Have you ever seen the movie 27 dresses? Don’t lie – I know you have, and I know you liked it!!

Well, yesterday I created my very own version of the movie, only it wasn’t dresses – it was cakes! On my 5th day interning at Charm City Cakes West, I baked 27 cakes!! 16 twelve inch sheet cakes, 4 fourteen inch squares, 3 six inch rounds, and 4 ten inch rounds, all vanilla. Unfortunately I cannot share any recipes with you, but I CAN show you a picture of a cake one of the girls made for a 40th birthday last week:

How cool is that? One day, perhaps, I will be able to do something like this too 🙂 I cannot tell you how amazing it is to be around so much talent – so inspiring! I am back in the bakery tomorrow, and will give you another update soon!

In other news, lucky girl that I am, I had the pleasure of having my lovely and beautiful Auntie Lissa visit from Toronto, followed a few days later by my father, brother and sister (Mama Lobley had to stay home to take care of our family dog, Romeo) from Montreal. Our days have been filled with laughter, and of course, lots of food. Red velvet cake, carrot cake, chocolate chip banana bread, blueberry muffins. Hm, that’s interesting – all desserts! Funny how that happens when you’re around me…

Last week we went to the Huntington Library to see the gardens and go for tea – UNREAL. You MUST go there if you visit or live in L.A. Check it out:

 

And last night, we went to Cafe Habana for fish tacos and more family time:

Not much more to report, so I will leave you with a recipe for Curried Cous Cous salad that I adapted from one of my favorites: Ina Garton http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/curried-couscous-recipe/index.html! This is the great thing about cooking – you can use recipes as your base, and depending on what you have in the house, you can adapt accordingly!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups couscous
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt (I used sour cream)
• 1/4 cup good olive oil
• 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric (I omitted this because I didn’t have any)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup small-diced carrots
• 1/2 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley (I used cilantro because it’s all I had on hand)
• 1/2 cup dried currants or raisins (I used raisins)
• 1/4 cup blanched, sliced almonds
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced (white and green parts)
• 1/4 cup small-diced red onion

Directions