These sandwiches with cream cheese, bacon, tomato, basil, and avocado are wonderful for a picnic lunch or to feed a crowd. They are tasty and easy to make. You can even prep them the night before.
This cake is called a Million Dollar pound cake for a reason. It is amazingly rich, moist and buttery tasting. It’s also simple to make with an electric mixer and with very few ingredients, you probably have everything you need to make it right now.
This German Chocolate Velvet Cake really is the ultimate chocolate cake. It has the velvety texture of Red Velvet cake, deep dark chocolate flavor, mocha frosting, and coconut-pecan filling and topping. Even people who don’t like chocolate cake, or who don’t like coconut love this cake.
Fresh Strawberry Sheet Cake will never, ever get old. It’s a very simple cake to make and my goto white cake. Topping it with strawberries and whipped cream make it a great summer cake that can feed a crowd.
It’s also been Spane’s favorite birthday cake since he was a little one and everything he touched had to have Barney on it. Today, I made it for more kids celebrating birthdays at the Summer Kids Wellness Classes at HealWithin International.
Bacon Crusted Mini Quiches are so simple to make, look fantastic, and taste great. Make them plain with only eggs, or make them fancy with what you like in your scrambled eggs. These are not quiches in the true sense of the word because they don’t have a real crust.
Tuesday, November 21, 2012, was Spane’s 9th birthday. He originally asked for a Red Velvet Cake, but then said he wanted Chocolate Cake with Mocha Frosting that I made for his 7th birthday, and was the base for the Jolly Roger Cake of the Pirate Rack Rachham that I made for his 8th birthday. At the last minute, I decided to give him his original request.
Yes, I know that Red Velvet is all over the place, and mostly nasty, truly horrific. When Red Velvet became popular all over the country, short cuts were made, and what resulted was a dense, flavorless cake, with a greasy shortening “cream cheese” frosting, that I am sure was made with cream cheese flavoring, and nary a bit of real cream cheese. The first time I heard about the cake was in Steel Magnolias when the armadillo groom’s cake was brought out. The real cake is delicious. I make a real Red Velvet Cake, that uses real cream cheese, cake flour, and vinegar/baking soda leavener.
Anyone who reads this blog knows that I just can’t make an ordinary anything, I always have to umph it up a bit, and this cake was no exception. Instead of using white vinegar, I used Balsamic vinegar. I also used a Mocha frosting instead of the traditional cream cheese frosting. It was a real hit.
The PTA at John Muir Elementary School puts on a staff luncheon every year. Parents are asked to bring in their best dish. Our teachers and staff are very lucky, as a lot of our parents are very good cooks. This year, in fact, the recipes are going to be collected and the PTA is publishing a cookbook. The luncheon was going to take place in the newly planted Teachers’ Garden. I decided to make a cake and decorate it as a garden.
The cake looked lovely tilted up at the dessert station. In fact, it looked so lovely, and so real, that no one ate it. Some guests thought it was too pretty to cut, a few thought it was art, and a few didn’t think it was really edible. I wound up taking it home and will share it with family and friends.
For my birthday, I wanted to make myself a special cake. I love chocolate, and I love sour cherries. The combination is fabulous.
This is my favorite cake in the world. It’s a very rich cake, and takes time and effort to prepare, but well worth it. My only suggestion to you is not to make it when you have a lot of other intense dishes to make, you’ll look like me when you’re done! Don’t let that deter you – you and your guests will be impressed with this luscious cake.
Yesterday, I made Rose Fudge Truffles and Black Forest Fudge for Founder’s Night at Spane’s school, prepped Rose Petal and Lobster Salad for my birthday, and made this cake. By the time we got back from Founder’s Night, I was so pooped that we decided to have the cake tonight. Amber and Noelle came by, and the four of us enjoyed cake together. A good time was had by all.
When I was a little girl, my mother used to go on about how she loved going to her grandmother’s house when she would serve Lobster and Rose salad. I was always hoping that my mother would recreate the recipe, but she never did.
When my great-grandmother was making this salad, lobster was a lot less expensive. I decided that for my birthday, despite to cost, I would recreate Christina Jacobsen’s recipe myself.
It’s my birthday, and I can make anything I want to! It’s also Founder’s Night at my son Spane’s school, so I thought I should bring something to liven up the festivities. I got up early this morning and make two kinds of fudge, Rose Fudge and Black Forest Fudge. As of this writing, there are no pictures, but there will be as soon as it sets.
I love the flavor of roses, there is nothing like it. I have some rose syrup that I often put in lemonade, and love roses with peaches. What could be better in fudge?
One of my favorite cakes is a Sour Cherry Fudge cake, and I’m making that for my birthday cake (more later), so I decided to take that to the candy level as well.
Tuesday, November 21, 2012, was Spane’s 9th birthday. He originally asked for a Red Velvet Cake, but then said he wanted Chocolate Cake with Mocha Frosting that I made for his 7th birthday, and was the base for the Jolly Roger Cake of the Pirate Rack Rachham that I made for his 8th birthday. At the last minute, I decided to give him his original request.
