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:
Read moreAPPLE CUSTARD SQUARES
These apple squares taste like a cross between a clafoutis and an apple pie. They possess a soft, custardy layer where the fruit is baked against batter -- like a Dutch baby pancake in a handheld form, just begging to be wrapped up and slipped in your bag for later.
Apple Custard Squares
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan and Food52
BETTER BISCUITS
My mother makes two kinds of biscuits: cheese drop biscuits and flaky cut-out biscuits. Her technique is effortless -- she makes them without a recipe, by muscle memory. I never considered them to be intimidating, but rather the opposite. They come together in minutes and use only a few ingredients. When done well, the end result is light, airy, and buttery, but in order to achieve that perfect texture, you simply need to use a very gentle touch.
Read moreSPICY CHEDDAR & SHICHIMI TOGARASHI CORNBREAD
Cornbread soaked in butter with a crunchy crust is my favorite. I like it savory and Southern-style, but it's bread so I'm basically not going to say to any version you throw at me. Jalapeño and cheddar is a classic combination, so I played around with this flavors and came up with this cheesy cornbread that gets its spice from shichimi togarashi, a Japanese blend of black sesame seeds, white sesame seeds, poppy seeds, chile flakes, orange zest, Szechuan pepper, and nori.
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