Loving {Forever}: Taking the Cake

Cake brings people together. It's a symbol of fun, celebration and the nostalgic sugar rush of chldhood birthday parties. We all have quite a few memorable cakes in our past.
On my fifth birthday, my mom made me a cake that looked just like a hamburger, with ketchup jam and sesame seeds on top of the big frosted cake bun. My grandmother Jane only made only onekind of cake: yellow with the richest chocolate frosting ever, perfect when washed down with the iciest glass of whole milk. After a bad college break-up, I spent a Christmas break making cake after cake after cake. It was the only thing that made me feel whole.
Cake makes people happy and it transcends trend. Cupcakes may be overdone but cake is eternal.


Cake painting by Martha Rich


Teal and white chevron cake from Once Wed by Sweet Sensations


Maple cake pedestal by Herriott Grace


Cake painting by Paul Ferney


Leah Rosenberg's Cake of a Painting and Painting of a Cake. Genius!


A cake alphabet!


photo by Amy Stevens


and last but not least, who else wants to make a rainbow cake?

Cookie Time

I can't believe I haven't mentioned the word "holiday" on my blog and Christmas is only one week away! Even though it doesn't seem like I'm in the spirit yet, festive things are starting to happening around the Loveforever house, we are just firm believers in some good holiday procrastination. Basically we talk about how much we need to get started on holiday preparations for a couple of months and finally spring into action around December 10th. Over the last week, wrapping paper was made, presents were crafted and of course, cookies were baked.


We were invited to a co-workers cookie party this weekend and I wanted to try a few new things. Last summer I went to Blue Bottle Coffee in Brooklyn and had parmesan fennel shortbread with sea salt. It was sublime, buttery, salty goodness. I couldn't find the recipe for it so I doctored this Ina recipe a bit, adding fennel seeds, a sprinkle of cheese and pink himalyan sea salt on top. Oh and a tiny bit of sugar to the dough. Mr. Love Forever said they tasted like tiny pizzas. I believe this to be a great compliment.






Another cookie I dream about is the TKO cookie (that's Thomas Keller Oreo) from Bouchon Bakery. Thankfully this recipe is very easy to find on the internet. The cookie is incredible: salty, crumbly and rich with chocolate and the filling is just like an Oreo but without the waxy shortening aftertaste. I made also made a peppermint variety, adding a few drops of peppermint oil to the filling and rolling the sandwich in peppermint candies crushed into sparkling minty dust. Oh. my. gosh. They are so good. Like tempted to not go to the party and spend the day in bed with a plate of cookies good.

All that Glitters

Oh boy, these glittering beauties are the cookie equivalent of a party dress. I looooove them. I thought about making them for Christmas but couldn't get the good sanding sugar in time. So maybe New Year's Eve?

By the way, these cookies are adapted from the Gourmet Cookie Book (oh Gourmet, please just bring the magazine back full time!) by the fine ladies at the Purl Bee. The Gourmet version is made with lemon and these are almond. What do you think-which would you prefer?

 

These Were Delicious

Wow, wow, wow. It's been a quiet nesty weekend over here so I decided to bake. I found this recipe for homemade pop tarts on Chez Pimm a few weeks ago (oh, and here's the crust recipe- my new go-to!) and oh man, these are just so good. So good.

I used the apple butter that we canned a few weeks ago too! Delicious, delicious. so much so that I can barely form sentences and keep repeating things.

 

 

Pumpkin Patch

So the Mr. and I have this new thing where we try to actually leave the city a bit on the weekend. It's a new thing for me, this free time. Lately, we have been going to farms and picking things. I can't say we've found our perfect farm yet, mostly they have been a little more on the touristy/cheesy side and less on the picturesque/pastoral side of things but who are we to complain? We're not farmers so we certainly don't get to complain. Anyway, it's always fun and we keep coming back for more!

This weekend, a couple of friends came down from NY to go pumpkin picking. We went on a hayride, got a few pumpkins in the process and picked up fresh ingredients to make a veritable locally grown feast. The buffalo burgers, the squash and the apple pie was delicious. The corn, not so much. The moral of the story here: no matter how local, when it's out of season, just don't buy it!

One more moral of this story: Kayte, stop being so lazy and bring the good camera with you! Please note the difference between these photos and the apple picking photos. Um, night and freaking day. I've learned my lesson.