About Flo Braker

Flo Braker has been teaching baking across the country for almost thirty-five years. She broke new ground in the literature of dessert making with her cookbook The Simple Art of Perfect Baking and the award-winning Sweet Miniatures: The Art of Making Bite-Size Desserts. She also collaborated with other bakers on The Bakers Dozen Cookbook. Her most recent work is the 2009 James Beard Award-nominated book Baking for All Occasions. She has been the Baker columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle food section since 1989.

A glazed lemon pull-apart coffee cake on a wooden board with a spoon and jar of glaze beside it.

Lemon Pull-Apart Coffee Cake

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“Absolutely the best thing I’ve put in my mouth in a long time!” That’s what we’re hearing about this buttery, citrusy, playfully easy-to-eat coffee cake. We’re not arguing with that sentiment.

Hedgehogs

Hedgehogs

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These chocolate and rum buttercream creatures are known as Igels in Austria, where these edible versions bring a bit of whimsy to the everyday.

Golden Caramels

Golden Caramels

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Golden caramels—literally, that’s what these are in taste, color, and decoration.

A plate with a slice of pound cake with currants, and a cake stand in the background with the remaining cake

Eggnog Pound Cake

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This tender cake is the next best thing to a cup of eggnog, flaunting those familiar flavors of rum and nutmeg.

Meringue Bubbles

Meringue Kisses

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Just like a chocolate kiss, sorta, except they’re ethereally airy with a slight shortbread crunch. Definitely still chocolatey, though.

Three small pie shells that have been pricked with a fork with a fork resting in one of them.

Classic Sweet Pastry

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This classic sweet pastry is made richer and sweeter than ordinary piecrust with the addition of egg and sugar.