Joy the Baker

Chocolate Orange Cream Cheese Pound Cake

March 17, 2012

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What comforts you these days?

My immediate comforts include pastel Easter candy, pizza from Delancey in Seattle, and hot coffee on hot coffee on hot coffee.  I’m also soothed by caramel colored bourbon from  small glass tea cups… that’s how ladies (and grandmothers) drink their bourbon.  Why are all of my comforts food related?

I’m also comforted by old episodes of Seinfeld (who doesn’t like cashmere!?), copious amounts of post-it notes, over-sized grey sweaters,  black leather wedge heels, and surprisingly…. I’ve been comforted by crowds of strangers.  Thank you, people.  I love you tremendous.

Chocolate and orange are also deep in my comfort brain sensors.  Pound cake as a vehicle is just supreme.

book tour

Hello, Portland!  You sure do know how to make a lady and her cookbook feel welcome!  Thank you for coming out in the rain.  Thank you for bringing me spoons to sign, lip stain to wear, and bright blue nail polish.  It’s like you know me… because you totally do.  You are true people.  Thank you for all your smiles and love.

Please find, in the back left of the above photograph, someone holding up a little red baby.  Sweet Jesus… I love you.

book tour

HeyHey Seattle, you look pretty in rain and grey… especially when you accent it with pink and turquoise.  I love a good crash of color.

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Chocolate and orange and chaos.  Too many plates.  Two cups of tea.  Orange bites, and thick sliced cake.

I like when dessert settings appear cacophonous, and tend toward the delicious!

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128 Comments

Lemon and Matcha Marble Pound Cake

September 14, 2010

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My friend makes one small mention of Rachel Zoe this morning and here I am, shoulders deep into a Rachel Zoe Project marathon.

Shameless.

I keep telling myself that I’ll just watch one more episode… one more… then I’ll think of something to write on my blog.

Five hours later… here I am, alone in my house, wearing heels and my chunky sweater.  I may or may not have just shopped for a furry vest online… and I’m so invested in Rachel getting pregnant, it’s ridiculous.

I need a Rodg… or a psychiatrist… or a bottle of vodka… or just someone to come turn off this program.  I’m not sure.

 

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Swoon.

In other news… I made this really beautiful cake.

I’m so happy with this little darling.  It’s marbled, green, flavorful and delicate.

Dreamboat situation.

Matcha.

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138 Comments

Avocado Pound Cake

March 2, 2010

tAvocado Pound Cake

I’d really like to conjure up some useful information for you.  That would be nice, right?  I could tell you all about avocados.  Where they came from.  What a lovely shade of green they are.  Why they’re so expensive at the grocery store… you know, things like that.

But you didn’t come here for boring old information… did you!?

I didn’t think so.

You came here  because you want me to admit to eating Pepperidge Farm Soft Bake Cookies…which is totally happening right now.  You came here because you want me to admit to rrreeeeaaaalllllyyyy wanting to watch the season finale of The Bachelor… it’s true… it’s a problem.  You came here because you want me to admit to wearing my big fluffy slipper socks.  The dreaded socks/shoes that will keep me single for eternity.  Well… I’m wearing them and I’m loving it.

So there, friends.  It’s all out on the table.  Now can we talk about cake?

Avocado Pound Cake

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191 Comments

Honey Whole Wheat Pound Cake

August 26, 2009

Honey Whole Wheat Pound Cake

Let’s play a game called Usta Wanna or… I Used to Want To.

I usta wanna be brave enough to go down the free fall water slide at the water park.

I usta wanna be a traffic cop… the kind that would dance in the street on occasion… the kind that I saw at the end of a slow evening news show sometime when I was about six.  I actually still want to be one of those traffic cops.  No joke.

I usta wanna take the swim test at overnight summer camp privately.  Something about doing my life saving dog paddle in front of the entire girls camp made me nauseous.

I usta wanna design a postage stamp.  This is the precious dream of a young girl whose parents both work at the post office.

Between the ages of 13 and 15, I usta wanna eat nothing but popcorn and orange juice.  I dunno…. I never claimed to be reasonable.

I usta wanna completely negate whole wheat from my life.  If I could have eaten Wonder Bread and ignored the whole wheat millet bread my parents bought as I was growing up… ooooh, how dreams would have come true.  Because whole wheat seemed to be impossible to escape, it would seem that somewhere along the way I grew fond of it.  For this reason, I bring you…  Honey Whole Wheat Pound Cake.

Let’s talk about it.

Honey Whole Wheat Pound Cake

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91 Comments

Lemon-Drenched Lemon Cake

January 9, 2009

Lemon Soaked Lemon Cake

Lemon-Drenched Lemon Cake.

For this cake, simple loaf pans just don’t measure up. After one slice of the perfect, absolutely perfect cake, it became clear that when I next bake this cake (tomorrow morning), I’ll need to devise some sort of pillow shaped cake pan.

This cake is going to be my new pillow. Forget goose feathers, cotton fluff, memory foam… I want, I need, I’m not sure how I’m going to live without a Lemon-Drenched Lemon Cake Pillow.

For serious.

Lemon Soaked Lemon Cake

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103 Comments

Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake with wild blueberries

March 4, 2008

Lemon and blueberry are my go-to ( by ‘go-to’ I actually mean lazy) combination.  I’ve never had a bad day if lemon and blueberry joined forces at breakfast.  It’s true, they never fail me.

Too bad I can’t say the same thing for the fail dogs.   Have you seen the creatures?   They are dogs (that have little to do with baking, blueberries or lemon) who have tried and failed in one way or another.  They make me laugh.  They make me cry.  I was a cat person until the fail dogs changed my life.

Now back to the Lemon Poppyseed Bread with wild blueberries…

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18 Comments

The Book

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