How did vanilla get such a bad rap? I don't know how it came to mean "bland" or "boring", when done correctly, it is exotic and floral and sweet, rivaling the intensity of chocolate or fruit.
Read moreHAVING A COKE WITH YOU
When's the last time you read something - a book, an essay, lyrics - that caught you off guard? I read with such intense voracity since I learned how in kindergarten, and in high school it felt like every week I came across something that I couldn't stop thinking about, or talking about, or re-writing across lined notebook paper, heavily shading in my favorite words. It doesn't happen as much. I don't read enough, but things like this poem make me want to open the floodgates again.
So here's what is filling my head lately: Frank O'Hara's "Having a Coke with You". I first heard it at a wedding (is there a more perfect articulation of being in love with someone?), and if I were seventeen still, I can guarantee it would be penciled over and over again in every binder I owned.
Read moreRASPBERRY RICOTTA CAKE
This cake is improbably delicious. At first glance -- well, at first glance it looked good enough that I wanted to dive into the magazine page and take a bite. At second glance -- and upon reading the recipe -- I was confused about the texture. It has over a cup of ricotta cheese and 3 eggs, so is it a cheesecake? But it has over a cup of flour and butter, like a regular yellow cake.
Read morePERFECT CHOCOLATE CAKE
The best part of this chocolate cake was not the perfectly swirled frosting success (thank you Erin McDowell for all the lessons), or the very, very, very intense flavor that comes only from regular old Hershey's cocoa, or how good it tasted three days later at 1 AM when we ate some, tipsy, on the couch.
Read morePOSIE'S CAKE
Cake decorating can be a tricky skill to master -- too many piping bags required, and fondant scraps all over your kitchen, and food coloring stuck to your hands for days. It's easier than you might think to make a very impressive cake, without needing to have lots of decorating practice, and here are my favorite ways:
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