Brown butter cake with chocolate and caramel frostings

People, this cake. First, it is completely and totally ridiculous. It has two frostings — two — and one of them is a Swiss buttercream, of all things. It asks you to brown butter and then refrigerate it so you can cream it later. You have to make your own damn caramel. It will take […]

Chocolate caramel cheesecake

My springform pan went on walkabout when I moved last fall. I was in denial about this for a long time, but I finally surrendered and bought a new springform, and therefore, the season of cheesecake has begun! Chocolate cheesecake, to be specific. Actually, chocolate caramel cheesecake. I know.

Once you’ve gotten through the […]

Chocolate espresso cookie cups

I would’ve sworn that I posted this recipe back in the fall, but I can find no evidence that I actually did so. That means I owe you an apology, because I’ve been depriving you of these delicious little bites of melty chocolatey goodness, probably for months.

(I kind of love that picture.)

These […]

Chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel frosting

These are some very serious cupcakes. You’re almost certainly going to have to go to the store before you can make them. They require you to make your own caramel. You’re going to have to wash a small mountain of dishes. But they are mighty. I used them to bribe people to help me move […]

Chocolate sheet cake

If you’ve ever needed cake for a crowd, this is your recipe. I made it recently for a baby shower with fifty people and still had cake to send home with the expectant parents. It tastes like a really good birthday cake from your childhood: sweet, moist, chocolatey, and uncontroversial. It doesn’t require sophisticated tastes […]

A brownie confession

I have to admit this right at the top: well into the phase of my culinary life when I considered myself a competent, even accomplished baker, I made brownies from a mix. I hate mixes. By that, I mean that my sister once gave me the nickname Ms. The-Devil-Bakes-From-Mixes. The enmity between us is serious, but when it came to brownies, the chewy goodness of the packaged stuff always swayed me in the end. You too? Yeah, I know. But fear not! Let the chains of your oppression be broken. brownie batter […]