Friends, I was lucky enough to take a trip back to New Orleans this past week to celebrate Father’s Day with my dad and to surprise my nieces and nephews! It was wonderful and deliciously warm (everyone is complaining about record heat there, but all I knew is that I didn't have goosebumps once and my nose didn’t run every single day I was there, so I think it was awesome!). While I was there, my family was celebrating my niece's 11th birthday, and you KNOW I jumped at the ch

By now you should know that I am majorly obsessed with browned butter. I’ve only mentioned it all the time, right? And it’s what makes my salted chocolate chip cookies so dang delicious! In the last year or so, I’ve been wondering about different ways to use browned butter so the flavor can really shine. Fast forward to a cake order that not only needed to feed 70+ people, but also was my chance to show off my knowledge of flavor combinations AND how delicious my products are

One of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever experienced in the world of pastry is when I go through the painstaking process of making macaron batter, lovingly pipe it into the most perfect circles I can muster, crank up the A/C in my apartment to give them the absolute best weather conditions for survival, then pop them into my oven only to find that almost every single shell on the tray has cracked. It’s devastating. Utterly heartbreaking. And freaking expensive. Because

Sometimes, friends, I knock it so far out of the park that I am thoroughly impressed with myself. This week is definitely one of those times. Are you a cookie dough fan? I have always been a huge fan - chocolate chip cookie dough is my favorite. It’s my favorite Ben and Jerry’s flavor, I love sneaking tastes of the cookie dough before I bake it, and one time, I even bought a log of cookie dough the day of a break up and peeled the wrapper off like a banana and ate my feelings

What is your response when someone tells you that you can’t do something? Typically, I let it roll right off me with the internal thought combo of “this guy/gal doesn’t even know what I’m capable of” and “I don’t really care enough about this to even bother” and that’s usually why I don’t rise to the occasion when someone tells me that I can’t. However. I was once in my twenties and had a very different response to someone telling me that I couldn’t do it. My response was gen

What does leftover night look like in your house? In mine, leftover night happens with frequency. Not because I cook that often, but because I only know how to cook for an army. And I’m only one woman, so if I cook for an army on Tuesday, I’m eating leftovers for lunch and dinner on Wednesday, lunch on Thursday (but not dinner because I’d need a break from whatever I cooked - I thoroughly epitomize the phrase “variety is the spice of life” when it comes to eating). I would st

If there was any talent or a skill in the world that you could have, what would you choose? Personally I would have a hard time choosing between killer dance moves, and drawing. I actually had to take Drawing 101 as part of my degree requirement in college, and let me tell you I was LUCKY to get a B in that class. I thought I would fail it for sure. I’m pretty sure I got a B only because I tried so hard, but the truth of the matter is that I’m just not that good at drawing. T

Say what now? Mise en place. It’s a French phrase, pronounced [MEEZ ohn ploss]. It translates to “putting in place” and is a practice used by chefs and artists to organize their workspace and/or the composition of their artwork. Mise en place is an extremely helpful practice when it comes to photographing my workspace, as well as for helping me keep my cool in the kitchen. No joke, when I feel the anxiety ramping up (as it sometimes can when the pressure is on to make your de

I’m still the Cookie Monster this week, if you can believe that. (And of course still a little bit of Charlotte.) It’s more evident now than ever in the cake I made for this week. It’s actually an excellent blend of the two characters now that I think about it. My birthday was earlier this month, and I have to admit that I was in a god-awful mood about it. So much so that I didn’t even bother about making my own birthday cake, which as most of you know by now is my absolute f

What cartoon character(s) do you identify with most? And why? I’d have to say that I am very much like Miss Charlotte La Bouff from The Princess and the Frog, (I enter every room just like her.) (I use the same makeup techniques.) (She has great advice for how to get things done.) (We're both very enthusiastic.) (And have an excellent poker face!) But I'm also very much like the cookie monster: (For obvious reasons.) This week, I am mostly the cookie monster because I did som

Nothing inspires my creativity like the last minute. Usually I like to be the person who is ahead of the game and is set up for success, but lately more often than not I’m running behind on my baking projects and have to change direction because, well… I just don’t feel like it. I blame it on the exercise. That’s right. Every time I hit the gym, I don’t want to do anything else for the rest of the day. No cooking, no cleaning, no baking. But when one of my bartender gal pals

What are some nasty habits that you used to have but you’ve given up in your lifetime? Personally I used to bite my nails, drink at least one carbonated beverage per day, and I ate whipped cream that came in a plastic tub. Thank goodness I’ve given all of those things up! Especially that last one. I don’t think anyone would take me seriously as a chef if I still bought frozen whipped cream. I actually really love making my own whipped cream for desserts, especially creme chan

I can’t believe it’s not butter! Does anyone else remember this hilarious ad campaign from the 90’s? The one where they tried to make us believe that a bright yellow, saturated and trans-fat laden, solidified oil concoction was extremely hoity toity and was something a ripped, hair flowing Fabio consumed from a spray bottle while eating his dinner rolls along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea? Oh wait, that's not Fabio. Surely with that example alone you can understand why g

Shark treats have been a long time coming, my friends. Every year, my Man Candy™ gets summertime excitement about the combination of Le Tour de France and Shark Week! (In years when he’s really lucky - the Olympics rounds out that group, too!) I’ve come to realize that I genuinely appreciate people who are enthusiastic about the things they like, and I certainly love how enthusiastic he gets about these events! Each year I think about throwing a shark themed party to add to

Has one of your dear friends ever broken your heart? I mean just crushed you with a seemingly matter-of-fact statement? One of my girlfriends did that to me right as I was leaving Maui last year. She said to me, “You know, I’ve never tasted one of your cakes.” Cue utter devastation on my end. WHAT??! How can this be? Was there never a cake that I made when she was in attendance for its serving?? We verbally walked through all of the cakes I made while on island, and I think

Happy 4th of July, everyone! I hope you are out celebrating with your loved ones instead of scrolling, but in case you are scrolling for whatever reason, I hope to afford you a bit of eye candy with this super delicious red, white, and blue themed angel food cake. Isn’t she beautiful? Believe it or not this is the very first angel food cake that I’ve ever made. And while I was reading about all the different issues that people have had with this cake, I learned a tip about an

Episode 4: Barrel Roll Well, we did it again! Another successful baking session with an accompanying (and dare I say absolutely delicious!) classic cocktail. I hope you try these recipes and let me know what you think! Lemon Sandwich Cookie Bites 200g sucrose Zest of 2 lemons 86g cream cheese 225g unsalted butter, softened 1 large egg yolk, room temp 5g vanilla extract 340g flour DIRECTIONS Preheat oven to 350°F. Prep baking sheets with parchment paper. Beat butter, cream che

It’s Father’s Day, and again even though I’m not able to be with my dad this year, I still wanted to figure out how to make a treat that he would really love. This is quite a challenge since my dad is not really a fan of sweets. As I was wracking my brain for something suitable, my inner-usually-unhelpful-sarcastic side piped up and said, “If you want to make something that he will actually like, throw out the sweets”. After scoffing at myself for a moment, the lightbulb wen

I spent a long weekend in Reno, NV recently, soaking up all the sunshine and heat it had to offer. I stayed in a casino resort, but being that I don’t gamble, I had to find other things to do. Mostly those other things involved stuffing food into my face, which is one of my best skills if I do say so myself. This casino resort very strategically placed a coffee shop and accompanying pastry display case right next to the elevator bank. What kind of evil genius dreamt that posi

You know your friendship is solid when you ask your gal pal, “Hey are you free on Saturday night?” and she responds with “um, that depends. What are you doing? I may not want to hang out with you.” I'm so glad that's she's not concerned about my ego or anything. Let’s just say that if you want to guarantee that your friend thinks that what you're planning is interesting enough, you should always answer with “Crème brûlée and Hamilton!” We should back up just a minute here to