Posts in HANDMADE
CHOCOLATELY CHOCOLATE CAKE | FROM SIMPLE CAKES

There is so much I love about chocolate cake, starting with the fact that I’m sure it’s the first cake I ever ate, the kind of cake my mom always, always baked on our birthdays as children, and later, carted to us across the country (literally) in her double decker Tupperware cake carrier when we moved far from home.

Too often, I find the kinds of chocolate cakes at birthday parties or events spongy and bland, not chocolaty enough to satisfy, not toothsome in the way I believe a cake absolutely should be. Not so this cake, which comes to us from Odette Williams, from her new book, Simple Cake. Skip on down for the recipe, below.

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FLØDEBOLLER | DREAMY DANISH SWEETS

Imagine your dreamiest chocolate sweet—the thing you’d eat with abandon if you could do so without consequence—if toothaches and stomach aches and snug waistbands were just the made up things of terrible fairy tales. Mine would be a Flødeboller, these chocolate dreams pictured above—though, I only recently learned that is what they’re called. I knew it in childhood simply as a chocolate-coated marshmallow treat—but not just any marshmallow—it would have to be an pillowy, airy, freshly made marshmallow without even the faintest resemblance to the kind you find in a bag (I’ll skip those all together, thank you). And not just any chocolate coating—the chocolate coating would be thin and snappy, and give to the slightest pressure from the tooth—made with the highest quality dark chocolate you can find (I link to one of my favorites for baking, below).

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GIFT GUIDE || BLUSHY + BEAUTIFUL COFFEE SERVICE

The blush theme continues—then I’m done, promise—because pink and all things feminine are still having its moment, and I’m still totally on board. If you’re rolling your eyes right now, then go straight to GOOP’s brilliantly-titled NOT PINK SHOP, where everything is, actually, pink!

Today we’re applying rose-colored-lenses to your favorite morning ritual—coffee, or tea.

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* GIFT GUIDE || BLUSHY + BEAUTIFUL CERAMICS

I’m all about blushes, cotton and mustard-colored ceramics this year, and my gift guide, admittedly, steers feminine. Consider this your go-to guide for the ladies in your life—your best friend the consummate hostess, your business partner or desk-mate, your mother or mother-in-law, your babysitter, that neighbor you especially adore.

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