"here comes the groom..."

my friend mikael asked me to make his groom's cake for his wedding! this is my first groom's cake (mikael knows that, by the way) and i'm incredibly excited and honored. i'm also pretty nervous! and so, even though the wedding isn't until may 8th, i've already started practicing. i'm going to track the progress of the sample cakes, so feel free to comment, make suggestions, etc. and, if you live in nashville, i'd love you to try it. i pretty much always have one made :) 

i have no pictures of the first cake, but here is the second. it is a layer of chocolate devil's food cake, chocolate mousse, chocolate cheesecake, chocolate mousse, and chocolate devil's food cake. because it is a rich cake, icing is too sweet. so, for this cake, i topped it with the same chocolate bark that i dipped the strawberries in. while a great idea in theory, it was a disaster! the chocolate cracked every time i tried to cut a slice. so, i'm going to try another topping tomorrow. but for now, here was cake #2. 

i can't decide between one layer of strawberries...

or two...

"i just figured if i was going to make the world a better place i would do it with cookies..." -ana pascal, stranger than fiction

cooking has always been my go-to, my passion and my escape, an outlet for creativity and a doorway to hospitality.

 

if i've had a bad day, i want to go home and cook. bustling around in my kitchen makes me feel better. i pick an apron—i collect them—and a recipe, the suddenly world is at bay.

 

if i've had a really great day, the story is the same: i want to go home and cook. for me, cooking is a form of celebration. i commemorate special occasions with special recipes. joy from all parts of my life finds its way into pots and pans.

 

if a friend has a bad day, i want to cook for her. if a friend has a birthday, i want to cook for her. people come together around food. they open up and share. nothing pops the cork on a good conversation like a scrumptuous meal.

 

i never thought too much about cooking as one of my gifts, or even my calling, until recently. the things we are good at are often so close to home that we have trouble identifying them. unless they stop and compare, natural runners don’t realize that their longs legs and big lungs make them special. writers write because putting words on a page brings them pleasure. for artists to recognize their gifts and embrace requires friends, family, teachers, coaches, and mentors who have the necessary distance and objectivity to call out that distinctive talent.

 

starting lagniappe personal catering was, for me, a process of formalizing what i've already been doing for years. i love the structure and measurements involved with cooking. you have to be precise, or bread won't rise properly. too much salt ruins a dish, but too little leaves it bland.

 

yet, within that structure, i find plenty of room for creativity and improvisation: spices, flavoring, decorating, and the most important element of all, how people respond to a delicious, inventive meal.

 

i love how excited people get when they receive this gift.

"lagniappe" has always been a special word for me because o love giving gifts, and especially the concept of "a little something extra." meals can be a transaction, a routine need met without much thought, or they can be an experience, a stage of rich conversation, abundant laughter, heartfelt sharing, and deep intimacy.

 

my goal with Lagniappe is to help build that stage for other people, to bring that "little something extra," which is often missing.