HCB: Lemon Meringue Cake

August 02, 2010 by Monica in Baking, Baking Club, Cake, Cookbooks, Desserts, HCB, Sweets

“With this cake I thee wed.”

Apparently all I needed to do for Tom to propose to me was to make this cake.

This week’s Heavenly Cake Baker choice was the Lemon Meringue Cake. Think lemon Meringue pie in form of a cake and you pretty much will have the idea of how this cake will end up tasting. My hat off to Rose for turning a popular pie to an AMA-Zing cake.

After a couple of weeks of chocolate overdrive, we were all waiting for this cake. But, nobody was waiting for this cake more than Tom was. Since he tasted the Baby Lemon Cheesecake, he is now on “red” alert every time something has the code world “lemon” in it. So, when he saw my baking calendar (yes I do have one posted) and read what choice cake we had this week, he started the lemon cake shakedown:

Chili-Grilled Eggplant and Sweet Roasted Pepper Tartlets in Poppy Seed Shells

July 22, 2010 by Monica in Appletizers & Snacks, Baking, Cookbooks, Entertaining, Savory, Tarts, Vegetable

Tom and I love to have dinner parties. Mainly because Tom knows that I like to cook up a storm and then sit back and accept all the praises that our guest will send my our way.

I’m crazy and he loves me – what can I say.

On the last dinner party, we had his best friend and his wife over. We had them numerous times before and they are the type of dinner guest that will pretty much eat anything we put in front of them.

I call it having an adventurous palate.

I love cooking for them.

And the best part? The best friend wife is a vegetarian who lately is venturing into the raw food movement. Which means that she forces me to be an adventurous cook - the best kind if you ask me.

TWD: Lots-of-Ways Banana Cake

July 20, 2010 by Monica in Baking, Baking Club, Cake, Cookbooks, Desserts, Fruit, Sweets, TWD

It’s funny how sometimes both of my baking groups (Heavenly Cake Bakers and Tuesday with Dorie) are in synch and totally random pick a recipe that shares a common ingredient. Sometimes the recipes are so close that I have to make an executive decision and choose which one I want to bake more. No sense in having 2 cakes in the house, especially when I try to get rid of it as fast as I can in the first place – no temptation in sight!

This past weekend Tuesday with Dorie choice won. Thank you to Kimberly from Only Creative Opportunities who made the choice.

And what a choice it was.

This cake was very simple to make (the best kind) and as Dorie explains very flexible. Since you pretty much can replace any of the ingredients with what you have at hand – which in my mind means one thing:

No trip to the supermarket to find an ingredient that I ran out and forgot to put on my shopping list.

Have I mentioned how I hate to go to the supermarket?

No? Well now you know – your welcome.