Grab and Go Brownie Bites

Most supermarket bakeries have those family packages of mini-muffins or mini-brownies.  Usually in a grab and go format just as you enter or leave the bakery area.  One of our colleagues when shopping and grabbed some brownie bites and went.  These were actually pretty chocolatey and were definitely not the cake type. But they very good and lated a few days so no complaints!

Fresh from your grocers freez - er, bakery!

They look pretty good and in  fact were!

The cookies were on sale so why not?

Pepperidge Farms makes a lot of different and some would say iconic cookies - Milano for instance.  At a local store their premium brand of chocolate chip cookie selections was on sale buy one get one free. So we got one and got one for free! These were Farmhouse thin and crispy and they were indeed but not as good as Tate's which sort of got this whole thing and crispy thing going.

We got one free!

Good looking commercial product!

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL

It's Mardi Gras 2021 and as we have done in the past we had our little cake hour King Cake to celebrate courtesy of King King Cakes in New Orleans.  Yes, you can get just about anything shipped nowadays.

Straight from NOLA for Mardi Gras 2021

We opted for the regular King Cake which upon arrival needs to be decorated. So we added the icing on the top and sprinkled the traditional colors green, violet and gold.  Everything you need for the decoration comes with the cake.  

All decorated and ready to eat - but where's the baby?

The plain cake tastes great - what's lurking on the left edge?

As usual it was quite good and we all tend to like cakes that aren't too sweet and this is one of them.  The frosting adds the sweetness. Someone new got the baby!  It's nice to spread it around. 

Her first Mardi Gras King Cake baby!

Showing off the baby and some beads!

Lent is about to begin so in the meantime - Laissez les bon temps roulent!! 

Gong Xi Fa Chai - 恭禧发财

It's Chinese New Year and tomorrow begins the year of the Ox!  So we had our little celebration with traditional dumplings stuffed with pork and cabbage and then, of course, a cake!  The dumplings were made by two of our colleagues one from Harbin, China and one from Shanghai.  

The Year of the Ox!!

Sporting pandemic red for the new year!

The dish from our Harbinite was prepared with scrambled eggs and spices on top and then served with a homemade spicy sauce made from soy, ginger, garlic and hot peppers. The presentation was different but delicious as were the dumplings and the sauce.

Dumplings a la Harbin?  Great presentation!

This was sort of a last minute addition to our cake schedule so our Shanghai colleague did not have much time to prepare but nonetheless showed up with a plate of fried dumplings that were also very very good.

Dumpling Shanghai!

Getting a plate together

Not bad for lunch!

The cake was a yellow cake with some lemon curd type filling between the layers and vanilla butter cream frosting.  It was from Antonio's Bakery in Warwick and was very good.  We have to learn to leave butter cream frosted cakes out of the refrigerator because they are harder to cut when they are cold. 

Warwick Bakery that makes good stuff!

Looks nice and was good but not what was expected!

Although we enjoyed the cake, our Harbin friend who provided it was not very happy because it was supposed to be a whipped cream frosting.  We didn't mind but she was disappointed enough to take it back.  That was a surprise but supposedly the bakery was very understanding.  We'll find out for sure the next time we try to get a cake there!

When in doubt it's time for Tates!

Tate's chocolate chip cookies are becoming ubiquitous. We knew them and had them when they were a much smaller enterprise.  But what they do they do well so who care if they get bigger. They make a coof thin crunchy cookie that always comes through in the pinch...like today!

We've seen them before and we'll see them again!

Another cheesecake - what are we the Golden GIrls!

The Golden Girls always ate cheesecake to make themself feel better. I think we would give them a run for their money as to the number that we have had.  Today was a cherry topped cheesecake from the Vienna Bakery in Barrington. And a good looking cheesecake it was!  Thin crunchy bottom crust, thick creamy cake, bright red cherries on the top with a halo of whipped cream garnished with white chocolate.  It looked great and was very fresh and very good!  Eat your hearts out Blanche, Dorothy, Sophia and Rose!

Good looking cake to say the least!

The deep read color is really great!

The whipped cream and white chocolate make a great finish!