Tough Tuesday

So I'm back after my day off yesterday. What was I doing you ask? I was in CT helping a friend with her new house! I'm so impressed (jealous) that she lives in an actual house and has so much room--even a yard! Anyway, the rooms have so much potential and I'm so honored that she has asked me for my advice. I'll give you updates on it as we go along. I have lots of posts (about 70--why do I keep subscribing?) in my Google reader that I need to catch up on today. This is one of the gifts that I got for my birthday from my bff from college who lives in Boston. I saw it and thought "Oh great, something weird with incense sticks" but I put it in my foyer and it smells like absolute heaven every time I walk in my front door! Its a collection of high end perfumes, body creams, and bath salts etc. made by ElizabethW who is based in San Francisco. You should check out their line, I was pleasantly surprised.


Alicia B.

Who wants cake?

Too bad. You have to have had a birthday for me to make it! I ended up making THIS classic Yellow butter cake with Chocolate frosting yesterday (above). It was SUPER good although I had some issues with the frosting which were quickly remedied and the cake part wasn't as sweet as I would have hoped. Oh well, these things happen. This too shall pass. Try not to be so dramatic about it.

I really love photographing food!

Anyway, I'm not going to lie when I say that I completely nailed it and the birthday was a hit! Next stop: my surprise giveaway THIS WEEK!!!

Alicia B.

Let Me Eat Cake

How cute is this one? Very spring looking. No Bake Marshmallow Cake!

Let's take a break from design for a hot second, yes? I've been looking at some cakes lately for a special someone's upcoming birthday this Saturday. My assumed parameters are the following:

1) Cannot be healthy or a pie.
2) Must have chocolate in it
3)Cannot forget important ingredients like eggs or baking soda. This has NEVER happened before, I swear! (It's happened twice, WHATEVER.)


As any good Martha Stewart-ite, obviously I will be making this cake from scratch; that's not even a question. Here are my choices so far:

Okay I know this doesn't have chocolate but it DOES have ice cream so perhaps I could slip that one by him. Muah ah ah. This is a Martha Stewart Inside Out Strawberry Ice cream cake. It looks so fresh and yum.

This one looks INCREDIBLY rich. The Mexican Chocolate Cake is from Real Simple. And apparently this cake is "kid friendly."

This one is fighting for first place in my mind. Its just simple and beautiful and not too much work for me! Moist Devil's Food Cake. YARMMMMM.

There's truly no way that I'll be making this cake but I just thought it was funny. Burgers are somewhat of an addiction for SOME PEOPLE. HA. I found it at good ol' Betty Crocker.

From Cooking Light (love you!), this decadent Dark Chocolate Orange cake doesn't look "light" at all.

Hopefully in this endeavor, I don't end up eating all the dough and/or frosting myself before I put it in the oven! Does anybody have any other suggestions? I also looked at my secret love, Paula Deen's recipes but there are no pictures! Hmm.

PS: Possibly could be doing a surprise give-away next week. TRUST ME, it's really good! Look out for it!


Alicia B.