Fresh lemon pound cake

Babies are cute and adorable but they’re also a handful – their moms usually do not have time for anything else but them. A very good friend of mine is the mother of a beautiful baby boy and when she invited me to first visit her son I knew I could not go empty handed: besides a present for the baby I brought a freshly baked cake for her, too (which she told me later made a wonderful breakfast)

Cinnamon pound cake with macadamia spice ribbon + "A Single Man"

Keeping up with my 2012 film goal, I watched “A Single Man” last night and what a surprise it was for me: I already expected something good – Colin Firth and Julianne Moore can do no wrong – but the movie is so visually striking that I felt like writing Tom Ford an email, asking him to make another movie soon.

*spoilers*

I love the way Ford works with the colors: a friend of mine called it “

Frangipane ripple chocolate pound cake

I love almonds – they’re my favorite nut. But for far too long I avoided recipes that called for almond paste because I’ve never seen the ingredient around here. Then it suddenly hit me: if I made eggnog from scratch for a pound cake recipe, why not almond paste? I do not know why it took my brain so long to come to that conclusion. :)

The homemade almond paste – recipe from this gorgeous book

Dulce de leche pound cake

As I was updating my list of books – a couple of new additions as I told you a while ago – I kept thinking of ways to make it more functional and interesting: therefore, I’ve changed it a bit. I hope you all like it.

Oh, aside from books, there is cake here today, too – and it is absolutely divine. :)

Dulce de leche pound cake
slightly adapted from O, The Oprah Magazine

1 ½ cups (340g/3

Elvis Presley’s favorite pound cake + my role choices if I were an actress

I don’t have any talent for acting but if I’d become an actress I would be interested in complex roles, characters full of layers; I would not want to play the girl next door – no, sir; I would like to be Alex Forrest, Isabelle de Merteuil, Patricia Hewes (yes, I love Glenn Close), Ada McGrath, Marla Singer, Mary Magdalene, Sarah Pierce; Sister Aloysius Beauvier, Nina Sayers, Lisbeth Salander –

Peanut butter pound cake with coconut topping

Like the lovely Nina, I am, too, a pound cake addict: they are simple to make, taste great – and stay that way for a good couple of days – and after that can be turned into delicious toast.

This cake is fantastic and the topping is just as good – I “accidentally” left some in the pan after icing the cake and had to eat it with a spoon. :)

Peanut butter pound cake with coconut topping
slightly

Chestnut pound cake

A very dear friend of mine got me a package of chestnut flour as a gift – yes, we’re the kind of people who love giving/getting food as gifts. :)

I have never seen that flour around here, and the minute she gave me the package she said: “make Alice Medrich’s chestnut pound cake as soon as you can”. I did as I was told – four times already, to be honest – and I’m forever in debt with my friend: