Desserts

This is where my Austrian mother’s legacy is strong and true. My choice of baked goods and desserts tends to the European: less sugar, less flour.

My recipes for sweets generally fall into these categories:

• Fruit cobblers and frozen desserts. Living in southwest US where it is above 80F for six months of the year, these desserts are always a favorite.
• Sweets to make with your children’s help. With a preschooler in the house, baking is a good rainy day—or any day—activity. Baking is full of learning experiences for children: following instructions, fine and gross motor skills, measurements, cause and effect, empowerment.
• Chocolate sweets for special events. I love anything chocolate, so for a special event this tends to be what I make. I’ve been trying out and filing away chocolate torte recipes for years!
• Cakes for birthdays and special occasions.
• Desserts for large dinner parties (20+ people). These require a different approach. Again through trial and error, stress and sweat, experience has given me a collection of tried and proven recipes that can remove stress associated with dessert.
• Sweets for holidays. These merit their own category, so visit the holiday section on this site to see my favorites!