conquering the cape!

My family was a north shore family. My Nana would rent a summer house in Gloucester and sun herself all summer long as my grandfather would commute in and out of Boston for work. When my mom was old enough, she too rented a house up that way. I grew up driving up to Long Beach from my hometown in Connecticut and staying overnight in the big red Cape Ann Motor Inn on the edge of the beach. My sister and I ate cereal out of mini boxes with plastic spoons and of course Nana's infamous blueberry cake. Blueberry cake is as much a part of going to the beach as hunting for snails or sand in my sheets.

Jenn, my roommate, invited me to join her family down the cape for a few days and although I have never actually had fun at the cape (once we couldn't find a beach.. pathetic i know, but we are North Shore folk) I jumped at the chance to see what all the fuss was about and have a family vacation experience!





As a thank you, and because a trip to the beach wouldn't be right without it, I baked my Nana's cake. The recipe can be found here if you scroll down a bit.



I am happy to announce that it was much easier then I remember, and just as tasty! As for the cape? The Ruoccos showed me a fantastic time! We headed up to Ptown on Friday since it was raining and had a beautiful beach day on Saturday!

red velvet pissah cakes!

There are two kinds of baking days. There are the days where I bake out of obligation, scrambling to find something I have the ingredients for and running about the house in an utter frenzy. And then there are the days where I have no time constraints and baking is soothing and satisfying. Although the later kind is few and far between, I was delighted when last Friday turned out that way.

Although it was sweltering hot out, Friday afternoon I started making Harlot Feevah's Belated Red Velvet Pissah Cakes. My wireless internet finally started working again so I spent my time mixing and beating and listening to This American Life. To seek refuge from the heat I put a spray bottle in the fridge and sprayed myself down every few minutes, drank one or two britas full of water, and stuck my face under the facet. It worked without folly.

The Red Velvet Cupcakes came out beautifully, glowing. vibrant. pissah red. We Pissahs got together to finally celebrate officially our Cinco de Mayo Championship Victory by BBQing at Papa Feevah's and going mini golfing. It was a fantastic day and not even losing my ball in the wood somewhere around the 11th hole could ruin my good mood.

For more information on Red Velvet Cake...

sugar and spice

Last week was Miss Mary Smack's birthday and a cause for great celebration because she is the one woman on earth with a sweet tooth stronger then mine! Upon request I made yet another carrot cake, but decided that the original recipe could use some improvement.

Dispite the flood like conditions on mass ave. i drove up through Arlington until i reached penzeys. now, i had heard a lot of buzz about this so called penzeys place but had no idea what it was all about.

Thankfully my roommate Jenn came with me because this place was all about smelling. the nice ladies stuck jars in my nose and looked at me for response. not that this is an uncommon event for me, being anosmic i do this all the time. i either pretend that i can smell just to save the hassle or go through the standard questions. "oh you can't smell?" "have you even been able to smell" "can you taste?" "what about gasoline, can you smell gas?" "so you walk by a bread store and you can't smell it?"

This Penzeys lady was very nice and simply moved on to help me find what I needed. i told her i wanted to make a very spicy spice carrot cake. We picked out new ginger and cloves and I was off to create the very best birthday carrot cake known to man.

I do adore making layer cakes, first because they are pretty and second there is a higher frosting to to cake ratio. Every piece is an edge piece! My trouble is that making my own frosting has lead to a few cake landslides and Smack's cake was no exception.

Please note how it starts off lop-sided before it even leaves the counter.

Please also note how the moment I try to put it in my car, my cake holder fails me and it comes dangerously near my gravel and hair infested car floor.

Furthermore, you should also note that I proceeded to eat the frosting off my purse on my way over to JP.


and lastly, you should note that the cake was a smashing success (no pun intended... not that what i said was even a halfway decent pun) even if i forgot to put in the pecans. i told you i forget ingredients!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS MARY SMACK!!!