Yes. On rare occasions I have made food thankyous. Thank you for recommending me for MTPCCR (oh yeah, I need a letter again…), thank you for being seriously special folk in addition to being special co-workers, and thank you Student Services!! My first food thankyou was to Helaine (no foodphoto), who believed in me, connected me, and helped me realize my academic path. I think I owe you an “i’ve finally graduated” food thankyou. Let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we?
Here we have a box of treasures for those who wrote MTPCCR recommendations. I bought blank cards, and the boxes were lovely, so I put the cookies in them to give away. Inside I tucked two types of cookies, both sandwich. The pink are meringue, dipped in dark chocolate, and sandwiched together. The others are two flourless pistachio cookies – sandwiched and enrobed in dark chocolate. Both were tasty, and recipes were courtesy of a certain martha, in a love or valentines themed february volume.
Then, I had the pleasure of attending a wonderful evening of GRADS closure. I wanted to thank my friends/co-workers for helping me through a hard year. This is my modified family recipe for pound cake. No changes except I made them into little cakes (using that same texas sized muffin tin!). It worked. I think I also lowered the baking temp and cooking time. I made a meyer lemon curd, added blueberries, mint leaf, powdered sugar dusting, and a dollop of crème fraîche , and there was no turning back. Three generations of scott/robinson women went into this food thankyou. PS. Never forget the serenade!!
And finally, I made my mom’s caramel cake into baby cupcakes and topped them with marzipan shaped fruits and vegetables. In keeping with the theme of public health, I insisted that student services/SPH have their fruits and veggies with their dessert. This was really fun to make – the marzipan art was kind of calming to create. The key for fruits/veggies: beets, carrot, pear, banana pepper, lime, grapes, raspberry, strawberry, + orange.
Thanks, again!
Insomnisnack 
aaaaahhhhh!!! I was hoping this post was coming. All so unbelievably gorgeous.
I still look at those baby marzipan veggie cupcake photos ALL THE TIME. I’m basically obsessed with them.
Thanks! I have to admit I’m a bit obsessed with them, too. True to blog’s name, I think I was up to like 2am kneading food coloring into marzipan dough. The stain stayed on the chopping board for months after. It just popped into my head to make this version of my mom’s cake. I love little. It was so worth the effort, and now I have a fondness for working with marzipan – everyone wins!!
mmm caramel cake, best desert ever.
Anyone who has tasted my mom’s caramel cake knows its special powers. The recipe is from Southern Living, probably early or mid eighties. The caption reads, “There’s Chocolate and Caramel in the Cake”. The recipe is called a Brown Mountain Cake, and it is the most moist, light, chocolate-y cake, with a frosting made from beaten caramelized sugar + butter. One year to surprise my then girlfriend I baked one in ATL and flew all the way back with it in a cake carrier! I wouldn’t do that with just any cake (mini-shout out for the original food taster who survived my salt-lick eggplant and stayed seated at the table for subsequent dishes).
The caramel cake is pure heaven. I can’t believe we only get it once or twice a year. I may have to make one this weekend! Just to illustrate it’s powers, a family friend who had only tasted the cake once, insisted on getting the recipe so it could be the cake for his upcoming wedding! What a cake!!
[…] of you who have put to paper such kind words of support. I plan to muster another entry on food thankyous… Onward, […]