Fat, juicy red “slicers,” jewel-colored lumpy-bumpy heirlooms and sweet, pop-in-your-mouth cherry tomatoes are finally ripening in fields and gardens around the Bay Area. Delayed by this year’s cold, wet weather, tomatoes were slow to grow, then flooded in the fields. Growers replanted, giving a late start to our July-to-October season.

Now that they’re finally here, nothing beats freshly picked, sun-warmed tomatoes brought directly to the table, sliced thick and placed on fresh bread with mayonnaise and sprinkling of salt and pepper. In a word: perfection! I keep baskets full of these lovelies, all shapes, sizes and colors on my kitchen counters and chop, slice and mix them according to my mood. With my trusty stock of extra virgin olive oil, good-quality balsamic vinegar, fresh basil, garlic, parmesan, salt and pepper, I can conjure up fabulous eats in a flash.  Just think brilliant, multi-colored tomato-basil bruschetta with a glass of cool white wine, salads filled with fresh vegetables and herbs and savory tarts that become art—the possibilities are endless.

Did you know that tomatoes are native to western South America, and still grow wild in the area that we know as Peru today? It is thought that birds carried their seeds to Mexico where the Aztecs named them “Nahuatl (round and plump), and began cultivating them around 700 A.D.

Eight hundreds later, Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortéz discovered tomatoes growing in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán (later named Mexico City). Cortéz shipped seeds home to Spain, where some Europeans feared them poisonous, due to their distant connection to the deadly nightshade family. Tomatoes were grown strictly as ornamental plants until some brave or ignorant soul sampled one, found it tasty and lived to tell about it. As their acceptance and popularity grew, tomatoes became an important ingredient in European cuisines.

We can thank early settlers for bringing tomato seeds to the New World. History tells us that President Thomas Jefferson, a master gardener, grew tomatoes at his famed Virginia estate. Today tomatoes are important crops in California and Florida.

How to select tomatoes:

When five-year old Sammy was just three, we planted a giant clay pot with winter greens that became his special garden. He learned that plants eat and drink through their hairy little roots and require lots of tender loving care to flourish. They became his “babies” and along the way Sammy learned about rain and weather, bugs and slugs and found a love of the earth growing deep inside him. So it seemed logical to bring him along with me for a morning adventure at the Garden of Eatin’ at the North Bay Children’s Center in Novato. He could explore this magical growing world that is the model for nine California schoolyard gardens while I interviewed its director, David Haskell, for my Beyond Wonderful Around the Table series.

As we stood at the garden gate a very tall man appeared and Sammy’s eyes grew large. Was this a giant that lived somewhere in the garden? Sammy soon relaxed as David flashed an infectious grin and greeted him warmly while ushering us in. Everywhere I looked, life was in motion. Brilliant spring green seedlings sat poised for planting, mature leafy greens were ready for harvesting and artichokes stood pointing skyward.

Sammy took off down the path, marveling at every detail—right down to the luscious smell of the moist, rich dirt on the garden floor. David explained that this soil is the secret to the delicious-tasting fruits and vegetables in the Garden of Eatin’. “Follow me and I’ll show you how we make it.”

Sammy climbed up the side of the large compost box to get a good look inside and immediately wondered why the top was full of oranges and raspberries. “Garbage becomes dirt?” He asked. I watched quietly as David taught him a few basics of science and the environment; of sustainability and the cycle of planting, harvesting and eating before returning the leftovers to the earth.

An enchanted Sammy picked his way along the twists and turns of a huge green vine. What could it be? Hmmm. “Beans! Look, big green beans!” David watched and told me how the summer months are magical for the kids as they work, explore and eat the fruits and vegetables each day. “We constantly conduct taste tests with the kids: cooked vs. raw; just-harvested vs. the same things from the supermarket. There is really no comparison and the kids learn this quickly. We’re training their taste buds to make healthy choices now and throughout their adult lives. Humans are a species wired to prefer simple fresh food not the processed kind filled with high fructose syrup, sugar, salt and fat. Given a choice kids with a garden will choose a carrot before cake.”

David told how one kid “escapes” to the strawberry patch at every opportunity to gorge himself on juicy, warm, sun-ripened berries. He doesn’t realize that his red lips and chin gives him away all the time. Already, this child turns down sodas and juice. Just think how much healthier he’ll be than ones that live on processed foods.

Sammy recognized a large blackberry bush like the one we’d picked for jam last fall. I felt a rush of pride as he happily counseled David on how to identify ripe and unripe berries, proving that last year’s lesson had made a lasting impact.

David and I headed inside to get to work on our interview and discuss the role of the Garden of Eatin’ and other schoolyard gardens in raising healthy kids and combating the childhood obesity epidemic in America. Later, I found Sammy playing in a pile of dirt with a small truck from his pocket. “Does dirt come in flavors?” he asked. “If you put apples in the garbage box would it taste like apples?” Think about it, if every child grew in a garden, our country would definitely be a healthier, stronger place.

Stay tuned for my Beyond Wonderful Around the Table interview with David Haskell coming soon.

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Cherries—oh, how I love those sweet dark beauties this time of year. Eaten greedily out-of-hand or mixed into muffins and French clafoutis; better yet, flamed and spooned warm over a luscious bowl of Hagan Daz ice cream. Somehow the May-through-August season is just too short for me.

We’re especially lucky this year that the ongoing rains did not ruin the crop, but they did leave their mark. You’ll find the markets filled with cherries—big, fat perfectly round juicy ones and those known as “split” cherries, which are caused by the weather. These look like they grew, popped, split and then healed themselves. Splits taste as good as their perfect sisters but being “ugly” fetches a lower price. Split cherries are great in jam, and in cooked desserts, savory and barbecue sauces. They make good eating and are economical for those on a tight food budget.

Cherries are fairly expensive at three to five dollars a pound but will go on sale in a few weeks. The organic varieties are plentiful and run four to five dollars a pound. Be vigilant and don’t get robbed by markets and vendors charging far more. Also, roadside stands are not always the bargain they used to be. I found one selling split cherries for the same price local high-end markets were charging for premium ones. Distressing. Of course, the sweetest bargains come straight off your backyard tree or in a large, fruit-filled paper sack from a friend.

As you enjoy your cherries, know that they are one of the oldest cultivated fruits and a distant relative of peaches, plums and apricots.

Cherries originated in the southern region around the Black Sea, and their seeds were transported by birds to Europe where they flourished and became wildly popular in Rome 60 BC.  The British brought them across the ocean to America in the late 1620s. Spanish missionaries planted the first cherries in California, where they have evolved into a major crop today.

Oregon grower Seth Luelling originally grafted my favorite sweet cherries in 1875 and named them “Bing” for his Manchurian foreman. Modern Bing trees are a direct descendent of those early efforts

How to Select Sweet Cherries

For best flavor and sweetness, select cherries that are plump yet firm to the touch. Sweet cherries are best when a shiny deep garnet red to almost black color with healthy green stems Avoid bruised, cut or mushy fruit and those with brown, dried-up stems. Fresh cherries keep well in the refrigerator for two to four days, but begin softening after that.

How to Store Sweet Cherries

Place your unwashed cherries with attached stems in a paper (not plastic) bag in the coldest section of your refrigerator. Cherries absorb water through their skins and spoil quickly after washing or when stored in moisture-trapping plastic.

Remove the cherries from the refrigerator when ready to use and bring to room temperature before washing.

How to Freeze Sweet Cherries

There are several ways to freeze cherries for use throughout the year. The easiest is to place them pitted in a zip-lock bag and remove all the air before sealing. Thaw the cherries in the refrigerator and bring them to room temperature before using.

If you want perfectly round cherries for presentation, place them individually on a baking sheet and set in the freezer until frozen. Scoop them all up and proceed as directed above.

Now pardon me, two five-year olds just challenged me to a pit-spitting contest. It’s time they learned from a pro.

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Print my sweet cherry recipes for your convenience. All work well with both fresh and thawed, frozen fruit.

Cherries Jubilee—an impressive, elegant dessert that may seem complicated or fussy, but is in fact super simple. I made this at my very first dinner party when I was 20. The guests were so impressed when I lit it on fire in a silver chafing dish that they never suspected how nervous I was.

Cherry-Almond Clafouti—A warm, fragrant Sunday morning breakfast or brunch dish easily dressed up with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

Cherry-Almond Muffins—these scrumptious buttermilk muffins use fresh or thawed frozen cherries and sport a crunchy almond-coconut topping. Sensational!

Growing up, bottled salad dressings were the norm at my parent’s house. Italian and Thousand Island mainly, sometimes French. Who knew how long they’d been in the refrigerator because they always tasted the same with their flavor enhancers, stabilizers and additives. I just poured, swished and consumed. Then as a novice cook learning the five mother sauces, I discovered vinaigrettes. Oh my, salads were never the same again.

Vinaigrettes in their simplest form use highest-quality oils and vinegars or freshly squeezed citrus juice with a little salt and pepper before whisked into an emulsion.  More complex versions may include a variety of fresh herbs, garlic, shallots, onions or mustard.

There is no definitive vinaigrette recipe. Classically, one begins with four parts oil and one part vinegar, or a more tart mixture of three parts oil and one part vinegar.

When conjuring vinaigrette, think of yourself as a chemist selecting the perfect components, measuring, whisking, tasting, adjusting—ultimately balancing the flavors and seasonings so that your palate sings. First, what greens are you using? A mild Boston or Bibb lettuce calls for a light dressing while crisp Romaine, red lettuce and stronger greens require a more robust sauce.

A first cold-press extra-virgin olive oil is one your best all-around choices because it blends well with many different vinegars. Hazelnut and walnut oils lend a deep, nutty richness to salads with pears and apples. Flavored oils like lemon and blood orange provide a subtle zing, while flavorless vegetable oils add structure.

Vinegars come in a huge variety of flavors and strengths and can make or break your vinaigrette. Experiment with red wine, Champagne, sherry and apple cider vinegars as well as the fruity varieties like raspberry. Remember one cardinal rule: never buy cheap acidic vinegars, as you will get exactly what you pay for— the puckers.

I love salads every day, especially simple mixed greens with freshly picked herbs, torn not chopped. My vinaigrette of choice is three tablespoons of extra-virgin oil with one tablespoon of Cabernet red wine vinegar. Add a clove of crushed garlic, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and a pinch each of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and I’m in alchemist heaven.

Preparing vinaigrette isn’t difficult, but it does require mastery of a technique known as “emulsion”—vigorous whisking to bring oil and vinegar together into a homogeneous blend. Give it a try.

1. Place the base ingredients in the bowl as directed in your recipe.

2. Add the oil in a thin, steady stream while whisking the mixture vigorously.

3. If at any time the emulsion begins to look “broken” or curdled, stop adding the oil and continue to whisk until smooth.

4. Continue adding oil very gradually until finished.

Wash and dry your greens thoroughly before dressing. Excess water will dilute your vinaigrette. Add just enough dressing to lightly coat each leaf.

Vinaigrettes are best made a few minutes before using, but can be stored a day or two and re-whisked. But why? Fresh is best.

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Paris. It’s where I first discovered the joy of eating “real” strawberries years ago. Out exploring the Maris District one morning, I found a small produce shop and went in for some fruit. The place was filled with beautifully arranged vegetables and fruit and fragrant with the scent of just-harvested strawberries, apricots, and peaches. Heaven!

I reached for a brown paper bag and was stopped by the old shopkeeper, who insisted on selecting my strawberries herself. She smiled and held up a firm, shiny ruby red berry with a brilliant green top for me to smell. Divine! She placed each berry carefully in the bag and handed it to me with great pride. Little did I know at the time that she had unintentionally taught me how to select perfectly ripe strawberries—by smell.

Back in San Francisco—before organic produce and farmers markets became widely available—I found that bland supermarket strawberries left me cold.

Today, I shop at trusted independent produce markets where I know I’ll find fruits and vegetables harvested at their peak from small local growers (many farming on parcels as small as six acres). These farmers specialize in older strawberry varieties not offered by the huge chain supermarkets. I’m sure that they would make my French produce woman smile.

No matter where you shop, you must be vigilant when selecting fruits. Unfortunately, even at my local farmer’s market, I’ve found that fruits are often picked before peak ripeness.

U-pick farms and fields are another terrific resource for strawberry lovers that want to buy in bulk—especially families on a tight budget. The field that my extended family frequents sells pre-picked flats (12 1-pint baskets) that we often split with each other.

Best of all are home grown berries warmed by the sun and eaten out-of-hand, one after another until the juice runs down your chin and fingers. Since land is limited on my Sausalito hillside, I’ve planted a wildly painted purple strawberry pot in the garden.  It’s perfect for grazing when the mood hits, but doesn’t yield enough for my favorite pies, shortcakes, ice creams, sorbets, popsicles and drinks. For such recipes, I’ll count on local farmers during our growing season. As for the rest of the year, I’ll pass on the unripe, overpriced imported berries found at the grocery store… and let my memories of the real thing sustain me.

Create a few memories of your own with some of my all-time favorite strawberry treats. Print copies the recipes and how to’s on selecting and storing these berries for your convenience.

Strawberry Shortcake

Fresh Strawberry Pie

Cheesecake Dip with Fresh Strawberries

Agua de Fresa (Mexican strawberry water)

How To Select Strawberries

How To Store Strawberries

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Come join me “Around the Table” at Beyond Wonderful, where the conversations are lively and the food is always good.

On May 3, I’m launching a series of interviews with guests on the frontlines of the food revolution in America—from small organic growers to farmers and ranchers focused on sustainable practices to artisans crafting beautiful breads, cheeses and charcuterie. You’ll meet chefs raising the bar with fresh local ingredients, and the writers and activists that inform and inspire us all.

As a food writer and publisher, I live and breathe food; it is my passion. So I’ve always appreciated the special quality of local, farm-fresh produce and lovingly handcrafted foods. Yet weaning this busy city girl off the quick conveniences of a large supermarket was slow going until I began focused research on the largely unseen world of food production in America. Books, articles and film documentaries exposed a bleak scene that is, in a word, scary.

Over the last 40 years we have evolved from a country that balanced supermarket food with local, seasonal produce and products to one almost totally dependent on prepared “quick and easy” foods and take-out for our daily sustenance. Meals come bottled, boxed and frozen, laden with sugar, salt, fat, flavor enhancers and additives. Fruits and vegetables engineered for shipping and a long shelf life arrive by air and highway year-round, but often hard and tasteless.

What happened to the human element? Where is the passion and pride in growing and creating beautiful food, and the immense, sensuous joy of eating it? I wanted to know—and to share my discoveries with my readers. “Around the Table” lets me introduce individuals making a difference in how we think about food today—how we all may eat tomorrow. Working with passion to nourish our bodies, our souls, our communities and our environment, they inspire us to evolve in the way we view food and feed our families.

First up: Karen Bianchi-Moreda, a talented artisan cheese maker and owner of the Valley Ford Cheese Company on the Sonoma-Marin border. I first became aware of Karen when our Beyond Wonderful cheese expert, Mark “The Cheese Dude” Todd called me about an amazing new cheese—Estero Gold—that he was featuring in his latest column. Its creator, he enthused, was a true find; a fourth generation dairy farmer who makes her cheese using the rich, raw milk of her prized, 100-year-old herd of Jersey cows.

Karen, I soon discovered, lives sustainability 24/7 and is involved in every aspect of caring for and tracking her herd. From breeding and birthing to growing and managing the feed and grasses that nourish the cows, she knows her “girls” by site and through the detailed records that she keeps. Her passion, intelligence and inherent “cow-sense” makes beautifully crafted cheese like Estero Gold possible.

Come join Karen and me “Around the Table” at BeyondWonderful.com on Monday, May 3 for great conversation and several of her favorite Estero Gold recipes. I’ll put a clickable announcement on the Home Page when we launch.

See you soon!

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My friend and cook extraordinaire, Leela Manilal, always enjoys the luscious chocolate desserts at my table—especially the truffles. She recently asked if I would teach her how to make them, and I knew that my favorite chocolate-Kahlúa truffles would be the perfect place to start. They are easy for beginners and offer a sophisticated depth of flavor that satisfies the most devout truffle lovers, including Leela.

In the kitchen, she spied a large block of chocolate and pitcher of cream on the table. “That’s it? How can two basic ingredients produce perfection?” The secret is in the chocolate. Always use best quality brands like Valhrona, Scharffen Berger or my personal favorite, Barry Callebaut. All are easily available at good grocery stores, online baking supply sites or kitchen stores. Inexpensive supermarket chocolate is not worth your time or money in this instance.

I handed Leela a sharp chef’s knife and showed her how to chop the chocolate into small, uniform pieces so that it would melt evenly. “Barbara, that’s so much chocolate. Is this really necessary?” If you leave large chunks, they won’t melt completely and you could have lumpy truffles.

Lumps seemed almost inevitable when I poured the hot cream over the chocolate. As any experienced truffle maker knows, this step instantly creates an alarming mass of puddles and chocolaty blobs. “Now what?” asked Leela in frustration. “It’s a muddy mess!” I handed her a whisk and reassured her all would be well.

As Leela whisked with a vengeance, I told her how an assistant to culinary great, Auguste Escoffier, invented chocolate truffles when he made a huge mistake in his kitchen over 80 years ago. The assistant was whipping up some chocolate pastry cream and not paying attention as he accidentally poured hot cream over a bowl of chocolate pieces. Sacre bleu! What to do? Soon the melting chocolate absorbed the cream and cooled into the malleable mixture that we know as ganache. Reluctant to waste expensive ingredients, the assistant scooped and formed the ganache into lumpy, bumpy balls and rolled them in cocoa powder. The resulting confection strongly resembled truffles those rare, highly prized fungi dug up in parts of France and Italy. Voila! Chocolate truffles were born.

Today, there are hundreds of truffle variations as cooks flavor them with Grand Marnier, Kahlúa, brandy, whiskey, a variety of wines, liqueurs and extracts and coat them with crushed nuts, cocoa powder, chocolate shavings, sugars and spices—or dip them into warm liquid chocolate.

Soon Leela’s hard work was rewarded, as the mixture came together into a satiny smooth batch of perfect ganache. I handed her a quarter cup of Kahlúa to flavor the mixture. “That isn’t much,” she observed. Therein lies the secret to flavoring truffles: always go easy. There is nothing worse than those that reek of alcohol or send you into hand-flailing contortions with over-the-top taste. Be especially careful with flavorings designed for serious bakers, as they are more intense than the supermarket extracts we are all familiar with.

Once the ganache sets in the refrigerator, creating uniformed sized truffles is easy with a one and one-quarter-inch ice cream scoop. Perfectionist Leela struggled to roll perfectly round balls between her warm hands—with messy results. I laughed as she held up her chocolate-covered hands, looking much like a kid making yummy mud pie. Before long, she learned to embrace the imperfections of a quick scoop, working swiftly to keep the ganache cool, firm and easy to handle. Since this was a lesson, I had Leela roll some of her truffles in chopped pistachios while others got a dusting of cocoa powder. For the tour de force, I gave her a bowl of molten chocolate with two forks for dipping the remaining truffles. To my mind, there is nothing better than double chocolate.

Packing up the truffles was bittersweet because Leela was leaving for her home in New Delhi, India the next day. I slipped a pound of Callebaut chocolate into her suitcase and knew that she would spread the magic of truffles to her family and friends.

Get a printable Chocolate-Kahlúa Truffles for easy reference.

Refer to my illustrated, step-by-step How to Chop Chocolate for Melting.

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We’re all getting tired of winter, so when the sun came out for a few short hours, everyone at my house headed outdoors to soak it up. I followed them with a hot bowl of bagna cauda, a tray of bite-sized vegetables and a loaf of crusty French bread for dipping.

Bagna cauda is a simple Italian mixture of olive oil and butter infused with garlic and anchovies. The proportions are basically up to the cook. What’s your pleasure? Some prefer more oil while others go heavy on the melted butter. A hint of garlic or enough to keep the vampires away—after all we’re all in this together, so garlic breath is not an issue. Then there are the anchovies, those controversial little critters you either love or hate. Do you want a subtle sophisticated flavor or a fish-infused jolt? Personally, I prefer a mixture of 2/3 cup of good olive oil with ¼ cup of butter, lots of garlic and no more than four anchovy fillets. Some cooks delight in eight to 10 fillets, in which case I must pass on the sauce and fill up on the veggies, bread, and a crisp glass of white wine to drown my disappointment.

As we all sat around the old garden table laughing and sharing the feast, the winds picked up and things got cold really fast. I was reminded of the early vineyard workers of Piedmont, Italy, who depended on this pungent dish to warm them up in the fields on cold winter days. Like the peasants that originated it, the vineyard workers consumed their bagna cauda in large rustic pots set over an open flame. Today, I served it in a terra cotta pot set over a candle to keep it warm. No matter your heat source, never boil the sauce or you risk spoiling it quickly.

Italians serve fresh local vegetables like fennel, cardoons and peppers for dipping, while I chose cauliflower florets, peppers, cucumbers, broccoli and artichokes for my platter. In California we are fortunate to have an abundance of winter produce choices that can be served raw, blanched or roasted.

Many home cooks go into the kitchen and madly chop a bunch of vegetables for immediate consumption, and while this works well for cucumbers and peppers, there is a much better way for sturdier items like broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. Take the time to blanch these vegetables in salted boiling water for several minutes, then plunge them into ice water to stop the cooking process. You’ll be amazed at the difference between hard, gray-green raw broccoli florets and the tender, emerald green morsels you get after blanching. A veggie worthy of all that delicious sauce!

I’m also a great fan of roasting vegetables like artichokes. Simply halve them and cut away the thorny tips of their leaves with scissors. Rub with olive oil, then place a clove of peeled garlic, a lemon slice and sprig or two of fresh thyme on each half and place face down on a baking sheet. Roast them in a 375-degree oven for approximately 50 minutes, or until the leaves pull away easily. Try this once and you’ll never boil an artichoke again.

Bagna cauda is the essence of simple food shared with friends and family; both warming and fortifying us for the next big storm.

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Print a copy of my Bagna Cauda recipe for your convenience.

White chili is filled with wonderful flavors and textures: beans, shredded chicken, chiles, onions, garlic, cumin…. So why does it so often end up as a boring dish that’s just hot and nothing else?

I took a look at my old family recipe that I had not made in years and immediately saw why it’s always been a poor second cousin to the fiery red chili I love. With a few simple cooking techniques learned from Mexican and Indian cuisines, I’ve finally made white wonderful.

The obvious: Give up the seemingly quick and easy, expensive canned and bottled ingredients for fresh. If your chili is flavorless, you’re wasting your time.

Beans. Many standard recipes call for several jars or cans of fully cooked white cannellini beans that cost two to three dollars each. Home cooked great northern beans are economical and your best choice for texture and flavor. When combined with the other ingredients, great northerns absorb all the flavors, giving you a tasty, tender bean rather than the overcooked, mushy results you get with canned.

Chicken. White chili recipes often require breast meat that can be bland when poached in water. Long, ago, I learned that dark, flavorful thighs are preferred in Indian curries because they absorb the onion, garlic and spices while imparting their chicken goodness to the gravy. I decided to use half thighs and half breasts for flavor and the white color.

Stock. I prefer homemade chicken stock for absolutely best flavor, but realize that many home cooks reach for canned convenience. Make it low sodium and you’ll be fine.

Onions, garlic and spices. Sauté everything in the chicken fat, rather than ordinary oil, for richer flavor. When it comes to dry spices, I depend on the Indian method of roasting the cumin and coriander in a cleared area of the pan for 30 seconds before mixing them into the mixture.

Chiles. No canned chiles for this dish unless you absolutely can’t find fresh, mild pasillas and anaheims, as well as the hotter and more common jalapenos. My secret is fire-roasting the chilies for a deep smoky flavor. While it’s great fun to do this in the ashes of a wood-burning fireplace (try it if you have one!), the simplest approach is to use a gas range. Just follow these easy steps:

1.    Place the chiles over a high flame, turning them as they blacken.

2.    Remove the blackened chiles from the flame and immediately cover them with a clean towel.

3.    Let them sweat for 10 minutes.

4.    Remove the towel and peel off the charred skin with a paring knife or your fingers. Remove excess pieces of skin with a paper towel.

5.    Make a slit in each chile and carefully remove the seeds.

6.    Rinse the chiles in cool water to remove any remaining skin bits or seeds.

One last tip: Chiles have different heat levels throughout the year. The same variety that blew out your eyeballs one week may be meek another. Check with your produce person and always taste and adjust as you cook.

Now, this is a white chile you can be proud of. Ladle it in to bowls and top with chopped cilantro and lime wedges for spritzing. Add some hot, golden cornbread and life is good.

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Print a copy of White Chili and How To Roast Chiles for your convenience.

As a child, I thrilled to red and pink paper hearts, inscribed with simple words of love. Today, I give the three-dimensional, edible kind: heart-shaped red velvet cupcakes heaped with extra love in the form of luscious, finger-licking cream cheese frosting. Irresistible!

This moist, rich classic cake will tickle your taste buds with a hint of chocolate and thrill with its festive color. Red velvet cake has been around for almost 90 years, beginning as a signature dessert at New York’s famous Waldorf Astoria hotel. In a land of angel and devil’s food, vanilla and chocolate, this cake stood out like a drop-dead gorgeous lady wearing a hot red dress in a room filled with basic black.

I first made red velvet with the standard recipe that you find everywhere on the web. Its flavor and moisture were OK but not sensational. The screaming color was actually a little scary, and not at all sophisticated. I hit the kitchen and started playing with the ingredients: cake flour, cocoa, salt, sugar, butter, vanilla, buttermilk, baking soda and vinegar. With a few adjustments—mainly swapping out the butter for double the amount of vegetable oil and a bit more sugar—things improved dramatically. An additional tablespoon of cocoa toned down the red color and added more depth of flavor.

Next, bubbles—lots of air bubbles caused by the intensity of multiple acidic ingredients. Since I’d balanced the ingredients as much as possible, brute force seemed the best approach. So, I banged the cake tins on the counter several times to release the bubbles, then ran a knife gently through the batter. Perfection!

As my hearts baked, I made a huge bowl of cream cheese frosting. Once the cakes were thoroughly cool, I piled them high with the frosting and tried selling the beaters to everyone circling me in the kitchen. They were not amused and came at me with their outstretched spoons. Licking my fingers, I had to admit pure love for the baker that invented this stuff. How can anything taste so good?

Love is sweet. Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Print a copy of Red Velvet Cake and Cupcakes with Ultimate Cream Cheese Frosting for your convenience.