Cake sixteen

Prince Charming 

It’s a cake I’m particularly fond of which takes me back to a time in the early 80’s when I was in Germany and had met my ‘Prince Charming’. A person from another culture, who taught me a lot about tolerance, political commitment and real love. Some of his words have been of great help over the years. I haven't seen him since then and won't see him again as he passed away some years ago. So I've named this simple though delicate cake in his honour.

It’s what the German call ‘Streusel Kuchen’ and I had first had it at that time. I don’t know why but I've kind of forgotten it for long! I only made it for the first time a few years ago when my elder son showed me a photo of a special cake he had eaten in Germany and wanted me to bake it for him. There it was again!

I found the recipe in an old German cookbook: it was 'love at first sight' for all our family.

Song: ‘In my life’

We all have a place we remember all our lives

see recipe:
http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2012/11/cake-sixteen-prince-charming-fruit.html

Cake fifteen

Early Autumn Cheesecake

Fruitcakes are mostly seasonal even though we may find nearly all fruits the whole year round. Personally I don’t like eating oranges in the middle of the Summer or peaches in Winter, it might be a matter of habit but I think it’s more a matter of colours and psychological influence. Bright colours like the red of strawberries, the yellow of peaches and apricots, the purple of plums or of wild berries are more Summer colours, or colours we associate with warm countries. We also use them for clothes or home accessories in the warm season. Then suddenly when the colder months come, we prefer paler colours or all the shades of orange; so here come grapes at the end of the Summer, pears, persimmons and finally oranges.

So this cake sounds for me like the end of the Summer, when days are still warm but much shorter and pave the way to Autumn: yellow for the grapes, pale brown for the meringue and white for the cheese. 

Do I have overanalyzed it all? Maybe there’s nothing more to intend than what it actually is!

Song: A glass onion

Do we always have to look for deeper messages, can’t we simply accept reality as it is?

for the recipe follow me on: http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2012/11/cake-fifteen-early-autumn-cheesecake.html

Cake fourteen

Scary Halloween

Today’s Halloween and it’s practically celebrated worldwide. It wasn’t so when I was young and I still find it rather difficult to accept Halloween parties, pumpkins and scary cookies outside the English speaking countries.. I know for sure, it’s  a problem of generation gap! In fact my children and especially my 17-year-old daughter love it and have loved it since they were young kids. I’ve made pumpkin-shaped cookies or pizzas with them and I thought it was already much... I’d have never gone so far as to make a tomb-like cupcake with an arm coming out of a grave! This is what my younger daughter made yesterday and, most incredibly, I helped her to realize! We really do things for our children we’d never ever have done ourselves! 

At first I was kind of disgusted making the tomb or the dead arm, but after a while I must admit I was having fun..... It’s all a matter of a different perspective, I was used to seeing a graveyard as a scary place to avoid while younger people love horror stories with vampires and walking dead. I’ve come to understand it’s only a way to handle the fear for monsters and ghosts and to keep them away, which is in line with the ancient Celtic tradition, isn’t it? 

Song: Eleonor Rigby

Talking about tombs and graveyards, have you ever heard of Eleonor Rigby's sad story?

for the recipe follow me on:
http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2012/11/cake-fourteen-scary-halloween.html

Cake thirteen

A Flowerbed

I love flowers and mostly love their colours. I love them in the wild, like in the endless fields of daffodils in Cornwall or of heather in Scotland. But I also like them all mixed up in flowerbeds, when you can create your own design and colour effect playing with different flower species.. 

In one of my next lives I might be a gardener, something like Laura or Rosemary in the British Tv series ‘Rosemary and Thyme’, without crimes of course, I’m not the type for them!

For the time being I can only make my balconies and windowsills look like small oasis of colour in a dull white-plastered block of flats. My family knows and complains a lot when I’m away and it’s their turn to water the flowers....

Some weeks ago it was my birthday and I had the nicest start of the day I could think of: a bed of flower cupcakes on my breakfast table!!! My two daughters had secretly made some splendid cupcakes with fondant flowers for me: white anemonies to be more precise, my favourite flowers! Very sweet of them, isn't it?

What did I do? I closed my eyes, took them by the hand and took them for a walk along our 'Cupcake Park', where nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout...

Song: Strawberry Fields Forever

Come, join us and let’s all go down where nothing’s to get hungabout!

for the recipe follow me on:
http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2012/11/cake-thirteen-flowerbed_2.html

Cake twelve

A solitary penguin 

Penguins don’t like to live alone, they live in groups and have friends and family. They’re very much like ourselves, aren’t they? Like me, for sure! I love my independence but I couldn’t live alone. It doesn’t matter to live under the same roof, it’s a matter of psychological closeness: you feel close to your family wherever you all are. 

It does help to be altogether though... and join our forces! I’d have never dared to make this fondant penguin unless my younger daughter had insisted. She wanted to make it for her best friend’s birthday: I was kind of scared of making fondant I was quite sure it’d have been a disaster..... but she was right! We made it and I felt like one! I can be her, she can be me, we all can be the penguin! 

By the way, anybody want to adopt this solitary penguin on a rocky island?

Song: “Im the walrus’ 

Who are we? We’re not only ourselves but ‘there’s a bit of us in one another

for the recipe follow me on:

http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2012/11/cake-twelve-solitary-penguin_2.html

Wanna see the recipe? 

Cake eleven

Dough Friends

I wouldn’t call this a cake, in fact it’s more like an edible party decoration. Birthdays and festivities are more than simple dates on a calendar, they’re a chance for family and friend get-togethers.

They’re important in my family too: good food, a homemade cake and a beautifully laid table. Ever since I can remember there’s been a special occasion table with our best plates, glasses, silver cutlery and table decorations.
My mum and her sisters laid the table one day ahead, and every time the table looked different according to the time of the year or the reason for the party. Good memories which last a lifetime!

I'm still continuing this habit but I’ve added a new element to this long family tradition: edible decorations which can be made of bread or of sweeter doughs. 
In fact I love Northern Europe Christmas cooking customs - ‘Lebkuchen’ in all shapes and Father Christmas’s House are my favourite recipes! 

That’s what I have recently made for a ‘Welcome party’ for two foreign friends.

Song: In my life

We all have people and places we’ll never forget

for the recipe follow me on:
http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2012/11/cake-eleven-dough-friends.html

Cake ten

Black Forest Cake

Back home from India. It wasn’t the first time to the East for me but India is indeed an experience which sticks in your mind. Everything’s different although there are some points in common after the so many years of British influence.

It’s been a total immersion in Indian life: from family to school life. If I were asked to define India I'd say it’s the country of spices and colours. As for cooking it’s amazing the way they mix vegetables, and lentils to make cakes and sweets too... Indian cakes are really far from our idea of a cake.: they’re not so sweet and are served cut in small pieces.. But when it comes to birthday cakes, I must say I’didn’t expect to see and taste so delicious and perfectly decorated cakes!

Chocolate and black forest cakes are in my opinion a must you shouldn’t miss if you happen to travel to India.

So in honour of my trip to India here’s a Black Forest cake I made for my son’s 18th birthday party a few years ago.

Song: The continuing story of Bungalow Bill
Deep in the jungle, tiger hunting to the sound of this quirky tune

for the recipe follow me on:
http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2012/11/cake-ten-black-forest.html