• Baking Recipes,  Cookies,  From the books,  J'adore macarons,  Lemon Obsession,  My favourite things

    A semblance of Lemon Macarons + I need a new oven

    I’m officially obsessed. I want to make every macaron flavor in the Universe– every odd, outrageous, and wonderful flavor known to man– and file all the really memorable ones into my repertoire. But right now I have to experiment with recipes and techniques to find the ones that produce consistent results for me. And then I have to master them. And I also seriously need a better oven, but more on that later. Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours of hands-on application to become an expert at anything. And I know this is only my second try at macarons, but the improvement in knowledge from my first to my…

  • Baking Recipes,  From the books,  Layer cakes,  Lemon Obsession

    Lemon cakes and well wishes

    It was an incredibly dreary day when I made this, and yet I could not allow it to permeate the purpose of this cake. The summer weather has been odd, abruptly throwing rain in the middle of heat waves whenever it felt like it, like a child throwing a tantrum, or maybe a person splashing water into the face of another in the heat of an argument. Either way, the clouds had caused the sun to cast a dark gray sheen over everything, but thankfully not on our moods. Jason was holding my camera as I messily assembled his birthday cake. ‘Hurry up, will you!’ He told me as he…