You Can't Have Your Cake And Eat It Too: Lemon Speculoos Cake

I love making layer cakes, Josh hates eating cake or any dessert for that matter. But a wise woman once said, "You can't have your cake and eat it too." I know it was a woman who said that and not a man because the saying deals with matters concerning cake. I am not sure if she was wise though, because to this day I do not understand the saying, I just know that it applies in this situation.

So what did I do in this predicament? I made a cake anyways. But before you jump to conclusions of me being an insensitive wife, you should know that I made it with the forethought that Josh would have a whole plate of celebratory birthday bacon waiting for him at our next staff meeting.

It's a shame Josh doesn't like desserts that much, especially considering how tasty this cake was! It was composed of layers of moist and dense lemony cake covered in light yet spicy Speculoos Buttercream. 

And for those of you who don't know what Speculoos is, it's basically the consistency of peanut butter but it is made from Biscoff type cookies. That's why the call it "Cookie Butter" at Trader Joe's. Sounds delicious, right? I mean honestly, the inspiration to make this cake came from the fact that I had a jar of this Cookie Butter in my cupboard because no sane person can walk down the aisle of the super market and pass up a jar clearly labeled "Cookie Butter." Except for maybe Josh, but I've already exhausted that subject. 

I will say one more thing regarding that matter however. Josh couldn't have his cake and eat it too, but you CAN! So give this recipe a whirl.

Lemon Speculoos Cake

*adapted from Desserts For Breakfast

Makes one 8-inch, 3 layer cake

Lemon Cake Ingredients

2 3/4 cups (385 gr) flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups 4200 gr) sugar

2 tsp fresh lemon zest

4 eggs, at room temperature

3/4 cup whole milk

4 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Speculoos Frosting Ingredients

2 1/4 sticks (18 Tbps) butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cup speculoos spread (available at Trader Joe's, called Cookie Butter)

4 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar

9 oz. cream cheese, cold

colored or dark chocolate sprinkles

Lemon Cake Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8x 2 inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment rounds and grease again and flour. Set aside.

2. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

3. In a mixer bowl, cream the butter, sugar, and lemon zest together until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes on medium.

4. Add the eggs to the creamed butter one at a time, beating well after each addition.

5. Add the flour in three additions, alternating each with milk and lemon juice.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans. Bake for 40-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes come out cleanly. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before turning out of the pans and cooling completely.

7. Cut each cake into 2 even layers (4 layers total). Wrap each layer in plastic wrap and store in fridge for at least an hour. If you will be composing the cake the next day add a layer of foil and plop them in the freezer.

Speculoos Frosting Directions

1. Beat the butter until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

2. Add the speculoos spread and beat until well-combined.

3. Gradually beat in the sifted powdered sugar.

4. Gradually add small chunks of the cold cream cheese, beating well after each addition.

5. Frost cake, adding sprinkles between each layer and on top. (Directions on how to properly frost a layer cake here.)

6. I finished off the sides of my cake by taking a cake spatula and half-hazardly swiping it across the sides of the cake (see below). Then I swirled the top.

Anything But Vanilla: Life & Cake

Today is Easter. As a follower of Christ, today is the day I celebrate the resurrection of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I go to church, I sing my songs, I eat my brunch or linner (by the way, don't in between time meals drive you crazy! I feel like I get cheated out of 1 of my 3 scheduled feedings) and then I go about my merry way on Monday, back to life as I know it, back to eating chocolate or whatever I gave up for Lent. As I reflect on the previous sentences glaring dully back at me from my screen, they seem rather scripted. Honestly, if Easter is that shallow, I think I'd vomit from the flavorless hum-drum of it all. But if I am honest with myself, I have treated the holiday just like that in the past. Like it was a day to recognize God is God because He can rise from the dead, but it has no implication on my life rather than wearing a floral dress and eating ham once a year. (That is a rather weird picture isn't it).

If Jesus's resurrection was just that, sure I'd give him a way-to-go one year, two years even but anything after that seems rather silly to continue commending a divine magic trick or display of power. No, there must be more to it, and that is exactly what I feel like God has been shaping me to understand and experience in the past year, and particularly in the months leading up to Easter.

I feel as if I have been in an incubator of learning about and experiencing the resurrection. On my other blog, Sing To Me, Muse I posted this quote about Easter that I recently read in a book I just finished called Surprised By Hope by N.T. Wright. It goes like this...

"The message of Easter, then, is neither that God once did a spectacular miracle but then decided not to do many others nor that there is a blissful life after death to look forward to. The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that now you're invited to belong to it."

Simply put, but powerful. I feel like why I have been learning so much about the resurrection as of late is because I have been experiencing more and more of the resurrection for myself. Obviously not in physical form, yet ;) (that could be a whole other blog post), but like N.T. Wright put it I have been taking a hold of the 'new world' Jesus unveiled by actively living as if I belong, because I do. 

A lot of times the Christian life to the outsider and insider can seem very vanilla, very bland. That is because we settle for it. We believe the lie that finding a full and illustrious life comes by doing exactly what pleases us the moment we need/want it. That being a Christian means saying a prayer and then going about 'life' as normal. But that is exactly why we miss life, why I miss life, because we aren't invited into a normal life anymore, we are invited into a new life, a resurrected life and to experience that resurrected life, which only comes through Christ accomplishing it for us first and then inviting us into it, is to live as if it exists. What I mean by that is to live as if this world wasn't it. To live as if Jesus really did conquer death (and I do mean physical death) and sin (anything that takes fullness of life from us) and that one day He is coming back to make everything right, but until then we are invited to be apart of heading in that direction here and now. 

N.T. Wright has more eloquent things to say on this matter...

"What you do in the present- by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself- will last into God's future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether. They are apart of what we may call building for God's kingdom."

Contemplating that this Easter and experiencing it more this past year as I have begun to let go of the "lack-of-life" I so dearly cling to, made this Easter and makes life very NOT vanilla. It makes it full, alive, what it is supposed to be.

You might be wondering how I will transition this into a post about cake, but I'm about to, so hold on tight.

The cake I made this Easter actually is a vanilla-vanilla layer cake, but the taste of the cake was so full of life it is "anything but vanilla." It's kinda like why people life Funfetti Cake. It really is just a vanilla-vanilla cake, but the flavor screams so loudly "I taste like cake!!" that you just love it for its pure unadulterated essence. That's what this cake is like, but way more gourmet ;)

Plus it is super cute and I am going to teach you the technique I used to frost it.

Anything-But-Vanilla Vanilla Butter Cake

*makes one 4-layer 6 inch cake

*adapted from Sweetapolita

Ingredients

2 large eggs (separated)

1 3/4 (210 grams) cups sifted cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cups (200 grams) granulated sugar, divided

1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk (room temperature)

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F (180° C) and place rack in center of oven. Butter and flour two – 6 inch round cake pans. Line bottoms of pans with parchment paper and grease and flour parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until soft (about 1-2 minutes). Add 15o grams (3/4 cup) of the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla and beat until combined. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

In a clean bowl of your electric mixer, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy.  Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 50 grams (1/4 cup) sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. With a rubber spatula gently fold a little of the whites into the batter to lighten it, and then fold in the remaining whites until combined. Do not over-mix the batter or it will deflate.

Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and smooth the tops with an offset spatula or back of a spoon. Bake in preheated oven for approximately 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Place a wire rack on top of the cake pan and invert, lifting off the pan gently. Once the cakes of completely cooled, cut the domed top off of each with a serrated knife and cut each cake in half yielding 4 layer. Wrap each layer in plastic and place the cake layers in the fridge for at least two hours (to make filling and frosting the cakes easier).

Anything-But-Vanilla Vanilla Frosting

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp

6 cups (750 g/1 lb + 10 oz) icing sugar (confectioners’)

1/2 cup whipping cream

2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon water

a good pinch of salt

Directions

Beat the butter and icing sugar in an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, for about 2 minutes.

Add the vanilla, water, whipping cream, and salt, and whip on med-high speed until fluffy and smooth–about 4 minutes. If consistency is too thick, add more water 1 teaspoon at a time, then whip again for 30 seconds or so. (If using food coloring, add it in the last minute of whipping. For the shade of pink I used on my cake, you only need 1 drop of red food coloring.)

Composition

Transfer the frosting into a pastry bag fitted with an open star decorating tip (Wilton No. 22). If you have no idea what I am talking about, you can just use a spatula to frost the cake, which is pretty self explanatory so I'll let you figure that one out.

Take your cake layers out of the fridge and unwrap them.

Place the first layer (the sturdiest looking one) on a cardboard cake round and put the cake round on a spinny cake decorating table if you have one; if you don't, no worries it just makes things easier.

Step 1: Pipe a ring of frosting around the edge of the cake and fill in the middle with frosting using a spatula, making sure to keep it even. 

Step 2: Repeat the process till your cake looks like this one below.

Step 3: The crumb layer. Ice the top and sides of the cake with a thin layer of frosting to hold all the crumbs in place when you do the final frosting coat. Use a bench scraper, if you have one, to smooth it all out. Put the cake in the fridge for an hour to firm up. I also put my frosting in the fridge for like 15 minutes to get it back to proper piping consistency, but you don't have to unless you need it.

Step 4: While the cake is in the fridge, practice your piping skills. The technique I used is not complicated, it was my first time doing it in fact and it wasn't too hard. Start by making a closed C shape, bring it up and over the top of the C to curl back into the middle (kind like a heart I guess). Then the next shape starts on the top part of the last shape, that's how you get that layering effect.

Step 5: Take the cake out of the fridge and pipe this design vertically in columns around the cake. Frost the top normally. Then step back and appreciate all your hard work!

I did some stamping around the edge of the cake board in honor of the occasion.

It was delicious! 

Happy Easter!

Banana Kumquat Cake With Cardamom Buttercream

I have been a little addicted to creating things lately. Whether it's homemade bread, playing around with Photoshop or making dessert. I feel a little bit more like who I am created to be when I am creating. I have actually come to realize it is a big way I connect with God, which is why I decided to make this cake last Friday. I needed some quality connecting time.

I was inspired by a package of kumquats at Trader Joe's, some overly ripe bananas in my cupboard and the way Miette frosts their Tomboy Cake. What I ended up with was a moist, delicious and interesting Banana Kumquat Cake w/ Cardamom Buttercream. Oh yeah, I also threw in a little Marie Antoinette in there by stamping the edge of a cardboard cake round with her 'infamous' line "Let them eat cake". (She may have never actually said that, but it sure does look cute on the edge of my cake board.)

It's a multi-part recipe, so hang in there. But take heart! Each component is relatively easy to put together. 

Candied Kumquats

2 cups kumquats, halved and de-seeded                      
1 cup water
1 cup sugar


Drop kumquats in a large pot of boiling water.  Boil for 3 minutes; drain. (To remove bitterness from the fruit.)


In a small pot combine water and sugar.  Heat until sugar has dissolved and add previously boiled kumquats. Bring to a simmer. Cook for 20-25 minutes. Until liquid is almost all gone.


*You can do this in advance and store in the fridge if you want


*You will only need 1 1/2 cups for the cake. You can use the other 1/2 cup on top of some crusty bread and goat cheese for a tasty snack or appetizer


Banana Kumquat Cake
1 cup + 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 super ripe bananas, peeled and mushed
1 1/2 cups candied kumquats


Butter and flour a 6-inch cake pan and preheat the oven to 350.


Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together. Set aside.


Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer or a handheld mixer beat the eggs and sugar together until light in color, 3-5 min. Reduce the speed and add the oil and mix until combined.  Add the mushed bananas and mix until combined. Add the dry ingredients in two additions, mixing just until combined. Do not overmix. Fold in the kumquats by hand.


Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 45-50 min or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.


Cool before inverting on a cooling rack.


Cardamom Buttercream
1 stick butter, room temp
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp ground cardamom
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted for any lumps
2 Tbsp milk 


Cream butter until fluffy and very pale in color.


Add vanilla and cardamom and mix thoroughly.


Continue beating while adding in sugar one cup at a time alternating with milk, beating until smooth in between each addition.


Composing the Cake
Level off the top of the cake using a serrated knife. Cut the cooled cake in half using a serrated knife or thread.


Pipe a thick single layer of buttercream using a wide star tip in a swirl starting from the outside edge of the cake working in to the center. Smooth the inner rings of frosting but leave the outermost ring untouched.


Top with the other half of the cake.


Make the same swirl design with the frosting on top of the cake. Using an offset spatula and a little bit of pressure, turn the cake to smooth out the ridges of the swirl.


Top with the two dried off candied kumquats coated in sugar.

A Sticky Christmas: Sticky Toffee Cheesecake & Sticky Toffee Sour Cream Pancakes

There's something about Sticky Toffee Pudding that makes me want to watch this scene over and over again...

shout Cheerio and watch 7 straight hours of EPL soccer with a Santa hat on.


But since I made Sticky Toffee Pudding last year around the Holidays, I wanted to try a twist on the British classic. Make that two twists: Sticky Toffee Cheesecake and Sticky Toffee Sour Cream Pancakes.

The great thing about these two recipes is that a lot of ingredients you use for the first (including the Bourbon Caramel sauce), you can use in the second. Less waste and more deliciousness= a win, win. 


Both are pretty sweet, but tis the season eh? The cheesecake is rich, full and warm with a little bit of bite from the gingersnap crust. The Sour Cream Pancakes are super moist and delightfully satisfying on a cold winter morning. Not to mention, the Bourbon Caramel Sauce that goes on top of both is through-the-roof. 


Please enjoy one if not both this Holiday Season.


Sticky Toffee Cheesecake
Makes one 9-inch cheesecake
adapted from spicy ice cream


Ingredients


Cheesecake 

• 1 x 250g packets gingersnap biscuits 
• 125g butter, melted 
• 2 x 250g packets cream cheese at room temp 
• 200ml sour cream 
• 100g brown sugar 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 2 eggs at room temp


Sticky Date Mixture 


• Melted butter, to grease 
• 1 cup chopped de-seeded medjool dates 
• 1/3 cup bourbon 
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 


Bourbon Caramel Sauce 


• 1 cup pouring cream 
• 60g butter, chopped 
• 1 cup brown sugar 
• 2 tablespoons bourbon 
• Big pinch sea salt 


Directions
1. Brush a 9 inch spring-form pan with melted butter to lightly grease. 


2. Place the biscuits in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely crushed. Add the butter and process until combined. Transfer to the prepared pan and press firmly over the base. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill. 


3. Place the dates and bourbon in a saucepan over low heat and simmer until liquid is absorbed. Place into a food processor with 1 tablespoon vanilla extract and pulse until it becomes a smooth mixture. Set aside. 


4. Preheat oven to 320°F. 


5. Place the cream cheese, sour cream and brown sugar in the bowl of stand mixer and mix until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined. 


5. Pour half the cream cheese mixture onto the prepared biscuit base, then spoon in the sticky date filling. Swirl with a skewer and then pour the remaining cream cheese mixture on top. 

6. Bake for about 40min - 1 hour or until just set. Turn oven off and cool inside with the door ajar, for 1 hour. Place in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight to chill. 


7. To make bourbon caramel sauce, place the cream, butter, sugar, bourbon and sea salt in a saucepan over low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, bring to the boil and cook for 5-7 minutes or until thickened. Set aside and allow to cool.


8. Serve with caramel sauce on top. Save the rest of the caramel in the fridge for the pancakes. Reheat the sauce before serving.

Sticky Toffee Sour Cream Pancakes
Makes 8-10 pancakes
adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ingredients

• 7 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/ 2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Chopped Medjool dates to taste, about 1 cup
• Butter
• Caramel Bourbon Sauce from recipe above

Directions
1. Heat a cast iron skillet or griddle over medium-low heat; you want it to slowly get nice and hot.


2. Stir the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together in the bottom of a medium bowl. Dump the sour cream in on top and stir it together very gently; it’s okay to leave the texture a bit uneven. Whisk the eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl and stir them into the sour cream mixture until just combined. Add in the chopped dates to your liking and fold to incorporate, once again, being careful not to over-mix. 


3. Melt about a tablespoon of butter in your skillet or griddle and pour the batter in, a scant 1/4 cup at a time. Cook for about 2 minutes on the first side, or until bubbles appear all over the surface, flipping them carefully and cooking for about a minute on the other side. Repeat with remaining batter.


4. Serve in a stack, topped with the Caramel Borubon sauce. No need for syrup, really.

Stay Classy: Trend Report and Chocolate Flourless Cake With Orange Cointreau Anglaise

Frozen Yogurt, cupcakes, bacon, designer doughnuts, lavender, cake pops... dessert trends have taken a fun yet frivolous tour through the mountains and valleys of our taste buds. I can not deny that I have enjoyed every one of these trends at one point in my life, and in fact still enjoy most, but I feel as if I have had a coming of age moment in my dessert journey: I want the classics back!

And not just any old classic desserts, classic desserts done extremely well! Like a phenomenal and full creme brulee, a perfectly risen souffle, and a flakey, well balanced Napoleon. No frills, just taking what has always worked and making it the best!

Luck for me, I believe with the huge swing dessert trends have taken to the left with unconventional ingredients (ie. bacon)and throw-away fashion food ideology, the pendulum is bound to swing far back to the right any day now. In fact, I can almost feel it in my bones. Classic desserts will be back in restaurants and bakeries alike with the new creative twists restricted tastefully and respectfully to sophisticated accompaniments.

 

I thought I would kick off this revived passion for perfected classics myself with my own birthday cake. (Yes, I made my own birthday cake, does that make me a loser?) So I decided to make one of my favorite classic desserts, Chocolate Flourless Cake with the addition of an Orange Cointreau Anglaise. 

The trick to making this dessert, and any classic dessert, really delicious is quality ingredients and care. Therefore, I choose high quality bittersweet chocolate for my cake and took much heart and attention in its preparation. 

It was so delicious. The rich, full body of the cake balanced nicely with the refreshing citrusy light anglaise. Perfect for a classy 26 year old birthday girl like me ;) And frankly, it felt good to eat something not overly complicated for once. It didn't matter that Chocolate Flourless Cake had been around the block 3 or 400 times, because when it's done top tier it delights your palate like no double bacon cardamom mini donut ever could.

So give it a try and stay classy.

Chocolate Orbit Cake

via Room for Dessert by David Lebovitz

makes one 9" cake

Ingredients

1/2 pound butter, in small chunks

12 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup sugar

6 eggs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Line the bottom of a 9" round pan with parchment paper and butter the bottom and sides.

3. Combine the butter and chocolate in a double boiler.  Cook until melted.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar and the eggs.

5. Whisk in the melted chocolate to the sugar and eggs.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, and place this cake pan into a water bath, with warm water reaching about half-way up the sides. 

7. Cover tightly with foil.

8. Bake in the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the cake appears set and your finger comes away clean when you touch the center. Check it at 45 min, it could bake quicker like mine.

9. Remove from oven and water bath and let cool completely.

Orange Crème Anglaise

via David Lebovitz

Makes 2 cups 

Ingredients

2 cups (500 ml) whole milk

7 tablespoons (85 gr) sugar

pinch of salt

3 medium oranges, organic or unsprayed

6 large egg yolks

Additional orange zest

Directions

1. Pour the milk into a medium saucepan and add the sugar and salt.

2. Grate the zest of the oranges directly into the milk. Warm gently, then remove from heat, cover, and let steep for one hour.

3. When ready to cook the custard, make an ice bath by putting ice cubes and a small amount of cold water into a large bowl and resting a smaller metal or glass bowl in the ice. Set a fine mesh strainer over the top.

4. Whisk the yolks in a separate small bowl.

5. Gently rewarm the milk, then slowly pour it into the egg yolks, whisking constantly as you pour. Scrape the mixture back into the saucepan and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula, until the custard begins to thicken and coats the spatula.

6. Immediately strain the custard into the bowl set over ice, pressing the zest in the strainer to extract as much flavor as possible, then discard.

7. Stir the custard until cool. When the crème anglaise is cooling, grate a few swipes of fresh orange zest into the custard, which looks nice and adds a touch more orange flavor. If you’d like, add a spoonful of orange-flavored liqueur, such as Cointreau or Grand Marnier, or a few drops of orange extract, to augment the flavor. Serve cold pooled under the cake.

Marriage (& Dessert) Italian Style: Ricotta Cheesecake with Aniseed and Orange

Marriage Italian Style is a 1964 film starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastoianni which tells the story of a successful business man who has kept a mistress for many years but now plans on marrying another woman until his mistress pretends to be on her deathbed in order to trick him into marrying her before she dies. To say the least it is a complicated bittersweet relationship. Kinda like the flavors in this Ricotta Cheesecake and my relationship with it as well.

It started off as love at first site. Every minute of the prep I enjoyed. I enjoyed all the ingredients going into it: aniseed, orange zest, marsala soaked raisins; MMmmmm! I loved that I didn't need a stand mixer, which made the composition on the desserts so organic. And when the cake finally came out of the oven, it looked so sexy.

Then I plated it and adorned it with some beautiful Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce and Candied Orange. It couldn't have been more lovely. 

Finally, I lifted a fork of light and luscious cheesecake into my mouth and was conflicted. Did I like this? It sure did look good, but I did not want to commit my affection to it with all this uncertainty. It didn't taste like cheesecake, it was very very different. Light with subtle flavors of anise and orange instead of heavy with a strong flavor of sweet cream cheese. At one point I even apologized for making it because I was so caught off-guard. However, if I was completely honest I did like it, but it was a new sort of "like" that just took time for me to pinpoint, and I think will take more time to curate. It was precious, special but not indulgent. A subtle and sophisticated dessert that didn't kick you in the teeth.

Then I read the caveat before the recipe in David Lebovitz's book Ready for Dessert and finally understood the process I was going through, "American cheesecake is to Italian cheesecake what slouching around the house in a sweatshirt and jeans is to stepping out on the town in a tailored Armani suit. When I stopped comparing Italian cheesecake to its comfy American cousin, I was finally won over."

So at the end of it all I committed. I loved this dessert and I felt elegant eating it, kind of like I was wearing my own little black number by Armani.

Here are some shots of the prep and final product below and some links to all the recipes.

Ricotta Cheesecake with Orange and Aniseed

Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce

Candied Orange (I tenthed this recipe and just used one orange)

Look at the beautiful crushed aniseed.

The chocolate sauce has such a great flavor and consistency.

The final marriage of it all. Molto Bene!