Almond-Cherry Loaf Cake

This recipe is based on one of Nigella Lawson's.  The main difference being that it uses fresh cherries. You can find the recipe here at the Paris Pastry blog (which has a ton of really tasty-looking recipes). 

Cherries are awesome.

The recipe told me to roll the cherries in flour before adding them to the dough.  I'm not
sure why.  Maybe to make sure they kept most of their juices?

Poached Rhubarb with Elderflower Sabayon

I tweaked this dessert a bit, but it's based on a recipe you can find here.  The sabayon is quite an interesting element; it seems like it would be nice paired with other fruits or even drizzled over a simple cake.  Its warm, whisked, egg yolk foundation stikes me as a pretty versatile base for any number of other flavored accompaniments.

Poaching fruit is a little tricky because it's so easy to overcook.

I have really bad luck with custards, so I was a little wary about attempting a sabayon,
but it ended up being pretty easy.  I just whisked four egg yolks, two tablespoons of sugar, and three
 tablespoons of St. Germain over a water bath until it tripled in size.  I bet this rich, foamy topping
would be really nice over fresh berries.

As far as floral liqueurs go, St. Germain is quite a stately one.

Chocolate Stout Birthday Cake

The only disappointing thing about this recipe is that the icing and cake are so dark and chocolaty that it's a bit difficult to photograph in a way that does it justice.  But don't just take my word for it, you can find the recipe here and try it out for yourself.

Yes, that's A LOT of butter.

Augustus Gloop has nightmares about this cake.

This is supposed to be a three-layer cake, but the recipe made so much batter  that we decided
to split it into two smaller cakes.  Believe me, between the rich batter and the ganache
 icing, two layers more than satisfies. 

The Focaccia Also Rises

You can find the full recipe for Jim Lahey's focaccia here.  And I cannot recommend MY BREAD more highly.  Before I heard about Lahey's incredibly simple no-knead recipes I had it in my head that baking bread was a huge ordeal best left to professionals, but that's not remotely the case.  Filling your kitchen with the incomparable aroma of fresh bread and then finally pulling a perfectly browned loaf out of your own oven is both surprisingly easy and hugely rewarding.  

Most breads are built upon a seductively simple combination of flour, yeast, salt, and water,  but,
interestingly, this focaccia also calls for the puree of a boiled potato.
This potato keeps the dough nice and light.

 Dimpling the dough and sprinkling it with olive oil before
it goes in the oven helps give this bread its unique crust.

You can top the focaccia with pretty much anything you can think of.  I garnished this one with a simple
combination of Roma tomato slices, fresh rosemary, sea salt, and a dash of black pepper.

Yum!