One of the most extraordinary things about having written and published The Sweet Life continues to be the experience of reading about and seeing the results of my readers making my desserts. It’s just amazing to actually view the photos on food blogs and emails, not just hope that my recipes are working.

So, I’m going to link to and post some of the beautiful photos I’ve found, either on blogs or in emails sent to me, of my desserts. I hope they make you hungry!

First up, two versions of my Honey-Roasted Pears, featured on the front cover of the book.

Here’s a version from Veronica’s Test Kitchen:

My dear friends Deborah, Suzanne and the two Erichs made the pears for their Christmas dinner, and sent along two great photographs, one of the pears, and one of Suzanne making them:

At Dessert First, Anita the PastryGirl tried a couple of my ice creams and cookies, and also provided an interesting report on her test run of her new ice cream machine. Here’s the Mandarin Orange Sorbet with Hazelnut Shortbread:

And here’s the Apple Cider and Caramel Ice Cream:

Erin over at Ahi to Ziti posted about the Chocolate Almond Cracks, which I made on the CBS Morning Show:

Cenk at Cafe Fernando made the Chocolate Caramel Pot de Creme, and he also emailed to say hello all the way from Turkey:

One of the things that’s most exciting about getting to see the results of people making your recipes is seeing their variations. Over at Cook & Eat, Lara transformed my Cardamom and Honey Pistachio Nougat Glacé into a Honey Elderflower Glacé:

An even more creative spin on one of my recipes is this Vanilla, Brown Butter & Hazelnut Cake with Warm White Chocolate & Truffle Honey Filling; Truffle Honey Ice Cream; Apricots in Vanilla & Earl Grey Tea Caramel, produced by Joycelyn at Kuidaore. I love using truffle honey — the bread pudding in the book uses a truffle honey drizzling to make it special — and I love filling my Vanilla, Brown Butter and Almond Tea Cake with warm, oozy things, so I was really tickled by this one:

What’s most rewarding these variations on my recipes is that it reminds me of exactly how I do my job: I find techniques that appeal to my senses, then I add flavors and textures that I adore, and then I play around, make adjustments, and suddenly I have a whole new recipe.

With Meyer lemons currently in season, my Aunt Judi’s friend Joan made a Meyer Lemon Curd Tart, with beautiful lemon zest decorating the edges of the tart:

And I think my Uncle John might have been the very first person to send me a photo of one of my recipes. He made the Goat Cheesecake Enrobed in Hazelnut Brittle, all the way back in October:

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 27th, 2007 at 11:00 pm and is filed under News & Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.