Auld Lang Syne

When I was a kid, every New Years Eve was spent up at our family cabin in Whistler, British Columbia, a two-hour drive from Vancouver, from the early 1970s onward, when Whistler was still a ski-bum town with actual cottages and cabins, not multi-million dollar mega-chalets! We would eat my mom's famous "Beef Deep" (slices of roast beef in buns dipped in Au Jus) and plain ripple chips with French Onion dip, play board games or charades and listen to the local radio station, waiting for the first few bars of "Auld Lang Syne" to signal the ringing in of the New Year. Auld Lang Syne is one of my favorite songs. It's a real tear-jerker, that song. The adults would toast with wine or champagne and us little kids in our pyjamas would toast with bubbly apple cider (and occasionally dent a pot or two with some raucous banging with a wooden spoon) and everyone would hug and kiss and bring in good cheer. Now I sit here eating a box of organic raisins that was in my Xmas stocking, thinking back on 2008, the year Coco Cake was born.

This holiday season was a crazy one, but a fun one! Lots of nutty Coco Cake projects coming up in January, mainly my nephew's 1st birthday party, Totoro-themed! Above: The pink bags with cutie stripey tags were this year's baking gifts, spicy gingersnaps made by yours truly; the almond macaron with strawberry buttercream was one of my Christmas presents to my sis Leanne, who LOOOVES those crazy light, crispy/chewy meringue burgers. My first attempt at macaron! A dangerous move on Christmas Eve, but it had to be done. The rest is a small collection of some of the cupcakes that have streamed out of Coco Cake's kitchen in the last few weeks. Blue mint buttercream topped chocolate cake in silver wrappers and silver dragees were whipped up for a theme party; light green mint buttercream minis were tucked into gift boxes as a thank-you to staff at a computer company; and swirls of mint buttercream with crunchy peppermint candy cane sprinkles sat on top of moist chocolate cupcakes as a holiday gift to a busy hair salon. More to come, but for now...

HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Love,
L