This was my son’s birthday cake this year; he is into Minecraft nowadays. The cake seems pretty simple, isn’t? Well, it is not. The difficulty is to be able to attach all these tiny squares to the cake and meet your deadline. It’s not a topper that you can make in advance and stretch the process over days; you have to do it fast enough to serve the cake still fresh. It took me 24 hours straight – a day and a whole night (what can’t a loving mother do for her child…). So, if you are thinking about recreating this idea, find a helper who would do pig’s rear while you are gluing squares to its head.

Inside was a lemon cake moistened with lemon syrup and filled with gentle color of pink strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream to match the pig’s exterior. The size of the pig’s body was 8″x5″x4″ and the head was a 4″ cube – an enormous surface to cover with tiny mosaic pieces, beware!

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Since a long time ago this liver pâté recipe from an old issue of the Gourmet magazine has become a staple in our house. It makes a lot, but since it keeps so well and can be frozen I prefer to make a bigger batch. It’s nice to give a little ramekin to your guests to take home with them (it’s always appreciated and never declined).

I like to pair the pâté with sweet and spicy walnuts and figs poached in red wine. The taste combo is unbelievably good and the presentation is very attractive.

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

This is a little seasonal twist on the traditional pastries. The filling is eggnog-flavoured pastry cream, lightened with a bit of whipped cream. If you wish, you can dip the tops into caramel or chocolate glaze, but even plain and unadorned the cream puffs taste great. They are easy enough to be put together on a short notice if needed, but also can be made in advance (all the components) and only assembled the day you plan to serve them.

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Recently I had a rare opportunity of making a cake for a twin-baby shower. Not only I had a pleasure of baking and decorating the cake for the event, but I was also invited to the party. Who would have thought that sleepless nights and worrisome care of two newborns could have such a wonderful beautifying effect on the mother! Eva, you do look fabulous and the little ones are absolutely adorable! My very best wishes to you and your family!

I tried to match the colors of the fondant and the insides of the cakes. The bottom tier was a lemon cake soaked in Limoncello syrup, filled with raspberry preserves and pink color fresh raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream. The upper tier was the same lemon cake, but filled with lemon curd and vanilla bean SM buttercream. Yellow and white looked nice with pale-blue fondant.

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These are super easy and quickly-done (provided you’ve made the puff pastry in advance or bought it) cookies that go well with ice-cream and fruit salad.

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The World Eater is now facing danger to be eaten!

When we asked our son to make a wish-list for his upcoming birthday, the only thing he wrote there was to have an Alduin cake for his birthday party. Under no circumstances could I decline his request. It turned out by far the most time consuming project I have ever endeavored. Aside from its complexity, it was also my very first attempt in air brushing (I got this toy on my own birthday a few months ago, but didn’t dare to start using it until now, so Alduin also served as my guinea pig. And, oh boy, did I love it, despite the fact that my whole kitchen is now colored in a gentle brown-silver hue).

The cake itself and the dragon was my attempt to reproduce a sculpture from a set of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Collector’s Edition (a computer game by Bethesda). I started making it using photos I found on the internet. Later, when we purchased the set, I realized that my pretty birdy was getting way too big, almost twice the size of the statue. To make the whole thing proportional, I had to scale up the size of the cake itself. It was made of four 13″x18″ sheets of chocolate cake, soaked in strawberry syrup, and sandwiched with bittersweet strawberry ganache (5 lbs of chocolate). Alduin’s core is made of modeling chocolate. His scales, horns, and spikes are made from gum paste. The double-sided wings are half-and-half (fondant/gum paste). His eyes are Swarovsky crystals. At first, I planned to make them edible from isomalt, but these ruby-like gems were so perfect in their brightness and size, so I changed my mind. I knew Tim would never ever let anybody have a bite from Alduin, so a couple unedibles seemed OK.

On the stone it says “Happy Birthday Tim” transcribed in Dragon alphabet. The script is also by Bethesda. In the game, the runes mean “shouts” or special magic words that suppose to help the player to defeat the dragon.

Tim loved his cake. Seeing his happy lit face was priceless. I hope my dragon turned out recognizable enough, and gives its justice to the famous dragon. I have never been a computer game junkie myself, but this one got me hooked, I have to admit. The Skyrim is amazing, gorgeously designed game, and absolutely deserves the title the best game of the year of 2011.

P.S. I thought I was so clever and original in making the cake as the Collector’s Edition statue, but it’s already been done by Charm City Cakes (aka Ace of Cakes) for no less than Bethesda itself.

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