Monday, May 9, 2011

Blackberry Cloud Cake

Happy belated Mother's Day! To celebrate the best woman I know, I made a Blackberry Cloud Cake from a recipe in Martha Stewart Living (also found here).

Meringue, spread into a sheet pan and ready to bake.


Blackberries, mascerating.


The beautiful lavender color in the whipped cream filling can be attributed to the strained and seeded blackberry puree that I made with some of the blackberries.


The rest of the berries were served on the side with a generous slice of cake.

This cake was very appropriately named; the texture was light and fluffy and absolutely perfect for a spring day. I reduced the amount of sugar in the cake recipe by about 1/3 cup and omitted the confectioner's sugar in the whipped cream since my mom does not care for overly-sweet desserts. The fresh berries combined with the melt-in-your-mouth cake were a perfect ending to lunch with my mama! <3

Monday, March 21, 2011

Homemade Popovers

After a weekend of relentless rain and wind and a dreary forecast of another week of the same, there's nowhere I would rather be than indoors baking up a batch of these babies. I don't usually go for pans/utensils that only serve a single purpose, but made an exception in this case because this recipe for these popovers seemed like the perfect quick/easy/tasty baked good for both breakfasts and as a side for dinner. They come together in a jiffy, and, as my family can attest, who can resist the smell of butter wafting through the house in the morning?

I had mine with a generous smear of good European-style butter and some strawberry preserves (don't forget the cuppa Earl Grey!), but foresee adding grated cheese and chives in the future for a tasty side to some soup or chili.

Yum! :)

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

On Heavy Rotation.

A weeks-old picture of my three current favorites when they were still new. I somehow got lucky and managed to grab the last Blush G Serie Noire from the nearest Guerlain counter and the second to last Ombres Perlees eyeshadow palette from Chanel. I winced a little (ok, a lot) when I handed over my debit card, and I reallyreallyreally wish it weren't true, but you really do get what you pay for. The blush and the eyeshadow (especially) are so buttery and apply like a dream. I haven't put them down since they came home with me. As for the nail polish, I set a personal record of 5 weeks in a row when it became all I wanted to reach for as my weekly manicure. I have probably sent myself down a rabbit hole considering this high-end makeup obsession comes attached to some scary price tags (can you say gateway drugs??), but guess what? This Alice continues to knowingly and obligingly follow the white bunny. :)