And this month, for the first time, Bake Club goes live! On May 16, Jesse and I are hosting a workshop in the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen, where we can make these scones together, in real life, side by side, while chatting all things baking and drinking cups of tea. If you’ll be in NYC and would like to come, you can buy the last few remaining tickets here. We’d love to have you.
April 2025: Millionaire’s Shortbread
Millionaire’s shortbread is the ultimate show-off bake. Tender shortbread stacked with chewy caramel, glossy chocolate, and flakes of shimmering sea salt? It’s practically begging to be peacocked around like a trophy. Our version went through about 10 rounds of testing until every detail was just right.
A simple shortbread dough gets a special upgrade: toasting a bit of the flour beforehand. This lends a deep nuttiness, almost like coffee, without any extra ingredients. The caramel takes a hybrid approach, bolstering caramelized sugar with sweetened condensed milk, so you get a bittersweet flavor with a sliceable texture. The final layer combines chocolate with butter for a mirror-like shine and fudgy bite.
While you won’t need any special ingredients or equipment to make this, just make sure you have a square 8×8″ pan on hand. For the cleanest edges, use a metal pan with straight edges, like the Test Kitchen favorite USA Pan.
March 2025: Pistachio Bundt Cake
The key to this pistachio cake’s tender crumb and mowed-grass green hue? A blender. It does all the hard work for you, decimating the nuts into a coarse flour and evenly distributing the dry ingredients (no sifting needed). This cake is satisfyingly hefty, with the regality of a cruise ship out at sea, and sturdily moist thanks to the pistachios’ natural fat content, a combination of melted butter and oil, plus a pearlescent lemon glaze. I’ve kept it on the counter under a mixing bowl for days, sawing off slices each time I saunter past.
I know many of us are nervous about inverting a cake in a Bundt pan. There’s always a moment of: Will it or won’t it? Over the years, I’ve found the best insurance against stickage is a can of baking spray—not cooking spray, which is a different product entirely. Made with oils and flour, baking spray works particularly well for Bundt cakes, getting into the valleys of the pan more effectively than just oil or butter. It comes out of the can in a beige mist, making it easy to see any missed spots. I stock Baker’s Joy in my cabinets both at home and at work.
February 2025: Tiramisu Basque Cheesecake
If you’ve been on social media at all this past year, you’ve likely been served an image of Basque cheesecake, a chubby wedge of it with a scorched top the color of a walnut coffee table. It’s easy to see the appeal—dramatic visuals aside, it’s astonishingly easy to make. You don’t need a crust, or a water bath, or the long, slow cook of a New York–style cheesecake. The trick lies in cooking it hot and fast, much like pizza or steak, resulting in a cheesecake of epic contrasts, deeply caramelized on the outside while remaining quiveringly soft inside. Not one to leave well enough alone, I’ve gone and added buttery mascarpone and a not insignificant amount of instant espresso to the batter to mimic another custardy classic, the iconic tiramisu. Topped off with a rosette of cocoa-dusted cream, it is two desserts for the effort of one.
