Results tagged “baking”

              

Evan Kleiman's love of pie began when she was a little girl. A native Angeleno, the Angeli Caffe Chef/Owner and KCRW Good Food host grew up in Silver Lake, and remembers her family getting their baked treats from Sarno's bakery. It was a family tradition to get one of the bakery's rum cakes to celebrate a birthday, however Kleiman soon yearned to branch out. "At some point in my early childhood I started requesting a pie for my birthday," she explains. "And in spite of the fact that my birthday is in July I requested an apple pie." Her request soon led to her having hands-on kitchen time and a long-running tradition: "I went from requesting them to making them," she adds. "Now I still have a birthday pie every summer but I have berry or peach."

         

it's been about two years since Vi Trinh left her pursuit of a child psychology degree at UCLA to open Se' La Vi Sweets as a private catering business. Instead of doing homework, she would watch the Food Network and bake. So at the insistence of her boyfriend--and now partner Physent Walker--she dropped out of college and applied to Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena. She was accepted, but could not afford tuition, so she just went at it, full time, catering parties and events with her own style of cupcakes and other sweets. So far, business is great.

       

On Sunday, there was a big community Bake for Barack event in Silver Lake. Their goal? $10,000. We're not sure if they made it, but the goods sure do look good (thanks to Tom Andrews for taking these photos). In fact, we wish we had some of those Cupcakes for Change as we watch (and hack) tonight's Presidential Debate.

In celebration of their first anniversary in Los Angeles, Crumbs in Beverly Hills is giving away a free cupcake when you purchase one on Friday. Well, it's not exactly the warm feeling you get when they just gave out free cupcakes, but there's more news to this. They recently opened a Larchmont location and today announced four more: Los Feliz (Oct.), The Americana in Glendale (Oct.), Malibu Lumbar Yard (Nov.) and The Commons in Calabasas (Jan.). It's all proof that the Pinkberry ripoff phase hasn't killed the cupcake world.

This banana bread recipe is so good.

Following up on my last post, here are five favorites I return to time and time again. All are reliable sources for good eating!

Making these cookies is one of my fondest Christmas traditions. This would lead you to believe that I am a total sugar-holic (which I am), but I mostly enjoy flexing my artistic muscle to decorate these bad boys. We have about 50 different cookie cutters, 6 colors of icing, and decorations galore. It’s always fun to make the standard snowman, but after 2 hours of baking you start to get creative. Dinosaurs, shoes, cars… you name it, we make it. I believe my mom pulled this recipe from a magazine in the 80’s, but it’s still just as delicious today.

Almond Florentines are one of those holiday treats that I look forward to every Christmas. Light and crunchy, these decadent nibbles are super easy to bake and make a great holiday gift- but watch out, they're also highly addictive!

I think it started about a year ago, when the students in one the classes I was teaching found out that I was going to cooking school. "Will you make us something?" they begged. I pictured myself whipping up something in the French tradition from my growing pile of recipes and modifying it to serve thirty or so college freshmen. "No," I replied sensibly. "But if you're good, I'll make you cookies!"

Sitting on my couch, enjoying my freshly baked Carrot Spice Muffin, I noticed the different textures and colors looking back at me from my first bite. This diversity seemed friendly. I was reminded of the first time black children and white children sat in a classroom together. Men hugging men and women hugging women for "one second too long," with people looking on only smiling. A shared tone was felt. "Isn't that just wonderful?"...