30+ Categories of Sweet Desserts

According to scientists, our tongues can distinguish five types of tastes: pungent (acrid), sweet, sour, bitter, and salty.  In honor of the holidays, which is all about sweet foods, following is a list of some of my favorite go-to treats - a useful list in case you're trying to figure out what to prepare for dessert!

1. Brownies.  Nothing wrong with a basic chocolate brownie, though these days the fashion seems to be "fancying" them up by adding caramel, nuts, or flavored chips (mint, raspberry)
2. Butterscotch.   Like caramel, butterscotch can be fashioned into a delicious buttery candy or used as an ingredient in candy bars, cakes, or pies.
3. Cakes: So many delicious choices, I've devoted a whole blog entry to them!
4. Candies-chocolate.   Turns out pretty much anything tastes delicious if you coat it in chocolate! This category includes everything from m&ms to bon bons and truffles.
5. Candies-hard. Includes lollipops, lemon drops, peppermints, rock candy, ribbon candy, and candy canes
6. Caramel.  Available as a candy, but more commonly encountered as an ingredient in other sweets.  Without caramel there would be no toffees, no flans, no caramel chocolate bars, no caramel sauce for ice cream or caramel glaze for cakes; no caramel apples; and (say it isn't so) no caramel corn! 
7. Cheesecake. Top your basic cheesecake with fruit; or, add ingredients to the batter (chocolate, pumpkin, berries, lemon/lime, mocha, peanut butter) to create different varieties
8. Chewing Gum.   Includes regular chewing gums and bubble gum
9. Chocolate: dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate ... need I say more?
10. Cookies: Includes American cookies, English biscuits, wafers, animal crackers, biscotti, macaroons, gingerbread, and shortbreads.
11. Cotton candy.  Airy, flossy, sugary goodness!
12. Drinks - novelty.  Since the beginning of time people have been creating sweet novelty drinks, often by combining sugar, alcohol, and other ingredients into concoctions such as mulled wine, eggnog, or mead; today, we tend to call them "cocktails." Other sugary novelty drinks include flavored milk, lemonade, and artificial "fruit" drinks like cool-aid.
13. Drinks - soda.  Sodas deserve their own category, if only because they are such a dominant source of sugar in our everyday diets!  Today we have Coke and Pepsi but even during the civil war people enjoyed sarsaparilla.
14. Frostings/glazes.  Though one tends to think of your basic royal icing or fondant when talking about frosting, delicious sweet toppings can also be crafted out of cream cheese, marshmallow, caramel, and a variety of fruits.
15. Frozen treats:  Includes popsicles, snow cones, gelato, and sherbet
16. Frozen Milk treats: Includes ice cream in all its forms: bars, cones, pints, cakes, and milkshakes
17. Fruits:  Nature's original dessert!  This category includes raw fruits, poached fruits, dried/candied fruits, fruit smoothies, jellies, jams, and fruit juices.
18. Fudge. Like brownies, fudge is delicious plain but is also available in dozens of flavors.
19. Gelatin.  Includes gelatins like jello; also licorice and gelatin-based "gummy" candies (gummy bears, jellybeans)
20. Honey: Honey-based treats include challah, baklava, and candy corn; also, by the way, it can also be fermented to create a yummy alcohol generally called mead!
21. Liquors.  Given that alcohol is nothing more than fermented plant sugar, the wide array of sweet liquors available shouldn't be surprising.  Some of these include: Amareto, Kahlua, creme de cacao, Frangelico, and Grand Marnier
22. Marshmallow.  An essential ingredient in rice crispy squares, s'mores, and peeps.
23. Marzipan.  Marzipan, a dough made from almond flour (or sometimes other sweetmeat flour), can be shaped into cookies or works as a filling for chocolate candies.
24. Meringue. Meringue, a confection created by whipping egg whites until they turn into a froth, are great alone or topped with fruit.
25. Milk Products (lactose): Turns out adding sugar to milk products = fabulous!  Sweet butters and creams are the foundation of any number of delicious treats.
26. Molasses: Used in some spice cookies; also adds the "sweet" to many barbeque sauces and baked bean recipes. 
27. Nectar. One word: honeysuckle!  It may not be a major ingredient in anything, but if summer had a taste, it would be honeysuckle.
28. Pastries.  Includes doughnuts, beignets, napoleons, strudels, baklavas, croissants, fritters, eclairs, danishes, and turnovers
29. Pies/Cobblers/tarts: Includes pies, cobblers, and tarts.
30. Puddings/mousses/custards:  Includes American puddings (vanilla, chocolate, tapioca); thicker British puddings (plum pudding, etc.); mousses (basically, frothy puddings); and custards like crème Brule, blancmange, and flange
31. Relishes/chutneys/salsas.  Though we typically think of relishes as salty, delicious fruit relishes and chutneys are excellent spread on bread or served with meats.
32. Sauces/syrups. Sauces (ex: chocolate sauce, raspberry sauce) and syrups (corn, maple, blueberry) typically aren't served alone but add plenty of sweet when poured over breads, puddings, or ice cream.
33. Sweet Breads: In this category I'm including breads as well as breads with yummy things rolled into them: sweet rolls, cinnamon rolls, panettone, funnel cake, muffins, rugelach, and jellyrolls/yule logs all fit into this category
34. Sweetmeats: "Sweetmeats" is an old term for nuts: walnuts, pecans, peanuts, pistachios, poppy seeds, etc.  Eat them raw as snacks or use them as ingredients with other sweetables like cakes, pies, brittles, or candies
35. Taffies/nougats.  A category of extremely chewy treats - delicious but hard on the teeth!
36. Truffles.  A delicious combination of cake, pudding, and fruit - often with a sauce or topping thrown in!
37. Wines.  Several varieties of wine are known for their sweetness, including Rieslings, gewurtstrameners, and sauternes.

A Thousand Words: Booby Humor

50+ Great Cakes

As if this month wasn't busy enough, my family celebrates about 6 birthdays in December.  Which must explain why I'm thinking, not about how on earth I'm going to catch up on my Christmas shopping, but about cake. The following isn't meant as a comprehensive list of all cakes, but it is a comprehensive list of all the best cakes I've ever run across in my life.  (By the way, I'm not separating out cupcakes or bundt cakes, as these are shapes, not categories, as far as I'm concerned.)

1. Battenberg Cakes.  Take one or more butter cakes in different flavors, cut them into blocks, re-assemble them (with the aid of jam) into architectural constructs, and then spread frosting over the result. Battenbergs contain the kind of dazzle meant to impress at formal teas and showers.  Variations include chess cake
2. Butter Cakes.  You swirl the caramel into the batter, and then finish it off with a caramel/nut frosting.  Genius.  Variations include chocolate, devil's food cake, lemon, marble, red velvet cake, strawberry cake, vanilla cake
3. Butterscotch/Caramel Cakes.  You swirl the caramel into the batter, and then finish it off with a caramel/nut frosting.  Genius.  
4. Coffee Cakes.  A version of the basic pound cake with various extra ingredients stirred into the batter -  berries, apple, nuts, streusel, etc. - and served without frosting.  I'm especially fond of the ones with cinnamon crumb toppings. 
5. Fruit/Nut/Spice Cakes.  Unlike layer cakes, these cakes have the fruit and nuts baked right into them.  The boozy Christmas version gets a lot of bad press, but can be delicious when properly make. I have an affection for what some call a Hummingbird cake, which folds pineapple, bananas and walnuts directly into the batter. Variations include genoa cake, German chocolate cake, Hummingbird cake, Italian cream cake, jam cakes  
6. Ice cream cakes.  Like mousse cake, it's two desserts in one.  My mom was making them long before you could pick one up at the Baskin Robbins on your way home.  Variations include baked Alaska.
7. Layer Cakes.  Butter cake + layers of fruit (possibly imbedded in cream or custard) = delicious!  Variations include Black Forest cake, Boston Cream Pie, coconut cake, lemon cake, raspberry cake.
8. Liquor Cakes.  I love how quickly you can vary the taste of cakes just by adding a flavorful liquor. My sister added amaretto to my wedding cake and now that's what people remember about my wedding.  Variations include amaretto cake, creme de menthe cake, eggnog cake, Grand Marnier cake, khalua cake, Lane cake, irish cream cake, pina colada cake, whisky cake. 
9. Mocha Cakes.  Variations include Black Russian cake, cappucino cake, tiramisu cake.
10. Pound Cakes.  Pound cakes are "denser" than butter cakes, which makes it possible to add novelty ingredients without creating a spongy mess.  Variations include applesauce cake, cream cheese cake, King cake, pudding cake, yogurt cake.
11. Punch/Poke Cakes.  Bake a basic butter cake, punch holes in it, and then fill the holes with a variety of good things. The result tends to be colorful and incredibly moist.  Variations include pineapple punch cake, peach punch cake, jello punch cake, lemon punch cake.
12. Spice Cakes.  Because sometimes something as simple as tweaking the spices is enough to create a delicious cake. Variations include gingerbread, spice cake
13. Sponge Cakes.  Classic sponge cake paired with fresh fruit and cream - liquid or whipped.  It really does taste like a little slice of heaven.  Variations include angel food cake, chiffon cake, shortcakes 
14. Upsidedown Cakes.  With this you get not only cake and fruit, but also a delicious carmelized layer of brown sugar that adds the perfect amount of sweetness and gooiness.  Variations include banana upsidedown cake, pear upsidedown cake, pineapple upsidedown cake.
15. Vegetable Cakes.  Suppose I could list this as a variation of your basic spice cake, but the carrots add a heartiness and moistness that plain spice cake lacks.  Variations include carrot cake, pumpkin cake, sweet potato cake, zucchini cake.

I've also encountered some cakes that I'm not so sure of.  Tomato soup cake?  Cantaloupe cake? Rhubarb cake?  Ricotta cake?  The prospect is almost enough to make me swear off of pot luck buffets.

Don't see your favorite here?  Let me know!  Hate to think that I might be missing out on something good.

30+ Uniquely American Foods

It seems a very great hypocracy that the same countries that denegrate us for our food are often the ones that have lines stretching out the doors of the local McDonalds.  I think it's time to look at U.S. food realistically.  Sure, it's often appallingly unhealthy, but is it more unhealthy than Germany's staple, the ubiquitous wurst, or England's staple, fried fish?  I think it's time for Americans to stop being ashamed of our cuisine and to proudly celebrate its meaty, greasy, creamy greatness.

Following is my list of foods that, to me, represent signature U.S. food.  Some of these dishes, I realize, are not technically indiginous, but though they may have sprung in other soil, it is in the U.S. that they have taken firm root and flourished.

Let me know if I've missed any of your favorites!   

1. Barbeque.  Okay, so the art of preserving meat by adding vinegar or salt and/or smoking is ancient ... but it was here in the US that we figured out how to use slow cooking and molasses to turn what was basically dried meat jerky into a succulent, juicy, "fall off the bones" treat.
2. Hamburger.  Face it: the hamburger is America's "everyman" food - enjoyed by every class. 
3. Fried Chicken.  Just like us Americans to take a healthy food and figure out how to make it more fattening.
4. Chicken Wings.  Another American gift: figuring out a way to rebrand something no one wants to make it desirable. 
5. Meatloaf.  For folks who really want a hamburger but can't afford the bun.
6. Turkey.  One of the best reasons to be an American: Thanksgiving.
7. Corn.  Indigenous to North and South America, the U.S. has made corn "ours" by virtue of grits, succotash, cornbread, johnnycakes, popcorn, and corn on the cob dripping with butter. 
8. Peanuts/Peanut Butter.  It isn't a ballgame without peanuts, and it isn't a bag lunch with a peanut butter & jelly sandwich.  Second greatest food pairing of all times (after PB&J): PB and chocolate. 
9. Pecans.  Pecans are another sweetmeat indiginous to the U.S.  God bless whoever figured out how to transform them into praline candy and pecan pie.
10. Ice Cream.  Give me a good old fashioned scoop of vanilla over gelato any day.  Other American contributions to the world (you can thank us later): ice cream cones, milk shakes, and root beer floats.
11. American Pizza.  We all know pizza is Italian, but much like how reindeer evolved to elk when they hit North America, what we call pizza here is far removed from its ancestral origin.  (Food Darwinism - cool!)  So bring on the deep dish crust, smothered in tomato sauce, topped with pounds of cheese, and smelling faintly of steamed cardboard!
12. Soul Food.  The origin of soul food is slavery, which is makes this cuisine uniquely, though disturbingly, American.  Slaves and other indigent people in the South found ways to turn neglected crops - like black eyed peas, kale, and collard greens - with the neglected bits of butchered animals - chitlins, ham hocks, etc. - to create food that tastes a lot better than it sounds.
13. Breads.  Of course we didn't invent bread.  But we did invent pancakes for breakfast, hushpuppies, and bisquits drenched in sausage gravy.
14. Jello.  Other countries have geletin, but we're the ones that figured out how to turn it all colors of the rainbow, suspend foreign objects in it, and mold it into mysterious shapes. 
15. Potatoes.  Given the number of Americans who can trace their ancestry back to Germany or Ireland, no wonder the U.S. has a love affair with potatoes. Our lasting contributions to the potato genre: french fries, potato chips, and potato skins.
16. Pies & Cobblers.  We didn't invent pie, but I would argue we've have done more than any other country to expand the pie and cobbler art form to embrace not only timeless classics like apple pie, but also indiginous favorites to include huckleberry, blueberry, and pecan pie.
17. Macaroni & Cheese.  The ultimate comfort food, although most Europeans are still trying to figure out why American cheese is orange.
18. Bagels.  Many thanks to our Jewish neighbors in New York for this American classic!
19. Casseroles (aka "hot dishes" aka "covered dishes").  I'm not talking about Julia Child's casoulets - I'm talking about good ol' American casseroles, the ones that use condensed soup as a base and are inevitably covered with cheese.   Undoubtedly there's a reason no other country is clammoring to claim this unique but dubious American classic.
20. Cookies.  Especially chocolate chip cookies.  Ours our nothing like what they call "bicuits" in other countries, thank goodness.
21. Creole Food.  Another food arising from America's polyglut past, creole food blends traditions from the Caribbean, French cuisine and Southern cooking to give birth to uniquely American dishes such as jambalaya, gumbo, and etouffe. 
22. Condiments.  The world has us to thank (or not) for mayonaisse, catsup, and maple syrup. 
23. Soda/Pop.  Thank you, Coca Cola, for Santa Claus!  And thanks also for that 70s anthem "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing," Super Big Gulps, and our current epidemic of overweight teens.  Root beer is particularly American: I have a European friend who adores root beer and says you can't get it anywhere else.
24. Iced Tea.  I have it on good authority that many Europeans find absolutely appalling our habit of adding ice to perfect good tea.  I'm betting they live in places where temperatures  don't reach 100 degrees during the summer.
25. Sandwiches.  Lots of countries lay claim to having invented the sandwich, but Americans have brought more inventiveness to the task than most.  Case in point: hoagies/dagwoods/subs, philly cheesesteak, reubens, and muffulettas.
26. Hot Dogs.  I'm sure American hot dogs can trace their ancestory to English sausage or German wurst, but our version - plopped in a bun and topped with condiments - is uniquely American.
27. Chili.  Okay, so we stole the spices and tomato base from Mexico, but it was our idea to add weird stuff like buffalo, pasta, and cinnamon. 
28. Salads.  America's penchant for eating raw vegetables is looked at with askance by many folks from around the world, as well as most toddlers.  However, we have found ways to make raw veggies more palatable by burying them beneath dressing (see Condiments-Mayonaisse), meat & cheese (cobb salad), fruit (waldorf salad) and fish paste (caesar salad) 
29. Cheese-Based Snack Foods.  I wince at having to claim this as a uniquely American food, but there's a reason so much of the rest of the world holds us in disdain, and I suspect this may have something to do with it.