Coconut Cake

June means it's birthday time in my family!  Last week was my dad's natal day, so I made him a dinner of his choosing as part of my gift.

For dessert, he picked an oh-so-delicious but slightly tricky coconut cake.  "Beware!" my friends said.  "The boiled icing will be your downfall."

But I'm here to tell you that if you watch your icing carefully and follow the directions semi-carefully, you'll be A-OK.  And you'll have a light cake that's not too overwhelming for summer (or anytime) celebrations.

Strawberry Cupcakes

Disclaimer: These cupcakes are so delicious, I've made two batches in the last four days.  That's a lot of cupcakes, even for me.

Several months ago, I took an amazing cupcake class at Butter Lane in New York.  Since then, I haven't made a single cupcake, instead pining away for the magic of a stand mixer, to whose camp I became a firm convert after the class.  Thanks to a U of C audit in my favor (sounds like something out of Monopoly's Community Chest, but for real), I finally bought a beautiful refurbished KitchenAid and have been chomping at the bit to make something with it for about a week.

To celebrate the arrival of both my friend Britta, who is moving to the area for graduate school, and Shelly the Stand Mixer: Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting.  This recipe is based on the Butter Lane class's recipe, but adjusted to reflect the different ingredients I had on hand and to incorporate the addition of fruit.

Nectarine Cake

My dad always tells me how important it is to "eat to live, not live to eat."  Consequently, there are very few foods that I allow to fall into my "worth-living-for" foods category.  Stone fruits, for better or worse, comprise a goodly chunk of that list.  Peaches, plums, apricots: I love them all.  So when I went to the farmer's market last week and found myself surrounded by stacks and stacks of lovely fruit, I couldn't help myself.  I had enough self-control to buy the least expensive type of fruit, but I still wound up carting three pounds of nectarines back to the office and then home on the subway.  Now, I can eat a lot of nectarines, but three pounds of perfectly ripe, rapidly spoiling fruit is too much even for me.  So what to do?  Bake a delicate dessert highlighting the fruit, of course.

This recipe comes from the now sadly defunct Gourmet.  I changed very little, as baking tends to be much more unforgiving of improvisation than other types of cooking.