This glorious Gluten-Free Chocolate Confection is easy to bake… This decadent chocolate and almond confection is gussied up with Whipped Cream, Almonds, and Raspberries, and baked in honor of a guest with a gluten allergy. It’s one of a chorus of wonderful French Cakes or…

When is a cookie more than a cookie? This one truly takes the cake. Sorry I couldn’t resist. The model for this cookie is, of course, Bavaria’s most famous confection, the Black Forest Cake. To look at them you think “Chocolate cookie.”  The surprise is what’s…

One of the World’s Favorite Desserts is this Crowd Pleaser from Boston. Cook’s Illustrated is located right in Boston so you’d think they’d know about how to bake the best Boston Cream Pie.  And they do. This recipe is phenomenally good.  The cake is light…

A Visit to Portugal leads to a craving for Chocolate Cake When Andrew and I went to Portugal last summer, we went deep into the country near the Spanish border.   We were on our Douro River Cruise aboard Viking Helgrim and on offer was a…

Our dear friend Don was celebrating his birthday. And who wouldn’t want to make him the best Birthday Cake you could imagine? And wouldn’t you know who volunteered to bake it. Why Andrew, of course. This was before he heard that Don was inviting 18…

My friends at www.Travel-Wise, where I am a Contributor, sent me K.C. Dermody’s incomparable guide to America’s Dinner Trains. If your summer travel plans put you near any one of these four culinary-focused Restaurants on Rails, be sure to add them to your itinerary.  You’ll…

Rumfest’s Ding Dong Cake in a blaze of glory          Every year, our friend Jayne’s Birthday Celebration is declared Rumfest.  That’s a combination of her maiden name and the fact that Jayne’s Birthday is never confined to a single day. It seems to carry on…

I know Andrew is good, I mean really good. But his baking skills really hit an all-time personal best with the making of this sinfully rich, fudgy, bittersweet cake.  As Melissa Clark, who co-wrote “The Perfect Finish” (W.W. Norton and Co. (2010) the cookbook it…