best chocolate cake recipe

Milk Chocolate Layer Cake
Milk Chocolate Layer Cake

Milk Chocolate Layer Cake excerpted from American Girl Birthday!: Cakes, Cupcakes & Specialty Treats by Weldon Owen. Photography by Nicole Hill Gerulat.

American Girl Birthday!: Cakes, Cupcakes & Specialty Treats by Weldon Owen

Make every birthday a special and delicious celebration with 50 party-ready recipes for cakes, cupcakes, and ice cream treats—plus ideas for party favours and games—from American Girl.

American Girl Birthday! features 50 sweet recipes suitable for every taste and any day of the year: fabulous cakes with fun frostings and toppings, cupcakes for every season, fruity and colourful ice pops, sundaes, and more.

Guarantee every party will be a hit with great flavour, sparkly decorations, and shareable treats. Kids can select their favourite cake or desserts for the big day, and make edible gifts for friends, all while gaining confidence and baking skills in the kitchen.

50+ RECIPES: Kids will learn to bake delicious cakes, cupcakes, ice cream treats, and more to mark and celebrate birthdays for friends and family.

EXPERT TIPS AND TRICKS: Young chefs will learn baking know-how and while mastering measuring, rolling, frosting, and decorating!

INSPIRING IMAGES: Beautiful colourful photos inspire birthday celebrations and ensure success. (more…)

Italian Christmas chocolate cake with chestnuts, hazelnuts and walnuts
Italian Christmas chocolate cake with chestnuts, hazelnuts and walnuts

Italian Christmas chocolate cake with chestnuts, hazelnuts and walnuts excerpted from Roast Figs, Sugar Snow: Food to warm the soul by Diana Henry. Photography by Jason Lowe.

Roast Figs, Sugar Snow: Food to warm the soul by Diana Henry

Diana Henry’s classic cookbook, Roast Figs, Sugar Snow, is now revisited, revised, and refreshed nearly 20 years after its first publication, with a new foreword by Nigel Slater and seven new recipes.

Full of comforting delights from cold-weather climates, it features recipes gathered from Diana’s travels to Scandinavia, the French and Italian Alps, Scotland, Ireland, and New England. This is irresistible food you’ll cook over and over again.

Choose Alpine dishes of melted cheese; autumnal pies and substantial winter salads; pastries from Viennese coffee houses; festive snow biscuits and – closer to home – Diana’s definitive recipe for warming Irish stew. Of course, there is also a recipe for Sugar-on-Snow as well.

These recipes will bring warmth to your heart as well as your home. And Diana’s evocative writing about both place and food make this a book well worth reading, as well as cooking from. (more…)