Walking into a store like Williams-Sonoma or Sur La Table can be an overwhelming experience. How do you know which tools you need to have in your kitchen and which are unnecessary and will forever be gathering dust? To help answer some of these questions, I’m starting this Kitchen Essentials column.

Ever wonder how restaurants get that fine dusting of chocolate onto the top of your dessert? How about how to get that fine lemon zest a recipe calls for?

Enter the zester! Developed initially by the company Microplane, as a new type of woodworking tool these hand graters can now be found manufactured by many different brands and are a real lifesaver in the kitchen.

How to Use a Zester

Run it over citrus to get that fine citrus zest you need, just make sure to only remove the skin, if you zest the white pith it is very bitter and not what you want.

Run some chocolate over it to create chocolate shavings that can be used to decorate plates or desserts.

Carefully rub whole cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom along the zester to get fresh ground spices.

You can even use it in savory cooking to grate cheese, garlic, or ginger finely.

If you don’t already have a zester, I highly recommend you run out and buy one. You’ll find it instantly useful in a myriad of ways.

Photo by Sara Remington

Each year around this time, my hubby and I try to come up with a plan for Valentine’s Day and usually it winds up being an overpriced meal out because we’re both too tired to cook. But this year, we are staying in and I am honored to have been asked to be a part of a Virtual Valentine’s Party to celebrate the release of Sarah Copeland’s new cookbook, The Newlywed Cookbook: Fresh Ideas and Modern Recipes for Cooking With and For Each Other.  We won’t be able to be together on the actual day, so we decided to celebrate a week early with a delicious meal and finished it off in the best way we can, with cake.

There were all the obvious finishes to the meal which pretty much all revolved around chocolate, chocolate cake, chocolate soufflé, chocolate dipped strawberries, but I decided instead to take it in a whole different direction and baked Sarah’s Olive Oil Cake with Tangerine Marmalade. It was so simple to make and tasted just divine.

The marmalade was just tangerines and sugar, which boiled on the stove until the rinds were soft and the juice syrupy. The most difficult part was probably dealing with the millions of seeds that tangerine’s have. The olive oil cake was a cinch to make and could easily be prepared in under 20 minutes.

The resulting cake was moist and really flavorful. The marmalade on top gave it a nice punch of flavor and added some additional texture. I have to admit, I even ate some of the leftovers for breakfast the next morning!

So, this year for Valentine’s Day, I urge you, rather than going out to an expensive dinner, why not try cooking a romantic meal together!

To help you do that, Chronicle has generously provided me with a copy of the book to giveaway to one of you!  While the title tells you its aimed at Newlyweds, don’t let the title fool you. This book is aimed at everyone with simple recipes you can make for yourself, your significant other, or your family!

How to enter:

Leave a comment telling me what your favorite Valentine’s Day dessert is. (My comments are moderated, so please be patient if they don’t show up immediately.)

For extra entries:

Like Dessertolicious on Facebook and come back to tell me you did so.

Follow Dessertolicious on Twitter and come back to tell me you did so.

Who can enter:

Open to US residents 18 years of age and older.

Giveaway open until February 16^th 11:59 PM EST. Winner will be chosen by random.org and notified via email, so please make sure to provide your correct email address. You have 48 hours to respond, or a new winner will be chosen.

This Giveaway is now closed!

Congratulations post #3! Lucy you have won a copy of The Newlywed Cookbook!

And now for the recipe:

Olive Oil Cake with Tangerine Marmalade from The Newlywed Cookbook.

(Reprinted with permission from Sarah Copeland and Chronicle Books)

Serves 8

Olive Oil Cake:

4 large eggs

3/4 cup/150 g sugar

2/3 cup/165 ml of your favorite extra-virgin olive oil

1/3 cup/75 ml melted unsalted butter

Finely grated zest and freshly squeezed juice of 1 tangerine, orange, or lemon

1 1/2 cups/175 g all-purpose/plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

3/4 tsp fine sea salt or iodized salt

Tangerine Marmalade:

4 large tangerines, Minneolas, lemons, Meyer lemons, or Temple oranges {about 1 3/4 lb/800 g}, or a mix

1 cup/200 g sugar

Crème fraîche or whipped cream/double cream

Make the Cake: Preheat the oven to 325˚F/165°C/gas 3. Lightly butter a 9-in/23-cm springform pan with a removable bottom.

Combine the eggs and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until the eggs are thick and pale yellow, about 3 minutes. Drizzle in the olive oil and melted butter and continue to beat. Fold in the citrus zest and juice.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Add the dry ingredients gradually to the egg mixture and stir until evenly combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to make sure there are no dry bits at the bottom.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the top is lightly brown, and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes, rotating once during baking to make sure it cooks evenly. Cool the cake on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. When cool enough to handle, remove the pan sides and cool the cake completely on a rack.

Meanwhile, to make the marmalade: Scrub and dry the tangerines and trim off their tops and bottoms.  Slice 2 of them as thinly a possible while still keeping their shape, about 1/8 to 1/4 in/3 to 6 mm thick, discarding the seeds as they appear. Place tangerine slices in a small pot with a heavy bottom. Juice the remaining 2 tangerines {you should have a scant cup/240 ml of juice} and pour the juice over the sliced fruit. Set aside for 20 minutes.

Cook over medium-high heat until the liquid comes to a boil. Decrease the heat slightly and simmer until the tangerine peel is soft, about 20 minutes. {Don’t stir, which will destroy the pretty round shape of the citrus.} Add the sugar and continue cooking until the sugar is dissolved. Cook until thickened and the juice has gelled slightly and is syrupy, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it cool to room temperature.

Arrange the candied citrus slices over the top of the cake, overlapping to make beautiful jeweled tiles of fruit. Drizzle some of the citrus syrup over the slices and allow it to drip down the sides of the cake. Slice and serve with crème fraîche or whipped cream/double cream.

PS, if you love the flavor of this citrus marmalade, make a batch or two using chopped citrus and keep it in jars in the fridge to serve with toast and biscuits.

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Looking forward to the big game! How are you celebrating?

I find that many people are intimidated by baking because they’ve always been told that they need to be very careful to measure everything exactly or their cake, pastry, icing, etc will not turn out correctly. While this is true, there is no need to be intimidated. Baking is all science and math, and like math, it is essentially a serious of formulas. Once you get the formulas down, you can create anything your heart desires quite easily. I am starting this Baking Basics column to help show you some of these formulas and basic recipes that once mastered will open up a world of possibilities for you.

Ganache, a silky combination of cream and chocolate, is one of the easiest recipes up a pastry chef’s sleeve and can be used in a multitude of ways. Ganache can be used as frosting in a cake, as the filling to truffles, or poured over a cake to form a glossy chocolate finish. It can be made with any kind of chocolate, though semi-sweet is customary.

There are three types of ganache, which vary only in their ratio of chocolate to cream.

1. Ordinary ganache has a ratio of 1:1 (chocolate:cream). It is very liquidy and is generally used for glazing cakes.
2. Rich ganache has a ratio of 1 ½:1 (chocolate:cream). This type of ganache is used as a filling, much like buttercream.
3. Truffle ganache has a ratio of 2:1 (chocolate:cream). This ganache is used as the filling in truffles.

After making a ganache, any of these can be further flavored with other ingredients.

To make ordinary ganache, you’ll need:

8 oz semi-sweet chocolate

8 oz heavy cream

1. Cut the chocolate up finely
2. Bring the cream to a boil and remove from heat
3. Add the chocolate and set aside 5 minutes
4. Stir until smooth. Do not use a whisk because that will create air bubbles in your ganache.
5. Cool to room temperature.

The instructions are the same for rich and truffle ganache, simply adjust the amount of chocolate in your recipe.

First up, was a house done by Nancy Olson of Gramercy Tavern.

Olson Manor from the side. Don't you just love the frosting "snow" on the roof?

Love the skis leaning up against the side of the house!

On the other side of the house was a sugar pool! How cute is the pretzel railing?

This house was decorating on all sides. Check out the back with a canoe!

Next up, this awesome typewriter from Baked Ideas.

Such detail for every key!

And lastly, Tribeca Treats brought this house in honor of Occupy Wall Street!

You need to see close-ups of those signs to truly understand how great this one was.

99% Dark Chocolate...haha...

My elfin kids

Gotta have people waiting for the iPhone 5 in there!!

Which is your favorite of these 3? Let me know in the comments below!

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Originally posted on Flickr by jillfcs.

Trying to change it up a bit from the more usual “Turkey” cookies, check out these great pilgrim cookies from Flickr! Or do both, like the photo above from jillfcs!

Originally posted on Flickr by makeupwoman2000.

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Originally posted on Flickr by thebearfootbaker.

Cutting out cookies in various shapes and decorating them with royal icing for to give them a festive Thanksgiving feel is such a fun idea for desserts this year. We have been scouring Flickr to find you the best looking Thanksgiving cookies and will be posting them here to give you some great ideas!

Originally posted on Flickr by Sweet Handmade.

Originally posted on Flickr by East Coast Cookies.

Originally posted on Flickr by East Coast Cookies.

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Cooking a Thanksgiving meal is always a stressful undertaking, but don’t flake out when it comes to dessert! Of course, you can always choose to just go ahead and buy that Trader Joe’s pie again this year, but why not try your hand at baking something to finish off the meal? With so many great options for both the novice and experienced baker out there, have fun with it and go a little crazy! Feel free to think a little out of the box with your desserts, or you can go traditional, but with you baking it, your guests will be sure to be pleased no matter which way you go.

You can always make a traditional pie. There’s a reason why apple and pumpkin pies remain such Thanksgiving staples, they’re easy to make and sure to please. And lets be honest for a moment, they’re such institutions that guests practically expect to be getting a slice at the end of the meal. Just be sure that if you’re going to make a pie, please make the crust yourself. The pie will be so much better off for it and your guests will definitely thank you. Maybe try mixing it up a bit by adding some cranberry into your traditional recipe and making a cranberry-apple pie.

If you’re looking more for small nibbles, how about some cookie bars. Something with a graham cracker bottom will surely fit right into the season.

Any spice cake is a welcome addition to a dessert table this time of year. Try your hand at a ginger-spice bundt cake.

Don’t like pumpkin pie? Bring pumpkin into your dessert in other ways. Check out our pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies, or try this pumpkin bread pudding! Feeling a bit more daring in the kitchen, give our Thanksgiving Pie inspired French Macarons a try.

Feel like you’ve mastered the basic Thanksgiving recipes and are looking for a bit of a challenge? Earlier this year, we did a chocolate mousse cake with hazelnut cake. How about making a pecan cake instead and layering it between layers of chocolate and pumpkin mousse? Martha Stewart had a great recipe for pumpkin mousse if you’re not sure how to tackle this one.

Or of course, there’s always simple cookies decorated with royal icing. Want to incorporate turkeys and leaves? Check out this great photo for some ideas!

So which way will you go? Are you going to opt for tradition or whimsy this year?

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Well, now that all 400 hours of classroom instruction were over, all that was left to do was graduate and head off to our internships.

  The room was all set with our cakes, portfolios and treats we had made specially for graduation. We all waited anxiously to welcome our friends and families into our ceremony. The ceremony was short and sweet, with each of us receiving a book and a toque blanche, or white hat and then spending time looking at each other’s cakes and saying our goodbyes.

Check out all of the cakes from our graduating class!

My dear Friend Cherryspoon’s Cake! Check out her blog post here: http://www.cherryspoon.com/2011/03/17/and-just-like-that-pastry-school-is-done/

You should recognize this one!

And just like that — goodbye school! I’m a chef!

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Wow, we’re at the last class. Crazy.

I came into class with a plan of attack on how I would finish my cake. I was so nervous about all the work I had left to complete that I came in an hour early to get in some extra petal-dusting time.

I knew I had to finish:

1. Covering my board
2. Petal dusting my roses, rose leaves, and peony leaves
3. Attaching gumpaste ruffles to the outside of my cake
4. Piping the borders of my cakes
5. Attaching my peony to the cake
6. Figuring out how I wanted the top of my cake to look

First up, covering my board, something nice and easy to get me into the swing of things. Then I would finish petal dusting my flowers, hopefully all of this could happen in the extra hour I had bought myself by coming in early. I hoped that by the time class was supposed to actually start I would be ready to ruffle my cake. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to achieve the look I wanted, so I knew I had to allow myself at least 2 hours to get it just right.

After hour one, I had completed everything I was hoping to and was ready to start the ruffles. I measured my cake and figured out that I probably wanted each ruffle to be about 1” high, plus the stretch that it was going to get from me thinning it out.

To make the ruffles, I rolled out fondant to the appropriate length. Then I cut it into a 1″ strip. I thinned out the top edge of this strip, and starting from the top of the cake, attached the first strip to the top of the cake with some royal icing. I repeated this process for all 3 ruffles down each layer of cake. The ruffles all came together with surprising ease. I had thought it was going to take me two hours to finish them, but it worked well on the first shot and I breezed right through them.

Next up, I piped around the borders of the two layers with some royal icing pearls. When that was done I attached the peony to the side of the cake.

After that, all that was left was to figure out the top. I kept placing roses on top, but was never happy with the way it was coming out. Finally, I decided to take the roses off and placed a fondant dome on top of the cake, and then I stuck the roses into that instead. That seemed to work much better as it gave the flowers some height rather than them being stuck right on top of the cake.

And with that, my last class came to an end. All 400 hours of classroom instruction was over and it was onto graduation and internship for me. I was physically ready for graduation with my cake completed, but mentally, I was not. I couldn’t believe just how quickly it had all come upon me.

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