December 24,
2009The man is flying all over the world tonight in the snow, sleet and rain — he needs more than just cold milk! The minty white hot chocolate will be something out of the usual, and mokka (coffee and cocoa) will keep the jolly old elf awake and warm for the rest of the trip.
Smashing magazine's Winter Wonderland photography feature from 2008.
My close friend Jo-Ann and her husband Eliott were half of the punk group Thorazine. They put out a Christmas song: "Merry Stupid ... Christmas" which is very, very, very not safe for work or children. Normally, no, I wouldn't link to something with bad language, but Jo-Ann and I met at Christmas in 2001, and spent lunch frantically shopping at Oxford Valley Mall getting burnt out on Christmas. We love Christmas, but I listen to this song and it breaks through the current stress and I laugh out loud.
When I first made a cake for a wedding, I'd never baked and decorated a wedding cake before.
Although a wedding cake is really just a normal cake made much bigger and with fussier decorations, the stakes are much higher. Some brides really do believe that if everything isn't perfect, their whole special day is ruined.
Thankfully, my cousins were not those people. They'd picked a recipe from Bon Appetit's Cooking School feature. The final cake was decorated with fresh berries and had swirled cream cheese icing: a very forgiving style.
And thankfully, I had the sense to bake and ice an entire test run of the cake.The cake was just fine, with no disasters (those came with later weddings), but it was a relief knowing I had a backup defrosting in the fridge.
![[Jakob in his first snow, deciding if he liked this cold, wet stuff.]](/images/HelpAGuyOut.jpg)
Copyright 2009 Susan J. Talbutt; all rights reserved.
Last updated December 17, 2009