i played the desert flower (not the rose!) in a production of the little prince during my freshman year of high school. these were my lines: desert flower: good morning. pilot: where are the men? desert flower: men? i think there are six or seven of them in existence. i saw them, several years ago. [...]
there are few cakes that cross my mind as often as the pink champagne cake i made two years ago does. i think this is due to a combination of three things: 1) it's one of the prettiest cakes i've ever made, 2) my life was in complete turmoil when i made it, and 3) the [...]
after visiting denmark a few days ago, i'm doing my best to embrace the danish concept of hygge (hue-gah). hygge roughly translates into coziness — ideally a coziness that leads to a sense of well-being and contentment. imagine sitting around a fireplace and drinking warm apple cider with friends, or curling up with a blanket and a book while [...]
if i'm making something like cookie dough stuffed brownies or chocolate layer cake — desserts i've made once a week for the past few years — i can bake for hours without actually thinking about the baking itself. it's nice, because i can watch netflix, listen to music, or just let my mind wander while my muscle [...]
i've talked about having trypophobia before (the fear of clusters of holes), so this cake was the ultimate test. it was totally worth the struggle, though — i love how it turned out. the cake layers are my (award winning!) honey spice cake. instead of using boring old costco honey, i used wedderspoon's amazing manuka [...]
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 [...]
instead of going the pumpkin route to celebrate the october season, i decided to convert my favorite halloween candy - almond joy - into a cake. i filled two 6-inch rounds of flourless chocolate cake with creamy coconut and frosted them with sweet almond cream cheese buttercream. if you're a diehard fan of Everyone's Favorite Squash, [...]
i made a spineless cactus cake! i say 'spineless' as in it literally doesn't have any spines, but i guess you could give it to someone who's acting like a coward to send a message?? it's a metaphor. the cake is dark chocolate and the frosting is flecked with orange zest. i cut the cactus shape out [...]
i experienced a week of the midwestern lifestyle and it was so quiet and wonderful! there were lots of card games, grain elevators, naps, and dishes like cheeseburger chowder and lasagna soup. we went to charlie's cafe twice because of their colossal caramel rolls, and i got to spend lots of time with my cousins, aunt, and 97-year-old (!) grandma. [...]
After being commissioned to make a cake topped with an edible stiletto, there were about thirteen days that I was interested in fondant. The cake turned out pretty well, though I was not excited to work with the dry, flavorless stuff again. One good result of my fondant endeavor was the discovery of HowToCookThat, a [...]
LENA'S LUNCHBOX 