r/DessertPerson

I was really hoping this wouldn't turn into an r/ididnthaveeggs situation, but I turned the recipe into cupcakes for my coworkers instead of the full cake and it turned out pretty well! The taste is phenomenal! But in the future I think I need to fill them with even more lemon curd.

If I have time to do it again as the full cake before Saturday for the adults at my baby's birthday party, I'll post again! And if not, I have the rest of the cupcakes in the freezer ready to be filled and meringue'd.

I’m flattered to hear that! I used chocolate chips (half semi-sweet and half milk chocolate) instead of the discs she mentioned. This is now my favorite and go-to recipe whenever I want to bake some cookies. All of my co-workers love them! Crunchy outside yet soft and gooey inside.

Used the brioche recipe without a dough hook (expect to be throwing the dough for 30+minutes if your making it by hand). I still had some dough left over after the hot dogs and pack of lil smokies, so I made a tiny loaf (top right) and rolled the very last bit in Demerara and cinnamon and baked it off (top left). They were so delicious! The only thing I'd do differently next time is do sesame seeds+flakey salt on top instead of only sesame seeds.

My 2026 goal is to bake as many recipes from Dessert Person as I can, and I'm back for April. I made five bakes:

1. Brown Butter And Sage Sables
2. Walnut-Maple Buns (I doubled the filling mixture and did half cinnamon and half cardamom - would definitely recommend!) 
3. Malted “Forever” Brownies 
4. All Allium Quiche (minus the onion petals) 
5. Strawberry-Almond Bostock (using the brioche recipe)

 

The quiche and strawberry-almond bostock are real stars if you’re hosting a brunch. While they were good, I would probably skip this brownie recipe in the future (Stella Parks has an insane brownie recipe). 

Claire said to make this for almond lovers and it was a hit with my almond-loving family! I'm glad she included the warning about the cake browning more than you think it should - it was not overbaked despite the dark edges ☺️

I made danishes morning with Claire’s croissant dough (NYT) and vanilla pastry cream (Dessert Person) recipes. The raspberry compote was made with raspberries, sugar, lemon juice, and cornstarch. Claire Saffitz for the win again! My family LOVED them.

Made the blueberry slab pie last week for a Kentucky Derby party and it was delicious! I used wild blueberries and I highly recommend. I did have a hard time getting the bottom crust to fully bake though despite taking Claire’s advice and baking it in an extra heated baking sheet. Has anyone had better luck?

in commemoration of a days-long-labor, i made tarte tatin for my daughter's first birthday. i had never done a dry caramel before and i messed it up three times (burned the first two, and added the butter too soon to the third because i was afraid it would burn). fortunately i had prepared the apples and pastry ahead of time so i had enough energy to resist the urge to throw my skillet in the garbage and try again. it was so good. i've only made one thing better.

I’ve done the buttercream twice now and gotten the eggs to whip up really well. I’ve mixed until 10+ minutes so it’s fully room temp and then both times I’ve added one piece of butter and it turned to soup. The internet told me to chill the soup and keep going and I’ve done that 2x now (20 mins total) and it’s still soup. Any tips? Do I just keep mixing? Cut my losses and try again? It’s basically at a ribbon stage now with the eggs, incorporated sugar syrup and 2 tbs of butter.

I made Claire's All Coconut Cake for my cat's birthday party this weekend.

The cake is on the sweeter end of her recipes (despite using unsweetened coconut as specified), but it's still good. The coconut pastry cream is especially delicious!

The recipe calls for 3 baked layers in 8" rounds, but I only had 9" rounds, so I made 2 of those (cut in half for 4 total layers in the cake).

Overall, this cake can be a lot of work with the various components. I bought frozen shredded coconut from the Indian store that I used in place of fresh coconut that the recipe called for. Without that shortcut, I don't think I'd bother making this recipe b/c cutting open coconuts for fresh meat is too much work for me.

I made the pastry cream a day in advance, and when I took it out of the refrigerator, I found it incredibly difficult to spread on the cake layers. Does anyone know why pastry cream would get too thick? I measured everything out by weight, and when I briefly googled it, everyone was having issues with pastry cream being too runny, not thick.

Been on a plum kick lately. Never would have thought of pairing plums with polenta and pistachios. Really love how it turned out! Decided to shape it in a rectangle instead of a circle like in the book, just for ease of shaping.

Turned out great imo! Super good. Nothing crazy “stand-out” about this recipe, but great, rich flavor I thought.

I baked up the Rhubarb Cake from Dessert Person for my volunteer job, and the Crystallized Meyer Lemon Bundt Cake from What's for Dessert for my own mom/family time! Both were first timers for me, and soooo good!

I also did not get any crystallization from the glaze on the bundt, but we loved the flavor and texture all the same.

Both of these were relatively easy to make. I love love love rhubarb and try to make it multiple ways each spring!

I used regular lemons since Meyer lemons are not available where I live. I brought this cake to a work event and it was hit! The leftover cake also stayed moist for days. Would definitely make again- I’m glad the bake along got me to try this recipe sooner rather than later!

Got very excited when my husband asked for a lemon cake for his PhD graduation - the perfect excuse to “work from home” and craft this beaut. I wimped out and just did fresh whipped cream instead of the meringue for the icing but it was still a hit!

I couldn’t find blood oranges as per the recipe so I used Cara Cara oranges and it was fabulous. Definitely better the next day as she says. The blackberry tart was such a hit - a very nice summer dessert that will definitely be in my rotation.

Normally I do not stray from Claire’s gospel, but if you’re going to meddle with any recipe, this is a very forgiving one. I used regular flour for the entire thing (no buckwheat) and didn’t let it rest the entire hour (my fault, I didn’t read ahead and the toddlers would have rioted). Still, though! The texture is more eggy than you might expect, but ultimately very easy, very tasty, would repeat again.