Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Have you ever dropped a Tiramisu?

Our cake person today went to Lasalle's Bakery and picked up one of their Tiramisu cakes. She wanted it because she thought it was pretty!!  Indeed it is as the picture from the website shows. With two chocolate dust stars and a nice rim of lady fingers it looks great.  Once you purchase a cake it is always best to carry it on the floor of your car where it will be relatively stable.  It is NOT a good idea to carry it on the seat of the car which tends to lean one way or the other.  It is also very susceptible to sliding onto the floor which our colleague discovered the hard way.
Someone went to Lasalle's!
This is what we were expecting to see!
As you can see, it is no longer that nice round shape with the circle of lady fingers. It was smooshed into an oblong shape against one side of the box.  Our friend was mortified and ran back to get a replacement cake.  That was very nice of her but we remained undaunted by the seeming demise of the tiramisu.  With a little care we managed to slide it away from the side of the box to the center of the cardboard plate it was on.  We tried to reshape it to the circle but that was not going to happen.  Instead we just cut it in slices as much as we could and just served it up. No one had any problems with the deformed slices and it tasted just as creamy and good as any of the previous ones we have had from Lasalle's. So the lesson is there is no need to panic if something goes awry with your cake hour treat.  As long as it stays in the box we'll prop it up and eat it.

And this is what we found after it fell onto the car floor!
We managed to get it back to the center.

We couldn't reshape it any more than this!

So we just cut it up and served it anyway!
The replacement cake thus proved to be unnecessary.  It was a good looking fruit flan from Lasalle's and we saved it for the next day!

Another great cake from Lasalle's as backup!

Great looking flan!

Colofully decorated with fresh fruit!

Friday, June 13, 2014

Kolorful, Kichigai and Krazy, la Loquita moves on

Time for another sendoff!!  This time it is la Loquita as was known to call herself - the crazy one as it were.  It could also mean the loquacious one which would also be applicable. As a neuropathology fellow our honoree settled here to get some research and lab experience - we think!  I believe that was the plan anyway but I'm not sure how the whole thing worked out. Nonetheless for the time she was here she was active, gregarious, colorfully dressed and quite a bit of fun.  Even if she did eat gravel and bark for a considerable portion of the time that her presence graced us. We are sad to see her go but realize another chapter is beginning..or will begin when she lands a job in her new specialty.
La Loquita gets the party going! 

Colorful presentation for a colorful person!

Every lady likes an orchid!

As I mentioned she was colorful so we decided to celebrate her that way. We gave her an orchid and a basil plant, some wine to toast her and her future, and a multicolor card signed by as many as possible.
Some wine and Basil??
Either it's a greeting card or a ransom note!

A toast on your head!
Down the hatch!

Finally there was a cake...of course. A multicolored fruit tart that unfortunately contained kiwi thereby preventing her mentor from having any. But it looked good. It was from Whole Foods and we have had them many times.  It was fresh and flavorful.  There is a layer of pastry, topped with pastry cream and then the fruit is embedded therein.  There may also be a coating of unflavored, clear gelatin to bind the fruit together.  It doesn't do that great a job with the blueberries which tend to end up all over the place when this is cut.  Cutting it was a challenge since there was a large turnout but everyone got a small slice, not much more than a Keyla piece. 

A familiar fruit tart!
Also very colorful!
If you were lucky you got this much!
 And so, La Loquita, best wishes para un futuro brillante! BTW she had a habit of speaking in two languages at the same time. She was from Peru after all, I mean Bolivia, no VENEZUELA!
A selfie for the road!
And a final show with the cake hour gang!