It's been a while...

Wow. To say that a lot has happened since my last post would be a bit of an understatement, and to be honest I wasn't sure I'd ever post on this blog again. Between 8 hours of class every day and working on the weekends, I haven't exactly had a lot of time for extracurriculars. No one ever told me grad school was this hard...?
I've been uninspired and not feeling particularly enthused with my baking. Let me tell you, I've made a lot of chocolate chip cookies in the last six months - but that would make for some dull reading, don't you think? It's also easy to think that no one actually reads any of this, and I was writing for an audience of one.

But then - people started coming out of the woodwork to ask where I'd gone! Honestly, I'm very pleasantly surprised and flattered, and it got me thinking about giving this little project another shot. I think that with summer clinicals in sight (meaning a semi-vacation), I've let myself consider new, exciting and most importantly, delicious projects.

The best I can say right now is to stay tuned. Something new is coming soon, but I want to make sure it's quality stuff worthy of my lovely readers. Thank you all for making me feel so loved :)


Here's a little something to hold you over. You may remember that during my last year in San Diego, I worked at a little place called Extraordinary Desserts. The short version? They make ridiculously good (and complex) cakes. I was overjoyed when the owner Karen Krasne released a cookbook - Extraordinary Cakes - in October, but haven't had the chance to attempt any of these whopping creations until now.

Spring break seemed to mix well with tequila and lime, and the result was the Vallarta. Lime sponge cake brushed with a tequila simple syrup, then layered with lime pastry cream, lime curd and lime whipped cream. Yup.

This exquisite combinations of textures and flavors was perfect for a Mexican dinner party and margaritas with friends, but it was certainly a project that I wouldn't recommend to the faint of heart or those without hours to spend on several days prepping the different components.

For the recipe (all 6 pages of it), you have to get the book! Regardless, the gorgeous pictures of dozens of cakes are worth the price of the book alone.