SousChef Community

If you love cakes, July 4th, or Americana, Warren Brown's United Cakes of America: Recipes Celebrating Every State (Stewart, Tabori & Chang) may be the perfect book for you. Brown, founder of CakeLove Bakery in D.C., is passionate about cakes and his enthusiasm translates well into the book that's organized by region and state. Cake recipes are ...

That disturbing sound you heard two nights ago was my Belfast-born mom whirling in her grave at the thought of me not just buying Irish soda bread but shelling out a ridiculous $5.99 for it. Something comes over me this time of year and I'm a sucker for the things she used to bake religiously every Lent/Easter. Of course the store-bought stuff ...

Valentine's Day is coming up and you're probably trying to come up with a great gift idea. A beaded necklace could convey ''I love you'' as would chocolates and flowers, but none of them are particularly original (and maybe you're not ready to say those three words?). So it's always best to go for something cakey and chocolaty, like brownies (a ...

If any dessert deserves its own national holiday, I believe pie does. (And to paraphrase Stephen Colbert, there are much worse things to believe in.) The American Pie Council has declared National Pie Day to be January 23, and in observance of the happy event, the Pie Council website has information about lots of great pie contests and pie events ...

Yesterday was the Feast of the Epiphany, also known as Twelfth Night or Three Kings, the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas and the celebration of the visit of the three wise men (kings) to the baby Jesus. On the culinary front, this means it's now King Cake season. The tradition of the King Cake originated in Europe and followed French settlers ...

Four years later, my proposal to Mrs. Todd’s Mom still stands: “Dear Mrs. Todd’s Mom, …I do understand that the recipe for your baklava might be a very closely guarded Todd’s Mom’s family secret that has been passed down from generation to generation, so Mrs. Todd’s Mom, I have a proposal for you…” { read the ...

Based on this list, you might think that 1) I published enough posts this year to even have a list of the Top 12 and 2) I bake. Both are absolutely true! Sort of. Okay. Not really. First of all, some of the most popular posts in 2009 weren’t even written in 2009. I have no idea what that means, [...]

It just isn’t Christmas until someone assaults your wellness with a full arsenal of bars, cookies and confections on an appropriately holiday-themed paper plate. (And yes, there is a dulce de leche brownie missing from the plate. And a chocolate gingersnap. Okay, fine, two chocolate gingersnaps.)

When I was little, my mother used to make dough ornaments each year by baking cookies'' out of a simple flour, water, and salt dough, decorating them with food coloring, and hanging them with ribbon from the tree. They had an adorable, homespun look, but my younger brother, still a toddler, couldn't quite understand that they weren't meant to be ...

How cool are these mini gingerbread houses perched on mugs of hot chocolate?! Think I'll have to make some of these. Thanks, NotMartha! Got the Christmas baking bug? Check out our easy videos and recipes for a Yule Log cake and delicious edible gifts. We've even got kid-friendly versions to cut down on time and angst. Oh, and of course you'll need ...