Welcome Spring Meal

Today was my Good Friday vacation, and to celebrate the arrival (calendar) of Spring I made a Welcome Spring meal.

I woke up this morning and began baking my petit fours. I had picked up some lovely Barefoot Contessa preserves and marzipan to make the little cakes with. First, I made the cake. I used my standard white cake recipe with my Tahitian vanilla. It's a one bowl batter that's nicely moist.


After the cakes cooled, I could cut them into smaller ones. Then I cut the cakes in twos or threes, to make layers. Every layer had warmed preserves, and always one of the layers had marzipan coated with jam (on both sides) to make it all stick.


The final step was to cover all sides with icing (known as liquid fondant). Unfortunately, my patience was wearing thin by the time the icing stage came around, and I couldn't get the icing to flow properly down the sides. So, my petit fours are light in the icing department - which I sorta like. Next time I will use very thin icing, and try to help it along with a knife on the sides. They are very tasty though a bit rough around the edges.


For dinner, I made a nice green salad with radicchio and baby arugula and some yummy homemade mustard-lemon dressing. The main was roast chicken (herb butter on and under the skin, lemon and garlic in the cavity), with potatoes (three types: red, white, & yellow), parsnips, and steamed asparagus. Super super yummy. I got a fresh organic chicken, which was super tasty and tender.



Happy Easter weekend!