HCB: Apple Upside-Down Cake

August 07, 2011 by Monica in Baking, Baking Club, Cake, Desserts, Fruit, HCB, Sweets

And I’m back baking from Rose’s Heavenly Cakes. We are in the last stretch, and the last couple of weeks nothing in the line up has made me run to the kitchen to bake, making my HBC participation the last thing on my to do list the last couple of months.

I blame it on the fact that everyone is feeling the inferno that the weather god is sending our way this summer with those 100+ temperatures. Who in their right mind want’s to turn the oven on when it’s like a gazillion degrees outside?

But, this week was free choice and I wanted to bake – because well, I’m crazy! I have a love-hate relationship with the “free choice” options. In one end, I love it because I get to choose what I’m going to bake, in the other; I hate it because I get to choose what I’m going to bake. I dislike having so many choices – give me 3 and I can make a decision, give me over 3 and I become this indecisive puddle of doubt. I ended up having to call Tom and ask him to narrow it down.

Snap Thursday - Cleopatra or Cleo Cleona

August 04, 2011 by Monica in Photography, Snap Thursdays

This is Cleopatra or “Cleo-Cleona” as I like to call her for short. Cleo was given to my by my sister. After she insisted that nobody in his or her right mind could live a full life without a pet. At that time I lived with a roommate, in an apartment and the responsability of taking care of a pet was not something that was high on my list. I fought her as much as I could, until she showed up at my house with this buddle of joy. She insisted that her dog would kill her if she stayed in her garage and I HAD to take her in order to SAVE her. (Yes, a very convincing argument)

I tried to not cave.

Galletas Maria Torte (Maria Biscuits)

August 03, 2011 by Monica in Family, Family Cookbook, Sweets, Venezuela Food

The desert above is another of my childhood favorites.

I’m on a roll with these memories guys - I cannot seem to stop them.

This time, the recipe is not from my grandmother’s or my mother’s but, from another important person in my life while growing up – my nanny, Maria.

Just like any country, Venezuela has its share of local desserts that are very uncommonly found anywhere else but there. And this “cake” or “torte” is precisely that. Even after all of my travels I have yet to find something like this.