Red, White Chocolate, and Blue Sundaes

Boozy chocolate-covered cherries are a delightful twist on the classic chocolate-covered cherry treat. The combination of sweet cherries, rich chocolate, and a touch of alcohol creates a luscious and indulgent dessert. Here's a recipe to make boozy chocolate-covered cherries:

This is a cake to stop traffic. The layers are an improbable red that can vary from a fluorescent pink to a dark ruddy mahogany. The color, often enhanced by a full bottle of food coloring, becomes even more eye-catching set against clouds of snowy cream cheese-mascarpone frosting or ermine (also known as boiled-milk) frosting, like a slash of glossy lipstick framed by platinum blond curls. Even the name has a vampy allure: red velvet. These days this Southern favorite is found in just about every bakery, but perhaps for a special occasion (like the very red and white Valentine’s Day) you could try your hand at baking it.

Chocolate covered strawberries are an easy and delicious, make-ahead dessert. Learn how to make them perfectly for your next party, sweet treat or Valentine's Day!

Photo by Lynne Calamia

Ten years ago, I was strolling through the West Village in New York City when I first came upon Magnolia Bakery—with its toy-like displays of layer cakes, cheesecakes, and cupcakes; all that pastel yellow, green, and blue frosting; the long line snaking out the door. The cupcake was in its heyday. It seemed everywhere you turned there was a cupcake shop: If it wasn’t Magnolia, it was Butter Lane on 7th Street, Melissa’s on 14th, Georgetown on Mercer, or (RIP) Crumbs on University Place. I had just moved to Manhattan from Atlanta a few months prior, where the cupcake craze had yet to explode, and felt lucky to live in a city where a shop’s single purpose was to dole out mini cakes topped with buttercream. I had also just broken up with my then-boyfriend and was soaking in the cold winter streets on my own for the first time. And the one thing you need when you’re cold, alone, and heartbroken is to stumble upon a bakery filled with cupcakes. The sweet brightness of the shop was in stark contrast to how I was feeling that night. It wasn’t until I got to the counter after waiting in that line, ordered myself a red velvet cupcake (something I had never had before), and took my first bite that, for one brief second, I was able to forget about the breakup and wrap my mind around this new thing I had just shoveled into my mouth. I had never tasted anything like it. Was it vanilla or chocolate? Or both? Definitely both, like a black and white milkshake. Or a deeper cookies 'n' cream. That first bite at Magnolia would inform how I’d measure all other red velvet desserts thereafter: Red velvet batter must, in my opinion, have enough sugar to caramelize at the edges after being baked (for flavor, but also a slightly chewy texture in the cupcakes' case). There must be savoriness (thanks to salt and vinegar, the latter of which helps the cake rise, too) as well as bitterness (thanks to the cocoa and food coloring). Speaking of artificial facades, there must be a deep, bold, brick-red hue to it (because that’s the color of reignition). Most sources point to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in N.Y.C. as the crimson cake’s original creator. Wherever it came from, red velvet is, for me, a flavor that I’ll always associate with my early years in New York, and by extension, who I was back then: wide-eyed, vulnerable, and unabashedly sanguine. A lot has changed in ten years: The hotel has since closed and been turned into luxury condominiums; I barely remember that ex-boyfriend’s name, let alone his face; and cupcakes, especially red velvet, are way over. But even after all these years, one thing has remained the same: I still love this stupid city.

Learn how to make the best chocolate covered strawberries that are the ultimate easy to make dessert for summer or any special occasion. These chocolate-dipped strawberries are fresh, elegant, and perfect to give to your loved ones.

This moist and vibrant red velvet cake is made completely dye free! It gets its natural color all from fresh beets. They're pureed and mixed into the batter to create that beautiful red velvet color WITHOUT the artificial dye. Most importantly, you cannot taste the beets one bit!

Layer cakes are formative for Southerners: They grace wedding tables, shiva gatherings, quinceañeras, baptisms and funerals. Because of this — and because layer cakes may be as close as some will ever get to a holy experience — they’re often called church cakes. This chocolate one is a perfectly moist and stacked rendition of a pudding cake, with just the right amount of richness from the frosting. This formula needs no alterations, but there’s no sense in breaking the tradition of Southern bakers, who personalize recipes as a point of pride. Add pulverized praline to the center, or cinnamon or instant-coffee granules to the batter. Don’t be afraid to make it your own. To make it a true church cake, serve it to those you hold in the highest regard, for celebrations or to simply indulge in the good glory of company.