Birthdays need cake. Special birthdays need special cake. This year my boyfriend’s mother celebrated what will henceforth be known as her Diamond Jubilee with an unforgettable surprise birthday party, complete with a surprise VW beetle convertible and tickets to the Kentucky Derby. The biggest surprise, however, was her daughter and granddaughter arriving home to Texas an entire month early from Oman. This strawberry shortcake, made at the request of one very surprised birthday lady, was two layers of strawberry summer decadence, a delicious and familiar end to a distinctly surprising and celebratory evening. Use this one to say Happy Birthday and Happy Summer.

Birthday Shortcake with Fresh Strawberries and Cream, The Perfect Finish by Bill Yosses and Melissa Clark

Ingredients
for the shortcake
1 cup flour
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/3 almond paste
4 eggs, at room temperature
3 egg yolks
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
for the whipped cream
1 pint heavy cream
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
for the topping and filling
2 pints fresh strawberries, green hulls cut off (~5 cups)  and sweetened with superfine sugar to taste

for the shortcake

Step 1:  Use the butter to grease and 8-inch round cake pan, line the bottom with a parchment circle cut to size, and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 2: Sift the flour onto a piece of parchment paper and set aside.

Step 3: Using a electric mixer, mix the almond paste and powdered sugar together until the mixture becomes smooth.

Step 4: Add the eggs to almond mixture one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition. Ensure  each egg is incorporated before adding the next. Add the yolks in the same way and then beat for 10-15 minutes until thoroughly  combined, well aerated, and smooth. Sprinkle the flour over the batter and fold it in gently by hand. Fold in the melted butter.

Step 5: Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake on the center rack until the top is golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean (45-50 minutes). Cool the cake on a wire rack 15 minutes before unmolding, removing parchment, and allowing to cool completely.

for the whipped cream and cake assembly

Step 1: Slice the cooled cake in half horizontally and place one layer cut side up on a serving platter.

Step 2: Whip the heavy cream with the sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form.

Step 3: Spoon half whipped cream onto the bottom layer of the cake. Place half of the strawberries, tightly spaced, over the cream.

Step 4: Place the other cake half, cut side up again, on top of the strawberries, making sure the sides are well aligned, and press down very gently.

Step 5: Spoon the remaining whipped cream onto the top layer and top with the rest of the strawberries. Chill at least 2 hours before serving.

Exciting things happen when you move out of college and into a real human apartment. If your real human apartment happens to be in a place like Texas where there is space for all of your items, one of the exciting things that happens to you is that you are suddenly reunited with all of your long lost kitchen equipment. In others words, your parents make you take all that stuff you left in their garage when you went college four years ago in a city with no storage space. Among the goodies awaiting me in my parents’ garage was none other than a food processor. A few years back my parents got themselves a new one, and being sensible people, decide to hang on to the old one. Now it’s mine! Holy Cuisinart! This can only mean one thing – pie crust!

Peekaboo Blueberry Pie, from Desserts from the Loveless Cafe, by Alisa Huntsman

Ingredients
for the crust
1/3 cup cold water
1 1/2 Tbsp white vinegar
2 2/3 cups flour
1 1/4 Tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter

for the pie
1 1/2 lbs blueberries
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 tsp ground ginger
1 Tbsp rose water

for the crust

Step 1: Combine the water and vinegar in a cup and refrigerate while you begin the dough.

Step 2: Place the flour and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Cut the butter in, by pulsing the food processor, until pieces are pea to peppercorn sized. Add the liquid ingredients and pulse until the dough begins to come together.

Step 3: Turn the dough out onto a work surface, separating 1/3 into a smaller disk for top crust and reserving the remaining 2/3 for the bottom crusts. Shape dough into disks, wrap, and chill at least 30 minutes before using.

Step 4: Roll out dough for bottom crust on floured work surface and place in 9 in pie dish. Continue with filling!

for the pie

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Rinse blueberries and pick over to remove any stems or spoiled berries. Drain well.

Step 2: In a mixing bowl, using your fingertips, rub together the sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, and ginger. Add the blueberries and rose water and toss gently to combine. Scrape blueberry mixture in to pie shell.

Step 3: For top crust, cut strips of dough and arrange in lattice pattern. Set pie on baking sheet in the middle of oven. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes (until juices are bubbling and crust is light golden brown). Let cool at least 4 hours to set before slicing.

After graduating from college, moving yourself and your stuff half-way across the country, and unpacking 40-ish boxes  without tripping over your boyfriend’s cat, it is time for cake. It is most definitely time for cake. It seems that in some kind of moving and MCAT studying haze, I felt that now would be a good time to make a red velvet cake. I do not, in fact, like red velvet cake. For years the wild enthusiasm this cake appears to inspire in people both above and below the Mason Dixon line has totally baffled me. People have, while struggling not to swoon head first into the mountain of cream cheese frosting atop their red velvet cupcakes, waxed poetic to me about the subtle cocoa flavors, the rich, moist crumb. Horse hockey. Are you bananas? This stuff tastes like food coloring! What is WRONG with you people? If you, too, have spent a lifetime mystified by red velvet, I say to you I have solved the mystery. I have found the cake that people think that they are talking about when they get all excited about the subtle cocoa flavors and the rich, moist crumb, and, man, is it good.

Red Velvet Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, from Kiss My Bundt by Chrysta Wilson

Ingredients
for the cake
1 1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, room temperature
2 Tbsp red food coloring
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/1 cup flour
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp high-fat cocoa powder (I used Scharffen Berger Natural Cocoa Powder)
for the frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla

for the cake

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter and flour a bundt pan.

Step 2: Using an electric mixer, combine oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute.

Step 3: In another bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.

Step 4: With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients to the wet 1/2 cup at a time, going slowly to avoid clumps.

Step 5: Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake until a cake tester or knife comes out clean (40-50 minutes).

Step 6: Invert the cake onto a cooling rack (If it won’t come out, let cake cool in pan for 15 minutes and try again). Allow to cool completely before frosting.

for the frosting

Step 1: With an electric mixer on medium speed, cream the butter and the cream cheese until soft and completely smooth, about 2 minutes.

Step 2: Turn the mixer speed to low and slowly add the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, scraping down any frosting stuck to the sides of the bowl.

Step 3: Add vanilla extract, and then beat on medium speed until light and fluffy!

Step 4: Frost away!

A Happy Easter to you! Or Passover! Or Sunday! Whatever the case may be, I hope you are enjoying this spring weekend with your family, with your cat, with your favorite movie. I hope you get to spend time with people who you don’t see nearly enough, who ask you to come their apartment and bake delicious things with them, who strangely suggest a cookie recipe that you’ve been eye-balling for a while. It’s always comforting when familiar people can still read your brain waves even when they don’t live next door to your anymore (or maybe you would find that terrifying).

I hope that when get done making those cookies you spend time with the people who you do live next door to, that you decorate easter eggs with them like you’re kids again, and that you make your friendship just a little bit stronger with the happiness only holidays bring. So that they always stay familiar to you – so that they can always read your brainwaves.

Peanut Butter Butterfinger Cookies, from My Baking Addiction

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar
2 egg whites
1 1/4 cups crunchy peanut butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
5 (2.1 oz) butterfinger candy bars, chopped

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degree F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Step 2: Use an electric mixer to beat together sugars and butter until light and fluffy. Add the egg whites, and beat well. Add the peanut butter and vanilla, and beat until combined.

Step 3: In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix until just combined. Stir in the chopped candy bars.

Step 4: Place 1 1/2 Tbsp rounds of dough onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake in preheated oven 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool on pans for about 5 minutes, and then remove to a cooling rack.

Everybody has heroes. Some wear capes or unitards. Some stand up for what is good and right. Some are just everything you need them to be: warm, creative, funny. Wonderful. This hero wears a blazer and a smile. She is armed with laughter and baked goods. It was a treat to meet this hero, Joy the Baker, in person. Well worth a trek to Brooklyn in the rain and a four hour wait, because after all this time her food has never steered me wrong.

Joy and her equally awesome podcasting co-host Tracy Shutterbean recently called upon their listeners to share photos of their five favorite things. Since I’m currently experiencing a slightly absurd Joy the Baker high, I thought I’d join the fun. Also because I keep eating everything I bake instead of photographing it – a deplorable habit.

1. Joy the Baker Cookbook: 100 Simple and Comforting Recipes 
Freshly autographed and ready for action this is, as far as I’m concerned, the cuddly down blanket of baking books. It’s warm, friendly, and conversational. My copy is already covered with flour – a fact easily detected by Joy when she signed it. I highly recommend the cinnamon rolls, single-lady pancakes, and the brown butter chocolate chip cookies. I’ll get back to you when I’ve made the rest to the book.

2. Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment 
If this stuff had existed when the Sound of Music was written, Maria would have sung a whole verse about it. It’s sunscreen, it’s lipcolor, IT’S AWESOME. I have it in ALL the colors. It is out of control excellent, and perhaps the best thing to come out of my freak makeup investment (read: explosion) last summer.

3. This nail color combo
I shamelessly hijacked these nail polishes from one of my apartment mates, just like I shamelessly ask her to do my hair all the time. It’s cool – she’s currently entertaining a back up career as a ladies’ maid. She will be infinitely more boss than O’Brien.

4. My molecular model kit
I am a chemist. This box of tiny pieces of plastic has been a life line in my Advanced Organic Chemistry class this spring. It keeps me from feeling like a total fool whenever I try to do my homework. While I definitely spent part of this semester feeling a bit silly taking such an absurd course when I have every intention of being a physician, not a chemist, it came in handy when I went here. Very handy.

5. The view from my window.
It’s raining today, so the Hudson looks a bit grim, but I’ve liked having this view from the tenth floor. In less than 50 days, I’ll be leaving New York for Texas, and while I’ll be back to visit, I’m fairly certain I won’t be living here again. College is ending, and I am so very excited for what happens next.

I dig pancakes. Even when they aren’t pumpkin flavored or shaped like Yoda’s head, they are a breakfast treat to get excited about. This is not simply because they often serve as a vehicle for two of my favorite items: butter and maple syrup, the real deal stuff, you know, from trees – it’s because pancakes are different. They don’t just make your kitchen smell like mornings or brinner. They make people smile. And if they’re sorta small, they make you feel like a kid again back when you ordered the Silver Five off the kids’ menu at IHOP. Besides, when they’re aren’t huge you can eat more of them, and more pancakes are always a good thing. Always.

Cornmeal Griddle Cakes, from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 Tbsp brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
4-6 Tbsp unsalted butter for the skillet

Step 1: In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

Step 2: Bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Place the cornmeal in a large bowl. Stirring continuously, slowlly pour the water over the cornmeal. Stir until the mixture cools to almost room temperature. Add the brown sugar and stir to combine.

Step 3: In a medium bowl, whisk eggs until light yellow in color. Add the buttermilk and whisk until blended. Add the flour mixture, alternating with the buttermilk mixture, to the cornmeal, beginning and ending with the flour. Stir after each addition and until just combined. Stir in the melted butter.

Step 4: Heat a griddle or skillet to medium-low heat.

Step 5: Add 1-2 Tbsp butter to skillet, coating the surface. Drop batter in 1/4 cup batches onto skillet. Cook until the bottoms are medium brown and the tops are bubbly. Then flip over and cook for about another 2 minutes.

Step 6: Serve with generous amounts of butter and maple syrup if you wish.

Sometimes you need a simple cake. Sometimes you need a simple cake that looks impressive (So impressive, your adoring fans gobble it up before you can take a picture of the whole thing). Enter the upside-down cake. Specifically this upside down cake. I think you ought to make this cake. It’s simple, like I said, and stylish, too. Heck, tell people that it’s healthy. There’s a whole two pears in it. But wait – there’s more: how delightfully springy it is, the wonderful texture from the polenta, and the perfect subtle sweetness of those pears. Like I said, I think you ought to make this cake. It’ll get you right side up again.

Pear Upside-Down Cake, from Bon Appetit, November 2011

Ingredients
9 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided, at room temperature, plus more for the pan
3/4 cup flour
3 Tbsp. coarse yellow cornmeal or polenta
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 cup sugar, divided
2 medium pears (I only used about 1 1/2 pears)
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup whole milk

Step 1: Preheat 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter an 8 in round cake pan with 2 in high sides, and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Step 2: Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.

Step 3: Stir 1/4 cup sugar and 2 Tbsp water in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Boil syrup without stirring, occasionally swirling pan and brushing down sides with a wet pastry brush, until deep amber in color (8-10 minutes). Add 1 Tbsp butter, and whisk until smooth. Pour caramel into prepared cake pan and swirl to coat bottom.

Step 4: Peel, halve, and core the pears. Cut them lengthwise into 1/8 in slices. Layer slices over caramel flat side down, in circular pattern, overlapping as needed.

Step 5: Mix 3/4 cup sugar, 8 Tbsp butter, and vanilla in a large bowl using an electric mixter until light a fluffy. Add yolks one at a a time, occasionally scraping bowl. Beating flour mixture in 3 additions alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour.

Step 6: Using clean beaters in a new bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer on low until frothy. Then increase the speed to medium and beat until soft peaks form. Fold in 1/4 of the egg whites into the batter, then add the remaining whiles. Gently fold just to blend.

Step 7: Pour batter in prepared pan on top of pears, smooth top, and bake 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Step 8: Let cool in pan 30 minutes, and then turn out onto a platter. Cake can be served warm or at room temperature with whipped cream if desired.

These scones go fast. I don’t just mean the making of them either. I mean the impressive consumption of them that occurred at about light speed. They were inhaled. By me. By my roommates. Not by anyone else though – there was no sharing of these glorious breakfast bites. Someone would have had to stage a pretty impressive sneak attack to get their hands on some of those scones. It’s certainly not surprising that we ate them all, or that no interloper got a hold of them. Why? Because they have bacon in them, obviously. And I would probably defend bacon foodstuffs with my very life or least a skillet. But you know what else they have? Cheese – and not just any cheese mind you. Gruyere. It’s Swiss and awesome. It keeps these scones from being anything but neutral. We should know. This isn’t our first Swiss cheese filled bacony rodeo.

 Bite-Size Bacon and Cheese Scones, from Home Baked Comfort, by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients
3 slices thick cut bacon
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup grated Gruyere cheese (plus more for topping scones if desired)
Pinch of kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 egg
3/4 cup heavy cream

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Step 2: In a frying pan, fry bacon until lightly crisp. Finely chop the bacon after draining it on a paper towel.

Step 3: Using a pastry cutter, combine the flour, baking powder, cheese, salt and pepper. Cut in the butter until mixture looks like a coarse meal.

Step 4: In a small bowl whisk together the egg and cream. Pour this mixture into the rest of the dough, and work until dough just comes together. (Note: the recipe instructs you to perform steps 3 and 4 using a food processor, but I, showing what I believe is incredible self restraint, do not have one at my college residence. So I opted for a pastry cutter.)

Step 5: Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, and knead in the bacon. Use a floured rolling pin to roll out the dough to 1/2 in thickness. Using a knife, or a biscuit cutter, cut out as many 1 1/2 in biscuits as you can.

Step 6: Space the scones evenly on prepared baking sheet, top with extra grated cheese if desired, and bake until the tops are golden (about 10-12 minutes). Let cool slightly on wire rack before serving.

Apologies. I have been on a serious pumpkin kick. And even though there may or may not be a pumpkin shortage on, it did not stop me from grabbing up cans of pumpkin at the store greedily and then putting it in these pancakes. You are probably sitting at your computer yawning as I suggest you make yet another pumpkin item. Oh great, now I’m yawning. It’s contagious you know. These pancakes, though, are anything but a yawn. I mean they are pretty orange. They are totally worth the urge to hoard canned pumpkin and wake up early in the bright sunshine to make them for the people who dig you and your pancakes (also known as your pumpkin hungry significant other or your family). Trust me, they’ll thank you.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes, from A Cozy Kitchen

Ingredients
1 cup flour
1 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1 egg
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 Tbsp melted butter, cooled slightly
About 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Step 1: In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.

Step 2: In a small bowl, combined the buttermilk and egg, and beat lightly.

Step 3: In two batches, add the wet ingredients to the dry. Stir until just combined. There should still be plenty of lumps in the batter.

Step 4: On a preheated griddle coated with butter or nonstick cooking spray, scoop out 1/4 cup batches of batter. Top each pancake with the desired amount of chocolate chips. Cook until small bubbles form on the surface of the pancake, then flip. Cook for about another minute, until pancake reaches desired doneness.

Step 5: Stack pancakes, top with butter and syrup, and enjoy!

Apparently, I have a desire to deprive you, dear reader, of delicious chocolate cake. This is a bad habit I am attempting to rectify post haste. You see, I made this cake, um, ages ago. By which I mean, of course, summer. I was home, basking in the glory of my parents’ fully stocked kitchen and abundant Texas sunshine, and I made this cake. Then I ate it. Well, my dad helped. It was good and chocolatey and – well, suffice it say that it went pretty fast. Despite its tastiness, I kept this recipe from you, swathed in mystery for months. Well, NO MORE! I reveal to you at last:

Quick Skillet Chocolate Snack Cake, from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

Ingredients
for the cake
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 tsp instant espresso powder
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes, at room temperature
2 Tbsp vegetable shortening, at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp buttermilk, shaken well
for the frosting
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 Tbsp vanilla
3 oz dark chocolate, melted and cooled

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and grease a 10 in, cast iron skillet with butter. Line bottom of the pan with parchment paper, and butter and flour the parchment.

Step 2: For the cake, whisk together cocoa powder, chocolate, and espresso powder in a small heatproof bowl. Add 3/4 cup very hot water, wait 1 minute, and then whisk the mixture until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool.

Step 3: In another small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Step 4: With an electric mixer, beat the butter and shortening together on medium speed until creamy. Add the sugars and vanilla, and beat until fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until just combined.

Step 5: With the mixer on low, slowly add the chocolate mixture. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour.

Step 6: Once the flour is incorporated, pour the batter into the prepared skillet and bake 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the center of the cake comes out clean. Rotate the cake 1/2 way through baking. Cool in skillet 15 minutes before turning the cake out on a wire rack.

Step 7: While waiting for the cake to cool completely, prepare the frosting. With a mixer on high, beat the butter until creamy. Add the powdered sugar all at once, and beat until completely blended. Add the vanilla, and mix briefly. Add the melted, cooled chocolate and continue beating until smooth and uniform in color, scraping down the sides as necessary.

Step 8: Frost the top of the cake, cut yourself a slice, and enjoy your snack!