Fun

Xernay’s 18th Birthday Bash

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18th birthdays come but once in a lifetime.

So, in a few steps, I created a little enchantment on our dining table…starting with the bare table, I added color and then layers…

and finally….the cake.

Done with the iPhone and Hipstmatic using the John S lens and Ina’s 1969 film.

An Epic Cake

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The goal was to make a chocolate stout cake with butter cream frosting and chocolate ganache topping. My daughter started the process following Smitten Kitten’s recipe.

Ta-da…..here it is:

This is no ordinary cake.  THIS, is an epic cake.  It weighs 5+ pounds, it is 3 layers, each layer is smeared with butter cream frosting and the whole thing is laced with chocolate ganache. That’s right, I said 5+ pounds of cake here.

It began as these simple ingredients measured by the pounds.  And this doesn’t show the 4 cups of four [that’s 2 pounds] and 4 cups of sugar [another 2 pounds] required to create such an epic cake.  Are you getting the image of a serious pound cake slathered with buttery, cream chocolate frosting?

This image doesn’t not include the additional ingredients I purchased-see below

What really makes this cake epic, are several things.

  • First and foremost, our oven’s temperature isn’t working quite right. So, the cake was popped into the oven and after 10 minutes the cake started to crack.  After multiple attempts to continue the internal cake baking process, I pulled the cakes from the oven and  dashed to the nearby kitchen supply store to buy an oven thermometer. My daughter left for an appointment to work out at the gym and I watched the oven temperature rise and fall as I tried my best to get the oven to stay at an even 350 degrees. Once I reached that goal, I put the cakes back in to finish baking.
  • Second, I dropped the cake.  That’s right, during the additional baking, I was pulling a cake layer out of the oven and it literally slipped out of my hands, hit the counter [which contained most of the shattered cake layer bits] and the rest splatted onto the floor.   After much swearing, scrapping and clean up – buttery rich cake batter is a real b***ch to clean up.
  • Third, I ran out to the store to buy more ingredients: butter, chocolate, aluminum cake pans [as ours were partially full of half-baked cake #1], more beer and sour cream.
  • Fourth, I didn’t really read the recipe properly and accidentally added a little too much salt. I don’t know, someplace between the frantic dropping of the first round of cakes and trying to find the recipe [on my daughter’s computer]… I mis-read the quantity of salt and added a bit too much.
  • Fifth, we needed LOTs of friends to help us eat this cake.  A single slice was easily divided by 3 people.  I couldn’t even finish half a thin slice myself.

What have we learned from making this Epic Cake? Well, get the oven temperature to it’s proper degree. The thermometer helps. A newer oven would help even more.  Have extra ingredients on hand and ALWAYS read and re-read the recipe.

Oh, and I kinda like that little salty hint mixed into my 5+ pounds of chocolate stout cake. While I’m not sure I would make this cake again, I am sure I will continue baking.

Unstuck

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Unstuck from Unstuck on Vimeo.

Here’s a fun little app called Unstuck that was built to help you get ‘unstuck’ when you are working on a project or idea. After logging into the app, you are asked some questions concerning where and what you are stuck in. Just as one would do creating an online course this tool is broken down into objectives and steps. Unstuck is helping you get your game on and map out possibilities.

This is me looking into Unstuck

By determining how you are feeling in this stuck moment, this little app discovers the type of stuck moment you are in.  In my test I was a ‘Deflated Doer’ another time I might be a ‘Perplexed Planner’ or a ‘Fuzzy Forecaster’.  Once you’ve gotten this step complete, the app asks what type of stuck you are in and who it involves. You are then asked to type in an answer to the cause of your being stuck. [The app even gives you some prompts to help you.]

Then there is a fun little step where you sort through a deck of cards to figure out what you are thinking about with this issue and you are also asked about what 3 things you are doing-in this stuck moment. The final step is to answer a list of questions pertaining to the things you are doing because you are  stuck.

The app then analyzes your issue and offers advice. Read through what Unstuck offers, this is the fun of the app. I liked reading my ‘Stuck Report’ which helped me understand why I’m acting the way I am in this moment.  It evens compares you to the Unstuck community.

I think this app is probably as helpful-maybe more so- than randomly browsing websites or other procrastination tactics I might indulge in.   Try it for yourself. It’s nicely put together, fun to work with and might just help you.

NYC in DEC 2011

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We put on some miles trotting around the island of Manhattan the other day. We had a agenda and did divert from it upon occasion-due to weather and/or time.  We were focusing this trip on being vintage, thrifty and we had one artistic goal to see the Holiday windows and visit Lady GaGa’s Workshop at Barney’s.  Bottom line was, we only had 10.5 hours.

Beginning in Times Square, we traveled south, by subway, to the Chelsea Market.  Breakfast at The  Chelsea Market is summed up in coffee and bakery goods.  We indulged in the latter, twice.  Yum.  This old building is a destination onto itself and for future reference, remember the grocery store inside, quite inclusive.  There was also a nice vintage pop-up shop inside, a collection of vintage clothing booths which fit right into our theme.  Due to the strong winds,  we decided to table our High Line visit until the next trip to NYC and headed towards 17th Street.

In search of the Angel Street Thrift Shop, we did indeed find it and it too was quite a fun find. Then, we walked around Union Square, stopped to split a Bento box at a local Japanese restaurant on 17th Street and then headed to Shareen Vintage.  Last Spring, we got hooked on Shareen’s Planet Green Dresscue Me show, which lead to this and this.  What we didn’t expect, as we were buzzed into Shareen’s shop on 17th Street was to actually ‘see’ Shareen!  It was great, just like in the Dresscue Me show.

We were invited to pick out some dresses, so Shareen could get a sense of what Xernay was looking for.  From there, dresses slipped on and off, as Shareen worked with several customers at one time. During our chatting, we learned Shareen is a Smith alumi and said she really enjoyed her time in Northampton, MA.


Xernay ended up not getting a dress. Not for lack of dresses, Shareen has a wonderful, every-changing selection of stock [at really, really reasonable prices]. No, the colors were a bit too ‘wintery’ for the spring prom dress Xernay was searching for.  I’m sure we will be back and we’ll be sure to check Shareen’s Facebook to be sure, when we next go to NYC, it’s a time Shareen is at the store.

We then headed down towards the West Village. First stop, Jo Malone’s newest shop. It was in a charming little neighborhood and a nice little rest stop as we had walked from 17th Street south.  Then, we found Joe’s Pizza, which was your typical NYC pizza joint, quite tasty and a handy electrical outlet allowed me to recharge my mobile.  Evening  was starting to set in and we walked east through Greenwich Village and up to the subway.  A quick zip north and we departed into a whole other NYC-Uptown.

Then, it was a couple blocks walk over to Barney’s. We had gotten a block off track and popped into a wine shop to double check directions.  We got our answer from the cashier and were able to glance at the bottles of wine.  The lowest priced bottle I noticed was $350 and one of the highest priced was $3,500.  Wild.

And wild was one way to describe the 5th Floor of Barney’s and Lady GaGa’s Workshop.  Obviously, a lot of work and planning had gone into this.

However, I have to say I was slightly disappointed in Lady GaGa’s Workshop.  Not in the design of the display’s, but in the prices of the merchandise…I fear Barney’s will have a bit of ‘bargain bin goodies’ from GaGa.  It was fun, none-the-less to wander a bit in Barney’s.

Then, we were off again, south on 5th Avenue, pushing our way to the throngs of holiday walkers.  A taxi was out of the question as I knew we could get back to Times Square and the Port Authority Bus Terminal faster on foot.  We were moving pretty quickly and did make a last stop into Chipotle’s for some dinner to eat on the bus.

We got to the terminal and as we had left the terminal, in the morning, via subway-we didn’t know where our gate was.  The information booth was closed and we didn’t have time to go clear to the other side of the terminal to find guidance.  Then, from nowhere a non-uniformed man appeared and asked if we needed help. I was immediately skeptical yet did tell him where we were headed.  He said, “go down 2 floors and look for gate 82 or 83 to Hartford.” We thanked him and headed downstairs.  Sure enough, there was the gate for Hartford.  We caught our breath and as it turned out, the bus was late, so all our rushing was for not.

This was the first time we tried the PeterPan Bus line departing from Hartford, CT to NYC and I have to say the accommodations were nice: comfy seats and Wifi [slow, but workable].  However, the  scheduling was a horror. I purposely booked ‘express bus’ tickets online, for a decent price-when compared to the North Metro or Amtrak…but there is no control over the highway traffic and late buses are no fun. Our return bus was not the express I paid for and we stopped a 3 or 4 cities before getting into Hartford near midnight.

I think next time, we’ll stick to our drive to New Haven and train into Grand Central OR try the Amtrak from Hartford into NYC.  In any case, plans are afoot for the next trip to NYC.  We have yet to visit Candle Cafe, Bemelman’s Bar located in The Carlyle Hotel, we’d like to also do some looking and shopping at the Bowery Restaurant Supply Company, and we would also like to get over to Queens to Arzu Uygur Cafe. Getting to all those places might require a weekend in NYC.

P.S. I always look for something that inspires me and ‘speaks’ to me, when I visit NYC [and anywhere I’m exploring]  and usually it is color, clothing, events, food or something like that.  This time it really was the kind people we met all day. From bus drivers, to wait staff, special ladies in the shops, the woman who gave us subway directions, to the man at the Port Authority Bus Terminal.  I was so moved, I actually wrote to Mayor Bloomberg to let him know of our experience.  I thought it nice to share some good news. I know the mayor’s system received my email, as this was the confirmation that popped into my email inbox.

And, I did get a reply from Mayor Bloomberg’s Office.