The Domestic Goddess

All Original Text & Photography
Copyright © 2004 by Jennifer Hamilton

11 April 2004 - Easter in Bloom

S. just returned from a business trip to Germany and although I am loathe to admit it, I did nothing in the way of baking the entire time he was away. I had the best intentions of baking up a storm in my kitchen last week, but other things just seemed to get in the way. I was actually quite busy:

Friday: laundry and cleaning the apartment
Saturday: grocery shopping, cooking for a "food meeting" (I will explain this later) and having my birthday
Sunday: baking Naan and going to said meeting
Monday: to Blue Jays home opener with my dad and brothers
Tuesday: work and then dinner out with a friend I hadn't seen in about a year
Wednesday: slept in and worked a half day and then over to my parents for dinner
Thursday: work, dinner out with another friend I hadn't seen in a few months, then watch the Leaf's first play-off hockey game
Friday: S. home early (6:30am)!

So, you see, I basically had NO time to myself the entire time he was away. In fact, I didn't cook one meal for myself this whole week -- a few sandwiches for lunches, but that my friends is it. Oh well.

I did make up for it this weekend though. I decided to stick with my tradition of late and make a cake for my family to crtique and my loving brother to glare at through the lens of his camera. I baked a chocolate cake on Friday and decorated it on Saturday - much preferable to do it spread out this way, rather than the usual, get-up-early-on-Saturday-and-bake-a-cake-and-frantically-decorate-it-that-afternoon (cursing myself while doing so).

It turned out rather nicely, too, if I may say so myself. My brother took some fabulous pictures of it, as well -- due in part to his getting used to the subject of cake and also to the natural light streaming in through the windows...thank goodness for day light savings!

I used the recipe from the Simple Chocolate Layer Cake, filling it with preserves instead of ganache. I topped it with Whipped Ganache Frosting and then, using very pretty Easter-themed colours decorated it with tiny pansies made from Royal Icing. Very nice. And delicious, too!