today's my senior prom! i'm actually feeling pretty sentimental; it will be my fourth and final year of attending. freshman and sophomore years were great (i felt very cool being surrounded by upperclassmen), but i think this year will be the best. there's something special about attending as part of the graduating class. but it's also crazy and sad that it'll be [...]
since i was born on the last day of january, i won't get to experience my golden birthday until i turn 31. that'll be in more than a decade! because i have to wait so long, i've been living vicariously through other people's golden birthdays for as long as i remember. people usually either forget [...]
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 [...]
a few years ago, everyone became obsessed with red velvet cake. ben & jerry's came out with a red velvet ice cream, oreos released red velvet cookies, and pop tarts invented a red velvet toaster pastry. in recent months, the red velvet craze has died down and been replaced by a new flavor: birthday cake. birthday [...]
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, [...]
remember when i went to minnesota and hung out with molly and we made a cake for vanity fair? probably the best week of my life. this cake uses the same sponge and frosting as that one, but i added chocolate mousse and chocolate ganache to make it extra rich. i also left the decoration pretty simple and [...]
edinburgh castle sits swathed in a shroud of cold fog, perched atop a craggy bluff overlooking the scottish capital. while visiting the city in november, my parents and i trekked up edinburgh's cobbled streets to take a self-led tour of the castle. unfortunately, after five minutes of standing in the wind, my appendages were purple and [...]
after the sixth harry potter movie came out, there was some dispute over whether the movie promoted underage drinking: neville serves drinks to his comrades, harry splits a bottle of mulled mead with his professor, hermione is tipsy after a few sips of butterbeer. WELL, the BOOKS never disclosed whether or not butterbeer contains alcohol. they [...]
what has four wheels and flies? a dump truck! get it? sorry. it took me a while to understand. i made this for a three-year-old's birthday party. last year i made him a cake that looked like an alpaca. those are two pretty cool interests to have as a toddler, alpacas and dump trucks. next [...]
LENA'S LUNCHBOX 