TWD: Tarte Fine

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You can tell that we are entering fall.  The recipes that my fellow bloggers are putting out there are all about the fall ingredients - Soups, stews, and most of the desserts are being made with fruits found in the fall: apples, pears, gone are the summer light berries and citrus and in are the squash, cranberries, dates and figs.

This weeks Tuesday with Dorie choice is coming to you compliments of Leslie of Lethally Delicious. 

As Dorie mentions on the recipe, this is the most popular tart in France.  I can see why. It was simple to do, fast to cook and according to the testers “appetizing!” – can you tell that Tom’s food vocabulary has expanded since I started to give him more food to “taste”?  He no longer uses small words like “yum!” or “Delish!”, but things like “scrumptious”, “mouth-watering”, and “luscious”.

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ABC: All American Chocolate Cake with Divinity Frosting and Milk Chocolate Paint

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After having crashed and burned on the last chocolate offering on my other baking clubs, this recipe, from the ABC choice of the month had a very high expectations even before I read the whole recipe.  

My reasoning behind it was that after having baked four recipes from Flo Braker book none have disappointed me.  So we were 4 for 4.  Can we make five?

My first tip to you is this.  Bake the cake a day ahead, while is NOT a complicated cake to make, and nowhere in the instructions does it tell you to do this, I’m going to highly recommend you do. The high crumb level on this cake will make frosting a bit of a mess.  So I opted to make the cake a day ahead and place in the refrigerator to chill.  When frosting time came, it was smooth sailing all the way.

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HCB: Mini Vanilla Pound Cake

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This past weekend was insane around our house, last week I was away in Orlando for work-related training, so upon arriving on Friday the amount of stuff that accumulated in the To Do list was ridiculous – laundry, cleaning, folding, dishes and on and on.  I mean, Tom does his share around here, but I guess what they say it true – when the cat is away…. Apparently everything goes to the dogs!  So I was very happy about this week's HCB choice, since I knew it was going to be a snap to prepare, bake and have ready for those hungry boys I live with.

This is straight easy pound cake recipe, with three perfect twist: One, they are mini cake (can you say perfect give-aways? yes you can!). Two, they are made with vanilla bean and three, soaked in a cognac base syrup. (On a side note, I'm on to Rose and her boozy syrups because in my world I trust anything that is made with liquor - it makes everything better - trust).

How can you go wrong?

You can’t.

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