It’s common knowledge that many baking recipes want you to have your eggs and butter at room temperature before you begin. It’s also common knowledge that the craving for chocolate chip cookies or cupcakes is known to strike without enough warning to leave your ingredients out on the counter all day.

Before I start showing any sugar work techniques, I want to give you an idea of what equipment I use and how I set it up. However, keep in mind that you don’t need all of this stuff to get started in the wonderful world of sugar. It all depends on what you want to do, and there are low-cost alternatives to some of the more expensive items.

Here’s today’s central question: should the words “fruit-flavored” and “pasta” ever go together? And if they should, could they ever compare to this lemon parsley pasta with asparagus? Find out as I review two different flavored pastas from a stall at the Pike Place Market.

One of my goals for this year is to start practicing my neglected sugar work skills again. Last week’s cupcakes gave me the motivation to round up all of my equipment. Now that I have it all located and dusted off, I’m hoping to relearn what I used to know and share the techniques here as I revisit them. In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to do something similar with my old pastry school photos, starting with the sugar stuff.

In honor of the final episode of Battlestar Galatica, I made rainbow cupcakes inspired by one of my favorite images from the show.

How am I supposed to put frosting over a face like this?

To understand this recipe, you have to know one thing about me: I eat cheddar cheese on top of my banana bread. Yes, I know I’m weird. But I also know that it tastes really good. This recipe is the result of my experimentation with adding the cheese straight into the bread.

To understand this recipe, you have to know one thing about me: I eat cheddar cheese on top of my banana bread. Yes, I know I’m weird. But I also know that it tastes really good. This recipe is the result of my experimentation with adding the cheese straight into the bread.

These “guaranteed” brownies from King Arthur Flour’s recipe connection live up to their guarantee and more, but the addition of Andes mints takes them to an entirely new level of brownie heaven.

With a little help from your freezer, leftover steel-cut oatmeal makes a nutritious, fast and surprisingly delicious weekday morning breakfast.