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ombré cake
it’s so hard for me to choose a favorite between chocolate and vanilla cake. with most sweets, i have a clear preference — vanilla ice cream, chocolate pudding, white chocolate chips, chocolate cheesecake — but not with cake. i think chocolate cake is easier to “get right,” because cocoa powder is deliciously complex while naturally…
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breakfast burritos
i was just about ready to commit to cornell when george washington university came and swept me off my feet! i visited the school yesterday, and it truly seems to have everything i want. urban? check. cool people? check. financial aid? check. journalism school headed by the emmy-award winning, NPR- and CNN-seasoned frank sesno? i admittedly didn’t know who…
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salted apple cake
i’m currently in ithaca, ny — home to cornell university, and also home to a huge annual apple festival! the festival is in october (this cake is sorta seasonally inappropriate), but it’s one of the many cool events that take place in this tiny town. ithaca is small, and it’s in the middle of no where, but…
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espresso-rubbed sliders with cherry jam and bacon
SPRING BREAK = free time = nonstop cooking! i made these sliders in the midst of a cooking frenzy, somewhere in between baking a five-layer apple cake and a kosher-for-passover chocolate roll. the desserts are a bit seasonally inappropriate — the apple cake has a thanksgiving vibe, and the chocolate roll looks like it belongs in a christmas dinner…
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bananas foster cheesecake
one of my favorite breakfasts is warm banana bread smothered in cream cheese. it’s simple, but the flavors pair unbelievably well together. this dessert elevates that breakfast to a new level: it combines cream cheese, bananas, and spices into a rich filling that gets baked inside a buttery nilla wafer crust. the cheesecake is then topped with bananas foster —…
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rosemary olive oil clementine cake
have you ever tried those jelly fruit slice candies? i only ever eat them at passover* — we stock up on them in lieu of [preferred] gluten-y desserts — but i suppose they’re available year round. this cake is topped with the elevated, “from scratch” version of those candies in the form of candied clementines. after…
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tiny toasts
it’s so hard to think about college when all i want to do is open a sandwich shop! it would be a bakery too, of course — i’m thinking “pastries and paninis” will be the tagline — but mainly sandwiches. i’m sure it’ll happen some day. this fantasy sandwich shop definitely caters as well. weddings, bat…
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golden birthday cake
since i was born on the last day of january, i won’t get to experience my golden birthday until i turn 31. that’ll be in more than a decade! because i have to wait so long, i’ve been living vicariously through other people’s golden birthdays for as long as i remember. people usually either forget…
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cookie layer cake
i’ve lost track of the number of times the media has named durham the new “it” town of the south, specifically when it comes to food. southern living says we’re the south’s tastiest town. the new york post deems durham the foodie capital of the south. even buzzfeed ran an article called 34 amazing things that will make…
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salted caramel potato chip ice cream
the last time i made ice cream was in my seventh grade science class. we put milk and sugar in a ziploc bag, stuffed that bag into another bag filled with ice and salt, and shook it until our hands felt like they were gonna freeze off. the experiment illustrated how sodium chloride lowers water’s freezing point,…
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LENA'S LUNCHBOX 