake
  • 6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for pie plate
  • 1 1/2 cups (188 grams) all-purpose flour (can swap 3/4 cup or 94 grams all-purpose flour with 3/4 cup or 75 grams of barley flour, see Note)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon table salt
  • 1 cup (200 grams) plus 2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup (118 ml) milk
  • 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
  • 1 pound (450 grams) strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter a 9- or 10-inch springform or cake pan. The 10-inch would make a thinner cake.

Whisk flour or flours, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.

Pour into prepared pan. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer (though I had to overlap a few to get them all in). Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.

Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake cake until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes. (Gooey strawberries on the tester are a given.) Let cool in pan on a rack. Cut into wedges. Serve with lightly whipped cream.

Do ahead: Cake can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days, loosely covered, but good luck with that.

best fudgy chocolate brownie cookies from cafe delities

Posted on by


½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup white granulated sugar
½ cup melted butter
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 ⅓ cups all purpose flour or plain flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
 ½ teaspoon salt
 ⅓ cup semi sweet chocolate chips add more if desired

  • Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Line 2 cookie sheets or baking trays with parchment paper (baking paper). 
  • In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, white sugar, butter and vegetable oil. Beat in egg and vanilla until fully incorporated.
  • Add the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir the dry ingredients first before mixing them through the wet ingredients until a dough forms (do not over beat). Fold in the chocolate chips.
  • Scoop out 1-2 tablespoonful of dough with a cookie scoop (or small ice cream scoop), and place onto prepared baking sheets. Press them down as thick or thin as you want your cookies to come out. 
  • Bake in hot preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. The cookies will come out soft from the oven but will harden up as they cool. (Be careful not to over bake as they will dry out.)
  • Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool.

Tip: Take the cookies out of the oven while they are still slightly soft in the centre and let them cool. This will provide you with that gooey, soft texture. 

best cocoa brownies from smitten kitchen

Posted on by
  • 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt (or a heaping 1/4 teaspoon flaky salt, as I used)
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs, cold
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup walnut or pecan pieces (optional)

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F. Line the bottom and sides of an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides.

Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium heatproof bowl and (Medrich’s method) set the bowl in a wide skillet of barely simmering water. Stir from time to time until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger fairly quickly after dipping it in to test. Or (Deb’s method) you can melt the butter with the cocoa in a microwave too.

Both methods: Set the bowl aside briefly until the mixture is only warm, not hot. It looks gritty at this point, but don’t fret — it smooths out once the eggs and flour are added.

Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon or a rubber spatula. Stir in the nuts, if using. Spread evenly in the lined pan.

Bake until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter, 20 to 25 minutes is Medrich’s suggestion but it took me at least 10 minutes longer to get them set. Let cool completely on a rack. (I go further and throw mine in the fridge or freezer for a while; it’s the only way I can get them to cut with clean lines.)

Lift up the ends of the parchment or foil liner, and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 or 25 squares.

Magic Cake (Gâteau Magique) from Simply recipes

Posted on by
  • 2 cups (480ml) whole milk
  • 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, diced into tablespoon-sized pieces
  • 4 large eggs, separated
  • 2/3 cup (135g) granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
  • 3/4 cup (90g) all-purpose flour
  • Powdered sugar, for dusting, optional
  1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease an 8-inch square pan with butter or cooking spray. Line the pan with a layer of parchment paper covering the bottom and up 2 sides with a slight overhang. Lightly grease the parchment paper.
  2. Heat the milk and butter: In a small saucepan, heat the milk and butter on low heat just until the butter melts. Don’t let the milk come to a boil or simmer. It should be warm but not scalding hot, 105 to 115°F. Set aside.
  3. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites: In a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat the egg whites on medium-high speed until they form stiff peaks, about 4 minutes. When you lift the beaters out of the bowl, the whipped egg whites should stand up at a point and hold that point
  4. Start the batter: In another large bowl, beat the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla extract, salt, and nutmeg (if using) on high speed until the mixture is pale and creamy, about 2 minutes.Add the flour to the egg yolk mixture and beat on low speed until combined. It may seem like there is too much flour, but the batter will soon be thinned out.
  5. Add the warm milk and egg whites: Continue mixing on low speed, or switch to a whisk, and pour in the warm milk and butter a splash at a time. Once you’ve incorporated about half of the milk mixture, you can pour in the rest, and whisk to combine. The batter will be thin and smooth, like crepe batter.Add the beaten egg whites and use the whisk to gently mix until there are no large lumps of egg whites. Don’t overmix—there should still be a layer of foam on top of the batter.
  6. Bake: Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the top is golden brown, the cake has begun to pull away from the sides of the pan, and the center has a slight jiggle when the pan is gently shaken, about 50 minutes.
  7. Cool and serve: Remove the pan from the oven and set it on a wire rack until it’s cool enough to go in the fridge, about 30 minutes. Let the cake chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour before serving. You can skip chilling and serve the cake at room temperature, though it won’t slice as neatly.Dust the top of the cake with powdered sugar, then slice it into squares. If desired, serve with fresh fruit and, for extra indulgence, a dollop of whipped cream.Store leftover magic cake, well-covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Magic cake does not freeze well. The freezing and thawing process will affect the texture of the custard layer.

Plum Torte-Smitten Kitchen

Posted on by

Marian Burros’s plum torte is a cult classic in which a mass of plums are coated with cinnamon sugar and baked into a pancake-like batter, where they melt into pie-like pockets and you definitely don’t want to miss it. It’s the perfect September baked good. This is ideal with blueish/purple Italian prune plums, but if you can’t find them, other plums will do. The internet is full of riffs on the cake, like cutting the sugar back to 3/4 cup (feel free to, although I didn’t find the 1 cup too sweet at all), with or without lemon juice, ranges of cinnamon (1 teaspoon is the original amount; 1 tablespoon was a typo that’s not bad at all, but I usually use the smaller amount). I’m not immune, either: I sometimes start by browning the butter and letting it cool to room temp before whisking the batter together by hand. In 2023, I’ve made a few minor updates: Sharing how I one-bowl the cake,and bumping up the salt (previously: a large pinch).

2024 Plum Torte Updates

  • 1 cup (200 grams) plus 1 to 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (use less for sweeter plums)
  • 1/2 cup (115 grams or 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking powder (ideally aluminum-free)
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 12 smallish purple Italian purple plums, halved and pitted
  • 2 teaspoons (10 grams) fresh lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9-inch springform [I have this one] with butter or nonstick spray. For even easier removal, line the bottom with a round of parchment paper. 

In a large bowl, beat butter and 1 cup (200 grams) of the sugar together with an electric mixer until fluffy and lighter in color. Add the eggs, one at a time and scraping down the bowl. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt over batter and mix it until just combined. 

Spoon batter into prepared cake pan and smooth the top. Arrange the plum tightly in the pan, skin side up, all over the batter, covering it. Sprinkle the top with lemon juice, then cinnamon, then remaining sugar.

Bake until cake is golden and a toothpick inserted into a center part of the cake comes out free of batter (but of course not plum juice), about 45 to 50 minutes. Cool on rack.

Once cool, if you can stand it, and I highly recommend trying, leave it at room temperature overnight as this cake is even better on the second day, when those plum juices further release into the cake around it, becoming not just “cake with plum,” but cakeplumughyum (official terminology, there). If planning more than 2 to 3 days out, I’ll store the cake in the fridge for longevity.

Blueberry Crumble Bars

Posted on by
  • 1 ½ cup old fashioned rolled oats (gluten-free if necessary)
  • 1 cup flour, such as all-purpose or oat (see note)
  • ½ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
  • ½ cup butter, melted*
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground ginger, optional
  • ⅛ teaspoon salt

Filling:

  • 3 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
  • 2 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon chia seeds (see note)
  1. Make crumble. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare crumble mixture by adding rolled oats, oat flour, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and ginger to a mixing bowl. Melt butter and stir into dry ingredients until well combined.
  2. 1st Bake: Spread ⅔ of the crumble mixture into a parchment lined 8×8″ baking dish. Use the back of a spoon or the bottom of a measuring cup to firmly press the crumble into the dish. Bake the bottom layer of crumble in the oven at 350F for 12 minutes.
  3. Make blueberry filling. Add blueberries, lemon juice, and maple syrup to a small saucepan. While stirring often, bring the blueberry filling to a low boil over medium heat. The blueberries will become juicy.
  4. Stir in cornstarch and chia seeds to the juicy blueberries. Let filling simmer for about 10 more minutes. This helps thicken the blueberry sauce to create a spreadable blueberry jam to layer in our crumble bars. If the filling is too thin, add another teaspoon of cornstarch or chia seeds.
  5. Assemble! Once the bottom layer of crumble is baked and your filling is ready, spread all the homemade blueberry jam and then sprinkle the remaining ⅓ of the crumble mixture on top!
  6. 2nd Bake: Bake the blueberry bars at 350F for 20-22 minutes. Let cool completely before slicing for neat and even bars. Store in the fridge for 5-7 days or on the countertop for 2-3 days.

Glace Mixed Fruit Bundt Cake from lordbyronskitchen.com

Posted on by
  • 250 grams cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1 cup butter, room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 cup chopped nuts, walnuts or pecans
  • 2 cups glace mix
  • In a large bowl, use a handheld mixer to cream together the cream cheese, butter, and sugar.
  • Add the eggs one at a time and blend into the mixture.
  • Add the vanilla and incorporate well.
  • Add 2 cups of the flour and baking powder, and continuing to use the mixer, blend well into the butter and cream cheese mixture.
  • In a small bowl, toss the glace mix and the nuts with 1/4 cup of flour. Be sure to toss well to coat every piece in the bowl.
  • Add the flour-covered nuts and fruit to the batter and fold in with a spatula.
  • Grease and flour a bundt cake pan and pour in the batter.
  • Bake at 325 degrees for 60 minutes.
  • Allow cake to cool for at least 15 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.
  • Cool completely; dust with confectioner’s sugar and enjoy!

Raspberry muffins from smitten kitchen

Posted on by
  • 5 tablespoons (70 grams) unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/2 teaspoon plus one pinch kosher salt
  • Slightly heaped 1/2 cup (105 grams) granulated sugar
  • 1 2/3 cups (220 grams) all-purpose flour, divided
  • Half a medium lemon
  • 1 large egg
  • 2/3 cup (150 grams) plain unsweetened yogurt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 8 ounces (225 grams) fresh or (ideally) frozen raspberries (1 2/3 to 1 3/4 cups; see Note)
  • Heat oven to 375°F (190°C).
  • Prepare pan: Very lightly coat the top surface of your muffin tin with nonstick spray or swipe it with butter. This ensures muffin spillover releases easily. Line 6 cups with muffin liners. If you’re using a 12-cup pan, space them out and pour about 1 tablespoon of water in each empty cup, which will keep the empty pockets from burning.
  • Make streusel: In a large bowl, mix the butter, sugar, pinch of salt, and 1 cup (130 grams) of the flour until it forms a clumpy mixture. Scoop out 1/4 cup (about 45 grams) and set it aside in a small bowl; this will be your streusel topping.
  • Make muffin batter: Finely grate the zest of your lemon half into the large bowl with the remaining streusel in it, then juice the lemon half over it too. Add yogurt and egg and whisk to combine as smoothly as you can, but it’s okay if the batter doesn’t fully even out. Sprinkle the surface of the batter with baking powder, baking soda, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and whisk to thoroughly combine, going several times more around the bowl than seems necessary. Add remaining 2/3 cup (90 grams) of flour and all of the berries and stir gently; just until the flour disappears.
  • Divide batter between six prepared muffin cups; go ahead and heap it as much as is needed. Divide reserved streusel between muffin tops and use your fingers to push any that lands on the muffin tin back to a nearby muffin.
  • Bake muffins: For 25 to 30 minutes, and until a toothpick inserted from the top to the center of the muffin comes out batter-free. Let cool completely in the pan.
  • Do ahead: These muffins keep phenomenally. I keep them either in their baking pan or on a plate uncovered (so they don’t get mushy on top) and they’ve been excellent even on day 3 and not bad at all on day 4.
  • Notes:Raspberries by cup: Just a heads up that while technically every ingredient is more accurate when measured by weight, raspberries are particularly so. They’re hollow. When frozen, they take up more space in a cup per ounce. When defrosted or very ripe and fresh, they collapse and take up less space per ounce in a cup. For frozen raspberries, use the higher cup suggestion (1 3/4 cups); for very ripe fresh, use the lower amount (1 1/2 cups).Double this: Yes, you can absolutely double this recipe to make 12 muffins; no changes needed. When you double the sugar, simply measure 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon.

Fraughan fool from BBC

Posted on by

150g (a little over 5oz) fraughans or blueberries, plus more for garnish
1 tsp white sugar
juice of half a lemon, plus zest for garnishing
2 large thyme sprigs, plus leaves for garnishing
250ml (8½oz) double cream

This recipe is based on the simple treat of fraughans, cream and sugar for an easy-to-make dessert. It’s perfect with blueberries as well.

150g (a little over 5oz) fraughans or blueberries, plus more for garnish
1 tsp white sugar
juice of half a lemon, plus zest for garnishing
2 large thyme sprigs, plus leaves for garnishing
250ml (8½oz) double cream

Step 1
Put the fraughans or blueberries in a medium saucepan. Add the sugar, lemon juice and thyme sprigs. Cook over low heat for 5-10 minutes until the berries start to break down and thicken but retain some of their shape. Remove the thyme sprigs and set the compote aside to cool.

Step 2
In a medium bowl, whip the cream until it is thick enough to hold its shape when the compote is stirred in; if it’s too soft it will collapse. Gently fold half of the cooled compote into the whipped cream to ripple through.

Step 3
Spoon the whipped berry cream into individual servings and drizzle over more compote. Garnish with lemon zest, thyme leaves and extra berries.

Brownie in a Mug from celebrating sweets.com

Posted on by
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 ½ tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch salt
 2 tablespoons chocolate chips, plus more for topping
 1 ½ tablespoons vegetable oil, melted coconut oil or melted butter
3 tablespoons milk
 ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
 Ice cream, whipped cream, powdered sugar, berries for garnish
Instructions
Place sugar, flour, cocoa powder and salt in a mug. Use a small whisk or fork, and stir until combined, and free of lumps. Stir in chocolate chips. Add oil, milk and vanilla, stir with a spoon or small rubber spatula until just combined (try not to over mix it). 

Sprinkle a few additional chocolate chips over the top and cook in the microwave for about 90 seconds (microwave times may vary). Eat immediately with ice cream, whipped cream, powdered sugar, or berries.

Notes
I have a used a 12oz and 16oz mug for this recipe.
Although this is a single serving dessert, you can easily split this between 2 adults.