Great Taste

Want something fluffy and yellow right now?

Check out this Lanesboro cook' s tempting recipe for lemon meringue pie--with plenty of photos to help it along.

http://cookoutofthebox.blogspot.com/

 

Paczki for Fat Tuesday? Info here

Paczki is a Polish deep-fried pastry, similar to a doughnut, with jam or custard filling. It's popular at this time of year; details:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/03/paczki-day-2011-where-to-_n_830805.html

In Rochester paczki is available at Daube's Cakes and Bakery.

 

How's that diet going? Time for a Jenny Lind Bakery reward?

Your Great Taste blogger weighed in last night almost 9 pounds lighter than a few weeks back.

Time to start dreaming up a sweet little reward. Red Wing, perhaps? Did anyone just think--Jenny Lind Bakery? 

Drool over this: http://www.jennylindbakery.net/bakery_menu.html#half 

Cherry time

If you have never experienced the delectable sweet-sour sensation of Montmorency cherries in pie, ice cream or sundae sauce, here's your chance.

Silkey Gardens in Northfield is featuring u-pik or picked-to-order Montmorency tart cherries in limited quantities. All you need to do is find a tart cherry recipe of your choice and make it.

Strawberries, also grown at Silkey Gardens, are available now as well....Indeed Great Taste's kitchen sink has been dotted with leaves and hulls as freshly cleaned and cut local strawberries have been finding their way into scones, salads, and lemonade.

For more information on Silkey's fruit visit http://www.silkeygardens.com

 

Cynthia Daube's favorite cake

Alfred Lord Tennyson observed, "In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love."

But what are the ladies thinking? Love? Or cake?*

Oprah Winfrey's O magazine's May issue features stunning cakes by some of the nation's top bakers for the occasion of O's 10th anniversary.

http://www.oprah.com/food/O-Magazines-10-Anniversary-Cakes-Dessert-Recipes

In southeast Minnesota, thoughts of fanciful cakes bring Cynthia Daube, of Daube's Bakery Inc., Rochester, instantly to mind.

Great Taste asked, "What is your favorite cake?"

"The Italian cream cake or any cake that has a denseness and chewiness to it. We do a burnt butter cream frosting in the Italian cream cake.  I love nuts. It has pecans and macaroon coconut--a finer coconut....which gives it a nice background texture and moistness. It's such a perfect cake."

But the owner of the dining and baking triumvirate noted: "It's a little bit hard....It's like choosing among children--you know, your own."

Here is Daube's wedding cake page online: http://www.daubesbakery.com/weddingcakes.html

*Great Taste's answer: Both of course. We're multi-taskers.