on a December day....

photo flashbacks....

around the city...

 

new year, night lights

on fifth avenue...

 

taking the sun

on broadway near w103rd

 

waiting, in white

on hudson....

 

holiday vibes

courreges soho

 

lite brite

after Thanksgiving.... 

on a country road...

 

Halloween, the gang's all here....

on Madison Avenue...

 

when orange is outnumbered

 

near 6th ave and 50th street...

lounge life

the standard hotel, meatpacking

 

orange is the new orange

meatpacking

 

mary cooks continued: Easter egg cake and frosting recipes

hi again, fellow quarantinistas!

so, i found a great photo of my mother's mini egg cakes and also haver her reply to the questions posed in my pre Easter blog post asking her for the recipe and frosting details.

https://fashion-is-love-nyc.blogspot.com/2020/04/mary-had-little-lamb.html

she writes from isolation with my father in New Jersey:

Hi,

The cake is a Dromedary pound cake (sadly extinct!) (she uses Betty Crocker now) 

The cookies are in the book--Veronica's Xmas cookies!  (referring to the cookies i asked about) 

The icing recipe is as follows: 

1 cup granulated sugar.

1/4 cup  unsalted margarine

1/4 cup shortening (I use Crisco)

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup milk

3 cups confectioner's sugar

1 1/4 t. almond extract

Food coloring

Combine first five ingredients in saucepan.   Bring to a boil over moderate heat, stirring  constantly.  

boil vigorously 1 minute.   Remove from heat.   Beat in XXX sugar  and  almond  flavoring until smooth.

Tint with food coloring as desired.  Cool 2 or 3 minutes or until icing is a good consistency to use.

Using fork to hold cakes, cover top and sides with icing.  If icing gets too thick to pour over cake, reheat a fews seconds in microwave!  

If Decorating tops of cakes with rosettes, use buttercream icing!     

For chocolate glaze I use Shirley's glaze :  

XOXX Mom

Mary's mini egg cakes, Easter, 2017

here as well is the recipe for Shirley's chocolate glaze: 

1 pkg. (4 ounces) sweet chocolate (German's) or

3/4 cup chocolate chips

1 Tbsp. butter

3 Tbsp. water

1 cup powdered sugar

dash of salt

1 tsp. vanilla

Break chocolate and melt with butter and water. Remove from heat. 

Beat in sugar and salt til smooth . Stir in vanilla.

and the buttercream icing is:

3 cups XXX sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1t. vanilla
1-2 TBSP heavy cream (or milk)

Cream together butter and sugar. add vanilla then gradually add milk to desired consistency.

p.s. she adds, if you are doing icing for fewer eggs (i made 55 last time) you can probably half the recipe. or use leftover to ice cupcakes when you make them. (it can be frozen).



and while we are at it, Veronica's Christmas Cookies recipe follows as per below.
if you cannot read it clearly, let me know and i can always type it out for you! it is obviously adaptable to Easter, Valentine's Day, or any holiday or occasion for which you have a favorite cookie cutter!

butter cookies recipe
mary, with her granddaughters abby and charlotte and my sister eleanor

really. mom?  55 mini egg cakes?!  extraordinary!
xx

Good Friday

on my walk up West End Avenue late yesterday afternoon, four blocks of flowers, each in various stages of bloom ...  

on west end avenue...

Happy Passover, Happy Easter to all...  stay home, stay safe! xx

and defiant daffodils on riverside drive...

baking bread

the recipes that follow are from the Daily Bread installment of Mary Cooks, a food memoir and recipe collection my family created together just over 15 years ago to celebrate my mother's 70th birthday. 

as a child, i loved the Casatielli, though i did not know its formal name back then.   it was my Uncle Richard who offered that detail when he shared the recipe for the cookbook project.  

as at Christmas, my Grandmother Marie made this for her family along with other traditional Italian treats.

to me, it indeed tasted like a buttery brioche and had the added magical feature of the egg tucked beneath the 'cross' of dough in the basket ...  

the Easter Braid was another favorite, with sugar glaze, lemon and raisins flavoring the bread.
this recipe is credited to one of my mom's friends in our  neighborhood.

my mother is famous for her cakes, too.

Easter in our house is traditionally time for the Lamb Cake, baked in a cast iron lamb shaped mold and decorated with marshmallow icing and coconut sprinkles, and for Glazed Egg Cakes, delectable pound cakes with either chocolate or marzipan glaze and decorative rosettes on top.  

i will feature those by the weekend as we move closer toward the holiday. 

wire baskets in my city kitchen along with a butter mold from my mom's collection....

stay home, stay safe. stay connected, 

xx

puffer, puffier, puffiest

uptown, downtown...

Hermes reve

Hermes, meatpacking...

wild times

on gansevoort street..

candy cane brigade!

near Radio City Music Hall ....

super shoppers

at chelsea market...

egg therapy...

Happy Easter, fashionistas!

Mendham, NJ

freight train freight train

NYBG