Raspberry Pate de Fruit

Whenever I'm down on M Street in Georgetown, I always enjoy strolling through Dean & Deluca to admire all the lovely and decadent chocolates, marzipan animals, macarons and pate de fruit. The pate de fruits are always luscious looking yet so expensive and I thought they can't be too difficult to make. 

The holidays seemed like a perfect time to try making them myself. I tried raspberry for a nice deep red color and raspberries have to be one of my favorite flavors too. I used this Food & Wine recipe by Jacque Pepin. 

It held together quite nicely after the gelatin set.

I cut several small pieces and found it easiest to wet the knife in hot water in between.

I rolled each piece in sugar and put them on a tray.  While they turned out quite nice, they were a bit too moist to package and give as little gifts. However, we enjoyed them with blue cheese and wine and it was a fabulous combination. 

Sticky Toffee Cake

When we discussed what dessert to make for a holiday dinner we were hosting for a few friends, sticky toffee pudding came to mind.  I found this New York Times recipe for Sticky Toffee Whole-Wheat Date Cake.  It has whole wheat flour in it, so it's good for you too, right?

I made fun individual sticky tofee puddings a few years back that were so amazingly good and this was even easier making as one big cake.  The individual cakes seem to stay more moist, but the toffee sauce was good to drizzle over the entire cake and a little extra on each piece. It was the perfect sweet ending to a lovely holiday meal.