SMiLes by Meg

Category: Cake

Individual Flan

I’m writing this from my kitchen counter, taking a break from packing, but by the time I post it (a day early, I know) I’ll be in Washington State, catching a ferry to Alaska. I’ll spend the entire month of September there, hiking, kayaking, exploring, and, obviously, baking. With Erik moving to Anchorage for two years to clerk, and me not starting work for another couple months in Boston, I’m very excited to have the opportunity to get to know a state I’ve never visited. AND I’m very excited to take this ferry, which will bring us from Bellingham, Washington …

Flourless Coconut Cake

This post is going to be a buzzer-beater. I made it yesterday, finally at home in Duxbury enjoying summer vacation, and then spent today moving into a new apartment with my mom’s help. There is nothing like moving into a new place – full of fresh starts and exciting decorating opportunities. And, of course, a new kitchen! But in all my excitement, I definitely was a bit rushed in baking this last night. And maybe had a pretty catastrophic baking fail. I do not blame the recipe – this one was all me. So if you do try this post, …

Walnut Halvah Cake

Fun fact for my Instagram followers (@smilesbymeg): while 76 of you took the time to watch my Instagram story in which I made this cake, only 24 of you could bring yourselves to like the post itself. I’m not really sure what that says about my respective video/photo editing abilities, but I think it means I have to work on my food photography. Also, despite now having posted 7 different Ottolenghi recipes, I still haven’t been selected in his #IBakedOttolenghi compilations. Further proof that my food photography needs work. Looks like I have my project for post-bar-exam life!

Icebox Cake

Happy Father’s Day to the best dad a girl could ask for! Today, I spent an absolutely wonderful day with my dad, reading at the beach, kayaking/paddle boarding, and generally enjoying South Shore life. And, because it’s his day, I made a recipe this week that is one of his favorites: Icebox Cake. Icebox Cake is good for a number of reasons. It only has three ingredients. You don’t have to turn on the oven. And the finished product kind of tastes like Oreos but better.

Strawberry Shortcake

Happy Easter! After a wonderful day with family out in Duxbury, I’m still not quite ready to go back to school work, so blogging it is! This year’s Easter recipe evolved quite a bit from its original idea, and strangely went from more adventurous to more traditional, rather than vice versa. Every year, my mom and I think it will be a good idea to make some big and beautiful Easter dessert, and every year we all get too full on brunch to actually eat dessert, leaving full cakes untouched. This year, I wanted to be cognizant of that.

Lemon Berry Stripe Cake

This weekend I decided to bake something exciting. I had the time. I had a book club (which meant it would disappear quickly). I hadn’t made a cake in far too long. Also, Cate made it a couple weeks ago and I got jealous. So I pulled out Ottolenghi’s Sweet cookbook and found the most colorful, interesting looking cake I could: Lemon Berry Stripe Cake.

Old Fashioned Doughnuts

I think I’m losing my touch. When I first started law school, bringing in treats to class was a surefire way to make them disappear quickly. A short post on my section’s Facebook page, and I could get more people than cookies to come and take said cookies off my hands. It didn’t seem to matter what I baked; I had a willing audience.

Rum and Raisin Cake

Finally out of the Christmas cookie posts! And this week, I’ve got a great one, out of Ottolenghi’s new cookbook: Sweet. I have many of his cookbooks, and really have never gone wrong with his recipes. But I never would have known about him if not for my college roommate Cate, who spent the past couple of years in England. When I went out to visit her, she brought me to one of his restaurants, and later got me a cookbook.

Gluten Free Peppermint Whoopie Pies

The last of the Christmas cookies: candy cane whoopie pies. If you read my blog often, you know that for family events with my mom’s siblings, I try to make something gluten free. Usually, this means flourless cake or haystacks or something of that sort, which on their own don’t have flour, but this year I decided to try to use an ingredient I see pop up a lot in gluten free recipes: xantham gum. This stuff is supposed to help mimic a recipe that would otherwise call for flour, so if you want to make something recognizable as a …

Pumpkin Cheesecake

The last of my back up recipes: Pumpkin Cheesecake. I probably had time to bake this weekend, but it was kind of nice to just be lazy instead. We’ve got a long weekend from school, but the rain and general yuckiness stopped us from heading into the mountains as planned. Oh well. Watching High School Musical and exploring the Massachusetts area isn’t a terrible alternative.