Yes, that's whipped cream on those cupcakes - that is not frosting. And that whipped cream will look just as nice the next day and the day after that. How? Because it's stabilized whipped cream and if you've ever wondered how professional bakers get whipped cream desserts to look nice for so long, you will want to read this post.

A few years ago I made Slab Pie, which could feed a crowd because it was baked in a rimmed baking pan.  I made a blueberry Slab Pie for Labor Day weekend and it's still a great way to make a lot pie.  But what if you didn't want to have to slice and serve the pie from a pan?  Hand pies are all over the place now on food blogs and in cooking magazines and they make serving up pie a breeze, especially at cookouts and picnics. 

This is one of my go-to chocolate cake recipes because it always come out perfectly.  It is a dense, moist, delicious chocolate cake with a layer of flavored buttercream frosting and chocolate ganache over the top.  Does that sound complicated?  Well, it's really not - if you've never really attempted a good homemade cake, this is a great one to try. 

The originial recipe called for making an espresso buttercream layer, but I much prefer the taste of orange with chocolate. You can make whichever flavor you like. The ganache top layer is super easy - you just heat all the ingredients together and let it cool for a little while until it is thick enough to pour over the cake but yet still thin enough that it will run down the sides. 

Here is a fun summer treat that's easy to make and doesn't require popsicle molds.  These fun homemade popsicles are made in little dixie cups.  I've made them with three layers - two fruit purees, one blueberry and the other strawberry, and a white layer of cream cheese and yogurt.  They will be great for the Fourth of July.  Pass around a platter of these to your guests.  

My oldest son was taking a trip out to L.A. recently and asked for some restaurant recommendations.  I told him to try to go to Lucques, the restaurant owned by Suzanne Goin.  That reminded me that I've always wanted to make her Meyer Lemon Tart, from her book, "Sunday Suppers at Lucques".  It's a different kind of lemon tart, because it has a layer of bittersweet chocolate on the bottom, an idea she got from her sister, who asked her to put some chocolate in her lemon tart. 

Carnevale will be starting soon in Italy and these little delicious morsels called cenci are a traditional treat during that time.  They are very much like the elephant ears we have in this country - fried pieces of dough, dusted in powdered sugar.  There are many different recipes for them and different names.  I've made mine with the fresh taste of orange zest and a little rum.  

We love our traditional dishes at Thanksgiving, don't we?  But for people who love to cook, sometimes Thanksgiving can be a pretty boring meal.  Have you ever tried to eliminate that horrid green bean casserole, only to hear groans of disappointment when it's not served?  Don't try to jazz up the stuffing too much or there is sure to be someone disappointed on that one, too. But maybe you can sneak in this pumpkin roll, though, for a little twist on Thanksgiving dessert!

If you've never made any kind of cake roll before, don't be afraid of it.  It's so easy and you'll have fun doing it. You bake the cake quickly in a sheet pan that is lined with parchment.  The cake is very thin and you tip it out easily onto a thin tea towel, sprinkled with powdered sugar.  The cake and towel are rolled up together and left to cool in that shape.   Making the filling is a snap and then you just spread it on the cake and roll it right up again.  

What are the Thanksgiving dishes you just can't live without?

Do you get a little bit bored of making the same kind of layer cake by baking two eight inch cakes and layering them?  I started making layer cakes a different way and I like it so much I wanted to share it with you.

I bake the cake in a 15x10x1 sheet pan and cut it into thirds and then stack them. It makes a nice rectangular cake with three layers that are very pretty when you make your slices to serve.  You can use this technique with any regular cake recipe.  The only thing to keep in mind is that if you like a lot of frosting, you should make one and a half times the amount of frosting in a frosting recipe. Then you will have plenty.  I actually made just the regular amounts of frosting for the cakes you see in the photos.

Continuing on with my recipes inspired from our trip to Italy is this lemon cake. While we were on Capri, I had breakfast one morning that was just a simple piece of lemon cake, a fresh orange and a cappuccino.  It was just such a perfect breakfast in a place where there were either lemon groves or orange trees everywhere you looked. I bought a nice little ceramic lemon juicer on the island and knew right then and there that I would make a lemon cake for the blog when I got back. 

There is a reason this dessert is so popular in Italy.  You want to lick the glass it's served in, it's so good. I made these for dessert for our Valentine's dinner and my husband ate two.  

Zabaglione is a custard made with egg yolks, sugar and Marsala wine.  It's traditionally served warm but because I like make-ahead desserts, I'm serving mine cold and folding whipped cream into it to make it lighter. You can add your own touches to this recipe.  I added a little orange juice and also served the custard over fresh berries.

I've made these beautiful delicious cranberries for the holidays for a couple of years now, ever since I saw them over on Heidi's blog. These pretty cranberries look like they might be just for decoration, but they're not - they are like eating candy.  I usually put them on my Christmas Eve buffet table.

They're so simple to make but you do need to start them the night before. 

I'm going to share with you today a new method of making homemade ice cream that produces not only delicious ice cream, but ice cream that keeps well in the freezer.  We love making homemade ice cream in our house, but the one problem was that it didn't keep well in the freezer.  It was delicious and creamy the day you made it, but the next day it formed ice crystals.  This recipe solves that problem.

I like the idea of serving little individual desserts at get togethers and these little cheesecakes do the job. People can just pick one up and go - no slicing and serving required. I made lemon pound cake parfaits in taller jars but these little cheesecakes are in the smaller 4-ounce jelly jars. You can find them easily at your grocery store.  They are just about the perfect serving size for all those people who say, "Oh, I shouldn't eat dessert. Well, maybe just a few bites."  The toppings that you can use are endless.  I had to make a few of these with mini chocolate chips for my sweet guy, Nathan - he doesn't do raspberries. I was also thinking a nice layer of caramel sauce would be heavenly.

Before I get into the dessert I'm posting about today, I wanted to share with you a cake I made this weekend that was so pretty. I thought you might like links to the recipe and method I used. For the cake, I used Bakerella's Red Velvet Cake recipe with Cream Cheese Frosting. Tremendous cake.  It's really moist and the cream cheese frosting is incredible. I've made it before and just frosted it straight up, but this time I made one and a half times the frosting recipe and made these roses all over the cake:

This is a funny little recipe.  It only has four ingredients and requires no baking. I used to make this cake when my boys were little and it always amazed me.  I was looking through my recipes the other day for something and came upon this and had fond memories of it.  I can't even remember where I got this recipe from anymore, but it's a winner.

Wow, that sounds complicated, doesn't it?  Actually, this rich dessert isn't that hard to make.  If you've never made marshmallow meringue before, you are in for a real treat. It's easy, insanely delicious and a has a real "wow" factor.  

I've made these cakes many times and they are supposed to be served unmolded, upside down on a plate. Because they are so gooey on the inside, sometimes they fall apart a bit after unmolding.  I just quit messing with that step and I just serve them now in the ramekins, but you can certainly unmold them if you want. If you don't unmold them, you can pipe the marshmallow right on top, which I prefer. 

I wanted to make these for you and post them before Christmas, but it just didn't happen. I've been eating so many oranges lately - the California Navel oranges have been so incredible for several weeks now - that I hated to see all those peels go to waste.  This seemed like a good time for Orangettes.

Orangettes are candied orange peels that are dipped in chocolate.  I think dark chocolate gives the nicest flavor with the orange.  They are a great little snack and actually go so nicely with a cup of spiced tea. 

We make ice cream at home quite a lot and I've posted several ice cream recipes in the past.  But I get asked enough about how to make gelato that I thought it was time for a post.

The big question for people is what is the difference between American ice cream and Italian gelato? When people taste gelato, they comment on the intensity of flavor and the different texture it has.  Gelato is very dense and this is because there is not the amount of air whipped into it like American ice cream.  Ice cream has a lot of air whipped into it and it makes for a lighter texture. Ice cream is also made from cream and sometimes eggs and has quite a bit of butterfat.  Gelato has much less butterfat and is made from milk.