Every once in a while I receive cake orders that are extremely specific. A customer might email me saying, "I'd like a 6-inch strawberry cake with vanilla frosting, decorated with three red buttercream roses, seven green buttercream leaves, and yellow sprinkles around the top edge." But most of the time, the orders I get are [...]
i usually make some sort of red, white, and blue dessert on the fourth of july. in the past i've made this hidden american flag cake and this star-shaped trifle with strawberries and blueberries. this year is different. i'm not feeling very patriotic. we have a president who has admitted — BOASTED — about committing sexual assault. [...]
just like frankenstein's monster, this cake is composed of a bunch of stuff shoved together into one whole. i opted to use leftover cake scraps instead of human and animal parts, though, and i think my creation turned out a bit better than dr. frankenstein's. i always have tons of leftovers in my freezer after a big [...]
i've lost track of the number of times the media has named durham the new "it" town of the south, specifically when it comes to food. southern living says we're the south's tastiest town. the new york post deems durham the foodie capital of the south. even buzzfeed ran an article called 34 amazing things that will make [...]
i recently watched whiplash and black swan. one is about andrew, a jazz drummer, and one is about nina, a ballerina. the movies are very similar; both are about dedicated artists driven to madness by their abusive mentors and their own ambitions to achieve greatness. i see myself in both characters, mainly through andrew's desire to attain musical perfection [...]
i officially have The Best spice cake in north carolina! and the best sweet potato biscuits, too! i entered a bunch of different cakes and baked goods into the competition at the fair, and i won first place ribbons for both of those items. i also won second place for my white chocolate chip cookies and two [...]
british english is so much better than american english.* especially the insults. i'd much rather call someone a tosser or a prat than an idiot or a dumbass. i'd also like to start saying "cheers" in place of "thank you." apparently brits call sprinkles "hundreds and thousands"?? that's cool. it's sort of a mouthful but it [...]
i made this cake in honor of claude debussy! two days ago would've been his 154th birthday. debussy is amazing. his work is breathtakingly beautiful, and his nontraditional use of dissonances and intervals sculpted music's impressionist era and hugely popularized chromaticism. not only was debussy an incredible musician but he was also extremely eloquent. this is an excerpt [...]
i like some artificial fruit flavorings - banana laffy taffys, sour apple lollipops, and blue raspberry slushies are all delicious - but i have a strong aversion to anything made to taste like strawberry. that goes for strawberry milk, strawberry jelly beans, and store-bought strawberry ice cream. the quarts of neopolitan ice cream with chocolate, vanilla, [...]
i've spent the past month working my way through the sixty odd episodes of doughboys, a podcast in which the two hosts (mike mitchell and nick wiger) critique chain restaurants. it's incredible. they are the pete wells of the fast food world. each episode features a guest and a restaurant, and consists of an hour and [...]
LENA'S LUNCHBOX 