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Rosewater Meringues

This recipe has a few firsts for me—meringues, cooking with rosewater, and my first step into a Marie Claire cookbook. I have a lovely new friend, Desney, to thank for loaning me her copy of Michele Cranston’s Real + Simple. (For those of you who are lucky enough to already own a copy—yes, that’s the Desney in the acknowledgements!) Actually, Desney’s lent me a few cookbooks and I have been devouring them faster than I devoured this dessert! So stay tuned for some great new cooking ideas.

Now, this lovely little concoction is just heavenly. Meringues with cream and fruit are bliss on their own, and the addition of the rosewater is what makes this dessert stand out above the rest. You may have noticed by now that I’m a bit picky when it comes to the sweet stuff—it has to really, really be worth my time, both in the kitchen and out. The good news is that these rosewater meringues totally stack up!

Don’t be intimidated by the apparent fanciness of meringues; they’re actually quite simple to make. And the rosewater? Suffice it to say I’ve fallen in love with this unique little ingredient, and now that I have a whole bottle of it to use, you’ll be sure to see it cropping up again and again. Enjoy!

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Edited: April 13th, 2011

Raspberry Studded Brownies

Ack! So it goes to show that moving and not having reliable internet (which will be remedied very soon, cross fingers) means that posting gets a little slowed down. My apologies. In the meantime I’ve been doing some relaxed cooking and have even caught up on my reading—I just finished Julie & Julia, which was fantastic, though I do wonder how she managed to survive all that butter. Whew.

This recipe is very similar to my all-time favourite brownie recipe (and I don’t say that lightly). There is one crucial and amazing difference: raspberries. Now, while I’m picky about desserts, there are a few things you can always do to hook me. Mix chocolate with raspberries, or mix chocolate with cherries. I started drinking coffee because I once ordered a white chocolate raspberry mocha from Serious Coffee in Victoria BC. My favourite Ben & Jerry’s flavour is Cherry Garcia, even though I tried their double fudge first. I’ll also always try to steal the cherry chocolate from the box before anyone else can even think about “accidentally” getting it.

Suffice it to say? Raspberry + chocolate = amazing. Just like these gorgeous brownies that are rich and tart, soft and moist but with body and gusto. Yes, brownies with gusto. Read on, my friends!

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Edited: October 6th, 2010

Kiwi Raspberry Pound Cake

This might be a weird thing to admit, especially for a food writer, but I’m usually not into cake. Good cake is one thing, but it seems to have become standard issue for cakes to be over-iced and topped with all manner of decorations which taste like plastic (something that looks like chocolate just shouldn’t taste like plastic—it breaks my heart every single time!). There are of course exceptions—my cousin’s home-decorated cakes are phenomenal works of art and her butter cream recipe is amazing—but I cringe far too often when I see cakes brought out at events. I could even be described as wary when it comes to baking cake. My family (and Luke’s, fortunately) has a few tried and true recipes which are delicious, and even if they are full fat, at least you don’t also have to eat half a pound of icing sugar that someone’s piled on top—I firmly believe that cake should be good enough to stand on its own merit.

Okay, my griping over… pound cake is just one of those rich and versatile recipes that you can use for every day additions to lunchboxes, or serve up to guests to go with afternoon tea, or even during various holidays. It can be a stand-alone plain cake, or you can get creative and add various fruits or other fillings for a variety of options. I used up some kiwis and some frozen raspberries that were in my fridge in this recipe, but you could also use any number of fresh, frozen, or dried fruits for a unique cake. I’ve written out some variations that you could try at the end of the recipe.

Pound cakes, you’ll be happy know, keep very well covered at room temperature. Or, you can wrap a portion of the cake in heavy foil and freeze for up to a month. They get their name from the ingredients used—traditionally, a pound each of flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. Nothing wrong with any of those ingredients! On with the cake…

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Edited: July 17th, 2010