Somewhere, beyond the sea

I've always liked that song, and Frank Sinatra in general. Not that I'm a huge fan of his music in and of itself, but rather because it's one of those artefacts that pulls off the nifty trick of being so of its place and time that it almost forcibly drags you there (and then, I guess). Also, and importantly, for the truly abysmal karaoke vocalist (singer would be stretching the truth here), you can always get away with a Sinatra song by trying to copy his rhythms if you can't actually keep a tune. If you're unfortunate enough to be both tone deaf and arrythmic, just try and sing while holding a martini and wearing a tux with an untied bowtie around your neck.

Despite the laboured introduction, I actually thought of the titular song when viewing Lisa's ocean cake, which she made for the birthday of one of our oldest son's friends from school. The birthday girl had a definite sense of occasion - not only did she bring multiple outfits, but she showed up late to the pinata whacking as she needed more time to accessorize, and her pinata tiara was proving difficult to set correctly in her hair.

The cake was a mermaid themed. Lisa used fondant to make an ocean effect over multiple layers, and then sculped some fondant mermaids along with a lot of friendly sea life. Not to talk myself up here, but I did help with the crab, so I'm going to have to include some prominent shots of that. She managed to pull off the rest without my assistance. I've also included a picture of my youngest. I think he liked the cake too.

But cakes aren't all...

So last night we had dinner with some friends who put out a rather lovely spread for us. I'm not really an exhaustive list guy, but folks who go to the trouble of making cornbread, collard greens (with two kinds of hot sauce), pork and beans, corn on the cob and barbecued steak strips really ought to get some sort of recognition, and I guess that a shout-out on 'she bakes cakes' is, if only barely, some sort of recognition. The eponymous she of the blog title made a rather delicious strawberry and rhubarb pie, which went down rather well with some vanilla ice cream. I'm afraid that the time between baking and consumption did not allow for a photography session. I'd like to be able to appease you, the masses hungry for pictures of pastry, with a photo of a cherry pie that she made last month. We took the boys cherry picking in Brentwood, where we discovered that (i) it's not that hard to gather 24 pounds of cherries, and (ii) all of those $900K mansions we drove by last year are now priced to sell. $450K now gets you an enormous house, with proximity to stone fruit, chickens and empty elementary schools, along with a 90 minute commute to SF. We're considering it - the peaches are that good out there.

But, no pictures of that either. We eat fast around here. So instead I provide a generic pie photo (Lisa's are better) and a lovely five bedroom three bathroom testament to fiscal imprudence and the vicissitudes of life.

Drumroll please

As per the subtitle of this blog, I'll be posting when it strikes my fancy, with no real focus other than the occasional photo of my wifes cakes. And cupcakes. And, if you're lucky, pie. She bakes good cakes, and you, fortunate reader, get to look at them.

Given that she's been baking cakes rather longer than this blog has existed, there's actually a backlog of baked goods to post, but all in good time. I can use this surplus to post in the fallow times, when birthdays are few and far between and I can barely remember the almond smell of fondant.

So, without further ado, here is a train cake that we made for my 3 year old son's birthday a few months back. It's the perfect baked good for the hypoglycemic trainspotter in your circle.