Notes about Recipes in this book

• Hot milk cake

  • cespitler on December 03, 2016

    As part of a sweets spread for my holiday party at work, I undertook the Lemon Debutante Cake. There were lots of favorites among the guests, but this was my favorite. The recipe requires a few steps: lemon curd, lemon simple syrup, buttercream, and the Hot Milk Cake. The cake had lots of flavor, it was moist, and had a great crumb. It didn't rise quite as high as I was expecting so if you are hoping for lots of height in the final presentation, it's worth making both cakes. I absolutely loved adding some lemon curd to the buttercream. It was tempting to eat plain! It also adds just a bit of yellow, which made for a lovely presentation. The final cake was delicous, lemony, and light. I hightly reccomend.

• Lemon débutante cake

  • cespitler on December 03, 2016

    As part of a sweets spread for my holiday party at work, I undertook the Lemon Debutante Cake. There were lots of favorites among the guests, but this was my favorite. The recipe requires a few steps: lemon curd, lemon simple syrup, buttercream, and the Hot Milk Cake. The cake had lots of flavor, it was moist, and had a great crumb. It didn't rise quite as high as I was expecting so if you are hoping for lots of height in the final presentation, it's worth making both cakes. I absolutely loved adding some lemon curd to the buttercream. It was tempting to eat plain! It also adds just a bit of yellow, which made for a lovely presentation. The final cake was delicous, lemony, and light. I hightly reccomend.

  • cespitler on December 01, 2017

    I did a repeat of this cake for the holiday party, but by substituting passion fruit for the lemon in the simple syrup, the curd, and the buttercream--INCREDIBLE!

• Bumblebee cake

  • cespitler on December 29, 2017

    This was a hit at the holiday party this year!

• Double chocolate cake

  • kelly_ff7q50 on April 23, 2026

    Always a hit.

• Yellow cupcakes

  • laraeichhorn on June 02, 2019

    These are the best cupcakes I’ve ever had and lots of people at the party agreed. I used corn starch instead of potato starch, but I don’t think it made a big difference. They didn’t really change colour and never really looked done, but I took them out when a toothpick came out clean and they were perfect.

• Cheesecake

  • cespitler on December 21, 2013

    Completely agree with shoegal. This is delicious and I can understand how one would eat the whole thing! This little cake is incredibly light and creamy. I'm a big fan of the crust so I might think about doubling the amount/height of it next time around. I really liked the sour cream/sugar topping spread on top, but it would be easy to substitute a fruit topping if the season was right.

  • TrishaCP on April 13, 2016

    I made this for my nephew so can't comment on the taste, other than that he enjoyed it. It was easy to pull together, and made a rich, creamy, smooth-looking cake as promised.

  • jay.moe on August 19, 2022

    I encountered several problems while making this cheesecake. There was no butter mixed with the graham cracker crumbs (I used store bought rather than making my own) to hold the crust together. I added melted butter to the crumbs before baking. Then, after putting the plastic wrapped pan back in the oven to seal the pan, the plastic melted where it came in contact with the oven rack. Just wrap the pan in foil and skip this step. The next issue was putting a 6 inch pan into a roasting pan and trying to add a kettle of water 1/2 way up the side. I had to boil more water. Next time I will just use a 10-inch round pan. Finally, I checked the cheesecake after an hour and it was already overcooked. I think the cheesecake would have been properly baked after only 45-55 minutes in the oven. Since the flavor of the cheesecake was very good I will make this recipe again (with some alterations), there were just a lot of issues with the recipe instructions.

• Honey tea cake

  • bookpoet on March 28, 2013

    This very simple honey tea cake is simply scrumptious! So easy to make - it's become my teen daughter's go-to cake which she makes at the drop of a hat.

• Chocolate sablés

  • Melanie on August 03, 2011

    Don't worry about rolling the dough out. Chill as a squared off log so that you can simply slice it before baking. So nice and chocolatey!

• English toffee

  • cespitler on December 05, 2015

    The English Toffee recipe was simple and delicous. I made the recipe as listed (chocolate on both sides!) and broke it into pieces to distribute in 50 goodie bags given away at the holiday party. The pieces stayed fresh and 'breakable--in a good way' for a number of days.

• Miette marshmallows

  • cespitler on December 21, 2013

    People, including me, love homemade marshmallows. It's such a surprising thing to share and the texture and taste is so improved over the store-bought variety! If you haven't made them, I highly recommend you give them a try. This was not my first time making marshmallows. I usually use a different recipe and add some sort of flavor--pomegranate or coffee. So, this is my first time with this recipe, which is flavored with vanilla. I loved it and so did the others who received them in a little homemade cookie package (other reviews coming soon!). They'd be great in hot chocolate and I can imagine they would be fantastic roasted for a lovely snack--with or without the other fixins for s'mores. One day I hope to try to duplicate or make a batch of marshmallows in homage to those done by Vosges--with the caramel layer on top and then enrobed in chocolate. Maybe later this season!!

• Lemon buttercream

  • cespitler on December 03, 2016

    I absolutely loved adding some lemon curd to the buttercream. It was tempting to eat plain! It also adds just a bit of yellow, which made for a lovely presentation.

• Oregonian

  the recipes are not complicated, and each comes with helpful technique notes...The photos are so enticing, and the pastries so perfectly made, we almost ate the paper.

  Full review