Thomas Keller's Pink Grapefruit Cake

February's Daring Baker's challenge was quick breads and so, because I had some time after handing in my thesis, I made three. This first one is comes from Thomas Keller's book Ad Hoc at Home, which my mother owns and I covet. It is maybe less of a quick bread and more of a cake, but it was easy to make and was baked in a loaf pan, so I'm going to call it a quick bread and then deem it an acceptable breakfast substitute.

Sel de Mordor Caramels

If you get caramels at a shop, the salt sprinkled on top makes them "fancy" and therefore increases the price by a billion percent. As if the salt comes from some place no normal person can easily get to. Mordor, in fact. Let me go back and rename this post.

Impossible Nectarine Tart

I made this nectarine tart about two years ago, using the birth of a friend's child as an excuse. I was obsessed with it for a few weeks before I made it, and eventually went ahead and shelled out for the Chambord. It's one of the prettiest things I've ever made, and was obviously made before I got my own camera.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Perfect, puffy and golden.

Yesterday I had a sudden craving for peanut butter cups.

David's Chocolate Boubon Pecan Pie

It snowed. So I made pie.

I mean, it was American Thanksgiving. So I made pie.

Well, okay. I made pie with no excuse. It also happened to snow. And be Thanksgiving.

Baby Shower Cookies

I think it's gonna be a girl

I'm not a huge fan of sugar cookies compared to other more homely and yet more delicious cookies. But. . . they are so damn PRETTY that I make them anyway. The recipe I made recently, however, was really rather delicious (even better as uncooked dough balls stolen from the fridge during the night). Possibly the best sugar cookies I've ever had. So I'm going to go ahead and share the recipe. The cookies come out tender and just a bit chewy.

Sans Rival

Mmm, triangular slice of rectangular cake.

I didn't really find the Sans Rival to be aptly named. It tasted a lot like a big wafer cookie. The meringue was good, though I think that the mild flavour of the cashews got a bit lost. The icing was good, but too sweet. Together, it was pretty lack-lustre. Really, does a cake made almost entirely of icing sound good to you?