Latte art at Cafe Dolce in Missoula, MT

Got to love the latte art at cafe dolce! Aunt Kathy's favorite cafe in Missoula.

Banana Chocolate Loaf

Made with love, by Karla

Recipe: American Flag Cake / Fourth of July Cake

This recipe was inspired and adapted from recipes created by Cristina Ferrare and Ree Drummond. It seems like it's a real crowd pleaser and this version seems trifle-like.

Ingredients

• 6 to 8 packages of ladyfingers
• 2 boxes lemon or vanilla pudding mix
• 1 quart fresh whipping cream
• 1 T. sugar
• 1 T. vanilla
• 3 quarts fresh strawberries, rinsed, stems removed and cut up
• 2 quarts fresh blueberries
• 4 packages fresh raspberries
• Rum, optional

Directions
Make the pudding according to package directions, cover with plastic wrap and bring to room temperature. Add sugar and vanilla to the whipping cream and beat until stiff. Cover and set aside in the refrigerator until ready to use. Split open the ladyfinders and line the bottom of a 9x14 glass baking dish with the rounded side down. add a layer of pudding mix and spread all over the top of the ladyfinders. Add a layer of cut-up strawberries over pudding. Add another layer of ladyfingers, also rounded side down, and repeat the same process until you have 4 to 5 layers.

At this point, if you want to add a sprinkle of rum over the top for a bit of added flavor, go for it. (Do so sparingly!) Spread a generous portion of the whipped cream over the top of the cake evenly. Make 5 rows of 10 using blueberries to represent the 50 stars in the flag.

Fill a pastry bag with the remaining whipped cream with a tip to make ridges for the stripes, leaving about 1 inch between stripes. Do all the stripes. Take the raspberries and add them in between the ridges in a neat row close together to form the red stripes. Voila! You have your own yummy, edible American flag.

Peaches and Cream "Little Fellas" Cheesecake minis

Recipe and images to come :)

My Bridal Shower

The whole bridal shower gang!

Gorgeous cake! Black and baby blue are my wedding colors :)

Second view. Just amazing! Raspberry filling and lemon white cake inside!

The beautiful bride and her matron of honor, Amanda!

My Silly Barbie Birthday Cake

Destroyed a Good Will Barbie to make this cake. Totally worth it! The mold was from a baseball cake mold. It kind of looks like a tiered-dress. Not spectacular but it tasted happy :)

Ice Cream at Versaille

Versaille

Two seconds later, this chocolate cone ended up on the white shirt :(

Pastries in Lisbon

To continue subsidizing the creating of the "Salt Castle" in Belem, the monks made pastries after the salt trade dried up.

 

Num, num num

More num num num with a chocolate croissant

Ice cream on San Juan Island

While I was living in Kirkland, Washington my roommate Katherine and I decided to go up to the San Juan islands for the weekend. Much fun was had by all including an interesting bus ride to Pelindaba Lavendar Fields.

Katherine got Butterfinger ice cream. I went for the black licorice. Rockin' hard!

It's really, REALLY black! Love anise flavor.

High Tea in Victoria

My boyfriend Kevin took me out to high tea at The Empress. A very ritzy 4-star hotel in Victoria (in British Columbia, for those of you who don't know your Canada geography). We had an adorable table by the window. We got all gussied up (as you can tell) and had a wonderful date. This is us enjoying our tea and treats. Let's see: finger sandwiches, tarts, creams, fruit, biscuits and much more! Tons of cream for the tea! Fine china. I love to see Kevin's hand gracefully curved around the prim tea cup! I felt like Princess Di!

Review: The Willow Tea Rooms in Glasgow

Here I am sitting in a chair in the Willow Tea Room in Glasglow, Scotland. This tea room was designed by the famous artist, Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1904. Because I am a tea enthusiast AND an art enthusiast, I just HAD to check it out! 

Here's a view from outside the tea room. It was pretty well hidden, but then again everything seemed hidden or up a few flights of stairs.

This was the wonderful dessert I had (cough) for lunch: Earl Grey tea and a strawberry tart with a dollap of cream.