Frosty The Snowman Cake

Only 3 days to go and it's been pretty busy around here at Farmhouse. This morning was kid's baking day. I got this snowman cake pan years ago from Williams-Sonoma and have never used it. Every year we say we are and then the season comes and goes...and Frosty is still sitting in the pantry. So this year we made a point of it. I made the cake yesterday..thank you to my new best friend, Mr. Duncan Hines.... I think if I would have made the recipe on the Frosty The Snowman box we could have stood the cake upright like the picture. That recipe seems like it would make a dense gingerbread-like cake. But time was running short..so we did the best we could....and the cake is pretty fragile..so we just left it flat in the pan...but the whole idea was to let the little ones do the decorating. We had all kinds of frostings, sprinkles, gumdrops, candies, jelly beans, coconut, sanding sugars...so we just let the fun begin..and we had a ball. And Frosty turned out pretty good....

Merry Christmas, Frosty

Angel Food

I had a Christmas Party to go to at Sharon's on Sunday night. And I was out of juice. That Buddy situation left me flat. He is doing really well and I appreciate all the kind words and well wishes. More than you can know...but, as far as getting into the kitchen and making something really special..well, it just wasn't in me.Before The Buddy Situation I had high hopes. I told Sharon that I was going to make the walnut cake out of Julia Child. The cake is wonderful...BUT..it takes most of the day to make...there are several steps...and I just couldn't face it. So I took the easy way out. Frankly, I barely could muster doing this.The boxed Duncan Hines angel food. I made the cake and frosted it with just a simple whipped cream. That was it. Simple. It was like the cupcakes...only one great big one.
It wasn't my proudest moment..but it got me to thinking..it isn't about the dessert..it's about your friends..and being there..especially at the Holidays...just do what you can...it's all you can do sometimes.... and it's o.k.

Vermont Maple Cake

John LOVES the world series.Even though his Dodgers are out. It's kind of sad. I really do feel sorry for him.But what can you do? His family all loves the world series too. And Thurday night we were invited out to his mom and dad's house for pizza and the game. (They don't like to cook..it was take-out.) That's fine by me.Everyone has there own thing- makes- the- world go 'round and all that. So I said I would bring a dessert. I wanted something old fashion and homey. Nothing fancy. So I scoured my cookbooks looking for just the right thing. I've already made them a couple of apple pies so I was kinda burnt out in that department.I'm sure they are too. But I wanted something that gave me the feeling that I was going to see the game at someone's house up in Vermont. With a stiff cold wind blowing, pumpkins glowing from the porch, woodsmoke wafting in the air, leaves tumbling down the road....you get the idea.

Vermont Maple Cake. That was it. From my beloved John Hadamuscin's Special Occasion Cookbook. There were about 4 different books that he wrote. All out of print. I love them so much. One of these days I will do a post and highlight the books for you.In the book it is actually called Buckeye Maple Cake.But I'm not getting a "happy" off of that. So I switched it from Buckeye to Vermont. There you go. That's better. At least it is for me. It's a big cake and it is square. The book said the reason it is square is for "easy transportation to a picnic". That got my attention. Then I got to thinking about it and wondered what's the difference between transporting a round cake or a square cake? Don't ask, I guess.

So I made the cake, loaded it up and took it out to the house. There was no woodsmoke, no pumpkins on porches, no dancing leaves,it wasn't even cold. But we had a good time anyway. It's California....what did I expect?

Birthday Night

Well, we had the 4oth birthday party...and we had a lot of fun.

We sat outside under the arbor..it was 90 degrees here yesterday..but by 5:30 it was just perfect. We drank cold beer and had almonds, olives, gouda and crackers.

The days are getting shorter, so as it started to get dark we moved indoors and started with a mozzarella and tomato salad..the tomtoes were from our garden and they are so good. After the salad I had John start the bbq and for dinner we had bbqed wild Alaskan salmon. I served the fish on top of mashed potatoes that were finished off with olive oil then topped the fish with an herb sauce that I got out of Alfred Portale. And for dessert, birthday cake . Devil's food with a seven minute frosting. It was a fun family evening...just wish we did it more often.