Chilled Desserts

Cherries Jubilee

February 14, 2023

Famed French chef Georges Auguste Escoffier had a long association with England, working with César Ritz of the Ritz Hotel empire to make The Savoy Hotel in London an unparalleled success with royals and the wealthy in the 1890s. Knowing of Queen Victoria’s fondness for cherries, Escoffier set to work creating a special dessert for her Diamond Jubilee in 1897. To make it, he poached cherries in sugar syrup, reduced and thickened the juice with arrowroot, placed the mixture in silver timbales, and set them aflame with heated Kirsch. Continue Reading…

Chilled Desserts

Vintage No-Bake Icebox Cakes: Berries & Cream and Chocolate Mousse

June 11, 2017

Chilled desserts full of cream, marshmallow, or mousse were very popular with housewives of the forties and fifties when the potential of the home refrigerator was still being explored. From bombes and baked Alaskas, to mousses, meringues, marlows and mallobets–cookbooks of that era celebrated them all. Steering around the mallow, and more-dubious creations like the Fig Banana Brick (yes, that was a thing) we’ve revisited two icebox cakes: a Chocolate Mousse Icebox Cake from the ’40s, and, a Strawberries and Cream cake, with sherried berries (yum!) Continue Reading…