Nonna's Crostata

May 06, 2012 by Monica in Baking, Desserts, Family, Family Cookbook, Sweets, Tarts

My maternal grandmother was a true Italian socialite. She had the most active social life of anyone that I have ever met. When I was growing up, spending time with her meant going to afternoon coffee dates with her friends. Playing canasta or poker at the country club most of Saturday afternoons and if there was a birthday, wedding, baby birth, baptism or any type of celebration within a 50-mile radius in our city, she was there, my sister and I at her heels.

She was generous, funny, and knew EVERYONE. What she was not, however, was a fan of a kitchen. Unlike my paternal grandmother, Nonna Franca was not a slave to her kitchen. She could cook, but it was easy dishes, something that she could put together fast and be out of there to meet her social circle at the next bingo game.

Sunday Afternoon Tea Party

May 02, 2012 by Monica in Decorating, Entertaining, Events, Miscellaneous, Sponsor

I believe we should all celebrate more often. Not just weddings, anniversaries, milestones and other major moments, but the everyday opportunities – the change of seasons, a new job or just the fact that I love cake! As I always like to point out, when opportunity knocks, answer the door and offer it some food and drinks!

And knock it did.

A few weeks ago I was approached by the marketing group for Donsuemor and told that they liked my collaboration so much during their “Dessert a day” campaign, they wanted to know if I would be interested in partnering with them once more. They, along with Davidson’s Organics were looking for a few bloggers willing to host a tea party and use their respective products as part of the event.

They did not have to ask me twice. I jumped at the chance.

Brown Butter Cake with Dark Chocolate Buttercream and Rich Chocolate Mousse Filling

May 01, 2012 by Monica

This past week I had a cake fail moment. It was one of those cakes that you think it totally going to work but upon tasting, it’s just not what you thought it was going to be.

So, I was cakeless and the bug of eating good cake stayed with me the rest of the week.

It was time to find a cake recipe that was labor intensive in order to occupy my Saturday.

I found it in February’s issue of Food & Wine magazine. They talked about Tom Douglas cakes and how easy it was to make them at home. The featured recipe was his Brown Butter Layer Cake with Rich Chocolate Buttercream and Dark Chocolate Mousse Filling.

It had me at brown butter.