I find Mother's Day a surprisingly difficult subject about which to write. I've started and stopped this post at least five different ways. I'm a mother (of five boys, thankyouverymuch) and I'm a daughter, and we're talking about Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes, so what's the problem? The problem is that there as many views on Mother's Day as there are mothers in the world. Besides that, there is a whole group of folks who think Mother's Day is a made up ploy to sell more greeting cards. How do you hit the right note for everyone? Short answer: you can't. I can't speak for motherhood as a whole, because I'm just one member of the club, so View Post
Layered Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake with Salted Caramel
This cake has two layers and this post has two purposes. One is a no-brainer: to share the recipe. The other? Well the other reason is a serious case of Mama pride. This cake is what my pickle in the middle son requested for his birthday but that's not why I'm proud. I'm busting my buttons because he came up with the idea for the cake. Let me backtrack a bit and introduce you to my guy. This is Ty. Not Tyler, not Tyrone, not Tyson. He's Ty. It's a Welsh word that means "House": as in strong like one. And Ty is. He's the strong, silent type. He has a fast wit, but you have to listen for it. Believe me, it's worth listening. Ty View Post
Boston Cream Pie
Phew. I made it through birthday season! I cooked, I decorated, I celebrated, I cooked some more and I found the perfect gift for each child. Thankfully, three-fifths of the kids chose their dad's extra wonderful specialty (extra crispy fried chicken) for dinner, but that didn't leave me off the hook. Oh, no no no it didn't. There were still pig tails (my kids' name for these), French fries, coleslaw, and various other side dishes to make with those meals. Above all else, though, there were the cakes to be made. Yes, those cakes. Last year, my studiously wacky second born asked for a three-dimensional Tardis cake. My policy to is to View Post
Chocolate Vanilla Swirl Layer Cake with Ganache
It's birthday season around here, as I may have already mentioned once (or twice)... With the exception of the one child who requested shepherd's pie for his birthday dessert until I informed him he could have it for dinner AND have a proper cake or pie, everyone has asked for something spectacular. Last week was no different, but the pressure was amped up a bit. My eldest and youngest were born on the same day, eight years apart. Birthday feasts and desserts take on a special level of crazy when two people are egging each other on in the brainstorming process. Mercifully, the eldest wanted fried chicken and the youngest wanted fried View Post
Garam Masala Depression Cake
Two weeks ago, Jim and I drove back to Western NY to gather up what was left of our earthly goods (kindly stored in a building at Beccy's), 14 hours on the road TO New York, and 18 hours back (the rental truck felt happiest popping along at 55 to 60 miles an hour, and we wanted it to be happy all the way home). We brought lots of tools, furniture, the rest of my kitchen wares (oh, how I've missed you all!), books (here a groan from Jim), and THE FLU. We were able to unload the truck fairly quickly, but there is still a lot of unpacking to do. For me, the biggest job right now is a book purge. The house we are living in is quite small, and View Post
Brown Butter Plum Cake
Well, as promised, here is the Brown Butter Plum Cake recipe. I connected with it via a link in Tastespotting, and that link took me to Patent and the Pantry, another foodie-related site. As the host there said, one of the wonderful things about cooking is the freedom to make recipes your own, and it really is fun to watch recipes morph as they go from hand to hand, each change reflecting the invididual tastes of the cooks involved. Gwendolyn, the host of that site, found the recipe on another site, hosted by a Julie, and I took the recipe and made some changes of my own. (You can see the original recipe by clicking on the earlier link for View Post