Help! Baking a Birthday Cake Ain't So Easy.

This year the mini requested only one thing for her birthday: a cake free of eggs, nuts and seeds. She was very specific about her desires: it has to be the same cake for everyone. It has to be layers, with chocolate on every layer. And, of course, chocolate icing on top.

Mini tolerated the chocolate chips with the understanding that her mother would remove them all in order for her to be willing to eat it.

Poker Chick used New Year's Eve as an opportunity to "test" a cake. The one on the right was made thanks to the help of Vermont Nut Free chocolate as an ingerdient. Mmmmm. It's definitely the best egg-free chocolate cake she's had. So it is a contender. But not perfect. It tasted ok. But the texture of the cake itself could have been lighter. And the layers (there were two, with icing in between), were so thin, the whole cake was pretty much as tall as one.

And here's the other problem. This cake could serve 6 or 8 kids but not 20. How does one make a cake that looks as impressive as a store-bought "real" sheet cake with a recipe like this? And how does a "non-cook" do that? And by "non-cook", we mean the above is about the best this non-domestic girl could do, and it still took three hours.

Not to put anyone on the spot or anything, but we're hoping some of our allergy-mom friends can offer some been there, done that advice. Whether it be daring bakers, the allergic kid, nut-free mom, or anyone else, we're sure someone out there has been brave enough to bake a cake for a kid's birthday party.

Help!

A little rest

Poker Chick is trying to get some rest for a few days. Just a run-of-the-mill virus, but she didn't want you peeps to think she'd forgotten about you. Unless it's meningitis (which those recent commercials have gotten her thinking about, hmm....) she'll be back to her mocking self soon.

Allergy Mom Dilemma # 3,179

Today's issue: Someone gave the mini a gift. Very thoughtful, only it was a Princess oven bake-type thingie that has product with trace eggs and nuts in it. Why, oh why would you give the mini a real food present? Allow Poker Chick a moment to vent: ARGHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just want to whack my head against a wall!!!!!

OK, now that that's over with, we are faced with just two choices:
1) Say something to the parent (in which case, what?)
2) Say nothing, write a thank-you note, and regift it to someone who has no common link whatsoever.

Thoughts????

Putting it on Backwards and Wearing it Outside Does not Make it any Cooler, Peeps.

Below is a commercial for the new "must have" product. We say this because given the frequency with which it's been airing, it must be high in demand. Or at least have something worth justifing its healthy media budget.

Of course, you may be familiar with this product by its other, less popular, name.....The Bathrobe.

.....Barracuda!!!!

So Morimoto was crazy. The entrance to the restaurant looks like this:

Inside, it's like a giant old warehouse or something - kind of like a very modern and clean Iron Chef set, except you see at least a dozen sushi chefs working at the bar when you go in.

We had this waiter "host" us all night throughout our 10 or so different courses. He gave Poker Chick some sake, which she liked so much she actually wanted more sake instead of dessert. If you know Poker Chick and her love of all things dessert, that must have been some damn good sake.

He also had to explain the menu, particularly some of the weirder items like "blowfish: prepared three ways" (minus the killer poison), etc. And though she steered clear of that one, after a lengthy conversation as to whether or not they have fins and scales or not, she had a go at some Barracuda sashimi, fully expecting to wince and think it was weird. Shockingly, it was good.

Actually, everything was amazing. This was the first appetizer:
In case you missed it, that's tuna tartare with seven different toppings you "roll" it into. Tasty and fun! We would have taken more pictures, but we didn't want to be labeled as "hey!" "look at those cheesy tourists over there! never been to a celebrity/chef restaurant before!" Nuh-uh, we don't think so. Poker Chick likes to play it cool.

To top off a royally bizarre eating experience, Poker Chick was driven home by this guy, who proceeded to tell her the day she was born, followed by a joke, in Hebrew.

The oddest part of the day? We got a reservation the same day at this place. And another New York tradition bites the recession dust.