When we meet Beatrice’s bluebird family in OVER THE GARDEN WALL, her mother continually reminds everyone to “eat some dirt,” even going so far as to spoon feed it to Wirt. It’s never explained why she fixates on this, though it could be a reference to the fact that some birds eat sand and grit to help grind up their food. I loved the idea of making pudding and Oreo dirt cups for my OTGW dessert, but of course I wanted to jazz it up a little bit!
Instead of topping the cups with gummy worms, I decided to decorate them with stuff from the show: gummy frogs and candy pumpkins! Originally I did chocolate rocks too, but I decided they made it all look too busy in the pictures (you can definitely add the chocolate rocks to yours though!). To make the top of the pudding cups look more like the forest floor of the Unknown, I added a bed of edible moss and some morel mushrooms sculpted from homemade marzipan! I got the idea for the moss from a cake I saw by Must Love Herbs (you should seriously check out all her cakes—they’re sooo beautiful!).
My kids loved these pudding cups! My son, a big marzipan fan, especially loved the mushrooms. These were so fun to make, and I love that all the decorations are little throwbacks to the show. Perfect for an OVER THE GARDEN WALL watch party!
Deciding what to make for my EMMA dessert was difficult—but in a delightful way. I knew I wanted a Regency-inspired strawberry dessert as a nod to the afternoon Emma spends picking strawberries at Donwell Abbey, but there were so many wonderful options it was hard to choose!
The Regency era boasts a plethora of delicious desserts, many with adorable names like “flummery,” “fruit fool,” and “syllabub.” I already made strawberry fool for the new extended edition of my cookbook, A LITERARY PICNIC, so I decided to do a twist on syllabub for this post. I took some inspiration from Max Miller’s Everlasting Syllabub on Tasting History and the elderflower whipped cream from my Poppy Eyebright Wedding Cake recipe.
Most syllabubs contain whipped cream (or sometimes egg white), slightly sweet alcohol, citrus, and sugar. If fruit is involved, it’s usually set on top or layered with the syllabub. That reminded me too much of strawberry fool, so I decided to make a strawberry jam and fold it through the syllabub. This resulted in a beautiful light pink pigment. I love how it turned out!
The moment has come! It’s time to wrap up this menu with a recipe from the titular book of the IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE series. Of course it was always going to be chocolate chip cookies, but I wanted a way to make them just a bit different. Then I thought: mouse-sized cookies!
This was my first time making mini chocolate chip cookies, but not my first time playing with scale. I’ve made giant chocolate cookies before (once for The Hobbit and another time for Where the Wild Things Are), but mini cookies are a whole different animal. For a giant cookie, you want it to be a bit more poofy and and cakey, since it needs enough structural integrity to hold up to being cut into slices. Mini cookies, on the other hand, should be less cakey to help them retain moisture, since it’s easy to over bake them.
Using my giant cookie recipe as a jumping off point, I scaled down and adjusted the proportions to create a soft, chewy cookie–one that wouldn’t be prone to dryness, even if it’s over baked a minute or two.
I’m very happy with the flavor and texture, though I think they came out a little pale. I think I’ll try refrigerating the dough for a day or two next time. I’ve heard aging the dough like that produces a more golden brown cookie (and more complex flavor!).
At the beginning of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, the characters enjoy breakfast in an Icelandic village before traveling to Snäfell (a dormant volcano) to begin their descent into the Earth. Curious about what they may have eaten there, I started to research Icelandic breakfasts and discovered that skyr (high-protein yogurt) is a popular breakfast item. I’ve made homemade yogurt in the past, and I thought it would be fun to try a new variety. But what to pair it with?
I decided to do a breakfast-y baked apple topped with skyr and granola. Instead of baking the apples whole and stuffing them with filling, I decided to make them hasselback style, cutting them in half and cutting thin slices into the tops. This way, the toppings can slip between the slices, allowing each bite to be more balanced. I developed my own hasselback apple recipe loosely based on the baked apples in my cookbook, A LITERARY HOLIDAY COOKBOOK. The granola is a crunchy, pared-down version of the granola bars in my latest book, A LITERARY PICNIC. For the skyr, I started with a recipe by the Jules Food blog and tweaked it to suit my experience.
These apples turned out delicious! They have just the right balance of sweet, savory, soft, and crunchy. The best part is, even though they’re super healthy, they actually eat like a dessert. So you could have them for breakfast, a special treat, or both!
Time to wrap up my first menu of the year with a dessert I’ve been looking forward to for months: chili-cinnamon chocolate bonbons with horchata caramel filling, inspired by MY FINE FELLOW! When I first read the book, the descriptions of elegant gourmet food floored me, and this was one of my favorites. The idea of chili-cinnamon chocolate sounds amazing all on its own, but throw in caramel flavored with horchata and you’ve got something downright decadent.
To make these bonbons, I added ground cinnamon and chili powder in a pot with some chocolate and melted it down, letting the chili and cinnamon infuse into the chocolate. I used this chocolate to line some candy molds (I decided to use a crown mold since, in the story, these are made for the Royal Culinary Exhibition). For the filling, I started with an horchata recipe I found on AllRecipes and subbed out the milk for heavy cream (this helps cut down on the water being added to the caramel later, which helps control consistency). I caramelized some sugar in a pan, then added in some butter, a bit of the horchata cream, and a touch of chili powder.
These. Bonbons. Are. INREDIBLE! I can’t get enough of them. The chili lends a savory warmth that is accentuated by the horchata, and it helps cut the intense sweetness of the caramel. Interestingly, the individual flavors of the chili, cinnamon, and horchata aren’t easy to isolate. Instead, they come together to make a new, warm, rich flavor, which is balanced by just a touch of bitterness from the chocolate. My four-year-old tried one, and when I asked her if she liked it, she sighed and pretended to faint on the floor. I’d say that’s high praise!
A meal inspired by ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL can only end with this dessert: Mrs. Hall’s shortbread! Although Mrs. Hall is known for dozens of delicious dishes, her shortbread is iconic. In fact, PBS even published an official recipe for these cookies! Naturally, that’s the recipe I used in today’s post (though I did spruce it up a tiny bit with a cookie mold!). The snowflake cookie mold used here is made by House on the Hill and was gifted to me by a family friend. This was my first time using a cookie mold, but it was super easy and fun. Definitely planning on using it again to make make Christmas cookies later this month.
I love how the finished cookies turned out. They’re super buttery, and the snowflake pattern shows up perfectly! My husband and son are especially big fans. Three cheers for Mrs. Hall and her shortbread! 😀
Today I’m bringing my EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FAERIES menu to a close with the iconic mini cakes the Ljoslanders serve throughout the story. This dainty dessert is sometimes described as being spiced and sometimes as being glazed, but it’s ALWAYS delicious. What’s most intriguing to me is that both the humans and the faeries eat variations of this dish, making it a regional delicacy that spans species and dimensions.
I couldn’t find any recipes for mini cakes specific to Ljosland (or Norway, where Ljosland is located), but I did find recipes for Swedish mini almond cakes. I combined recipes from Food and Journeys and Adrian Roselli to make the cakes below, topping them with a simple powdered sugar glaze to make them true to the story.
These cakes were a fun new experience for me. I had never used almond paste in a cake batter before, but I love the effect it had on the final product. The cakes were fluffy and soft in the middle with a firmer exterior, very nutty, and delicately sweet.
Needless to say, my kids gobbled these up. They’re great for feeding a crowd if you want something a little different from standard cupcakes or cookies. They’re also an amazing gift if you want to thank a professor for reviving the ancient tree in which you’ve made your faerie home. 😉
Today’s dessert from RONIA THE ROBBER’S DAUGHTER is the perfect ode to summer. After all, what could be more summery than fresh berries and cream? Ronia often mentions wild blueberries and strawberries during her rambles through Matt’s forest, so when it came time for me to plan this menu, I went hunting for a berry-themed dessert.
I chose a recipe for Swedish krem (cream) and berries I found on The Kitchen Magpie, which ties in beautifully with the book’s Scandinavian setting. Swedish krem is a breeze to make and SO delicious! The cream is rich and just sweet enough, while the berries offer a touch of tartness. I’m definitely making this next time I cook for a crowd. It’s the perfect make-ahead treat for a party!
Guys, this may be the most delicious thing I’ve ever made. I’m not even kidding. Poppy Eyebright’s wedding cake was my biggest motivation for making a Brambly Hedge menu to begin with, seeing as it’s the most iconic food in all the Bramby books. I’m SO glad I made it. It turned out amazing!
I feel like whenever anyone talks about Brambly Hedge food, we can’t help but gush about Poppy’s cake: three tiers of sponge cake interspersed with layers of cream and strawberries. I think we all imprinted on this cake because it’s simple yet decadent and highlights fresh, comforting flavors. It’s the physical embodiment of all things Brambly!
Interestingly, the description of Poppy’s wedding in the Brambly Hedge book SUMMER STORY doesn’t contain a description of her cake. Instead, we see several illustrations that include a cake fitting the description above. There is a larger, fancier cake in the illustrations as well. However, it hasn’t achieved the first cake’s level of fan recognition. This might be because it’s more formal, making it less emblematic of Brambly Hedge’s cozy cottage aesthetic. I like to imagine the larger cake was for the guests, while the smaller one was a bride and groom cake for Poppy and Dusty.
With that in mind, I decided to make mine a 6-inch cake. Since the book gives no description of the flavor, I decided to take my inspiration from another Brambly Hedge book. SPRING STORY describes Wilfred Toadflax’s birthday cake as “hazelnut cake with layers of thick cream,” which fits well with the illustrations of Poppy Eyebright’s wedding cake.
To start, I took the sponge recipe from the Honey Clementine Cupcakes in my new cookbook, A LITERARY PICNIC, and subbed in ground hazelnut for some of the flour. I was afraid it wouldn’t rise properly, but it turned out incredible. It’s quite possibly my best sponge recipe ever. It’s a lovely golden brown on the outside, and inside it has a texture that is somehow delicate and substantial—like if cake and banana bread had a baby.
For the cream layers, I whisked some elderflower liqueur into whipped cream, which added a lovely floral sweetness. To balance the richness of both the cake and the cream, I dotted fresh strawberries between the layers and added whole strawberries on top for decoration.
Could this be my magnum opus? It’s definitely one of my proudest culinary moments, and the pictures turned out amazing too (I had some perfect weather for outdoor photos!). So grab a plate and take a slice of this masterpiece out for a relaxing snack in the sunshine. It begs to be enjoyed with fresh air and greenery!
You knew it was coming: the iconic giant squid! After all, this wouldn’t be a TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES menu without a recipe inspired by one of literature’s most famous sea monsters. 😉
From day one of planning this menu, I knew I was going to include an homage to the giant squid. The big question was HOW. I thought about making sauteed octopus tentacles as the entree, but I was really excited to make tuna steaks instead. Then I considered fried calamari, but I couldn’t get calamari rings (which turned out for the best, because it meant I got to make mock turtle soup, which was delish).
That left dessert as my only option. While hunting for inspiration on Pinterest, I saw these adorable jellyfish lollipops by TheSweetStoryLine. I loved how the height from the stick allowed for long, dangling tendrils. This reminded me I have a killer recipe for cake pops, so I set to work designing a cake pop version of the iconic giant squid from TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES.
And here it is! Say hello to the cutest, sweetest, angriest squids you’ve ever met. These grumpy little guys are stylized versions of giant squids because I like the juxtaposition of a cute yet dangerous sea monster. These squids are blue since it makes the “suckers” on the tentacles more visible, and I had loads of blue candy melts left over from a previous recipe. I also had giant candy eyeballs left over from my other ocean-themed dessert, Colonel Brandon’s Curse Cupcakes. Which also happens to feature a too-adorable-to-be-scary sea monster.
My kids adored these, and I hope you do too. Eat them up fast . . . before they eat you! 😉
