Sometimes you need a simple cake. Sometimes you need a simple cake that looks impressive (So impressive, your adoring fans gobble it up before you can take a picture of the whole thing). Enter the upside-down cake. Specifically this upside down cake. I think you ought to make this cake. It’s simple, like I said, and stylish, too. Heck, tell people that it’s healthy. There’s a whole two pears in it. But wait – there’s more: how delightfully springy it is, the wonderful texture from the polenta, and the perfect subtle sweetness of those pears. Like I said, I think you ought to make this cake. It’ll get you right side up again.

Pear Upside-Down Cake, from Bon Appetit, November 2011

Ingredients
9 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided, at room temperature, plus more for the pan
3/4 cup flour
3 Tbsp. coarse yellow cornmeal or polenta
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 cup sugar, divided
2 medium pears (I only used about 1 1/2 pears)
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup whole milk

Step 1: Preheat 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter an 8 in round cake pan with 2 in high sides, and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Step 2: Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.

Step 3: Stir 1/4 cup sugar and 2 Tbsp water in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Boil syrup without stirring, occasionally swirling pan and brushing down sides with a wet pastry brush, until deep amber in color (8-10 minutes). Add 1 Tbsp butter, and whisk until smooth. Pour caramel into prepared cake pan and swirl to coat bottom.

Step 4: Peel, halve, and core the pears. Cut them lengthwise into 1/8 in slices. Layer slices over caramel flat side down, in circular pattern, overlapping as needed.

Step 5: Mix 3/4 cup sugar, 8 Tbsp butter, and vanilla in a large bowl using an electric mixter until light a fluffy. Add yolks one at a a time, occasionally scraping bowl. Beating flour mixture in 3 additions alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour.

Step 6: Using clean beaters in a new bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer on low until frothy. Then increase the speed to medium and beat until soft peaks form. Fold in 1/4 of the egg whites into the batter, then add the remaining whiles. Gently fold just to blend.

Step 7: Pour batter in prepared pan on top of pears, smooth top, and bake 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Step 8: Let cool in pan 30 minutes, and then turn out onto a platter. Cake can be served warm or at room temperature with whipped cream if desired.

These scones go fast. I don’t just mean the making of them either. I mean the impressive consumption of them that occurred at about light speed. They were inhaled. By me. By my roommates. Not by anyone else though – there was no sharing of these glorious breakfast bites. Someone would have had to stage a pretty impressive sneak attack to get their hands on some of those scones. It’s certainly not surprising that we ate them all, or that no interloper got a hold of them. Why? Because they have bacon in them, obviously. And I would probably defend bacon foodstuffs with my very life or least a skillet. But you know what else they have? Cheese – and not just any cheese mind you. Gruyere. It’s Swiss and awesome. It keeps these scones from being anything but neutral. We should know. This isn’t our first Swiss cheese filled bacony rodeo.

 Bite-Size Bacon and Cheese Scones, from Home Baked Comfort, by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients
3 slices thick cut bacon
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup grated Gruyere cheese (plus more for topping scones if desired)
Pinch of kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 egg
3/4 cup heavy cream

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Step 2: In a frying pan, fry bacon until lightly crisp. Finely chop the bacon after draining it on a paper towel.

Step 3: Using a pastry cutter, combine the flour, baking powder, cheese, salt and pepper. Cut in the butter until mixture looks like a coarse meal.

Step 4: In a small bowl whisk together the egg and cream. Pour this mixture into the rest of the dough, and work until dough just comes together. (Note: the recipe instructs you to perform steps 3 and 4 using a food processor, but I, showing what I believe is incredible self restraint, do not have one at my college residence. So I opted for a pastry cutter.)

Step 5: Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, and knead in the bacon. Use a floured rolling pin to roll out the dough to 1/2 in thickness. Using a knife, or a biscuit cutter, cut out as many 1 1/2 in biscuits as you can.

Step 6: Space the scones evenly on prepared baking sheet, top with extra grated cheese if desired, and bake until the tops are golden (about 10-12 minutes). Let cool slightly on wire rack before serving.

Apologies. I have been on a serious pumpkin kick. And even though there may or may not be a pumpkin shortage on, it did not stop me from grabbing up cans of pumpkin at the store greedily and then putting it in these pancakes. You are probably sitting at your computer yawning as I suggest you make yet another pumpkin item. Oh great, now I’m yawning. It’s contagious you know. These pancakes, though, are anything but a yawn. I mean they are pretty orange. They are totally worth the urge to hoard canned pumpkin and wake up early in the bright sunshine to make them for the people who dig you and your pancakes (also known as your pumpkin hungry significant other or your family). Trust me, they’ll thank you.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes, from A Cozy Kitchen

Ingredients
1 cup flour
1 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1 egg
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 Tbsp melted butter, cooled slightly
About 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Step 1: In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.

Step 2: In a small bowl, combined the buttermilk and egg, and beat lightly.

Step 3: In two batches, add the wet ingredients to the dry. Stir until just combined. There should still be plenty of lumps in the batter.

Step 4: On a preheated griddle coated with butter or nonstick cooking spray, scoop out 1/4 cup batches of batter. Top each pancake with the desired amount of chocolate chips. Cook until small bubbles form on the surface of the pancake, then flip. Cook for about another minute, until pancake reaches desired doneness.

Step 5: Stack pancakes, top with butter and syrup, and enjoy!

Apparently, I have a desire to deprive you, dear reader, of delicious chocolate cake. This is a bad habit I am attempting to rectify post haste. You see, I made this cake, um, ages ago. By which I mean, of course, summer. I was home, basking in the glory of my parents’ fully stocked kitchen and abundant Texas sunshine, and I made this cake. Then I ate it. Well, my dad helped. It was good and chocolatey and – well, suffice it say that it went pretty fast. Despite its tastiness, I kept this recipe from you, swathed in mystery for months. Well, NO MORE! I reveal to you at last:

Quick Skillet Chocolate Snack Cake, from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

Ingredients
for the cake
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 tsp instant espresso powder
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes, at room temperature
2 Tbsp vegetable shortening, at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp buttermilk, shaken well
for the frosting
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 Tbsp vanilla
3 oz dark chocolate, melted and cooled

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and grease a 10 in, cast iron skillet with butter. Line bottom of the pan with parchment paper, and butter and flour the parchment.

Step 2: For the cake, whisk together cocoa powder, chocolate, and espresso powder in a small heatproof bowl. Add 3/4 cup very hot water, wait 1 minute, and then whisk the mixture until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool.

Step 3: In another small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Step 4: With an electric mixer, beat the butter and shortening together on medium speed until creamy. Add the sugars and vanilla, and beat until fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until just combined.

Step 5: With the mixer on low, slowly add the chocolate mixture. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour.

Step 6: Once the flour is incorporated, pour the batter into the prepared skillet and bake 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the center of the cake comes out clean. Rotate the cake 1/2 way through baking. Cool in skillet 15 minutes before turning the cake out on a wire rack.

Step 7: While waiting for the cake to cool completely, prepare the frosting. With a mixer on high, beat the butter until creamy. Add the powdered sugar all at once, and beat until completely blended. Add the vanilla, and mix briefly. Add the melted, cooled chocolate and continue beating until smooth and uniform in color, scraping down the sides as necessary.

Step 8: Frost the top of the cake, cut yourself a slice, and enjoy your snack!

This banana bread was sort of a process. Not that the actual making of it was long and drawn out. It was more the hoarding of super ripe, extra mushy bananas that became somewhat harrowing. First we only had four – but needed five – so we cleverly outwitted nature and jammed them in our freezer. Unfortunately, our freezer has the surprising and unpleasant habit of ejecting its contents or not closing all the way or opening every time you close the fridge. It does this last bit so sneakily that I got a nice whack to my occipital lobes the other day when I was putting away groceries. It was, to say the least, unpleasant. At last we procured the fifth banana, and promptly stuck that in the freezer, too, because it was the middle of the week, and we were far too busy for tasty banana bread. But the weekend arrived, the freezer was relieved of its frozen tropical contents, and a warm, cinnamony bread was whipped up in no time.

 Brown Sugar Cinnamon Banana Bread, adapted slightly from Running Ricig

for the bread
1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 Tbsp milk
5 overripe bananas, mashed
1 generous Tbsp cinnamon
for the topping
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup brown sugar
sprinkling of cinnamon

Step 1: Preheat oven to 345 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 2: For the bread, melt the butter and mix with the sugar. Add in the eggs and milk, and mix some more.

Step 3: Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix in the cinnamon.

Step 4: Add in the mushed bananas, and mix until combined.

Step 5: Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and top with cinnamon, brown sugar, and oats. Bake 1 hour.

Into the oven!

Step 6: Let cool in pan, and then enjoy!

Guinness is good for you. Seriously. It contains a lot of awesome. I have been told you can subsist on Guinness and orange juice alone, though I wouldn’t recommend it. What I would recommend, however, is putting it in chocolate things. Any and all chocolate things. Chocolate milkshakes, chocolate cake, and especially chocolate pudding. You will not regret it. More likely you will prance about, pudding cup in hand, exclaiming “My Goodness, My Guinness!” or perhaps “Kiss Me – I have IRISH PUDDING!” You might even be so moved by this pudding that you burst into song. So make this pudding. You have more than enough time to prepare it just for International Stout Day. It’s delicious. Trust me, I’m Irish. If you don’t believe me, well, you know where to find the proof.

Guinness Chocolate Pudding, from Sprinkle Bakes

Ingredients
for the pudding
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Guinness
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
for the froth
1 cup Guinness
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 Tbsp sugar

Step 1: For the pudding, in a large nonreactive bowl, whisk together the eggs and the sugar.

Step 2: Pour Guinness and cream into a medium saucepan and heat until bubbles begin to form near the edges. Remove from heat, and add in chocolate, whisking until combined.

Step 3: Slowly pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, whisking constantly to avoid curdling. Return mixture to saucepan, and cook over medium to low heat until mixture begins to thicken. Place in the fridge to chill until set.

Step 4: To prepare the froth, heat Guinness in a small saucepan until boiling, and then reduce to a simmer. Continue cooking the Guinness until it reduces to ~ 1 Tbsp, with occasional stirring.

Step 5: Add the Guinness reduction to the cream and sugar, and whip until light and frothy. Place topping on chilled pudding, sprinkle with chocolate shavings, and enjoy!

Because we had leftover pumpkin from our adventures in coffeecake. Because it’s Halloween. Because my mom sent me these wackadoo toothpicks with monsters on them, along with enough Halloween themed items for a legit tablescape, Sandra Lee style. So we celebrated the holiday, a little early, with a Halloween feast. These tasty little numbers will make your day. Especially if your day was filled with bizarre wet snow that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Is it winter? Wait, did fall happen? Even if you missed autumn, which you haven’t according to the calendar, you can make it yourself. With these cupcakes. These warm, friendly cupcakes.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Brown Butter Frosting, from Shutterbean

Ingredients
for the cupcakes
1 2/3 cups flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice (Lacking allspice ourselves we substituted 1/8 tsp cinnamon and 1/8 tsp ground cloves)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup warm milk (110 degrees Fahrenheit)
for the icing
1/2 cup salted butter
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1-3 Tbsp milk

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and place cupcake wrappers in the your muffin tin.

Step 2: Sift together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and set aside.

Step 3: With an electric mixer, beat together the sugar and butter until creamy and light. Mix in the eggs, until combined. Add pumpkin and milk; beat until combined. Add flour mixture, and mix on low until just combined.

Step 4:  Fill cupcake wrappers 3/4 of the way full with batter (~ 17 cupcakes), and bake 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.

Step 5: Once the cupcakes are cool, prepare frosting. Heat the butter over medium high heat, until aromatic and nut brown in color. Add this butter to the powdered sugar, leaving behind any burned bits of butter.

Step 6: Add in the vanilla and 1 Tbsp milk, and stir until smooth. If the icing is too thick, add more milk 1 Tbsp at a time. Let cool 5 minutes, and then ice cupcakes.

Step 7: Stab a Halloween Party Pick in them and enjoy!

Sometimes you know when it’s going to be a good day. Blue sky. Scarf weather. Spring in your step. Smile on your face. A stranger waves at you cheerfully from the window of his vintage teal Chevy pickup truck as you set out for your morning jog. You wave back. Good days beg for good food and an apartment filled with the warm cuddly scent of cinnamon and brown sugar. This cake can make your good day better. It could probably make a bad day good. It’s warm and soft and filled with spices with just a hint of pumpkin to round it out.

Pumpkin Coffeecake with Brown Sugar-Pecan Streusel, from Home Baked Comfort by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients
for the streusel
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tsp cinnamon
Pinch kosher salt
6 tsp cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 cup chopped pecans, lightly toasted
for the cake
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 large eggs
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 sour cream
for the glaze
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp whole milk
1 tsp vanilla

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter and flour a 9 in springform pan or a 9 in cake pan with 3 in sides. (I used a 9 in cake pan with sides just under 2 in and the cake just barely fit.)

Step 2: Make the streusel by combining the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut the butter into dry ingredients until it looks like coarse crumbs. Stir in the pecans.

Step 3: To make the batter, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

Step 4: In a large bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer until well combined. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add in the pumpkin puree and sour cream with a spatula, and then mix in the dry ingredients.

Step 5: To assemble the cake in the pan, spread half the batter in the prepared pan, and sprinkle with half the streusel. Dollop the remaining batter on top, and spread as best you can. Cover with remaining streusel. Bake for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Step 6: Allow the cake to cool in the pan 15 min, and then transfer to wire rack. Make the glaze by whisking together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Feel free to add more milk if the glaze seems too thick. Drizzle the glaze over the cake.

Step 7: Enjoy thick wedges with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee!

I’ve been holding out on you. You see, I’ve made this cake before. I know, not a big deal. But you know what is a big deal. A few weeks ago, me and the lady who told me all about this cake were in the same room together. For a WHOLE HOUR. Yes, Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen stood on the third floor of the West 14th St. Apple store and radiated the most beautiful tales of warm kitchen loveliness at me and a fellow admirer from my apartment. Because these few words can’t really describe the intense escalation my fondness for her that occurred as I listened to her tell me how and why she wanted to share the best of her kitchen with the universe, I decided to make this cake. Twice. You should make it, too. Because it’s warm, delicious, chocolate, and it leaves you a bottle of wine.

Red Wine Chocolate Cake, adapted a smidge from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients
for the cake
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temp
3/4 cup red wine (I literally went to the liquor store and bought the cheapest red on the shelf, but now I have to drink it all. Or possibly make this cake 6 more times.)
1/2 cup Dutch cocoa powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
for the topping
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese (also known as butter in cheese form, not really but sort of)

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Line the bottom of a 9 in cake pan that you went all the way to the Williams-Sonoma on the East Side to obtain with parchment paper and butter and flour it.

Step 2: In a large bowl, cream the butter until smooth with an electric mixer. Add the sugars, and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs and beat well, and then add the red wine and vanilla. At this point the batter may look kind of crazy. Keep calm and carry on.

Step 3: Sift the dry ingredients in directly into the batter. Mix until 3/4 combined and then fold the rest in.

Step 4: Spread the batter in the pan, and bake 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and top is shiny and smooth.

Step 5: While cake is cooling (turn out of pan after ~10 minutes), prepare topping by whipping cream and mascarpone together with electric mixer until fluffy.

Step 6: Enjoy a slice of cake with a dollop of topping!

These cookies are outta control. They will make you lose your stuff. They will make people dig you more. They are something to write home about. This may be because they have over a pound of chocolate in them. This may be because you, the person who baked them, filled them with love and sunshine. This may be because the cookie recipe came from 1990. We all know what happened in the 90′s. AWESOME. Dolly the Sheep. Chef Roomate. Bill Clinton. Sabrina the Teenage Witch. An economy, you know, a working one. These cookies could be awesome for any of these reasons, but let’s be real. It’s probably the chocolate. After all, Gourmet claims this was the “chocolate decade.”

Mocha Cookies: October 1990, from The Gourmet Cookie Book: The Single Best Recipe from Each Year 1941-2009

Ingredients
4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs, at room temp
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp instant espresso powder
2 teaspoons vanilla

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a heat proof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the unsweetened chocolate, 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, and butter. Stir the mixture until smooth, and remove from heat.

Step 2: In a small bowl stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Step 3: In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until the mixture is pale and thick. Then beat in the espresso powder and vanilla.

Step 4: Fold the chocolate mixture in the egg mixture. Fold in the flour mixture. Stir in the remaining chocolate chips. Let the batter stand 15 minutes (I chilled the batter for the middle 5 minutes in the fridge).

Step 5: Drop heaping Tbps. onto baking sheets lined with parchment and bake 8-10 minutes until puffed, shiny, and cracked on top. Allow to cool on racks after cooling 1 minute on sheets.