• betsyline on January 15, 2010

  Some of the recipes in this book are amazing (the lemon curd and cooked meringue), while other just fail. Shortbread and chocolate chip cookies. In the cases of the failed recipes they were both too wet. Maybe they weren't tested enough....who knows

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Maple walnut scones

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    The scones had good maple flavour, which was nicely balanced with cinnamon and toasted walnuts. As the authors warn, the texture was quite dense and hearty, not light and delicate. I didn’t love the finished product but they did taste very good and my family didn’t mind the texture.

• Orange almond blueberry muffins

  • Zosia on July 04, 2019

    Lovely muffins. The almonds and oranges added extra flavour to what was an otherwise basic - but tasty - blueberry muffin. They also kept well and were quite moist next day.

• Banana espresso chocolate chip muffins

  • Melanie on February 08, 2016

    Made with frozen bananas. Simple and very tasty - these were a big hit at work. These are very moist / gooey muffins.

  • Zosia on October 29, 2018

    A great tasting moist muffin that's easy to put together. The espresso flavour isn't very strong though I think it enhances the chocolate flavour and keeps the muffin from being too sweet. They could use less chocolate but I'm probably the only one who feels this way.

  • bwhip on December 27, 2019

    Excellent muffins. Moist, tender and flavorful. Recipe said it makes 12, but mine made 16.

  • jvozoff on July 16, 2023

    This is our family’s favorite muffin. I’ve been making these about twice a month since the book came out. I decrease the Sugar by half and the chocolate chips by about half (agree as written is too much chocolate), and they’re still plenty sweet. The flavor has dimension because of the espresso powder – you can’t really taste it but as Zosia said it heightens the chocolate flavor. They are delicious.

  • EmilyR on July 16, 2023

    So many bananas to use and this is a great recipe to do so. I followed the others - reducing the sugar and chocolate by half, though I made a double mini batch. I also added a little bit of streusel that I had in the freezer. These are super simple, but very sophisticated. Good recipe to put those bake sale people to shame.

  • EmilyR on January 08, 2024

    I made these again using half of an avocado in place of a banana that I didn't have and keeping the sugar reduced. Still a great recipe even with the amendments.

  • lehenderson on March 02, 2025

    I puréed the wet mixture, which increased the volume and thinned the batter. I was able to make 12 muffins and a 4 inch cake. The muffins were finished in 23 minutes. The cake appx 35 minutes. Very moist, not too sweet. Next time try halving the sugar. Would make again.

  • Peaceandrea on September 07, 2025

    This is our family’s favorite muffin recipe. We never have espresso powder so we add some vanilla. We reduce the butter by 2T and half of the chocolate chips. It really is a great, consistent and delicious muffin.

  • MsMonsoon on September 11, 2025

    Followed recipe as written, except for filling the 12 muffin wells almost all the way up instead of 3/4 full, and using 3/4 cup chocolate chunks instead of 1 cup of chips. 4 bananas was more than 1.5 cups so I measured out just 1.5 cups, as called for. Delicious flavor, moist muffin. Mine didn't rise much, though, and were a bit dense. I like the idea of reducing the butter by 2 tbsp. Will definitely repeat, and maybe try a hotter oven at the outset to try to get a better rise. Edited: made a second time, reducing butter to 6 Tbsp, reducing white sugar to 1/4 cup, and used all four bananas. Delicious and moist!

• Chipotle cheddar biscuits

  • Vanessa on March 16, 2013

    Wow, wow, and again wow. The salt topping is the coup de grace, but these things really rocked. They are best served warm. (On the other hand, very few of our batch made it to "cool"!)

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    Tender, cheesy, and delicious. The ingredients are basic but get an added kick from black pepper and smoky chipotle chile pepper which you can adjust to taste. The dough is wet and sticky but gets scooped and dropped on the baking sheet - no kneading required.

• Sour cream coffee cake with chocolate cinnamon swirl

  • ComeUndone on July 14, 2010

    Impossibly light crumb. I'm surprised it supports the thick layer of pecan crumble. This cake is rich but if I am to make a classic coffee cake, this is a great choice. I love the fact that it is baked in a 9x13 instead of a bundt pan. Much easier to portion.http://www.flickr.com/photos/wscwong/4793128899/

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    There’s a lot going on with each bite of this cake and every bit of it is delicious! It’s a moist vanilla cake with a cinnamon-cocoa swirl and a crunchy, nutty streusel topping. I cut it into 24 (it bakes in a 9”x13” pan) but could have easily cut 30, and possibly even 36 pieces as the cake holds together very well and not much of the streusel topping is lost during slicing. Excellent for feeding a crowd.

  • MsMonsoon on September 02, 2025

    Makes a very big coffee cake. The cake rose in the glass 9x13x2 to fill it completely. I'm not sure I can detect the cocoa powder in the swirl but this is a nice, soft cake with a good pecan crumb topping. I overbaked a bit and got a very dark bottom, so next time I'll follow the instructions and only bake one hour.

• Pumpkin chocolate chip loaf

  • ComeUndone on October 22, 2010

    Very moist quick bread. http://www.flickr.com/photos/wscwong/4525206223/in/set-1115549/

• Easy homemade granola

  • soleilune on August 20, 2012

    Hands-down the best granola ever. This is my go-to recipe.

  • trudys_person on January 09, 2019

    This granola is delicious, but it's not a breakfast food or healthy. There is a high ratio of sugar and oil, so it's nice and crunchy, but it's also extremely sweet and rich. Nice for a treat once in a while ...

  • et12 on February 16, 2025

    It’s very good granola and easy to make, but probably shouldn’t be a part of regular breakfast given the amount of sugar and oil.

• Flourless chocolate cake with chocolate ganache glaze

  • Jane on April 13, 2022

    I didn't eat this cake (a birthday cake for my daughter's weekend away with friends) so I can only report on the making of it. It was a different flourless cake than my usual type (where the chocolate and butter are melted together) - for this the butter and sugar are creamed. But it was straightforward. The ganache was also different - it contained corn syrup and was much thicker than my usual poured ganache which gives a smooth glossy finish. My daughter said she and her friends thought it was fabulous so I'll have to make it again sometime so I can test it too.

  • kelley_dsv25l on March 24, 2026

    Made this exactly as written and it came out great! Dense and very rich. Everyone loved it.

  • Jane on May 21, 2026

    This time I got to try the cake (though forgot to take a photo of the whole cake). It was good though not my favorite chocolate cake. A good standby though as always have these ingredients in stock.

• Red hot velvet cake with cinnamon buttercream

  • Peaceandrea on January 28, 2026

    Did not use the frosting. Just made regular cream cheese frosting. Cake is fantastic.

• The whiteout cake

  • wcassity on July 26, 2015

    We had high hopes for this - I love vanilla - but it did not turn out. Cake was dense, frosting was terrible - thick and floury, strange.

  • trudys_person on December 24, 2018

    This was a lovely super-light white cake. I mixed in 1/4 cup of sprinkles for a birthday cake. I didn't try the frosting recipe, but rather used my favourite chocolate buttercream. The icing overwhelmed the cake flavour and texture, because the cake is so delicate. Next time I'll try the frosting in the recipe to see if it is a better match.

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    I decided to bake this recipe as confetti cupcakes, adding multi-coloured jimmies to the batter. A sidebar in the recipe suggests adding an extra egg yolk to give the cupcakes more structure so I did that. The finished cake had good vanilla flavour and a nice, fine crumb but was a little dry and crumbly. There was no baking time given for cupcakes so I may have over baked by a minute or 2. The recipe made 24 cupcakes that I baked for 22 minutes. The buttercream is a cooked frosting that I found to be a little too sweet – I would reduce the sugar by ~1/3 cup next time – but was smooth and silky and did work well with the cake. Though the cupcakes were a resounding success, I’m not sure I’ll make this white cake again but the frosting is definitely a keeper.

• Milk chocolate malt ball cake

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    Wow, is this cake good! It’s a little bit of a twist on the standard yellow cake/chocolate icing combination with the addition of malted milk powder to the cake and a silky whipped ganache buttercream as frosting.

• Lemon drop cake

  • trudys_person on July 17, 2016

    This cake was amazing! Nice balanced lemon flavours in the cake, curd and buttercream ... I used 1 1/2 recipes of the buttercream, in order to have lots to pipe decoratively. This might have been a little over the top. There is no picture in the book, but there is one here: http://bit.ly/29RdZ8V . I recommend piping a 1/4-1/2" wall of butter cream around the edges of the layers to be filled with curd. This keeps the curd from oozing out and making a big mess, and it keeps the layers more stable when stacked. I learned this the hard way from similar recipe a long time ago.

  • TinyCitiKitchen on August 16, 2023

    Made this as a birthday cake, to bring to a picnic on a sweltering weekend in July. It was a little lopsided by the time it arrived, but it was absolutely delicious. Highly recommended if you have a lemon lover with something to celebrate.

• Sweet and salty cake

  • Zosia on December 04, 2017

    Another family birthday meant another decadent celebration cake, this one comprising moist chocolate cake layers sandwiched with salted caramel and caramel ganache. Assembly was a little trying as the cake layers slid about quite a bit; frequent refrigeration helped stabilize things. I made 75% of the ganache and I still had some leftover. This was a fabulous cake that will be made again.

  • TinyCitiKitchen on August 16, 2023

    Once again, Baked came through! Wonderful flavors and texture. And it looked like a million bucks, which always counts for a birthday.

• Banana cupcakes with vanilla pastry cream

  • Salt on June 23, 2011

    Excellent. Very moist cupcake. Will defintiely make again.

• German chocolate cake

  • djkubica on November 04, 2010

    I froze the cake for 2 days and it was a bit dry

  • trudys_person on April 25, 2014

    This is a great cake! It turned out exactly like the picture, except mine was a little flatter because my cake pans were closer 8 1/2" rather than 8". The crumb was very delicate and moist, and there was just enough topping to cover the tops of the three layers. If I make it for an "occasion," I'll try their suggestion of milk chocolate ganache to frost the sides. Everyone loved it!

• Root beer bundt cake

  • jkj on November 03, 2013

    Great frosting, good cake. Only use A & W root beer

• Bourbon chocolate pecan pie

  • benitamehta on February 25, 2022

    My go-to pecan pie. I've made this at least a half-dozen times and it was the first recipe I made from this book when I first purchased it. It's always a big hit. Needs to bake just a bit longer than the recipe states.

  • bching on May 27, 2024

    only okay. Strangely, the bourbon was not a good addition. I am not sure the alcohol burned off.

• Pear plum crisp

  • meggan on September 30, 2021

    A great way to use up some smooshy fruit. The crumble top didn’t come out as crumbly as I would like but it was fine.

  • et12 on November 02, 2025

    A nice crumble with good flavours but I thought a bit too sweet. Would hold back on the sugar for both the crumb and the fruit next time.

• The Baked brownie

  • rwheat on December 28, 2009

    The best.

  • yassoma on August 13, 2016

    Best brownie recipe I have tried to date. Make sure to use good quality chocolate. Really.

  • bwhip on December 01, 2017

    Our go-to brownie recipe. Always great.

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    It’s dense, a little fudgy, very chocolate-y and absolutely delicious - definitely worthy of all of the accolades!

  • djnielsen64 on November 18, 2024

    Excellent! These will be my go-to brownie from now on.

• Baked bars

  • djnielsen64 on February 19, 2024

    VERY rich and gooey. I used unsweetened shredded coconut and I subbed TJ’s Caramel Sea Salt chips for butterscotch.

• Millionaire's shortbread

  • Melanie on May 30, 2014

    I baked the shortbread base but annoyingly it didn't look all that great when I pulled it out of the oven - very crumbly. I spread caramel over the top and popped it into the fridge to chill. Then broke it up, mixed in nuts and melted chocolate and salt before squishing into pan to set. Tasted great although obviiously different to the intent of this recipe.

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    Very good bar cookie that’s like an upscale Twix candy bar. It's easy to make, especially if you cheat and use store-bought dulce de leche, but involves long chilling times so plan accordingly.

• Honeycomb bars

  • bching on February 08, 2021

    Just so good. Probably due to the 10 ounces of cream!

  • Kinhawaii on July 05, 2021

    Very yummy- these are very similar to the ones I have made for years from an old Sunset Magazine recipe for Florentine bars- but with more cream. I like a crunchier base so cooked it until pale brown & forgot to cover it with parchment & weights but mine didn’t puff up. I also substituted some dried cherries with raisins.

• Brewer's blondies

  • et12 on February 16, 2025

    Very quick to put together with excellent results. A classic Blondie with slight malt taste. Made 24 bars.

  • KCKB on February 22, 2025

    Tasty, but really gooey - my toothpick came out clean, but I probably still should have let it bake a bit longer.

• Raspberry crumb breakfast bar

  • ComeUndone on July 19, 2010

    A little fragile but good flavour. I used frozen berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries) to great result. The fruit layer is thin but balance is good. The bar doesn't get soggy but it's not crispy and crunchy either. Would make again. http://www.flickr.com/photos/wscwong/4808751464/

  • aberne on September 28, 2011

    tastes as good--maybe even better--after being refrigerated overnight. Also great with sour cherries.

  • bwhip on June 06, 2018

    Pure heaven. I've made these several times - with fresh raspberries, once with mixed berries, and last night was with fresh blueberries. Delightful.

• Peanut butter crispy bars

  • rwheat on December 28, 2009

    Not to be missed.

  • cookerT on November 21, 2011

    Best thing in the book. If you plan to take them somewhere, make sure it will be cool. You don't want these sitting out in the sun or anyplace too warm. They are best made a day ahead and served chilled. So good and easy. You do need a candy thermometer though.

  • Melanie on May 30, 2014

    The base didn't work as well as it could have - need to find alternate substitute for light corn syrup. Would live to try making this again as the overall flavour was fantastic. Agree with cookerT that it melts like crazy when away from the fridge for a little while.

  • jzanger on September 05, 2017

    Really tasty, though next time I would make a 2x batch of the rice krispy base and use a 13x9, or maybe 1.5x in the 8 in. pan. I think I'll add a pinch of salt to the syrup just before mixing it into the base as well. Lastly, I will definitely use wax paper in the bottom of whichever pan I choose because even though i wiped it with oil I had to wrestle with it a bit to get them out in nice squares.

  • trudys_person on July 10, 2024

    These were delicious - you can't go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter! I made the adaptation on the Smitten Kitchen blog. I think the only difference was that she used salted butter. I also added a sprinkle of sea salt on top ... Next time I would also line the pan with parchment or wax paper, so I can get them out of the pan more easily.

• Chocolate chip cookies

  • cookerT on November 21, 2011

    This was a really delicious version of the tollhouse. Just a couple of tweeks. It is really good to let the dough chill if you can

  • Astrid5555 on December 09, 2012

    Have made these twice already and both times had issues with incorporating the eggs, because there was too much liquid. Maybe my eggs were too large, however the dough came together ok after adding the flour. The cookies were delicious, despite only adding half the amount of chocolate chips.

• Peanut butter cookies with milk chocolate chunks

  • cookerT on November 21, 2011

    My new favorite peanut butter cookie. Chewy and not crumbly as some peanut butter cookies can be. And we love the addition of milk chocolate chips.

• Black Forest chocolate cookies

  • TinyCitiKitchen on November 25, 2023

    Almost a brownie. More like a thick waffle batter than a dough. Total decadence!

• Monster cookies

  • benitamehta on February 25, 2022

    These are delicious, but almost feel like there are too many mix-ins. I know that's the point but not sure I would make again.

• Oatmeal cherry nut cookies

  • cupcakemuffin on October 13, 2011

    Fantastic cookies - moist, lots of spices, and great bursts of tart flavor from the dried cherries. I also added some chopped dried apricots in place of the walnuts as I was serving to a crowd where I wasn't sure of nut allergies, and those were great. I used quick oats instead of rolled oats and it worked beautifully. Yum!

• Pumpkin whoopie pies with cream cheese filling

  • roxlet on March 01, 2011

    The yield of this recipe is much larger than stated.

  • Zosia on November 23, 2021

    These were easy to make and even easier to eat - delicious bites of spiced cake and tangy filling. I made a half recipe to use up a partial can of pumpkin and a half brick of cream cheese and they ended up the hit of our Thankgiving desserts last month. Using a 1 tbsp cookie scoop, the yield for a half recipe was 11.

  • et12 on October 31, 2024

    Great flavours and easy to put together. I did a half batch as I only had one tin of pumpkin purée and it yielded nine pies.

• Green tea smoothie

  • Zosia on November 03, 2019

    I'm not sure how potent my matcha is but the drink tasted a little grassy so I added extra milk and honeydew. By the time I was done with it, the recipe for 2 made 3 generous servings. Very refreshing on a hot summer day.

• Fine Cooking

  From the day I saw this cookbook...I was infatuated. With photos...that make you want to reach into the page for a taste, the book has recipes for comfort-food faves but with an intriguing twist...

  Full review

• David Lebovitz

  ...baking books come out and a lot are really good, but this one spoke to me. I mean, each and every dessert sounded like something I not only wanted to bake, but wanted to eat. As in right away.

  Full review