With Easter around the corner, I figured a holiday-appropriate recipe would be nice.

There are various reasons as to why there is a cross of icing painted atop of each bun, but being an Easter food, I'm going with the reason that says the cross honors Good Friday, also known as the Day of the Cross.

The buns are made of a slightly sweetened dough, with a sprinkling of cinnamon and studded with currants. I used the dough setting of my bread maker to mix, knead, and rise the dough.

Once out of the bread maker, I found the dough to be rather sticky so I worked in a few extra tablespoons of flour to get it to a workable tackiness. After forming the 12 buns, you let them rise 35 minutes or so until they double in size. Then pop them in the oven for 20 minutes. (Your kitchen will smell pretty freaking amazing at this point.) Once fully cooled, spoon the icing over the buns to make the crosses.

To eat, re-heat them and slather on a pat of butter.

Do your ears perk up when you hear "cake"? Mine do. Well guys, have I've got a cake for you.

It looks so sophisticated, this cake's got me feeling like Miss Fancy Pants baker girl. It's called the Perfect Party Cake, courtesy of baker extraordinaire Dorie Greenspan and her book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Four lemony layers of white cake are married together with raspberry filling, lemon hot meringue buttercream, and finished with a feathering of shredded coconut. Nothing makes my mouth happier than lemon and raspberry cake combos. The cake is "perfect" because the crumb is delicate, the flavors are fresh and bright, and the presentation of the cake is beautiful. The cake also lends itself to many variations with alternate frostings and fillings.

This was my first time making a hot meringue buttercream, and I'm a convert. It was so thick and silky smooth – zero grittiness from the sugar because egg whites and sugar are melted over a double broiler before getting whipped into an oblivion. Yes, it did require three sticks of butter, but it's amazing, so I'm willing to overlook that. Plus, who wants a cake that is skimpy on the frosting?

At first I was a bit concerned because the butter, egg, sugar mixture was a big liquidy mess. There was no possible way it'd come together and thicken ... or so I thought ... but after 6 minutes of whipping, it started getting shiny and thick. Almost mayo-esque. It's ok if your frosting comes apart mid-whipping. Just keep on going and it'll pull together. (Tip: You might have to drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to keep the frosting from flying out and spackleing your kitchen.)

Once baked, the two cakes had to be halved to make four layers, and as you can see, one of my layers is a bit thicker than the others. Oopsies. Anyway, moving on ... here's how to assemble the cake: Layer of cake, layer of raspberry, layer of buttercream, repeat another two times. Layer last piece of cake on top, smother entire cake with buttercream, press shredded coconut all over cake. Easy! Now just cut, eat, repeat.

Slideshow Party Cake, 3/26/10

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Party Cake, 3/26/10

By Web Editor

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This recipe for Braised Chicken with Shallots comes from the Martha Stewart Living Magazine cookbook Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast.

Yes, the dish was fresh ... but it wasn't flavorful, and it wasn't fast.

I felt it needed a "kick" of some sort because it turned out slightly bland. Not sure what would have been good. Perhaps honey? Or some sort of spice. It was just a so-so dish. I don't think I'll be making this again, but hey, if you like shallots more than a fat kid likes cake, then go for it.

Braised Chicken with Shallots

From Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast

Ingredients

8 bone-in, skinless chicken thighs (about 2 1/2 pounds total)

Coarse salt and ground pepper

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound small shallots (about 12), peeled and halved

5 garlic cloves, peeled and halved

1/2 cup dry white wine

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

Fresh tarragon leaves, for garnish (optional)

Directions

1.Season chicken with salt and pepper; coat with flour, shaking off excess.

2.In a Dutch oven or 5-quart pot with a tight-fitting lid, heat oil over medium-high. Cook chicken until browned, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Remove; set aside.

3.Add shallots and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened and golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add wine; cook until evaporated, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in mustard and 1 1/2 cups water; bring to a boil.

4.Return chicken, bone side down, to pot. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and cook until chicken is tender and cooked through, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate; loosely tent with aluminum foil to keep warm. Add tomatoes to pot; season with salt and pepper. Cook on high until sauce has thickened, 6 to 8 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low, and return chicken to pot; cook until heated through. Serve, garnished with tarragon, if desired.

Nope, they aren't moldy. These vanilla cupcakes have got their green on to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

For the cake batter, I used my go-to vanilla cupcake recipe from Billy's Bakery in NYC. I then dyed the white vanilla cake batter with two shades of green for a festive surprise – layers of green on the insides of these cupcakes.

To achieve this affect, I dropped a blob of white batter on the bottom of the cupcake liners, then piped in a few tablespoons of dark green batter in the middle of each, and then piped in the light green batter. I did a shabby job filling each cupcake with the green batters so you can see the green peeking out underneath the frosting of the baked cupcakes. Darn. Surprise ruined!

To finish them off, I topped the cupcakes with a simple buttercream frosting made of powdered sugar, butter, vanilla and milk. To get the green swirls through the frosting, I painted a few stripes of gel food coloring on the inside of my piping bag before loading it up with frosting. But hey, if you want to go full-on green, just drop some food coloring into the entire batch of frosting.