The Cake Parlour

My sister's camera, my parent's computer

Weird trying to figure all of this out. So my first day on vaca was excellent...exactly like I wanted it to be. We even had an early Father's day party for my dad (as much as my mom, my sister, my dad, me, and Jazz the cat can be a party). I cooked, as promised...cooked Jerk chicken and sauteed plantains and bibb salad with homeade orange-dijon dressing from Everyday Food (do I talk about that little magazine on here as much as I should? One day I will post a love sonnet to it. I seriously cook from it almost every day.)

How come even with a crappier camera these pictures turn out better than the ones I take with my supposedly-really-good-Canon Powershot? I just don't understand. Anyway, I thought I might take a hiatus from baking while I was here, but of course my mom was like, "please bake a cake!" so I most happily obliged. I made my father a coconut lemon rasberry cake that my mom and I just kind of invented, but oh it was so tasty...I have already decided to add it to my list of wedding cake flavors!

Well, nevermind...that picture is a little gray. But the cake is just the moistest, tender-crumbed American butter cake, and the layers are brushed in rasberry liquor-doused simple syrup. The layers are filled with lemon curd filling and the whole thing is covered in a cloud of coconut cream cheese frosting. Look at my dad, haha...he's so cute!

I have some pretty seriously amazing blessings here in Birmingham. How quickly I forget to be so very grateful.

The greatest city in Alabam'

So I have a wedding cake for 400 due this afternoon. It's 5:00 am right now...I've been up since 3.

I think so clearly in the hours right before the sun comes up. It's so quiet...not like late at night when some people are their most productive...everythings still so noisy then. I'm really excited because after this cake I'm going on vaca. To the most magic of cities.

It's definately my idea of a vacation right now. Nestled in my parent's guestroom/my old bedroom, sleeping, reading, no car, no phone, nothing on my calendar.

Birmingham is truly special in a way Nashville will never be. Don't believe me? Read Susan's blog. Every day. You will fall in love with this city even if you've never been there.

My to-do list while I'm there:

1. Sleep

2. Eat at Chez Fonfon

3. Redesign my website

4. Do all the clipart projects at Marthastewart.com

5. See a couple of very special people

6. Design promo cards for the cupcake delivery service

7. Cook dinner for my parents every night...they don't know this yet.

8. Go to places like Michael's, Hobby Lobby, and Old Time Pottery and Hancock's.

9. Sit on Susan's front porch and sip mint juleps for the better part of an afternoon...she doesn't know this yet either.

10. Read a lot. And blog a lot. And take pictures of the city.

Back

We were there. But, now we're here. And boy, are we glad. It's funny how vacations can be so perfect but toward the end you find yourself itching to get home. But it was an excellent trip. We read. Manley read Dostoevsky and I read Ruth Reichl. I also read this book, given to me by this girl, who by the way is one of my biggest heroes.

And we cooked and we ate. And took pictures of our feet, apparently. We ate pigeon peas and rice, conch fritters, cracked lobster, and wahoo caught an hour earlier, sauteed with butter and capers. It was remarkable. We rode bikes everywhere.

But we're back. I'm back in the kitchen. Manley's back at work.

*sigh*

Off to Port Lucaya

Sing a song of long ago
When things were green and movin' slow
And people'd stop to say hello
Or they'd say "hi" to you
"Would you like to come over for tea
With the missus and me?"
It's a real nice way
To spend the day
In Dayton, Ohio
On a lazy Sunday afternoon in 1903

-Randy Newman

I bet that, 100 years ago, people didn't really need vacations. But I figure our brains probably weren't meant to process the overload of useless information they must today. So, a hundred years and a hundred thousand fondant flowers later, these brains are taking a break. Armed with a suitcase of books and a big pot to cook things in. We'll be back in a week.