Vanilla Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Rosemary-Infused Blackberry Jam Filling

Posted June 12, 2025 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

The time has come for the final recipe in my FELLOWSHIP OF BAKERS & MAGIC menu! I feel like it’s flown by—maybe because it’s been so fun to make an entire menu full of desserts! I haven’t gotten to do this since my CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY menu in 2018.

Today I’m making Arleta’s competition piece: vanilla cake with blackberry jam filling and cream cheese frosting. In the story, Arleta actually makes a last minute change to her cake that affects the final ruling of the competition, but I’m making her submission as she originally planned so as not to spoil the surprise for anyone who hasn’t read the book yet.

I imagine Arleta made a large cake, since it was meant to feed not just the judges but also all the competition attendees. However, as I write this my family is still drowning in Easter treats, so I decided to scale mine down to a six-inch cake. I used my own vanilla cake recipe for the layers, and I used Joy the Baker’s frosting recipe prepped using a technique from Handle the Heat for improved stability. The filling is a spin on my previously posted seedless blackberry jam recipe—this time with fresh rosemary infused in the jam!

I love how this one turned out. I like the rosemary-blackberry jam even more than the basil-raspberry curd I made for the first recipe in this menu (and I liked that one a LOT). I used just enough rosemary to ground the blackberry flavor without overpowering it, giving it a warm, rich taste. I never would have thought to pair it with cream cheese frosting, but it’s a brilliant combo. The creamy richness of the frosting complements the tartness of the jam in a way that creates a well-balanced bite. I’m often content with trying one slice of each of my cakes before giving the rest away, but I kept coming back for this one. It might even beat out the hazelnut honey cake I made in 2023 as my new favorite cake.

I hope you had fun on this culinary journey through A FELLOW OF BAKERS & MAGIC with me. I hear there’s a sequel called A FELLOWSHIP OF LIBRARIANS & DRAGONS, and it stars my favorite character from BAKERS & MAGIC: Doli Butterbuckle, a dwarf who loves tea. If her story has some tasty treats, maybe I’ll make a menu for it too!

Lavender Vanilla Shortbread

Posted May 29, 2025 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Today’s installment in my menu from A FELLOWSHIP OF BAKERS & MAGIC is the traveling snack Arleta brings with her on the way to the baking battle: lavender vanilla shortbread!

I’ve made shortbread before, a very simple recipe that sticks to the basics of what makes shortbread . . . well, shortbread. Today, I want to take the opportunity to enhance the flavors, showcasing how elevated a shortbread can be. To do this, I infused pure vanilla seeds and crushed lavender buds into the butter overnight. To develop this recipe, I combined elements from Mrs. Hall’s shortbread from ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL (which I’ve posted here before), the official Ted Lasso shortbread recipe, and Seasons and Supper’s Scottish shortbread.

The final cookies turned out delicate and buttery—everything you want a shortbread to be—with just the right amount of floral flavor from the lavender and warm notes from the vanilla bean. The perfect way to showcase Arleta’s flair for flavor!

Blood Orange Cardamom Loaf

Posted May 15, 2025 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Time for the next installment in my menu inspired by A FELLOWSHIP OF BAKERS & MAGIC by J. Penner! Today’s recipe comes from Jez, the main character’s roommate at the Langheim Baking Battle.

This blood orange cardamom loaf is one of Jez’s competition recipes. Even though all my other recipes for this menu will be from Arleta (the main character), I simply HAD to make this one. It’s described as being topped with pink citrus icing and candied orange slices, and Jez says that “the sweet, spicy, and tart combination is the ideal blend.” How could I NOT make it?

I made an orange poppy seed cake several years ago, so I made alterations to that recipe to suit this one. I was confident that the loaf itself would turn out amazing (which it did), but I was really intimidated by the candied blood oranges. I’ve never tried to candy fruit before, so I was a total novice. I used this recipe by Love and Olive Oil, which was easy to follow. Admittedly, the first time I made them I let my sugar syrup boil a bit too long, so my orange slices came out a little crunchy. They still tasted amazing though, and yours should turn out just fine, as long as you don’t walk away from the stove for too long thinking it will take awhile for the temperature to climb those last 20 degrees (like I did).

I love how the blood orange juice naturally colors the pink icing and how dramatic the orange slices look on top. Jez sure knows how to make a beautiful bake!

Raspberry Basil Tart

Posted May 1, 2025 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

A few months ago I read a book that’s been on my TBR for quite a while: A FELLOWSHIP OF BAKERS & MAGIC by J. Penner. It was such a fun, light read! It’s set in a high-fantasy world with elves and magic and tells the story of Arleta, a human baker who competes in a Great British Bake Off-style competition called the Langheim Baking Battle.

If you like cozy high fantasy, food-focused fiction, and romantic subplots, this book is for you. I was so enamored with all the delicious-sounding bakes in the book, I decided to make a menu for it! The back of the book contains recipes for some of Arleta’s competition bakes from the story (namely Earl Grey Cherry Scones, Lemon Bars with Cardamom Shortbread Crust, and Salted Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies). My menu will be based around bakes that don’t have recipes included in the book but are still important to the story—starting with the raspberry basil tart!

In the story, Arleta is initially too nervous to enter the Langheim Baking Battle, convinced that her lack of magic will make her bakes seem lackluster next to those of the other competitors. Instead, her neighbor Verdreth secretly submits one of her raspberry basil tarts in the qualifying round on her behalf. Adding traditionally savory herbs to her desserts is Arleta’s trademark, so I felt that this would be the perfect dish to start the menu.

I started with my go-to pie crust, par-baked to prevent a soggy bottom. Then I made the egg-free raspberry curd from my cookbook, A LITERARY HOLIDAY COOKBOOK, adding basil leaves in the first step so they could infuse their flavors into the raspberries. This uses a LOT of basil, since the leaves get strained out in the first step after infusing most of their oils into the cooked raspberries. It adds a subtle herbal note to the curd, which you can strengthen by adding some fresh, small basil leaves as a garnish if desired.

Three Teas to be Discontinued at End of April

Posted April 24, 2025 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 0 Comments

Hi, everybody! As you may recall, in January I announced that this year I will discontinue a few of my custom tea blends every few months. I’ve been making blends for almost 10 years and have over 60 blends by now, so I think it’s time to say goodbye to some of the less popular teas.

Before I discontinue each set of teas, I share a post here (and link to it on social media) one week before the blends are officially discontinued. This will give people time to grab a few final tins if they’d like. In this particular case, one of the teas I’m discontinuing is still available, but the other were made with teas Adagio no larger carries so they’re already out of stock.

This month I will discontinue the following teas:

Aqueous Tea

Patriot Tea

The Once and Future Tea

The Patriot Tea will be available to order until the end of April.

Thanks for your continued support of my teas and recipes!

I’ll be back next week with another recipe post. See you then!

Aqueous Tea from A Series of Unfortunate Events

The Once and Future Tea from King Arthur

Patriot Tea from Meet Felicity

Almond Pinwheel Pastries

Posted April 17, 2025 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Who’s ready for dessert? The final recipe in this month’s menu is an ode to almonds, and it’s sooo delicious!

In THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, the castaways eat lots of stone pine almonds, which are similar to pine nuts. However, since the castaways treat these nuts as a dessert, I decided to make my dessert recipe for this menu using true almonds, along with other ingredients they had on the island.

Since they have flour and dairy products in addition to almonds, I decided to combine them all to make pastries with almond-cream cheese filling. Neb is the main cook in the story, and he takes a lot of pride in his work. I like to imagine this is something he would make to celebrate a big moment on the island, like their first batch of milled flour or when Herbert recovered from a terrible sickness.

Since puff pastry is basically just flour,butter, and salt, I knew Neb would have all the ingredients to make it, so I used that as my pastry base. For the filling, I combined almond paste and cream cheese, two other ingredients Neb would be able to make with what he had on hand. I made them in a pinwheel shape as a nod to the windmill the castaways built at their home base, Prospect Heights.

These turned out AMAZING! The sweet, almond-y, creamy filling is a delightful contrast to the crisp, delicate pastry. I was really excited for my husband to try these, since he loves those flavors. He liked them, but I wasn’t prepared for how much my son would love them. He’s already asking for them for his next birthday (for context, his birthday was last month).

He’ll be excited to hear I’m planning to make more to bring to Easter festivities this year!

Maple Whole Wheat Dutch Oven Bread

Posted April 3, 2025 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

My favorite thing about the characters in THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND by Jules Verne is how innovative they are. They make a forge, an irrigation system, and even a telegraph system! One of my favorite moments is when they create their own oven using clay bricks. They spend almost a year yearning for bread before they’re able to grow enough wheat for flour. As you can imagine, the first loaf of bread enjoyed in the story is quite a celebratory moment, so I wanted to include some bread in my MYSTERIOUS ISLAND menu.

I decided to go with a whole wheat bread, since that’s the type of flour the castaways would have used (in fact, they might have even used something closer to graham flour, if you want to go that route). I made some slight variations to a recipe by Kneading Adventure, including swapping out the honey for maple syrup, an ingredient the castaways were able to harvest from maple trees on the island.

This no-knead maple whole wheat dutch oven bread is probably the most artisan-looking bread I’ve ever made, and it was super easy. It’s wholesome and hearty, perfect toasted and slathered in butter. The inside is soft with a close crumb, making it a good sandwich bread as well. I love the contrast of the soft interior with the crunchy crust, and the long rise time gave it a mild funky flavor similar to sourdough.

Also, it smells PHENOMENAL while it’s baking. I had mine in the oven at night, and my 8-year-old (who was waiting for me to tuck him in), came downstairs just to tell me how good it smelled. We were both so excited to eat it in the morning, and it didn’t disappoint. This might be one of my new favorite breads!

Leek and Mussel Chowder

Posted March 20, 2025 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

While reading THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND by Jules Verne, I was so excited when the characters discovered and ate lithodomes (which are a type of mussel) during their early days on the island. I really like mussels, so I’m always looking for more mussel recipes to try. Of course, I had to make some for this menu!

If you’re new to mussels, don’t worry. The meat has a delicate, mild flavor like crab (not at all fishy). Most grocery stores carry pre-cooked mussels in the freezer section, which I find to be cost effective and easy to cook.

I decided early on that I wanted to make mussel chowder, since I knew the side dish for this menu (which I’ll share in my next post) pairs perfectly with any form of soup. I found this recipe for mussel chowder from The Guardian, which is super easy and delicious. Plus, it features leeks, which is another food the castaways found on the Mysterious Island.

This chowder is creamy, salty, and oh so satisfying. And it reheats beautifully! I often have issues with the broth of cream-based soups developing an odd texture when reheated, but this one stays super smooth, which I think is due to the bacon fat.

My one critique is that I think this chowder could use a starchy vegetable. I’ve been obsessed with rutabagas in soup ever since making Norwegian chicken dumpling soup, so maybe I’ll throw some into this recipe next time I make it!

Bamboo Stir Fry

Posted March 6, 2025 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

After reading TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA two years ago, I became a big Jules Verne fan. I made a menu for that book here on the blog not long after reading it, and I made one for JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH last year. Today I’m continuing my culinary journey through the works of Verne with a menu inspired by THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND!

As the title suggests, the book is one part survival story, one part mystery. In it, a group of castaways build a life for themselves on a deserted island . . . which may not be as deserted as it seems. I won’t spoil the twist, but needless to say, I had lots of fun reading it!

Today’s recipe is inspired by the bamboo the castaways find on the island, which one of the group says are eaten like asparagus in India. I found a few recipes online for Indian-style asparagus stir fry from The Picky Eater Blog, Piping Hot Curry, and Ministry of Curry and merged them together to make a bamboo version. The final recipe has a strong citrus presence, which is complemented by a touch of green chili heat and warm spices. Enjoy!

1850s Spice Cake

Posted February 13, 2025 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

If you’ve been following along with the rest of my menu inspired by AGNES GREY, then you know it’s time for a Victorian-era dessert! Cakes were a popular Victorian indulgence, and Agnes specifically mentions spice cake in her story, which she says she enjoyed with some currant wine. In fact, the exact word she uses for the cake is that she “demolished” it. Considering what a restrained character Agnes is, I’d say that’s a glowing review of the cake!

I really wanted to use a historically accurate spice cake recipe, which means it would need to come from some time around the 1840s. I decided to go with this 1850s recipe for gingerbread spice cake by Sarah Gonzalez. I love this version because it’s rich and thick in the best possible way. It’s almost as fudgy as a brownie! Sarah’s recipe includes modern mascarpone frosting, which sounds delicious. However, since I’m trying to make something closer to what Agnes Grey would have eaten, I decided to swap it out for just a simple dusting of powdered sugar (though I’ll probably add the frosting next time I make it!).

Thanks for joining me on this Brontë-inspired journey through Victorian recipes! I can’t wait to start my next Brontë book. I think I’ll read VILETTE next!