Back in college, I used to go home over the holiday breaks and come back to campus with homemade goodies for my friends. One time I returned from winter break with tiramisu.

I was never allowed free reign of the household alcohol in our liquor cabinet as I was under 21 at the time, but when it came to cooking or baking, my mom could care less. As long as I didn't straight up drink it by the glass, it was all good. Rum, Kahlua, Chambord, Bailey's ... I could use as much as I wanted. It was my loophole.

So when I made the tiramisu,
 
I loaded it up to the max with Kahlua. Back at school, my friends took one bite of the stuff and refused to eat the rest because it tasted way too alcoholic for tiramisu. Eight years later, they still make fun of me for my "Alcoholic Tiramisu."

Don't worry... this Tiramisu Cake is nothing like that. I followed the recipe exactly and used only two tablespoons of Kahlua for the entire cake. Two white cakes are brushed with an espresso syrup, then layered together with a fluffy coffee-flavored marscapone and whipped cream filling, studded with bittersweet chocolate, frosted with more marscapone and whipped cream, and topped with shaved chocolate.

The recipe comes from Dorie Greenspan again ... I used the recipe found in her book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

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

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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.

Adapted from a recipe in the Baked cookbook Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, these Monster Cookies, are well, monster. (Baked is the well-known bakery with locations in Charleston, SC and New York.)

Be afraid. These cookies are monsterous in size. They are downright beastly they are so big. Each drop cookie contains over 3 tablespoons of dough and is scooped out and plopped down with an ice cream scoop. Post baking, the balls of dough spread out to become a cookie larger than my palm and thicker than a finger.

With the entire recipe only containing 1/2 cup of flour, these cookies consist mainly of a lot of oatmeal and peanut butter, with some tidbit goodies like chocolate chips and Reese's Pieces mixed in. Mmmmm. Party in my mouth.

I brought a heaping plate of these cookies to the Creative Loafing office, and they were all gone before the day was over. Even the sales rep who claims he doesn't like peanut butter was chowing down on cookies. So, if you enjoy cookies that are both chewy and crunchy, and love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, you just might have to make these right now.

Monster Cookies

adapted from Baked

Makes about 30 cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

5 ¾ cups rolled oats

¾ cups (1 ½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1 ½ cups firmly packed light brown sugar

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

5 large eggs

¼ tsp light corn syrup

¼ tsp vanilla extract

2 cups chunky peanut butter

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup Reese’s Pieces

In a large bowl whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together. Add the oats and stir until combined.

In the bowl of electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and pale in color. Add the sugars and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Do not overmix.

Scrape down bowl and add eggs one at a time, beating until smooth (about 20 seconds) and scraping down bowl after each edition. Add the corn syrup and vanilla and beat until incorporated.

Scrape down bowl and add peanut butter. Mix on low speed until just combined, add the oat mixture in three additions, mixing on low speed until just incorporated.

Use a spatula or wooden spoon and fold in the chocolate chips and Reese's Pieces. Cover bowl tightly and refrigerate for 5 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

Use ice cream scoop to scoop out dough into 3- tablespoon size balls on two baking sheets – 2 inches apart. Bake for 12-15 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking time. Let cool on pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

It's scone crazy in my house. After last week's Pumpkin Scones, I wanted more.

I found this recipe for Cinnamon Bun Scones floating around the food blogosphere recently. The scones looked pretty tasty, so I decided to give them a test run.

These scones are formed by dropping 1/4-cups of dough on a cookie sheet, which beats patting the dough down and using a cutter to form each scone. Cinnamon, sugar, and chopped toasted pecans are swirled into the dough, which makes them similar to cinnamon buns.

So, how were they? High-five fellow bloggers! These were good. I like how the oats in the recipe gave the scones some heft, and the crunchy bits of toasted pecans were amazing.

These babies are best straight out of the oven and freshly drizzled with glaze.

Cinnamon Bun Scones

Scone ingredients:

2 C all purpose flour

1 C oats

1/4 C plus 2Tbs sugar

1 Tbs baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

8 Tbs butter chilled and cut into pieces

3/4 C milk

1 egg lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 C toasted pecans

2 tsp ground cinnamon

Glaze ingredients:

3/4 C powdered sugar

3 to 4 tsp milk

Heat oven to 425°F. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray or use a silicone mat.

In large bowl, combine flour, oats, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, baking powder and salt; mix well. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In small bowl, combine milk, egg and vanilla; blend well. Add to dry ingredients all at once; stir with fork or rubber spatula until dry ingredients are moistened. In small bowl, combine remaining 2 tablespoons granulated sugar with the pecans and cinnamon; mix well. Sprinkle evenly over dough in bowl; gently stir batter to swirl in cinnamon mixture (Do not blend completely.) Drop dough by 1/4 cupfuls 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake 11 to 13 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire rack; cool 5 minutes. In small bowl, combine powdered sugar and enough milk for desired consistency; mix until smooth. Drizzle over top of warm scones. Serve warm.

If you like your mac 'n' cheese baked, here's a recipe for you. If you don't, then you can stop reading.

I'm of the crowd that likes their macaroni and cheese creamy, with each piece of elbow-shaped pasta discernible – not a baked-together chunk that gets served casserole-style ... which is what you get with this recipe.

Though I can't say this recipe is amazing, it's easy and makes a decent side dish. It's called Macaroni and Double Cheese because it contains two types of cheeses – Velveeta and cheddar. (By the way, does Velveeta even count as cheese?) I'll post the recipe below anyway if you decide you like what you see. If you can tweak it a bit and make it tastier, let me know.

Macaroni and Double Cheese

Ingredients

1 (16 ounce) package elbow macaroni

2 eggs

1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 tablespoons prepared mustard

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

1 teaspoon pepper

8 ounces process cheese (Velveeta), melted

4 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese, divided

Directions

Cook macaroni according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, butter, mustard, seasoned salt and pepper until combined. Stir in the process cheese and 3 cups of cheddar cheese.

Drain macaroni; stir into cheese mixture. Pour into a greased 3-qt. baking dish. Top with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until cheese is melted and edges are bubbly.

With the snow falling fast and hard, and after many minutes of deliberation as to whether to leave the house or not, I decided to just hunker in for the night and make scones instead.

These cheerful pumpkin scones warmed up the house with scents of ginger, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and sugar as they baked up in the oven. The sugar glaze on top is spiced, too, for double the flavor.

Sprinkled with some chopped pecans over the glaze, these scones look and taste good enough to be cafe-worthy. Take that, Starbucks!

Pumpkin Scones

Yield: 12 scones

Ingredients for scones

2 cups all-purpose flour

7 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1 Tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

5 Tablespoons cold butter

½ cup canned pumpkin

3 Tablespoons half-and-half or milk

1 large egg

Ingredients for glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

2 - 3 Tablespoons milk

dash of cinnamon

dash of pumpkin spice

dash of ginger

handful of pecans, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger in a large bowl. Use a fork to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no chunks of butter are obvious; set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, half-and-half and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and form the dough into a ball. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle about 3 times as long as wide. Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal portions. Cut each of the portions in an X pattern (four pieces) so you end up with 12 triangular slices of dough. Place on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.

4. To make the powdered sugar glaze, mix the powdered sugar, spices and milk together until smooth. Add enough milk until you achieve desired consistency. While scones are still warm, use a brush to spread plain glaze over the top of each scone. Sprinkle on chopped pecans before the glaze sets.

A warm layer of apples and strawberries is topped with a crunchy oat topping. Served up with a big scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, this Apple Strawberry Crunch makes for a delicious ending to any meal.

This recipe is really easy peasy.

When rhubarb is back in season in the summer, substitute the apples for rhubarb for a different twist.

Apple Strawberry Crunch

Ingredients

3 apples, sliced

1 pint strawberries, quartered

1/4 cup white sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x9 inch baking dish.

2. In a large mixing bowl combine apples, strawberries, white sugar, and 3 tablespoons flour. Stir well and spread evenly into baking dish. Set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl combine brown sugar, oats, and 3/4 cups flour. Stir well then cut in butter or margarine until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle mixture over fruit layer.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes. Serve warm with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.