Cakes

Hazelnut Maple Chocolate Cake

Celebrated the world over for their health benefits and dynamic flavours, cultured and fermented foods are becoming everyday meal mainstays. In this extensive collection, fermentation pioneer Holly Davis shares more than 120 recipes for familiar—and lesser-known—cultured foods, including yogurt, pickles, kimchi, umeboshi, scrumpy, and more. This inspiring resource contains more than 100 photographs, plus plenty of helpful how-tos and informational charts offering guidance on incorporating fermented ingredients into the diet. With a luxe textured cover and brimming with engaging projects for cooks of all skill levels, this cookbook will be the cornerstone of every preserving kitchen. (more…)

Chestnut Layer Cake with Hazelnut Nougat

Chestnut Layer Cake with hazelnut nougat

Photography by Brigitte Sporrer

Want tasty vegan, vegetarian, eggless, or dairy-free bakes? This book is packed with vegan baking recipes that are quick, simple, and delicious.

Authors Daniela Lais and Jérôme Eckmeier are longtime vegans with a passion for cooking, teaching you to bake irresistibly good treats such as gooey vegan brownies, light and fluffy vegan pancakes and eggless cakes, or a smooth and creamy vegan “cheesecake.”

Use their clever tips to avoid disappointing, dry, or unrisen results, and follow their instructions to make your own everyday vegan substitutions for mainstream baking ingredients such as cream cheese and buttermilk. Even if you’re a beginning baker, Easy Vegan Baking will help you triumph in the kitchen.

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Copenhagen Cakes

Copenhagen Cakes

Photography by Columbus Leth

The food culture of Copenhagen is woven into the fabric of Chef Trine Hahnemann’s daily life; she has lived in the heart of Copenhagen for more than 40 years. There is no smorrebrod, hot dog, ice cream, or coffee she hasn’t tasted in this quietly gastronomic capital city.

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Coalfield Cake

Coalfield Cake

Photograph by Tara Jensen

With an outdoor, wood-fired oven and natural ingredients, Tara Jensen makes magic. She brings artistry to her deep-dish fruit pies, bubby pizzas, and crusty breads that inspires amateurs and professionals alike to visit her rural mountain bakery time and time again. Tara’s creations not only feed the body but also nurture the soul, providing the spark between fire-based baking and people’s connection with the wider world. (more…)

Cookbook Review: Eggs

Eggs, Michel RouxThe egg is the simplest and most complete food—versatile enough for the quickest of meals to the smartest of dinner parties and the favourite of patissiers and dessert chefs. With more than 30 years experience as a chef at the top of his profession, Michel Roux has garnered a vast wealth of culinary knowledge and expertise. Trained in the classic French style, but a global traveller with a passion for different cuisines, Michel uses all of his skill and experience to take a new look at one of the oldest foods of all.

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Cookbook Review: Fresh India

Fresh India, Meera Sodha

Following her bestselling Made in India, Meera Sodha reveals a whole new side of Indian food that is fresh, delicious, and quick to make at home. These vegetable-based recipes are feel-good food and full of flavour.

Indian cuisine is one of the most vibrant vegetable cuisines in the entire world, and in Fresh India Meera leads home cooks on a culinary journey through its many flavourful dishes that will delight vegetarians and those simply looking to add to their recipe repertoire alike.

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Cookbook review: Alimentari: Salads + Other Classics from a Little Deli that Grew

‘Alimentari’ literally means ‘good food and camaraderie’ – and that is just what this celebrated Melbourne-based café/deli stands by. They present delicious, attainable Italian, modern European, and Middle Eastern food (with some cheffy touches) alongside a compelling story of success of the little deli that became a beloved cornerstone of the thriving and unparalleled cafe culture that Melbourne fosters.

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Family Recipe: Grandma’s Rhubarb Cake

rhubarb cake

I’ve come to realize that many of us have been bequeathed a cherished family recipe. Be it simple or elaborate to prepare, it’s a dish so fiendishly delicious that it is the unmistakable star of the family meal, whether celebrating triumphs, comforting woes, or keeping family traditions alive. Withholding such heirloom recipes from the world seems almost cruel. Hence, I am championing the family recipe. I will entice the people in my universe to share favourite, nostalgia-infused family recipes, and I will give one of them centre stage in this very space on a monthly basis. In the end, we are all family, and these recipes represent the legacies of our shared passions. This month’s post is written by my buddy Truds. Enjoy!

I remember as kids raiding the garden for stalks of rhubarb. For this cake, I cut the rhubarb up really small so you get a sour taste in each bite.  A lot of people don’t like the sourness of rhubarb—but I really do.  The cake has just the right amount of sugar to make it completely perfect (although, I do admit that in some instances, I will reduce the amount of sugar in both the cake and in the topping.) I think the next time I get my hands on someone’s rhubarb stash, I’ll try making this recipe as a rhubarb/strawberry cake.  A divine combination! Hope you enjoy!

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FAMILY RECIPES: Etelka’s Cocoa Chiffon Cake

I’ve come to realize that many of us have been bequeathed a cherished family recipe. Be it simple or elaborate to prepare, it’s a dish so fiendishly delicious that it is the unmistakable star of the family meal, whether celebrating triumphs, comforting woes, or keeping family traditions alive. Withholding such heirloom recipes from the world seems almost cruel. Hence, I am championing the family recipe. I will entice the people in my universe to share favourite, nostalgia-infused family recipes, and I will give one of them centre stage in this very space on a monthly basis. In the end, we are all family, and these recipes represent the legacies of our shared passions. This month’s post is written by my good friend Eva. Enjoy!


 

Etelka’s Cocoa Chiffon Cake
By Eva

The grand finale of every family birthday dinner was THE CAKE.  My mother, Etelka, always served her signature Chocolate Chiffon Cake. Festooned with  tiny, lit candles, it was ceremoniously placed before the celebrated one as the room broke into a full-throated, charmingly off-key rendition of “Happy Birthday.” (We are not a family of gifted singers.)  A hasty, silent wish, a quick whoosh to blow out the candles, and then bliss ensued as the cake was sliced, handed around and savoured.

The cake’s appearance underwent a few metamorphoses over the decades.  Sometimes it was rectangular, at other times round, depending on the baking pans my mother had on hand.  The cake’s magic lies in its ratios rather than its aesthetics. It has just enough cocoa and sugar to give chocolate lovers their fix without overpowering its rich texture, a combination of moist, delicate cake and silky icing.

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