The other day I was perusing the champagne selection at my local market, trying to decide not only which bottle to buy, but to figure out what dessert I should serve with it for New Year’s. I couldn’t decide on either count when it struck me: why not put champagne into the dessert? From that point, it didn’t take long for me to pick out a bottle of champagne and a few ingredients for a champagne cake.

Chiffon cake was my first (and only, really) choice for a champagne cake. Chiffon cakes are simple, moist sponge-type cakes that hold flavor very well and have an open, almost bubbly crumb to them that mimics the bubbles in champagne. To make the cake, I simply tweaked one of my other chiffon cake recipes to include the sparkling beverage and the substitution could not have gone better.

The cake had a beautiful, even texture and a clear flavor of champagne. Sponge cakes are not known as being particularly moist, but this cake was, and it stayed moist for several days, kept in an airtight cake container. It was neither heavy nor filling and, if you’re planning on bringing this out for a New Year’s party or other celebration, it is sturdy enough to be eaten with your fingers, rather than requiring a knife and fork. I like to dip it in coffee or in champagne, but putting out whipped cream and berries is a nice way to finish it off, as well.

In the recipe below, I note that you should whisk part of the beaten egg whites into the cake batter before folding in the rest of them. This is to lighten up the batter a bit and make it easier to fold in the remaining egg whites. With a lighter batter, you’ll be able to maintain more of the bubbles overall - or at least make it easier - than simply starting to fold the whites into a stiff mixture.

Since you’ll be able to taste the champagne in the finished cake, start with a champagne you like. The recipe doesn’t really require all that much and, while you might not want to spend too much on your bottle, there will be plenty left over to sip while you work. Prosecco is an acceptable substitute for champagne, and you can opt for sparkling cider or even 7-up if you really don’t want to add alcohol into your cake. The cider will, of course, give it a slightly appley flavor, so you might want to add a teaspoon of apple pie spices to the dry ingredients if you want to play that up. If you don’t want to emphasize the cider flavor, don’t worry because it won’t be that strong if substituted directly into the recipe unless you have a very strongly flavored sparkling cider to begin with.

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When was the last time you made a triple-layer cake? It seems like most layer cake recipes (with a few exceptions) produce only a double-layer dessert. It makes you wonder if some cookbook authors think that three layers of cake is a bit too much for most home bakers to handle - a ridiculous thought if there ever was one, as it never hurts to have a truly visually (and orally) stunning dessert recipe on hand. For those of us up to the challenge, Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes is full of over-the-top triple-layer cake recipes that fit the bill.

The cookbook is sectioned off by type of cake - chocolate, vanilla, spice, etc. - but there are really three main components to a triple layer cake and these are the things that the book focuses on: cake, fillings and frostings. You can mix and match, of course, but it’s a nice touch that the book mostly lays out complete cakes for you as you go, rather than directing you to use the frosting from page 56 and the filling from page 193. The recipes range from simple to fairly complex, with simple being something along the lines of a butter cake with whipped cream and complex being a thin sponge cake with a creamy mousse filling. There are plenty of baking tips and photos throughout the book, as well.

These are the kind of desserts that are real showstoppers at a party of any kind. It’s a book well worth adding to your collection if you tend to like to bake cakes for birthdays and other parties and want to really kick your cakes up a level - or a layer, as the case may be.

Tis the season for meyer lemons, one of my favorite citrus fruits to use in the kitchen. The lemons are actually a hybrid fruit, a combination of mandarins and traditional lemons. They have been cultivated for years, though they have dramatically risen in the public awareness over the past couple of years. The popularity is due to a unique property of these lemons: they have none of the bitterness that most lemons do. This means that a Meyer lemon will seem sweeter and will be able to produce a bright, clean lemon flavor without having to rely on sugar and spices to mask a too-tart/bitter flavor.

Meyer lemons make a great lemon curd, imparting their bright flavor to smooth curd perfectly. Lemon curd makes a lovely no-bake tart filling. See where I’m going with this?

I used a Meyer lemon curd to fill up a prebaked sugar cookie tart crust for a quick and tasty dessert that can easily be made well in advance of any dinner or party that you might wish to serve it at. The curd is silky smooth and very lemony. When refrigerated overnight, the curd actually sets up very nicely inside the tart, so it will slice cleanly and hold its shape when chilled, though the soft silkiness remains. It pairs well with the cookie crust, which does not quite stay crisp, but stays perfectly firm and supportive of the curd.

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For all you Food Network fans out there, the station has put up a list of their Top 100 recipes of 2007 on their website. Reading through it is a bit like watching several hours of programming in under a few minutes. Both #1 and #2 on the list are macaroni and cheese - one baked, one not - and others in the top 10 include roast turkey, french toast casserole, country stuffing, chicken and rice casserole and a bacon cheeseburger meatloaf. It’s not clear whether the list is taken from the editor’s favorites or user favorites, but I would guess that they’re the most popular/most frequently accessed recipes on the site from this year.

If the Top 100 aren’t to your tastes, try using the regular recipe finder on the FoodTV site instead of skipping it entirely. The search on the website is a pretty good tool because it gives you access to most of the dishes that have been on the network over the past several years. Lots of top chefs have made guest appearances and you can still look up recipes from old favorites, like Sara Moulton, who are no longer on the network.

Traditional pie and tart crusts are great, no doubt about it. They’re tasty and work with just about every kind of tart filling you might imagine. But as much as I like them (and like making them), I also like variety and always have an eye out for alternative crusts that will work well with particular tarts.

This crust is a sugar cookie crust. It is made in much the same way as cookie dough - butter, creamed with sugar, then combined with dry ingredients - but is more crumbly and contains neither eggs nor leavening agents. The lack of leavening (and eggs, which can contribute rise to a dough) is pretty important for this crust to work because the cookie dough is pressed into the pan, not rolled out, and since there is nothing to give it “lift,” it holds its shape very well during baking.

I like this tart crust for no-bake fillings. A cream cheese and fruit filling, for instance, would work well here, as would a rich chocolate ganache filling. Since it is really little more than a simple cookie, it could also be paired with ice cream or custards to make a really quick and easy summer tart. For all no-bake fillings, the crust should be baked fully, until it is firm and golden, before being used. If you want to use it for a baked tart, where the filling is put into a partially baked crust and the whole thing is put back in the oven, you can simply par-bake the crust and put it back into the oven for a second go-round when you are ready.

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I confess that I have to ease back into regularly scheduled posting today. That post-holiday haze - the feeling of lazy contentment lasts for at least a day after stuffing yourself with a huge dinner, cookies, candy canes and hot chocolate, opening presents and chatting with those close to you - is not only tough to shake, but is actually pretty enjoyable. I’m moving the holiday chatter here, to virtual friends and readers.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve pointed out a few foodie gifts and gadgets that I liked as potential holiday gifts - and potential is what they were. I know I’m not alone in saying that I was surprised (and pleased) with some of the gifts that I received. New measuring spoons and spatulas are absolutely what I needed, even though they didn’t actually make it on my (metaphorical) wish list. A new kitchen was on my wish list…. and it didn’t turn out quite as I had expected. Observe:

This is a kitchen island Christmas ornament from Hallmark, posed with my mobile phone so that you can get an idea of scale. It’s nearly complete - minus major appliances - but fully stocked with pots, utensils and a full vegetable collander. It’s so cute that I can’t complain that Santa didn’t quite get it right. I’ll just be more specific next year.