• Rutabaga on February 25, 2019

  Wow, the birthday cake recipe in this book is amazingly good! It's a simple yellow cake with chocolate frosting, but is one of the best cakes I've had. The cake is moist and delicious, a perfect foil for the frosting, which contains a truly decadent 9 ounces of 70% Theo chocolate, plus some additional cocoa powder. Plus, the frosting spreads very nicely and is the perfect amount for a two layer cake. It's a real winner,

• Rutabaga on December 02, 2018

  I finally made one of the recipes, CB's million $ chocolate peanut butter pie. It's very rich and delicious (but not overly sweet), and I especially appreciate the chocolate glaze and chopped peanut topping. There are several components, but each one is pretty easy to make. It would have been better had I had the specific ingredients called for in the recipe, namely CB's peanut butter and Theo 45% milk chocolate. I substituted another peanut butter brand I already had on hand that wasn't as peanutty as I would have liked, and used Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate. Also, I think I over-whipped the cream for the chocolate mousse layer slightly, and it wasn't quite as silky smooth as a result. I would love to make this again with those specific ingredients.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Tom Douglas's roast chicken and wild mushroom warm bread salad with cocoa nibs

  • meggan on May 03, 2020

    I just made the chicken but man was it good. The nibs add a touch of sweetness and I had to use piment d'espellette which a bit of mild spice.

• Birthday cake

  • Rutabaga on April 21, 2020

    First, I'm so happy to see this book is now indexed! As for this cake, it is amazing! How can yellow cake with chocolate frosting be so good? I made it with Theo chocolate as written, so that must be part of it. But it is seriously moist with a lovely crumb, and the frosting is wonderfully chocolatey while still keeping a light texture. I made it for my host daughter's birthday, and it was the perfect American birthday cake (not from a box)!

• Trophy's dark chocolate coconut dulce de leche cupcakes

  • meggan on February 08, 2021

    Holy wow! I left out the coconut because mine was not great quality and these were amazing.