Hazelnut Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

You know when people ask you what camp you sit in: cake or frosting? Growing up, I had always considered myself a cake girl. I had always been the girl who scraped 90% of the frosting off cakes before eating. Turns out it was because I had only ever eaten grocery store cakes where the frosting was overly sweet, made with powdered sugar, butter, way too much food coloring...and nothing else.

Now that I'm older and know what good frosting tastes like, my answer would be "neither." I sit in neither camp. Because one without the other is incomplete. One without the other is nothing by itself.

Olive Oil Pound Cake with Meyer Lemon Curd

Phillip's sister is staying with us for a while; it's always nice having guests as we usually go exploring a lot more than usual. We've been showing her around town and this past weekend we spent a day walking around Red Hook. I love the area since it's so industrial and kind of gritty. Makes for good photo ops, especially if you're looking to shoot your next indie rock album cover.

We also took a tour of the Widow Jane distillery/chocolate factory. We wanted to grab some lunch beforehand and our food took a little longer to come out than expected. Consequently, we shoveled the food into your mouths in six minutes flat and proceeded to run as fast as we could with full bellies to make it in time for the tour. What a trip.

Blackberry & Peach Glazed Donuts

I got caught in the rain the other day. Pouring rain. Cats and dogs rain. I was trying to run one block to the subway and thought I could make it...I was wrong. The whole time I was carrying a large paper bag of mixing bowls, mason jars, and sprinkles that I had just purchased (the sprinkles for these donuts, of course!) and praying to the paper bag gods that the bottom wouldn't give out underneath me. Luckily I made it, and in hindsight it was a very refreshing change of pace from my usual routine.

Buttermilk Plum Swirl Ice Cream

Guys. This New York City summer is killing me. It is so humid, it makes the heat 100 times worse. This coming from a girl who grew up in Texas. But then again, I grew up in dry Texas where I got static shocked from door knobs and metal handles of all sorts. All. The. Time. I had this trick where before I would open a door or turn on a sink, I would wrap my sleeve around one of my hands and lightly tap the metal handle/knob/faucet in lightning quick speed as if I were a toad catching a fly. I'm not sure why I did it since it never prevented the shock, I guess it just lessened the unpleasant surprise. But I digress. It is humid here. Sometimes I get dolled up to go outside and I think to myself, "Summer, what is wrong with you? Why bother? Oh eff...your makeup is literally melting off your face..."