Home Is Where You Bake It

By Warren Rojas

“Dam Good Sweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style.” David Guas & Raquel Pelzel. The Taunton Press, 176 pgs., $25.

N’awlins native David Guas doesn’t just miss his hometown. He mourns it.

“To put it plainly, I bake cakes to fill the void in the pit of my stomach that makes me ache for home,” the pastry chef-cum-cookbook author confides in “Dam Good Sweet”—a collection of dessert recipes layered with fond memories.

Guas shares baking secrets, nostalgic segues and colorful anecdotes about his bayou upbringing, including hiring line standers to ensure seamless holiday dinners at the famed Galatoire’s.

His favorite recipes include the gateau de sirop, banana pudding with vanilla wafer crumble and red velvet cake, while we were most taken by the honey poached kumquats, double chocolate bread pudding drenched in bourbon-caramel sauce, lemon icebox pie, sweet corn cake with Abita root beer sauce, lemon-herbsaint poppers and milk punch ice cream.

Those wishing to get a taste of said Cajun confections can at the book release party, Nov. 2 from 5-7 p.m. at D.C’s Acadiana. Guas will be signing books while samples of five featured desserts—plus champagne and coffee—circulate, free of charge.

(November 2009)