I first made these cookies for my New Year’s Eve party at the very end of 2010. The menu for my party had a bit of an Indian slant, so I took my Earl Grey tea shortbread cookies and simply swapped out the Earl Grey tea for regular black tea and added all the spices that go into a comforting mug of Indian masala chai. [Please, folks, don’t call it “chai tea” – chai means tea in Hindi so you’re calling it “tea tea” – masala chai is the correct term for the now-common Indian beverage of milky, spiced black tea.]

I wasn’t sure how these would go over at the party but they were a hit, particularly among two of my close friends who literally stood in front of the stand on which these cookies were resting for about a half an hour while they systematically demolished the entire platter. Thanks for leaving some for the rest of the guests, guys, but also thanks for the huge praise.

This cake isn’t very hard to make, but, as I learned while making it, you should definitely make the kumquat marmalade in advance – between the slicing and seeding, simmering, reducing of the syrup, and cooling, it takes a good 2 hours. The marmalade can be made up to a week in advance, and you should definitely make it before you start making the cake. (Learn from my mistakes!) 

Although they were one of the big trends of 2007, I have always liked creative handcrafted cocktails. I think the infamous Milk and Honey in Manhattan’s Lower East Side was the first place to offer such libations, and, because I’m sooo cool, I used to have their phone number and have been there a few times – of course, this was a number of years ago, before they got really popular and started changing their number like every month because people were posting it on the internet. The owners of M&H then opened Little Branch, for which you don’t need a phone number to get in, and, although I’ve only been once, I think it’s just as good as – if not better – than the original (probably because it is stripped of all pretenses).

I’m not 100% sure from where the idea for this one came. I think it might have been the result of my recent obsession with Pom’s Pomegranate Green Tea, because when I decided to make green tea cupcakes, I didn’t have to even think to top them off with a pomegranate frosting. The flavors work great together – the sweet tartness of the pomegranate and the mellowness of the green tea complement each other beautifully.