Vanity oh, Vanity

After the last cake for a friend's birthday I made, I found out that one of the guests had posted an image and a statement about my domestic acumen that made me blush on their blog, and so, OF COURSE, the pressure was on for this one. I have been wanting to make an 'icebox' cake for ages, since seeing the recipe on smitten kitchen, referred by popcorn and apples. You layer chocolate wafers between whipped cream. I LOVE whipped cream. Marie wanted chocolate so I made the whipped cream chocolaty. It ended up not lovely as the image in smitten kitchen, but UGLY and mis-shapen!! I know it was my first try and I would get better, but how could I present that for my blogging friends? My vanity was at stake, so I made another batch of regular whipped cream and spread it over and around the ugly cake to make it pretty (is that make-up for cake?). I then dusted it with a little chocolate powder. Voila', a pretty cake. It tasted ok, but I preferred the crepe cake, this one was a little sweet for me.

Trish had to leave for another engagement, so Lena, Marie (birthday girl) and I walked downtown to the Gallery Stroll. I will be honest, one reason I love the gallery stroll is the art, but another, I always run into people I know, usually cousins, and that makes me feel popular. My cousina Clare did have a print up in the basement of Slow Train, a music store, it was very good. Of course saw cousins there. Same thing at the farmers market. I always see ward members and/or cousins and I like that.

I hadn't had dinner and so around 10 we ended up at Sage's, a vegan restaurant, and Brad joined us and we sat outside enjoying mushroom escargot and later our vegan dinners. I don't know how the conversation went there, but cannibalism came up. After all what is a more natural topic of conversation at a vegan restaurant? Marie and I are both perverse or practical enough, that we were fully in favor if necessity dictated. Lena and Brad were against. Oh, well.

Great Crepe Cake, Batman

Well, a whole year since I posted last. I have been busy. I moved and started grad school. Now it is summer. Last Sunday a few friends came over to celebrate Lena's birthday. It really was only an excuse for me to show off my new red sofa and to try a recipe I saw in Gourmet, A Crepe Cake. First off, it just looks GREAT! and was a chance to showcase my new cake dome. Secondly, it contains Grand Marnier, and I look for every chance to use liquor in my cooking. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/241754. I think my photo is better than the one Epicurious is using. It was amazingly simple to make and I added lavender to the mix as well. I served Elderflower Presse from Cost Plus World Market for drink as Lena is British and loves the drink. Sweet, but a good choice. Hurrah, it is fun to cook. Wait, I don't think making crepes counts as "cooking", oh, well.

This evening, the birthday girl of last week, Lena, called and suggested a walk. It was a lovely spring evening and so we went on a walk up into the Avenues, we ended up in the cemetery there, it was a lovely walk in and out of the lanes. Saw some interesting headstones too. We are both in favor of simple & cheap funeral arrangements. I am glad she can enjoy a graveyard, some people don't.