Here's a Simply Spectacularly Delicious recipe for taking White Chocolate Mousse to the third power - divide it up and give each treatment its own presentation and violá, you have an enchanting offering of different delicacies to delight any palate. My young friends Miranda and Georgia were coming for dinner, and after the success of last summer's … [Read more...]
SPECTACULARLY BEAUTIFUL CUPCAKES: SSD #5
With no end in sight to the over-the-top cupcake craze, it seems like even accomplished home bakers have thrown in the towel. Why even try to impress and dazzle when you're competing with countless eye-popping monstrosities readily available? The reliable province of novices and experienced alike, pity the … [Read more...]
FAT ELVIS ICE CREAM
The King is dead. Long Live the King! Young Reese Shirey, an industrious 20 year old student at the University of Alabama, has created this cool creamy homage to the King. A decadent concoction perhaps, yet like the Lord of Graceland, this treat is as sweet as Elvis was to his mama, and and sexy and southern and a bit eccentric. And a reminder to … [Read more...]
RECIPE: FAT ELVIS ICE CREAM
FAT ELVIS ICE CREAM: banana malt ice cream littered with candied bacon pieces and marbled with a honey ripple and a peanut butter ribbon. RECIPE FROM REESE SHIREY Yield: 1 qt. For banana malt ice cream: 2 c. heavy cream 1 c. whole milk ¾ c. sugar 4 egg yolks 3 over ripe bananas ¼ cup malted milk powder 1 t.. vanilla extract Pinch of … [Read more...]
MAPLE APPLE CLAFOUTI, MAPLE NUT GANACHE, MAPLE CIDER SAUCE
Spring is in the air, when a young man's fancy turns to thoughts amorous -- what could be more romantic that the rubber tubing poked into the trunks of upstate sugar maples, the hoses encircling the trees allowing the rising sweet sap to flow down into the syrup makers' caldrons for reduction into a clear brown syrup? Time … [Read more...]
NUSSTORTE: LIBERACE ORIGINAL RECIPE
Liberace's Nusstorte Recipe: a flourless filbert (more commonly known as hazelnuts these days), certainly hails from his Mittel-European roots. Swathed in snowdrifts of drifts of whipped cream, the airy sponge cake is layered with a red jelly -- the color of passion! As Lee had a keen eye for strong blonds with smooth complexions, I decided some Brunette … [Read more...]
PANCAKES BARBARA: ELSIE de WOLFE ORIGINAL RECIPE
Elsie's getting top billing in this recipe for Pancakes Barbara but there are a few other grand dames and fine fellows in the back story of this wonderful dessert. The first time I heard of Pancakes Barbara was at the Miss Gay Sobriety Pageant in Greenwich Village a few years ago. A talented recovering substance abuser performing … [Read more...]
CARAMELIZED APPLE JAM: ORIGINAL GOURMET RECIPE
If there's anything more boring than apple sauce it's apple butter. Yuck. One would be hard pressed to find any redemption in its murky brown depths. Its first crime is that it's not sweet. At all. On top of that, all the apple flavor has been mercilessly cooked out. Then there's that whole goody two-shoes "it's … [Read more...]
ART DECO CHRISTMAS COOKIES: THE CHRYSLER BUILDING
If you can't come to New York City for the holidays, why not bring a little of Manhattan chic to your holiday cookies plate? These Chrysler Building sugar cookies in all their art deco splendor could be just the thing. This clever cutter was in a set of NYC architectural landmarks I got ages ago. Never throw out a cookie cutter! You never know... When the time … [Read more...]
SABLES LIBERACE: FRENCH BUTTER COOKIES
Breathless with the news of a Liberace bio-pic in the works (Starring Michael Douglas! Directed by Steven Soderberg!! Matt Damon as Scott Thorson!!!) a celebration was in order. So I found myself drawn once again to Liberace Cooks! As told to Carol Truax, and their recipe for Sables, the delicate French butter cookie. (If you're not … [Read more...]