The Tenor Chef

The Tenor Chef Classical tenor, university professor, and enthusiastic baker! 🎵 👨‍🏫 👨‍🍳

Today’s bake is a bit retro and a whole-lot delicious: ’s Bonnie’s Pineapple Upside-Down Cake! I found myself with an ex...
05/04/2026

Today’s bake is a bit retro and a whole-lot delicious: ’s Bonnie’s Pineapple Upside-Down Cake!

I found myself with an extra pineapple sitting on my kitchen counter this weekend, and I figured I would turn it into something fabulous. If you haven’t tried this recipe before, it’s fantastic—and it’s always a hit with my friends. Alison’s recipe uses fresh pineapple, maraschino cherries, lots of brown sugar, dark spiced rum, and buttermilk. The cake is perfectly sweet with just a hint of booziness, and the brown sugar caramelizes on the top into the most luxurious, gooey confection. You’ve got to try this recipe—it’s so much better than the boxed version your aunt used to make (and you know we have nothing against boxed cake mixes around here!).

Today’s bake is a unique and delicious cake, and I don’t think I’ve ever had one quite like it: ’s Grandma Gruen’s Molas...
04/17/2026

Today’s bake is a unique and delicious cake, and I don’t think I’ve ever had one quite like it: ’s Grandma Gruen’s Molasses Cake!

At first glance, this appears to be a chocolate cake with a chocolate glaze. But there is actually no chocolate in the cake itself! It’s a rich and moist molasses cake (and the molasses flavor is perfectly intense from the blackstrap variety) spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. The fat in the cake batter is vegetable shortening, which is also quite unique! The glaze is pure chocolatey goodness—think the glaze on a chocolate-glazed yeasted donut. It’s the kind of glaze that hardens a little bit as it sets, so nostalgic and yummy! The cake is served with a dollop of orange-scented whipped cream (which truly does make it a little bit extra). Grandma Gruen ate with this one!

Today’s bake was inspired by the slightly-past-their-prime container of mixed berries in my refrigerator, a bit of left ...
04/10/2026

Today’s bake was inspired by the slightly-past-their-prime container of mixed berries in my refrigerator, a bit of left over buttermilk from a previous recipe, and the antique cake stand my mom brought me when she visited last month: ’s Mixed Berry Scones!

When I was a graduate student in New York, I would often visit Alice’s Tea Cup, a dainty, elegant “Alice in Wonderland” inspired tea shop on the Upper West Side. I loved the baked goods, and their cookbook has been one of my favorites ever since. These scones are quite moist from the buttermilk and berries, only slightly sweet, and perfectly buttery. They came together with ingredients that I had on hand, so no trip to the grocery store was necessary. I love this antique cake stand my mom gave me, and I wanted to bake something special to feature it. The embossed details on the surface are so beautiful. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend—bake something delicious! ❤️

Happy Easter, everyone! Today’s bake is a special one: my first ever Easter Lamb Cake! 🐑 I learned from my dad recently ...
04/05/2026

Happy Easter, everyone! Today’s bake is a special one: my first ever Easter Lamb Cake! 🐑

I learned from my dad recently that my grandma Dorothy had a tradition of making a Lamb Cake on Easter, which she would decorate with shredded coconut to look like wool. I watched make her version shortly after, and immediately ordered a Lamb Cake tin from . I had so much fun baking and decorating this cake! I used the recipe that came with the pan, which makes a chocolate cake. I used recipe for Swiss meringue buttercream frosting, which I find to be a sturdy consistency for decorating. I think it’s pretty adorable! I hope everyone had a beautiful day!

It’s my birthday! 🎉 I’ve had a tradition for the past 10 years or so to make myself a carrot cake to celebrate. I like t...
04/01/2026

It’s my birthday! 🎉 I’ve had a tradition for the past 10 years or so to make myself a carrot cake to celebrate. I like to mix up which recipes I use, and this year, I settled on the carrot cake recipe from the “Little Flower Baking” Cookbook. This is a massive cake—four tiers loaded with walnuts, golden raisins, and carrots, and spiced with cinnamon and ginger. This recipe also happens to be gluten free, as it’s made with white rice flour and oat flour. This will be the first carrot cake I’ve made that will also be able to enjoy! I opted to use ’s cream cheese frosting, which I think has the perfect texture. I had fun decorating it, and I can’t wait to celebrate later and enjoy a slice!

Today’s bake is perfect for spring, perfect for Aries season birthdays (👀), and absolutely delicious: ’s Lemon Layer Cak...
03/29/2026

Today’s bake is perfect for spring, perfect for Aries season birthdays (👀), and absolutely delicious: ’s Lemon Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting!

I love baking layer cakes of all kinds from various cake cookbooks/food blogs, but I must admit that Yossy Arefi is my favorite cake recipe developer. Her cakes always yield perfect results. I always know when I select one of her cake recipes that it will turn out beautifully. This cake is flavored with lemon juice and lemon zest, and each layer is brushed with lemon syrup for extra moistness. The cream cheese frosting is the perfect compliment to the lemon. This was my first birthday cake of the year (my birthday is this week), and I shared it with my church choir friends! 🍋The recipe is available on .

Today’s bake is a perfect fika cake, and it comes from a cookbook I feel like I’ve neglected a bit over the years—so it ...
03/19/2026

Today’s bake is a perfect fika cake, and it comes from a cookbook I feel like I’ve neglected a bit over the years—so it was time: Olive Oil Cake with Brown Butter Buttercream and Candied Kishu Mandarins!

I love an olive oil cake. I love them the day they’re baked, but I also love that as they mature on the countertop, the flavors continue to develop into something truly special. I was surprised by how thin the batter was for this cake (the book compared it to the consistency of pancake batter—and mine was like the thin Swedish pancakes my grandma used to make). The cake baked in a very peculiar way, and I don’t know enough about the science of baking to figure out why, but the middle of the cake bubbled up and began browning during the first 10 minutes of baking. I did end up tenting it with foil so that it wouldn’t get too dark. Trusting the process, I’m happy to report that it turned out beautifully! The cake is so moist, and slightly orange scented. The buttercream is rich and nutty, and while the original recipe calls for candied kumquats, I couldn’t find them, so I used the smallest citrus fruits I could find. I’d never worked with kishu mandarins before, but they candied beautifully! They are incredibly sweet, a little bitter from the rind, and perfect on top of this cake!

Happy Pi Day! I’m celebrating by enjoying two homemade pies (I couldn’t decide on one flavor!). This year, I went with L...
03/14/2026

Happy Pi Day! I’m celebrating by enjoying two homemade pies (I couldn’t decide on one flavor!). This year, I went with Lemon Meringue & Coconut Cream! Recipes are both from NYT Cooking. 🥧

Today’s bake is a lovely recipe I stumbled upon while looking for a recipe to bring with me to church this morning: ’s A...
02/22/2026

Today’s bake is a lovely recipe I stumbled upon while looking for a recipe to bring with me to church this morning: ’s Apple and Honey Babka!

I love a breakfast bread this isn’t too sweet, and this is just that. A yeasted, enriched (with butter and egg) dough is studded with apples (I used envy apples) sautéed in butter, sugar, and honey. I found the dough to be a little bit difficult to work with, but after adding an extra tablespoon of flour during the kneading process, it came together nicely. Determining when a babka is baked through can be tricky, as the top gets very golden brown from the egg wash. I find the best way is to test the temperature—you’re looking for 185° F. My loaf took an extra 15-minutes to reach temp. This recipe gets my stamp of approval!

02/17/2026

Almost every dessert worth eating starts with eggs and butter, and I’m showcasing this dream team of ingredients by making Penny’s Chocolate Mousse with Candied Hazelnuts!

Only the best ingredients will do for this rich and decadent treat, so naturally, I’m using eggs and butter from . This recipe comes from ’s menu at , and it was adapted for by .

The consistency is thicker than your traditional mousse—but my goodness is it fabulous. Extra virgin olive oil from gives the mousse a brightness, and the candied hazelnuts—well, I could eat those by the handful.

This might by my new go-to dessert recipe for dinner parties. If you’re a chocolate lover, definitely give this recipe a try!

Today’s bake is a special fika treat for this snowy/icy north Texas Saturday: ’s Crostata Classica! I want to say that t...
01/24/2026

Today’s bake is a special fika treat for this snowy/icy north Texas Saturday: ’s Crostata Classica!

I want to say that the short crust pastry is the star of this divine (yet simple) crostata. The dough is called “pasta frolla,” and it’s a shortbread pastry dough flavored with lemon zest. The texture is quite satisfying to work with (think lemon-and-butter-flavored Play-Doh), and the finished product is bright, tender, and perfectly crisp on the edges. The filling of this tart—the real secret—is store-bought apricot preserves! I highly recommend splurging on something nice here, as it’s the only ingredient in the filling! I used a jar of Greek Apricot Preserves that was sent to me a few months ago—I’m so glad I saved it for this special occasion. It’s so good by itself, you better believe I licked the offset spatula clean (and possible the jar, too). This crostata, y’all! It’s pretty dreamy!

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