In Lifelines, Louise falls in love with German drummer Dieter Hinterkopf when she travels from Oregon to Düsseldorf to study art in 1971. The Hinterkopf Geburtstagskuchen is Dieter’s family‘s traditional birthday cake. Louise’s mother-in-law, Hannelore, instructs Louise to make the cake for her Dieter, part of the complicated family history that Hannelore shares. The […]
Archive | Desserts RSS feed for this section
Sarah McCoy: Marilla’s Plum Puffs from MARILLA OF GREEN GABLES
Marilla is renowned for her Plum Puffs in both Anne of Green Gables and in Marilla of Green Gables. In Marilla of Green Gables, readers discover how Marilla comes to learn the recipe and the special people she bakes with and for. From the recipe collection of author Sarah McCoy, borrowed from Aunt Maud’s Recipe Book: […]
Jodi Picoult’s “A Spark of Light” Missisippi Mud Cake
Jodi Picoult chose a Mississippi Mud Cake to pair with a book club discussion of her novel A Spark of Light, set in Mississippi. Mississippi mud cakes and pies are thought to be named for the rich dark mud lining the banks of the Mississippi River. This cake recipe, adapted from Down Home: Treasured […]
Almost Certainly Not A Pie for #Pieathalon
We relish the chance to experiment with vintage recipes and Dinner is Served 1972’s #Pieathalon promised a great opportunity to test a pie from the past. Over twenty bloggers swapped pie recipes from pre-1990 cookbooks for the event. We received “Almost a Pie” from a 1978 Weight Watchers Hot Stuff Recipe pamphlet from Mimi at Once Upon a […]
#TheLostFamilySupperClub Recap and Menu
As fans of food and book bloggers, we knew they would have some creative approaches to recipes inspired by The Lost Family, author Jenna Blum‘s new novel. On June 3, we hosted #TheLostFamilySupperClub: a gathering of eighteen bloggers at a virtual dinner party to celebrate the book’s release, sharing novel-inspired recipes and creating mouth-watering menus. It was […]
Tara Westover’s Grandma-over-in-town’s Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies with EDUCATED
In the tradition of The Glass Castle, Educated is an unforgettable memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University. I was spending the afternoon with Grandma-over-in-town. I’d had a bath that morning, even though it wasn’t Sunday, and […]
That’s What She Said Kleinur (Icelandic Pastries) recipe
Iceland is the No. 1 country in the world for gender equality, and while researching That’s What She Said: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) About Working Together in Iceland, I quickly became addicted to kleinur, a traditional Icleandic confection. Flavored with cardamom, they are similar to crullers or twisted doughnuts, and […]
THE WEIGHT OF INK Menu and Jumbal Cakes Recipe from Rachel Kadish
Shortly after I finished writing The Weight of Ink, a friend surprised me with a meal made up of foods that related to the different parts of the novel. It was a supremely thoughtful gift, and of course a fun way to savor finishing the book. In the spirit of my friend’s gift — and […]
Jewell Parker Rhodes’s Pistachio Baklava
Towers Falling, my novel for middle grade readers focuses on three friends: Sabeen, a Turkish American Muslim girl, Ben, a booklover and soldier’s son, and Dèja, a homeless girl who doesn’t know her father’s damaged lungs and her family’s subsequent poverty are because of his 9/11 heroism. When Dèja and Ben cut school to […]
Historical Dutch Apple Pie recipe from author Dominic Smith
Life is weather. Life is meals. I always recall this James Salter quote from Light Years whenever I think about food in fiction. Meals are also a signifier in novels and stories. What a character eats—and how they eat it, and with whom—tells us a lot about their background and worldview. In The Last Painting of […]