Holiday Baking

Awhile back on Bread and Honey I read about baking wee yellow cakes inside a hollowed out orange. Bread & Honey is one of my favorite reads especially with the weather finally turning here in Los Angeles. Gray skies? No worries, I'll bake! Booming thunder and a downpour? I'll bake! I don't really need an excuse to bake but there is a whole lot of inspiration to be found with the Bread and Honey gals.

Enough of the blog lurve though, When Alicia posted about the campfire cakes I immediately wanted to try it. There being no camp outs in our immediate future, I made plans to remember to make them once we were out in the wild. In the meantime, the mister and I experimented with car cooking (more about that later) and found that the campfire cakes are best made in a campfire.

Before we did the experimentation however, I had to prep the oranges and since we were only going to bake two of the cakes, I needed to put the remainder of the batter into the oven as I didn't wish to waste it. Never being one for doing anything quite normally, I had an idea. An idea to expand on the campfire cakes. I stood there in the tiny kitchen staring off into space when my eyes focused on a pair of tiny pumpkins. What would happen if I baked the cake in the pumpkins? People make soup in pumpkins all the time right? At least, Martha does.I retrieved the wee squash from the shelf in front of the kitchen window and did the best damage I could to their insides. Those little guys are tough. Super tough. I scraped and cleaned and cleaned and scraped out all the ooey bits until I had enough room to add the batter. Giddy with the idea of success I danced about the tiny kitchen as I poured the batter in. With a dash of cinnamon on top I whisked the dynamic duo into the oven with fingers crossed double time. When Stacey arrived for a wee coffee break she exclaimed over the sweet cakey scent. We flung ourselves onto the smooshy sofa to chat, chat, chat away until the ping of the chicken timer clucked that baking time was over. I held my breath as I opened the oven door and then groaned and giggled over the mess. The batter had oozed itself out all over the pumpkins and as it oozed it baked. With a shrug I removed the ooey bits and plopped the cakes onto their very own plates. With a dash of spice and a flourish I presented them to my guest and we dove in. It worked, they were baked and they were good. Stacey deemed her wee pumpkin tasty and scraped away at the spicey rind. Succcess!It worked and it was tasty but here is what I will do differently. I will pour less batter into the pumpkin, about a cupcake's worth and I will add a smidge of melted butter with a sprinkling of sugar and spice. Hopefully these tiny changes will make for an extra adorable, wee pumpkin baked cake. Happy Thanksgiving!

dilly bag update

I'm still updating the shop with all sorts of goodies but you can now pick up your own dilly bags, teething bees, matryoshka sachets & autograph books. I'm sorry to say that all of our spazimals have sold out! Wow!

May you all have a most fabulous Thanksgiving and/or Thursday! (Wednesday as well.)

the week in review: november 17-23

Getting back into the life of the a-go-gos back home in the tiny casa. The trip to Portland was fabulous and more on that soon, last week was delightfully uneventful. I went to class and we played some games. I baked and listed goodies in the shop. I even got to visit with some fabulous favorite people and then the mister & I helped pack up a U-haul for the mama & big sister a-go-go as they will be heading north very very soon.

This week is school, appointments and turkey day! I will be making homemade rosemary, apricot stuffing, black pepper scones and roasted apples, taters & onions. We will stuff ourselves silly and then watch all the Rankin-Bass we can handle. Have I told you I have already started up the holiday music? Hope you all have a most marvelous week. Click here for a larger view of the mosaic.

photobooth friday: feeling the lurve

How fabulously wonderful was it that I found myself in a photobooth with Photobooth Friday's creator and many times around most fabulous lady, Andrea of Hula Seventy? And mind you, it wasn't just any booth, it was THE booth at the Ace Hotel. And I got to be in it...with Hula!You lovely folks keep asking me about Portland and I promise you, you will read more about Portland than you can probably care to but I want to start first with this most momentous event. I have been crushing on Ms. Hula for years now, simply crushing on her big time. When the mister & I were planning the trip and he was asking me about what I wanted to do it suddenly hit me that we were going to Portland and Hula lives in Portland! I got all stammery and blushy and told him, I have to meet her. HAVE TO! I nervously sent her a message playing it all cool but really I was dorking out ridiculously. Emails were bantered back and forth and plans were made. There would be no question that a booth would be involved.Life has a way of mixing things up. Plans get juggled and jiggled and disco'ed on but eventually things work out in the end. Our original plan didn't happen. I'm happy to say I am pleased it didn't. If it had worked out we wouldn't have been able to adventure around downtown with the fabulous .Le Silly, but that is a story for another time. What did happen was a most delightful breakfast with most of the Hula family assembled. The mister & I arrived first at our breakfast get-together destination and sure enough I was feeling the jitters of a first date coming on. I needn't had worried. Hula's mister was the first one through the door and with a beam of a smile and a nonchalant wave it was like we had always been old friends. Much chatting and talking and laughing danced around us and of course the cameras made a show. SHhe is as delightful as delightful can be. A woman I adore who's smile, energy and talents swirl all around her. She's quite nice as well, just in case you were wondering.I was swoonier than swoony over the beauty that is Hula's polaroid. I soaked up as much Hula knowledge as I could and have of course been converted.

Once we realized time was getting the best of us, we mini caravaned downtown for our boothing excursion. The misters patiently (oh so patiently) waited in cars as we spilled ourselves into the magic booth. and of course, we both drew a blank. What to do? What to do? Nerves I tell ya, nerves got the best of me and I felt much like Cindy Brady in that episode where she gets to go on tv and ends up mesmerized by the red light. Dork! If only we had more time. We stretched it out as long as we could and I am admittedly jealous of Hula's frames. Mine are great but hers are delightfully great.After a bit more hamming it up for the camera and giggles and fits over our girly antics, we squeezed each other to oblivion and the visit was suddenly over. We'll be back though. We will and I'm hoping I can entice them all to a California visit sometime next year. We've got booths too, ya know! Happy Photobooth Friday!

at least i got something done today....

Felt Club