Tag: Dessert

German-Style Candied Roasted Almonds inspired by TINY BOOKSHOP

Posted January 1, 2026 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

This post is not sponsored by TINY BOOKSHOP or Neoludic Games.

Hands up if, like me, you have been playing the TINY BOOKSHOP computer game to the point of irresponsibility. 🙋 That’s ok, no judgement here. It’s that dangerous combo of cozy and addicting, and I couldn’t love it more.

For those who haven’t played, TINY BOOKSHOP is a game in which you run a mobile shop for second hand books. Different locations in town have customers that are interested in different genres, so you have to stock your shelves based on where you plan to park your bookshop that day. As you progress through the game, you get to know the locals and unlock some of the secrets of the town. And as you sell books, you get opportunities to recommend books to customers based on what they’re looking for. The best part? The books on your shelves are real books like JANE EYRE, TASTING HISTORY, GAME OF THRONES, and so much more! In fact, I keep a notepad next to me when I play, because it’s given me lots of new books to add to my TBR.

Seasonal progression is part of the gameplay, and the Winter Market sells two snack items that add boosts to your shop: roasted almonds and yuletide coffee. The roasted almonds are described as “a crunchy treat so sweet,” which makes me think they’re candied as well as roasted. This sounds similar to German candied almonds (Gebrannte Mandeln), which have a thick, rough, crunchy coating of sugar and spices. This would make a lot of sense, since the studio that developed the game (Neoludic Games) is based in Germany.

For my German candied almonds, I went straight to All Tastes German. It’s the same place I found my favorite authentic German jagerschniztel recipe. I only made a few small tweaks, since I didn’t want to depart too much from the traditional recipe.

Just like TINY BOOKSHOP, these little nuts are so cozy and addicting. First you get the crunchy, sugary sweetness of the coating with the lightly toasted almond in the background. Then as the sugar begins to dissolve on your tongue, it unlocks the cinnamon. Even though I’m posting this on New Year’s Day, I made the recipe on St. Nicolas day, and it felt SO perfect to be standing at my stove stirring sweet, fragrant almonds on that day. I think I might have unlocked a new annual St. Nick tradition!

P.S. Just want to remind everyone that I’ll be posting on a different schedule from now on (the first Thursday of every other month), so my next recipe post will go up on March 5th. You can find more details about the change here.

Uncle Albert’s Plum Cake

Posted December 25, 2025 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Plum cake features prominently on the tea table when Mary Poppins and the children visit her Uncle Albert, a beloved moment for both fans of the book and the movie. Admittedly, I didn’t decorate mine with pink icing like the one in the book, but I did sprinkle it with sliced almonds and a dusting of sugar. I used a recipe by Nigella Lawson as a starting point, though I did make some key changes (such as adding cubed plums to the batter and sprinkling sliced almonds and sugar on top).

Interestingly, British plum cake can refer to two distinct styles of cake. The oldest form is studded with dried fruit (which were collectively referred to as “plums,” even if they were made of other fruit), and it’s closer to what today would be considered a fruit cake. Over time, plum cake in Britain became more synonymous with other European plum cakes, which involve a thick batter mixed with ground almonds and studded with fresh plums.

I love how the fresh, tart plums complement the nuttiness of the sponge cake. I was worried it would be too stodgy and wet due to the moisture in the plums, but the cake had a delightful fluffy texture. The perfect recipe to round off my last menu of the year!

Mrs. Cotton’s Amazing Autumn Tart

Posted October 16, 2025 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

This post is not sponsored by TALES OF THE SHIRE or Wētā Workshop Game Studio.

Time for my favorite dessert from TALES OF THE SHIRE: Mrs. Cotton’s Amazing Autumn Tart! It’s one of the first recipes you learn in-game, and it’s a common craving of Farmer Cotton’s. Understandably so!

In the game, you can use any two fruits and a berry to make the tart, along with cream and flour. Since this is an autumn tart, I decided to stick with forgables you can find in autumn in-game: apples, peaches, and blackberries. Plums might work even better than apples, but I recently tested several versions of a plum recipe so I’m kinda over plums for the moment.

For the tart shell, I used the same one as my Raspberry Basil Tart. To incorporate the cream, I made some almond pastry cream and spread it on the bottom of the tart. I made the blackberries into a seedless blackberry jam, which I spread on top of the pastry cream. Then I studded the top with fresh apple and peach slices.

I love this tart’s interplay of flavors: sweet apples and peaches, tart blackberries, rich pastry cream, and buttery crust. If you close your eyes, you can picture yourself enjoying it while sitting on a blanket in an orchard, the autumn sun on your face while a light breeze stirs the crunchy leaves around you. A truly hobbity dessert if there ever was one!

Changeling Dumplings

Posted August 21, 2025 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Today’s final DELICIOUS IN DUNGEON recipe is a 3-in-1: three flavors of dumpling in one recipe, inspired by the array of dumplings the characters eat after being transformed by a changeling mushroom ring. This is my favorite episode in the whole season because my favorite character, Senshi the dwarf, gets temporarily turned into an elf. Wherever he walks, the air around him blooms with flowers and glitters with sparkles. 😆

Senshi makes fried dumplings, and in a moment of inspiration, he passes the dumplings through the mouth of a changeling statue, transforming the food into a variety of tasty dumplings.

Only a few are described, so I used those as the inspiration for my three flavors. Izutsumi says one of the dumplings is filled with Barometz meat, a dungeon monster that looks like a lamb, so I filled one dumpling with ground lamb seasoned with garlic and onion. Marcille bites into a dumpling filled with stretchy yellow cheese, so I made one stuffed with Velveeta. Laos says one of the dumplings is sweet, which leaves a lot of room for interpretation. I LOVE Nutella-stuffed fried wontons, so I filled my final dumpling with a mix of Nutella and cream cheese.

These all turned out amazing, but I think my favorite was the Velveeta. How is no one already doing this? It was like eating deep-fried grilled cheese! Plus, it was easy to assemble since the cheese is solid but soft at room temp. My kids, on the other hand, loved the lamb dumplings. They’re already asking me to make them again!

I’m sad that this is the end of my DELICIOUS IN DUNGEON menu—I had SO much fun coming up with monster-inspired recipes—but I’m glad I got the opportunity to try some things that were a little more “out there.” I’m also excited for my next menu. I can’t reveal it yet (you’ll have to wait a couple weeks), but I’ve been looking forward to doing it for two whole years. I can’t wait to share it with you!

NOTE: This recipe needs to chill for 2 hours before frying.

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!

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.

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!

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!

Bluey’s Pavlova

Posted December 19, 2024 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes, Pop Culture Corner / 0 Comments

Here she is! The pièce de résistance, the crown jewel, the recipe you’ve all been waiting for. . . pavlova! Of all the foods featured in BLUEY, this one seems to hold the most fascination for fans of the show. Maybe it’s because pavlova originated in Australia, or maybe because the animators’ cartoony rendition of it looks so inviting and whimsical. Either way, this dish definitely received the most votes from my kids when I was deciding what to make for my BLUEY menu. So let’s get started!

If you’re unfamiliar with pavlova (as I was), it’s a large baked meringue topped with whipped cream and fruit. The meringue has a thin, crunchy exterior and marshmallowy interior and should be white to off-white in color. I started with my go-to meringue recipe and the baking instructions from this Blackberry Cardamom Pavlova recipe from Adventures in Cooking. Then I tweaked it all as I refined the results. It took a LOT of experimentation (I lost count somewhere around 8 pavlovas), but I finally found the right combo of ingredients, bake temp/time, and cool time to get the right color and texture. I might play with it some more at a later date, but I’m happy with where it’s at right now.

I’ve got to say, eating pavlova is a truly magical experience. The outside has a delicate crunch, and the inside is soft and fluffy. Adding the whipped cream and fruit adds extra freshness and lightness, preventing the meringue from being too sweet. I love that pavlova has so many flavors and textures and that they all work together instead of competing with each other. I’m planning to make it again for my daughter’s Bluey-themed birthday party next month.

I’ll see you all for another recipe (and a new menu) in a couple weeks. Until then, have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Rhaenyra’s Lemon Cakes and Arbor Gold Wine from THE OFFICIAL WESTEROS COOKBOOK

Posted November 28, 2024 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book Events and Tours, Book of the Month Recipes / 1 Comment

Hi, everybody! Since today is Thanksgiving, I thought it would be fun to share a special bonus post: a recipe from THE OFFICIAL WESTEROS COOKBOOK by Cassandra Reeder, creator of The Geeky Chef blog. I’ve been a fan of Cassandra’s work since my early days of blogging, and I’ve shared her recipe for Miruvor here in the past. I’m super excited to share an all-new recipe from her latest cookbook with you today. Let’s get started!