Aloha from Brandon, in cake form

After four hours, I have just finished decorating one of the fanciest cakes I've ever done. I'm taking a cake decorating class at Michael's, and although it's a bit basic (they have designed the first course for people who have never before decorated a cake, and there are some in the class like that), I've learned some new things. These include the recipe for white icing that uses vegetable shortening and gets solid without getting hard, how to flatten and torte a cake properly, and how to use some of the odder icing tips in my arsenal. The cake is to celebrate my dad's wedding - I'm planning to show up with it at his house for the pre-wedding fiesta tomorrow. The wedding is Hawaiian themed, and so is the cake. I did the hibiscus in a smooth, colouring-in technique that I'm not sure I'd use again, but it's good to know. What I did learn that was valuable is how to transfer a pattern; you find an outlined pattern, trace it onto parchment, turn that over and trace along its mirror-image with decorating gel (like Dairy Queen uses), and then put that on the top of the cake and press it in with a paint brush. Then when you lift off the paper, it's just a matter of colouring. The palm trees were super fun and let me use some of the tips I've never tried before. Ditto for the grass.The cake itself is butter pecan (mix, I'm ashamed to say), with a rum butter pecan filling.

Ham - Asparagus Rolls

The other day, my Dad sent me an email to let me know that he and my Mom were eating one of my favourite dinners (ham and asparagus rolls) while I was in England, probably eating some form of fish and chips or other, equally English food.

My mother has a row of asparagus that's as long as their house, so I ate a lot of asparagus as a kid, I guess. To be more exact, I ate asparagus at pretty much every meal in May and June for most of my life. It's a flavour that grows on you, really. But because asparagus was so plentiful and free at home, I kind of resent having to pay for it now. So I don't eat a lot of asparagus anymore.

On my lunch break today, I walked in a torrential downpour to the Wednesday market. I found some resonably priced asparagus (which I still resented having to pay for) and some un-labelled mystery-cheese at a really good price. So I bought them both, and here is how I combined them:


Ham Asparagus Rolls
(recipe from memory, with alterations to suit my new English environment)

as much fresh asparagus as you can handle
250g smoked, rindless back bacon
Coleman's mustard
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup cheese, grated
spring onions

Arrange the bacon on a grill pan, and spread each slice with a scant amount of mustard. Grill (broil) until the bacon starts to brown at the edges. Remove them from the oven, and cool so you can handle them. Wrap each bacon slice around 4-5 stalks of asparagus. Arrange in a casserole dish, and repeat until all the asparagus is used. It's ok to pack it in tight, but try to keep it to a single layer.

For the cheese sauce, make a roux of the flour and butter. Add the milk slowly, whisking to incorporate. Simmer until thickened to a sauce-like consistency. Stir in the cheese. Pour this over the ham and asparagus rolls, and top with chopped spring onion.

Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes, til the top is browned and the asparagus is tender-crisp. Serve hot over toast.