All About "baking"

Apple Galette

This beautiful apple galette is like an apple pie without all the work. Try Catherine Newman's quick and easy recipe today.

Rich Fudgy Brownies

These rich, fudgy, homemade brownies are so quick to prepare that they're perfect for when you must have chocolate right now. Try out Alison Needham's delicious recipe.

Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Rhubarb Crumb Bars

These delicious bars are crunchy-bottomed with a deep flavor of oats caramelized in butter and brown sugar, and then topped with a jammy rhubarb layer and a few tender crumbs. A perfect recipe for breakfast, snacks or dessert.

Gingerbread

This gingerbread is big, soft, and comforting, like the down comforter of the cake world, and it fills your house with the spicy, delicious smell of holiday baking, even on a regular old school night. Try out this delicious recipe for your kids' lunches or dessert.

Yummy Buttermilk Biscuits

A great accompaniment to hearty soups and stews, these Yummy Buttermilk Biscuits are a great project for kids. Between the flour, cookie cutters and dough, your kids will love being involved in the kitchen. Adapted from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, I like to make these biscuits using half whole wheat flour, and swap in a third of a cup of wheat germ and ground flax seeds.

Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

Now this particular cake, as you have noticed by its title and appearance, is made with cranberries, but I have baked it with many other fruits ranging from the classic pineapple to the bracingly delicious rhubarb; come spring. It's a nice little cake to make this week, when you've picked up an extra bag of cranberries and are feeling festive, and super easy.

Plum Cake

This is a dense, buttery cake dotted with sweet-tart plums that have gone silky in the oven. My mother sent me the recipe clipping from The New York Times approximately one million years ago, and she and I between us have baked it at least that many times. It takes just a few minutes to get it into the oven, and comfortably knife-wielding kids might like to help by halving the plums and tugging out their pits. The original recipe calls for neither vanilla nor almond extract, but it asks you to sprinkle a teaspoon of cinnamon over the cake before baking, which I did for years, until I discovered that I wasn't that crazy about the cinnamon. I have, however, sprinkled a teaspoon of cardamom over it, and that is delicious.

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

They taste just like chocolate cupcakes! Like good chocolate cupcakes, even! They're super-chocolatey and almost obscenely moist -- like the cake mix with the pudding in it, in a good way. Plus, it's a great way to use up a glut of squash -- and the green flecked against the rich, reddish brown of the cake frankly delights me. This recipe is kind of a cross between a Heidi Swanson cupcake recipe and a Bon Appetit cake recipe, with a few deviations, as is my way. Feel free to omit the spices, although I love the flavor combination -- just don't cut back on the vanilla or the salt, which the cake really needs in its successful fight against blandness.

Apple Cheese Danish

These Apple Cheese Danishes use store-bought puff-pastry for a delicious and easy Pastry Recipe. Get Alison Needham's full recipe here.