gift ideas – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

16-32: Glazed Fresh Fruit Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 21, 2024February 19, 2024almond paste, almonds, blackberries, blueberries, cakes, chilled, dairy-free, dessert, eggs, fairly hard, fairly inexpensive, flavorings, fruit, fruit salad, garnish, gelatin, gift ideas, glazed, gluten-free, granulated sugar, grapes, grated, mandarin oranges, nuts, party food, springform pan, strawberries, summer, untested

I grew up in Southern California, and lived there up until about 10 years ago. At one of my last jobs before I left, I was often gifted with a Porto’s Bakery fruit tart, which was (and I’m sure still is) delectable. 16-32: Glazed Fresh Fruit Cake reminds me of those fruit tarts, and makes me excited for warmer weather days ahead (check with me again about that when we’re in the middle of summer).

Glazed fruit tarts aren’t unique to just Porto’s or Simply Delicious, and there’s even different options for glazing your fruit tarts, depending on what you’re going for.

16-5: Sacher Torte

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods August 30, 2021August 30, 2021all-purpose flour, almonds, apricots, Austrian, blanched, butter, cakes, chocolate, dark chocolate, dessert, double boiler, egg yolks, eggs, fairly expensive, fairly hard, favorites, folded, gift ideas, glazed, granulated sugar, holiday baking, jam/jelly/preserves, melted, meringue, nuts, party food, pastry, peeled, springform pan, stiff peaks, Thanksgiving, torte, untested, vegetarian, Viennese

It always takes me a minute to “catch up” on these, so if you’re keeping track (don’t), we’re now up to Thanksgiving of last year (2020) with 16-5: Sacher Torte. Sachertorte is a real thing, and Simply Delicious actually has a pretty decent take on it.

The Wikipedia link above gives a pretty close approximation of the origin story Simply Delicious mentions on their card above, so they’re hitting near the mark. Sometimes the best Simply Delicious recipes are the ones they DON’T make up for themselves.

Side note: My dad ended up LOVING this one (and he’s been eating the dishes from this book for 30+ years), so it comes highly recommended.

16-29: Heavenly Apple Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods January 25, 2021January 26, 2021all-purpose flour, almond paste, almonds, apples, applesauce, bread crumbs, butter, cakes, chilled, cornstarch, creamed, dessert, dough, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, filling, flute, gift ideas, granulated sugar, grated, layers, lemon peel, lemons, nuts, party food, springform pan, tart pan, toppings, vegetarian, zested

It’s a bit past apple season (usually fall/autumn), but 16-29: Heavenly Apple Cake uses applesauce instead of fresh fruit, so you can make it anytime you’ve got a hankering for apples. Or cake. Cake is always good.

They (Simply Delicious) are trying REALLY hard to make you believe there are actual apple pieces in this cake. I mean, the picture and the description would lead you to think that this thing is just chock full of fresh apples.

I hate to break it to you, but this is gonna be one heck of a bamboozle.

16-13: Lemon Meringue Pie

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods January 3, 2021January 3, 2021all-purpose flour, butter, chilled, cornstarch, curd, cut in, dessert, dough, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, favorites, filling, flaky, flute, fruit, gift ideas, granulated sugar, grated, inexpensive, lemon juice, lemon peel, lemons, meringue, new book, party food, pie crust, pies, salt, stiff peaks, untested, vegetarian

It’s citrus time where I live, which means that everyone has buckets of oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruits that they can’t give away fast enough. I myself have an orange tree, but I’m often given lemons from friends and family as well–16-13: Lemon Meringue Pie is a good recipe to use up some of that winter citrus. You can also check out 15-29: Raspberry-Lemon Parfait or 17-42: Luscious Lemon Bars if you have a LOT of lemons to use up.

This is a NEW book recipe, so I never even knew until recently that Simply Delicious even had a lemon meringue pie recipe. If I had known, I guarantee I would have attempted it much earlier than now.

I LOVE lemon meringue pie–it conjures recipes of slowly rotating cake and pie displays in coffee shops. Man, do I miss eating in a restaurant.

14-2: Apple Strudel

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 11, 2020August 10, 2021all-purpose flour, applejack, apples, Austrian, autumn, brandy, butter, Calvados, chilled, cinnamon, cornstarch, dessert, dough, dusted, fairly hard, fall, filling, food processor, gift ideas, granulated sugar, grated, hot desserts, inexpensive, lemon peel, lemons, liquor, melted, nuts, orange peel, oranges, pastry, peeled, phyllo dough, powdered sugar, raisins, rum, salt, strudel, untested, vegetable oil, Viennese, walnuts, zested

I’ll be honest–I’ve started this entry for 14-2: Apple Strudel a bunch of times, and I can’t think of anything exciting to say about it. There’s a lot of apple desserts in this book, and they all just start to blend together for me after a while. Even then, apple strudel is pretty a well-known dish to begin with, so odd are low that you’re going to learn anything new about it from reading Simply Delicious’ take on it.

It took me until NOW (and by now I mean as I’m pushing the keys to type this) to realize that there was actually powdered sugar coating the one pictured above, and they didn’t just peel the first layer of the outside off and say “yep, looks good to me”.

16-16: Chocolate-Frosted Nut Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 4, 2020December 3, 2020all-purpose flour, baking powder, butter, cakes, chocolate, cocoa powder, dessert, egg whites, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, food processor, frosted, frosting, garnish, gift ideas, granulated sugar, grind, hazelnuts, melted, meringue, nuts, peeled, powdered sugar, stand mixer, stiff peaks, toasted, unsweetened, vegetarian, wax paper, whipping cream

Think of 16-16: Chocolate-Frosted Nut Cake like a Nutella cake–same flavor profile (chocolate and hazelnuts), and maybe even somewhat healthier?

This is a pretty simple cake–it’s just one layer, and all you have to do is frost and garnish it. Or you can do it like me and make little individual cakes instead.

17-15: Cream Puffs

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods October 14, 2020December 24, 2020all-purpose flour, butter, chocolate, choux, dark chocolate, dessert, double boiler, dough, eggs, fairly hard, fairly inexpensive, filling, French, gift ideas, glazed, melted, party food, pastry, pastry bag, pastry cream, profiteroles, pudding, TGV 2019, Thanksgiving, vanilla bean, vegetarian, whipping cream

Looking to impress? Or maybe you’ve been watching a lot of those baking shows while on lockdown and you think you’re ready for some of the “tougher” stuff. Well, here’s a good one for you to test your skills.

I made 17-15: Cream Puffs for Thanksgiving last year (TGV 2019), but haven’t written about it until now. Cream puffs feature pâte à choux, which is the puffy, airy dough that you also find in éclairs. We made profiteroles when I worked at a restaurant a few years ago, and it’s essentially the same thing.

Simply Delicious suggests you can fill your cream puffs with vanilla or whipped cream–the most traditional ones also feature pastry cream (crème pâtissière).

The ones we served at the restaurant I worked at were filled with house-made, hand-scooped ice cream that were (sometimes) baked and (often) assembled by yours truly and then drizzled with a chocolate glaze like these. It was one of those trendy gastro-brew pubs that made the beer onsite and had many beardy/tattooed gentlemen working there, so you can imagine the rest of the menu and atmosphere. At least we served most of it on a normal plate. #wewantplates

16-42: Easy Lime Pie

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods May 6, 2020July 2, 2020butter, cottage cheese, creamed, crushed, dessert, easy, eggs, fairly inexpensive, food processor, fruit, garnish, gift ideas, graham crackers, granulated sugar, grapes, grated, juiced, lemon balm, lime juice, limes, melted, mint, peeled, pie crust, pies, twice-baked, untested

If you were around in the 1980s-1990s, you may remember the obsession with low-fat everything, and finding ways to make “sinful indulgences” into something “guilt-free“. Note the deliberate choice of words, and that we still use that type of psychological framing around food today (and have been for a long time, even prior to the era in question).

The “low-calorie swap” in 16-42: Easy Lime Pie is cottage cheese, which was all the rage in the 1970s as a “healthy” option, but could still be found in a lot of recipes throughout the 80s and 90s.

I feel like even Simply Delicious didn’t really know how to make this pie sound appealing–do you think halved grapes as a garnish can be considered something notable? You can definitely tell this particular recipe was aimed at the dieting/low-calorie crowd.

14-22: Strawberry-Peach Cobbler

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 25, 2020February 26, 20204th of July, à la mode, apples, baking powder, biscuit cutters, biscuits, butter, cobbler, cookie cutters, cored, dessert, dough, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, filling, fruit, gift ideas, granulated sugar, hot desserts, hulled, nectarines, party food, pastry, peaches, peeled, salt, sliced, strawberries, summer, untested, vegetarian, whipping cream

Finally, we’ve reached the first recipe (for this project) made in my new (to you) kitchen: 14-22: Strawberry-Peach Cobbler. It was summer and 4th of July, so something with fruit that goes well with ice cream was bound to be a hit.

Speaking of 4th of July, I made 2-37: Chicken-Salami-Rice Salad for a party that I attended with a guy that I had just started dating. 10 years later, this is the first recipe I cooked in my very first house, that I bought with that same guy (who I ended up marrying not long after I made that first recipe).

Told you this book has some memories.

16-33: Crispy Almond Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 20, 2019October 29, 2020all-purpose flour, almonds, American, at work, butter, cakes, chilled, crispy, dessert, dough, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, filling, food processor, garnish, gift ideas, granulated sugar, honey, light corn syrup, melted, party food, peeled, pie crust, Silpat, sliced, springform pan, strawberries, tart, tart pan, untested, vegetarian, whipping cream

I made 16-33: Crispy Almond Cake last September to pair with 16-26: Elegant Almond Cake as a breakfast treat for my work colleagues. This one was the less fancy of the two, but still went extremely well with some coffee on a Wednesday morning.

This title card blurb mentions that versions of this almond cake can be found all over the United States–Google doesn’t seem to want to confirm that claim for me. Searching almond cake results in several iterations of a Spanish flourless almond cake influenced by the Jewish tradition of Passover. Interesting, but none of them look like this recipe.

A search for almond tart (see 16-26: Elegant Almond Cake for my argument that these two dishes are tarts, not cakes as Simply Delicious claims) comes much closer–here’s a very similar version (with video!) from Martha Stewart herself.

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