The First One for Heather and Michael: December 2008

Friday the 12th was the Christmas Dinner and Desserts night for Information Services. We went to Yellow Belly Brew Pub for the dinner and back to Bernie's for desserts, tea, and coffee after.

For the desserts I made a gigantic cake, which Heidi and I found in Bon Appetit magazine. Wow. Was it ever rich and decadent!!! Imagine if you will four layers of devil's food cake, chocolate ganache and white chocolate peppermint cream between each layer, and a marshmallow peppermint frosting covering the entire thing. Our cake dome was not large enough to fit over the top even before the cake was frosted!!! And the amount of time it took to make this creation? 3-4 hours to bake the cake and prepare the fillings on Thursday evening, and then at least 2 hours on Friday making the frosting and assembling the darn thing.

It was delicious, but certainly not something to make for less than 12 people!!!

If you want to make the cake, the recipe is available on the Epicurious web site:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Devils-Food-Cake-with-Peppermint-Frosting-350770

Today (December 19th) is both the QEII Library Christmas luncheon and my last day at work before I leave for Christmas holidays and then go right into maternity leave starting January 5, 2009. It feels so strange to be sitting at my desk and have it be so bare. When I return in January to show off the baby, there will be someone else sitting here. And with the end of my contract coming while I'm on maternity leave, I have no idea if I'll even be coming back to this particular desk. It's very, very weird.

But enough of the writing and wistfullness! Time for pictures from the 12th - and especially (as it's become known in the office) "that cake"!!!

Wendy and Karen