"Julie & Julia", Baking for the Teachers & Pumpkin Bread

Last Friday, I snuck away and caught the movie many friends have been encouraging me to see. I thought Julie & Julia was adorable. Meryl Streep makes an excellent Julia Child. I couldn't drive home fast enough to get my oven turned on and try something new. I adore how Julie felt she knew Julia simply from reading her cookbook!

I've decided to meet my daughter for lunch in her school cafeteria today and I have baked one of my famous lemon cake's to share with the staff. They seem to like it when they see me heading to the school with baked goods.

Later today I am going to make the pumpkin bread that I included in my recipe book. It's a good fall day for pumpkin bread. The only problem is the kids eat both loaves in no time. It's hard to resist warm from the oven with a touch of butter.

Such as Life!

Here is the cake I decided to bake for myself this morning to share with my family tomorrow on my birthday!

It's called Magic Mocha Cake and I suppose it doesn't look too magical from here except to say that the new pan I bought has a special insert so that there is a thick layer of fresh whipped mocha cream all throughout the inside of the cake.

The cake itself is a two layer double chocolate. The frosting is a whipped butter cream with white chocolate.

Many times when I bake a cake it is for a cake order I am going to fill so someone else gets the pleasure of eating it! This time my kids were very happy to hear they are the recipients of this one.

The 'such as life' comes in when I remember to mention that just yesterday I wrote about how much I like to sit back and 'reflect' on the good times while baking. As usual a little bit of reality always creeps in.

As I was whipping the frosting, the kids were busy running around the house and my attention was unexpectedly called away for a minute--the setting was on pretty high, I'd just begun the whipping. As I looked back not even a half minute later lots of the frosting had escaped from the bowl and covered everything from the wall, the counter, the floor, my clothes, etc..I think you get the picture.

Anyway, I have managed to get it all cleaned up and the cake is ready to roll for the celebration tomorrow. As always, more good times to come.

Good Times!

I think one of the reasons I love baking so much is it allows me a bit of time to reflect on the good times.
So much of life seems so busy busy busy and rush rush rush! When I have something baking in my oven, for the most part, I simply allow myself the gift to wait for it to finish. Instead of trying my hardest to multi-task, I'll often take a minute to put my feet up and reflect.
My birthday is Sunday and I recently bought myself a very sweet cake pan that I have had my eye on for a while now. Sometime over the weekend I am going to bake myself a yummy cake and reflect on all of my 'good times'.
Last year, I had a very fun birthday party to celebrate my fortieth--I guess this particular year I am looking for something a little more low key. We are having lunch with my mom on Sunday at one of my favorite restaurants in the Worcester area--it's not my favorite so much because of the food--although it is pretty good--but rather because of all the good times I can remember from going there.