Mango and coconut verrine. Photo: Anitachu, Flickr.

It's a lovely thing to spy a gorgeous photo on Flickr, but even more lovely to realize its creator is a trained baker ... and that her recipe is available to mere mortals.

This layered verrine (from the French "verre," or glass) may look like the work of a prop stylist -- probably tasteless, intended to tempt hapless foodies -- but it is in fact a coconut and mango purée concoction from the prolific Bay Area blogger behind Dessert First. Not smitten yet? That's a chocolate wafer cookie straw. We thought so.

We adore this photo for its Care Bears like innocence (note the espresso cup with hearts) and the dreamy powdered sugar gracing those spare raspberries. Berry season being as fleeting as it is glorious, we appreciate as many reminders to take advantage of it as nature -- and the food blogosphere -- sends our way.

[Via Flickr]

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Anita Chu of the blog Dessert First (and the author of the Field Guide to Cookies) baked up this gorgeous Chocolate Plum Galette last fall, when plums were in riotous abundance. She actually baked up two galettes that day, one with the chocolate crust you see above and another with a more traditional, straight puff pastry. I'm certain that both were absolutely delicious and I've bookmarked the recipe for later in the year when plums come back into season.

Thanks Anita!

There are few things in life better than a freshly baked cookie. Sugar or chocolate, peanut butter or filled, I like 'em all. And, with Anita Chu's new book, Field Guide to Cookies in hand, I am hard pressed to remember that cookies really should be a sometimes food (that bit of wisdom comes straight from the mouth of the Cookie Monster).

The latest installment in Quirk Book's Field Guide series, this compact little volume isn't short on substance. Written by the blogger behind Dessert First, it contains more than 100 recipes that you can use at every point of the calendar year. In addition to recipes, Anita has included baking notes, cookie history and trivia about a variety of sweet treats.

A few of the recipes I'm looking forward to trying out? There are far more than I can list, but currently, the Nazareth Sugar Cookie (page 83), Nanaimo Bars (page 158) and the Greek Honey Macaroons (page 189) are all shouting my name.

Cakes always look better when they are decorated, even if it is with a simple "happy birthday" messaged piped across the top with some sugar gel. Sprinkles are a good option, introducing color and a sense of festivity, but for a more grown-up look, chocolate shavings are the way to go. For example, the black and white cake made by Anita, from Dessert First, only needed a few shavings to turn into a "wow" dessert. Not only are they beautiful, but the shavings are no more difficult to produce than shaking sprinkles from a little container. To make them, all you have to do is (carefully) run a potato/vegetable peeler over the edge of a chunk of chocolate, allowing the "peel" to fall onto the cake. It helps to use cold chocolate, so it will shave cleanly and not get stuck in the peeler.

It has been a while since A Passion for Ice Cream was our cookbook of the day, but this post marks the second time that a recipe from it has been featured here, providing ample evidence that the recipes in the book come out looking as fantastic at home as they do in the book, not to mention that its continued popularity among other food bloggers seems to indicate that the recipes taste as good as they look. This is the Cho Cho Cho brownie sundae, as constructed by Anita of Dessert First. The recipe calls for a fudgy chocolate brownie to be topped with a scoop of white chocolate ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce. The presentation is simple and elegant, an easy one to recreate at home and a nice way to spruce up some brownies. If the triple chocolate combination sounds a bit too rich, you can do what Anita did and substitute vanilla ice cream for the white chocolate.

Lori, at Dessert First, recently blogged about her visit with Ian the ice cream man, who was inspired by Ben & Jerry's to take ice cream up a few notches and sells his delicious blends in the Philippines via his new business, Sebastian's. To showcase some of his flavors, Lori put together a whole array of ice cream creations, but these sandwiches look like the ultimate treat for a summer day. Not only are the ice cream sandwiches made using fresh, crisp chocolate chip cookies as a base, but the ice cream itself contains chocolate chip cookie dough. Once the outside of the cookie has been rolled in large chocolate chips, a chocolate chip cookie lover will be in heaven, though "heaven" might require a napkin or two to eat it. Not that that should be a problem for anyone.

Some might say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but this one needs only one: Mmmm! This ultra-velvety cheesecake will be one of the stars of the exclusive dessert event hosted by Lori, of Dessert Comes First. I wish a could attend just for a taste of this luscious cake, which she describes in a most delightful manner. "At room temperature, it’s barely solid enough to hold itself together, yet it slides onto the fork cleanly and decisively. Once in the mouth, it melts sexily, like a dancer gyrating to the mouth’s beat." A cheesecake that has the texture of a satiny custard, melting into your mouth? Sign me up! Unfortunately, the event is in Manila, the Philippines, and I am not. At least I'll save on the calories.