it’s all about spring things this week: bright green bakes that match the soon to unravel baby leaves, pretty pink blossoms that are popping out like popcorn on trees, and a special something for nowruz ;-)
new on bbs
Lime Bars
Like a lemon bar but make it lime ;-) I used my lime curd recipe here and layered it over a buttery lime shortbread. Toppings can be as simple as powdered sugar or as fancy as a tall torched meringue.
(b)limey good
Lime Pound Cake
Bronzed and caramelized all over thanks to a long bake, with the softest interior that could only be lime. This one gets a lime drizzle that the cake soaks up for a super moist texture and a stronger lime flavor.
Lime Chiffon Pie (or Bars)
Super creamy and fluffy, a cross between a light cheesecake and a key lime pie. Can be made into square slices or a large pie.
peak bloom is here!
Cherry Blossom Cake
Layers of sakura flavored cake interspersed with chocolate squiggles and pink sprinkles to evoke the gorgeous cherry blossom trees in the wind and covered with a sakura scented buttercream.
Cherry Blossom Frosted Sugar Cookies
Sakura sugar cookies (cut-out style) topped with a sakura flavored frosting and decorated with more frosting to look like the pretty pink petals.
reader review 💗
“Absolutely LOVE these cookies. As someone who is half-Persian, I love this fun twist on a traditional dessert, full of authentic yet unique flavors. I’ve made them countless times and they always come out delicious, plus they’re so beautiful with the rose petals & pistachio topping. Thank you for a fabulous recipe!” - Sarah
weekly reads & notes
‘“Sourdough is the oldest way of making bread, but some people shun it because they think it’s elitist. Others deliberately make it elitist,” says (the coordinator of the Real Bread Campaign). “Bakers on Instagram posting pictures of sourdough with lots of holes are part of the problem,” adds (the co-founder of the campaigning, growing and baking project Scotland the Bread). “This is about feeding people healthily on the basis of food justice and inequality. It’s not about creating a hipster brand.”’ Britain’s bitter bread battle: what a £5 sourdough loaf tells us about health, wealth and class, The Guardian. [A must read this article: the origins of white & wheat bread and how they historically (and still) connect to class...]
“Using evidence from (ancient ceramics from South and Central America), the researchers traced the rapid spread of cacao through trade routes after its initial domestication more than five millennia ago in Ecuador. They showed cacao's dispersal to South America's northwestern Pacific coast and later into Central America until it eventually reached Mexico 1,500 years later.” New study traces complex origins of cacao, Reuters.
DC is bursting with blooms this week and I am missing it so much. The cherry blossoms hit peak bloom earlier this week (when 70% of the flowers have opened). Here’s something fun, you can see the trees around the tidal basin live through the Bloom Cam.
Tip: If you don’t have access to sakura extract but want to make a cherry blossom recipe, use rosewater or orange blossom. Different flavor but all three have that ‘floral’ quality.
For those who celebrate, Nowruz Mubarak! For those who are unfamiliar, Nowruz is the Persian New Year. Festivities last 13 days, beginning with the spring equinox. It’s a beautiful +3,000 year old tradition that celebrates renewal and harmony with nature. Read more here and here.
for members
To celebrate Nowruz I made us a…
Persian Love Cheesecake
Creamy cheesecake made with lemon, rose water and cardamom, housed in a shell made of pistachios and almonds. These wonderful flavors all come together in one bite to give you the flavor of ‘persian love’; bright but warm, nutty but floral. There’s nothing like it really.