A sure sign of spring...

Rhubarb. Need I say more. One fond memory of childhood when mom made the rhubarb pie. I love this pie. I ventured off the cakes for the day to have a pie. Well, actually two pies. I made one for my friends at work! Most of them, being from Florida or elsewhere around the world, have never heard of rhubarb or tasted it. I told them that no matter how hard they look for it in their home countries of the Philippines of Haiti, they won't find it there. I'm pretty sure that even Floridians won't have it unless they scored it in Publix and took it home to look up on the net as to what to do with it! So, I found some in the infamous Publix, brought it home and made the pies. They smelled so good baking and tasted even better.... I had one piece and will savour it for some time to come. One pie goes to work with me tomorrow to see how people who live outside the northeast like it.... At least I was able to find it down here! It was blazing hot in here today so what with the south Florida summer here and the 400 degree oven, one almost needed another shower after that baking project! Next time the AC down to 68 for baking day! I hope everyone will venture out to make their own pie and memory...

We've had many days of rain and gray here in South Florida... I did manage to whip up a cake for an impromptu potluck at work last week. It was a Haitian cake, the recipe given to me by a work friend who told me this is how her mother made it... so, with all ingredients at hand, made the cake which was dense, heavy and delicious. Covered in thick vanilla buttercream frosting... generous amounts of it inside and out. It was a small 8 inch cake and, thinking that would be more than enough for each person to have a small slice, in to work it went. Praised by many who know a Haitian cake, it went fast some of it before lunch was even ready. I did not get a photograph but trust me, it was pretty and simple to look at and delicious to eat. I will try making another and getting the photo up. In the meantime, I am looking forward to the new Martha cupcake book coming out soon and, went online to look at a site, Bakerella. And from there went to CakeArt.com. two really good sites.. I have some orders coming up and need to get in my practice of decorating things and making those dang flowers... love to see them on the cakes tho so will do some. and make some fondant and do some flowers that way as well.... so, summer is coming to Florida, that means rainy weather and possible hurricanes.. have to think about getting some of those yearly supplies and plenty of water ready.... maybe get a cake made should that one hurricane come, we want to have our cake and eat it too!

today was make some birthday cakes day... two of them. one chocolate and one lemon.. two birthdays this week... nice time of the year to celebrate... It's a late one and I will publis at least one photo here and then be off to bed...this is the lemon one!

num, yummy... it's delicious.... chocolate torte.

much bittersweet chocolate and ground almonds... easy to make, delicious to eat!

Dessert last night, salads today... give and take but be sure to take a slice of this cake!!!!!!!!

Oh the Easter Egg Cake... or the trying of it. Saw this cake that was beautiful in Martha and HAD to have it. Ordered the mold for it, followed the directions and made a wonderful smelling and looking cake! It gave directions for the seven minute frosting and so made that as well... it was so sticky and made a mess to frost but had to say, before I tried to add some decorations, looked really pretty... but with the decorations, did not come out as beautiful as the one in Martha... I'll try it again though as I made it for Charles' birthday and everyone LOVED this cake! It was delicious! I have two orders for it in a much larger version. That will mean a run to make it before the events I need it for and see how it will double up... If you can have a run at making it, do so... it's a coconut almond cake and I can't tell you how good it is! Enjoy!

Where does the time go? Here it is almost may Day and Laura, my daughter and I, were just talking about how last time at this year we were deciding what to start to make for Christmas gifts and then all the hoop la over doing them until the very day, Christmas 2008. We thought afterwards, thank goodness the rush is over and we can relax for awhile and do nothing or, do what we want to do and feel like whatever that is, is no hurry in doing it... We had Easter and a wonderful few days with family and the beach and a wonderful Easter brunch and now, well, anxiety about Christmas again! LOL! this is too much! Time for a change and do some crafts and things we feel like doing at least for a few more months... in the meantime, we sat by the pool today, Laura made some healthy and delicious blueberry muffins and we are thinking of making a chocolate torte today that we saw late last night on ciaoitalia..yum. so much for healthy..!!! but oh so delicious! and we are going thru books of ideas for something to spur our imaginations.. for dinner tonight... salmon and asparagus and that yummy chocolate torte.. time to get my grocery list together!

Happy Easter to you !!!!
Well, my daughter and I went for a whirlwind trip to Ft. Myers Beach this weekend. We had family down here to celebrate spring break so there were several nieces and nephews and my sister Betty. She is our oldest sister and haven't seen her in several years as they all reside in Buffalo and have not travelled here in a few years so, am glad they are here again... we had a wonderful time together visiting,Laughing and eating... Gretchen made Easter brunch with ham and eggs and potatoes with cantalope and almond ring with coffee... it was SO delicious and gave me the idea that in the future, no sit down dinners but brunch which leaves us plenty of time for the pool !!!! Leftovers will be saved for later in the day... Sally brought our Buffalo foods and the almond ring is always a hit.. several cans of Tim Horton's coffee was well received and other items such as Grandma Brown baked beans and some Weber's mustard and Texas hot dog sauce which I have to say, I have never had!!!!!!!!!!! But will!!!!!!!!
We walked the beach at Ft. Myers and found shells and a sunburn and took lots of photos and laughed for the whole time.. it was wonderful to see them and talk to them and laugh with them... most especially my sister Betty who told me that back in the day, mom and dad would take her to Goody Cake Shop in Buffalo NY and let her have coffee, half coffee and half cream. I'm glad to still have my family whenever I want them... I ordered a Wilton Easter Egg pan that did not get here in time for Easter but, when it does arrive will make a cake anyway as Eggs and spring go well together! I'll post the photo of it and let you know how it turns out... Happy Easter to you all!

Good morning! My sister Maggie from SweetScarlett wrote about her Easter and springtime at her house yesterday and published some photos too.... ah. So beautiful! This is her usual at any given holiday! She goes all out with tasteful and beloved decorations.. I am envious. She has lovely furniture and paint colours and, well, everything! I on the other hand live where it's hot and things that are taken for granted in the northeast for example, are not the norm here. So, there, and in England with the same weather, they do have all that spring offers... flowers starting to show their little heads with what's to come and, pussywillows! We have lovely weather for the most part but miss out on how the weather changes at this time of year and all that is new is coming about. Seems almost stagnant here yearly.. same, same.... something I really miss about living north. People are so busy living in the nice weather they forget about what time of year it is , not much in the way of decorations for spring and Easter and not much out there to decorate with! Home Goods carries a small amount of reproduction bunnies and chicks but forget about the flowers and there is no such thing as pussy willows here!!!!!!!!!!!!
Actually, as it gets closer to Easter, the spring flowers arrive in the grocery stores and after you take them home, they will smile at you for a day or two and then give up from the heat...you just can't import spring to the heat of Florida... and so, I would love to visit my sister at her home in England where Easter and spring are at the height of fashion at Maggie's! I miss her and I miss spring... Enjoy it!!!!!!!

April Fools Day! How fast time goes by! We are into the fourth month of the year and I have no idea what happened! Work mostly, a few concerts with my daughter and thinking of the cake shop. I am still in the process of making up a list of yummy and delcious things for ordering and also the price list. I want to bake some things and take some photos for viewing too. The only thing in that department I made were some cupcakes for my daughter to take to work for a retirement luncheon and some chocolate chip cookies. There is organizing all the baking equipment and the decorating things.. buying new and different cake pans and cupcake pans.. I found some neat stencils too and want to experiment with them. Michaels had a pretty good selection of Wilton things that came out in the last few months... I like to watch the cake shows such as Ace of cakes and am always sitting on edge, like a scared airplane flyer, with white knuckles and all, when they start to move the cakes from the tables into a car and then actually drive with it to the location and destination!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That one cake show with the women in an apt. in NYC is crazy! They actually carry those cakes down several flights of stairs and hail a cab on top of it!!!!!!!!!! Well, so, a friend from work gave me a nice gift yesterday. A set of Martha Stewart cake pans in the shape of STARS!!!!!!!!!!! Three of them and there is a card with them of how to stack them, how much batter for each one and a photo of them all stacked and decorated.. so nice! I'll get a photo and put it up... I have several orders coming up and so need to get to things this weekend! Photos will come soon. Unfortuantely for us here in Florida, it's getting hot. Summertime is just about here and buttercream has to stay in the AC and while I'm not a huge fan of fondant, it's what makes some of the cakes.. and that will slip and slide too.. oh anguish! I guess that means, bake a cake, eat a cake and in the meantime, keep the AC COLD!
I'll check back in with the photos this weekend.. go and bake some cupcakes...! I'm also going to be out looking for rhubarb this weekend as nothing says spring like a yummy rhubarb pie like mom used to make! So delicious!

Well, happy Sunday to all... It's been a busy weekend for me. I had to work yesterday in my regular job and today, I started some spring cleaning. I put together a cabinet for the kitchen to hold "stuff" mostly foods... small kitchen and not enough kitchen space... I left that in the living room for awhile and went in the kitchen to move things around and, opened a paint can filled with a delicious sunny yellow and moved it from the can to the wall! It's not as easy as it used to be! I did one wall and part of another wall and called it a day. I have a very large wall still to go and some of another wall and a little wall behind the sink. It's so nice of a change. Tomorrow I will try to finish and put things back and organize the baking area... I stopped in at Michael's and picked up new baking equipment to add to the many things I already have! and new cookie cutters as well! It will be organized soon and have my hands on a recipe for a brownie cheesecake to set up and bring to work where I am getting a following there and will be able to pick up some business with little tastes of this and that. Another day tomorrow and a few walls to paint, cakes to bake...

Good morning to one and all from the lovely Sunshine State of Florida!
Here it is, the beginning of the beginning of Goody Cake Shop! I wanted to start up a bakery after taking some cake decorating classes. I've had a great time with this and have manufactured many beautiful and tasty cakes... not only will you have delicious cakes to choose from but also other baked items such as yummy cookies!
Please stay with me as I make my way through this techy process so that I can then focus on getting your cakes and cookies out to you! I will be adding photos of cakes and cookies shortly....stay tuned!