Pastry Wednesday: Gourmandise's Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake

Our newest member, Colonel Mustard, brought his first pastry for Pastry Wednesday.

Apparently, he fretted over his decision for weeks.  I think we scared him when we told him it would be near impossible to find anything that Sugaraholic hadn't tried yet.  Sugaraholic has tasted a lot of pastries in the valley!

He finally decided on this cake: The Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake from Gourmandise.

CM was all excited to share his choice; however, our actual Pastry Wednesday meeting didn't go down.  We were all swamped at work, so we each got a piece of cake in a plastic bag for later.

Cake in a bag for later.

It's layers of chocolate cake, white cake, raspberry mousse and dark chocolate mousse.

Look at those layers!

It's topped with fresh raspberries and chocolate vermicelli (i.e. chocolate sprinkles).  I've never gotten it as an entire cake, so I've never had the sprinkles before!  Fun!

Vermicelli = sprinkles

I love the beautiful designs on top drawn in chocolate and the plump raspberries atop each piece.

I wish I had a picture of the entire cake...this will have to do!

When I got around to eating my piece of cake in the late afternoon, I was reminded of two things:

1. Gourmandise knows how to make cake SO very well. 
2. Mousse kicks buttercream frosting's butt!  I am a big fan of the lightness of the different mousse layers versus a too-sugary, too-sweet buttercream icing.  

We all agreed that this was an excellent inaugural pastry choice by Colonel Mustard!  But you may want to see how he did and try for yourself!

Gourmandise Bakery

250 South 300 East

Salt Lake City, Utah

Miss E's styling for her Cozy Winter Social

This last weekend, my good friend and fellow blogger, Miss E from Made on Main, invited me and a group of friends to a little soiree--A Cozy Winter Social--while her husband was out of town for the evening.

How could I not go?  It's got my name in it!

I'll let her give more details on the party, but I just wanted to show some of her lovely styling--I loved it all!

The ambiance was definitely cozy; she had strung lights and this adorable banner of small flags made of felt throughout the room.

It was so cozy!

(I apologize for the bit of fuzziness--there wasn't much light for great picture taking!)

When we first entered, there was a cute sign-in table with name tags with a "getting to know you" section. We had to complete a prompt sentence on our tag to help get conversations started, since we didn't all know each other--brilliant!  

My tag was about my worst date ever--now that's a great conversation starter!

The sign-in table!

I love that little owl.  Miss E has a pattern tutorial on how to make your own here.  I wish I would've won it during the prize drawing at the end of the evening.

I want this owl.

Last thing I wanted to show--the table of hors d'oeuvres!  Ah! Delightful!

It was almost too pretty to eat!

And these cupcakes!  The white/gray/baby blue combination was perfect!

Delicious and pretty!

It was so fancy and we all had a wonderful time.  I can't wait to hear Miss E's report on her successful little shindig!

The Cozy Winter Socialites!

Obsessed

We discovered Robyn this weekend.  I saw her music video for Call Your Girlfriend on another blog I follow and I showed it to Lee.

Then I showed him another video of a guy from the SNL writing cast busting out all Robyn's dance moves in a teeny tiny room.

Then I found this other group, Erato, that did their own take on Call Your Girlfriend.

We watched her music video and all the creative variations about a half dozen times a day over my birthday weekend and this week.

I say we're a little obsessed.

Lee says we're just "fans".  According to him, we're not obsessed because we "don't know her birthday and don't have a lock of her hair".

Suuuuure, Lee.

On a side note, Lee has been practicing some dance moves.

For Cheese Idol.

It's going to be awesome.

Just sayin'.

Anyway, if you're bored still, here's another of Robyn's songs. Lee likes her Swedish accent--she says "fwiend" in the first line.  He's been playing that first part over and over again and just giggling.

Lucky ducky!

It was my birthday last weekend.

I have always liked my birthday--it's a bright spot for me in the middle of the dreary Utah winters.

I wanted to remember how lucky I am, so here's my highlights list:

• My co-worker and I share a birthday, so I brought s'mores cupcakes to celebrate.  It was like bringing treats in elementary school!

The marshmallows still need to be toasted.

• The Utah Symphony, Andre Watts, Beethoven and Rachmaninoff! Oh my!

• Shoveling snow on Saturday at the apartments.  It was beautiful!

• Lee making an amazing dinner and later sporting fake mustaches with my sisters and The Hot Scot.  Lee took the picture since he already has a mustache.

Yay for fake mustaches!

• A pizza party at Sicilia Pizza with a lot of my friends and family

• Having yummy cake and taking pictures of the cake with Instagram on my iPad!

I am so lucky!  I have the best husband, the best family, and the best friends in the world. Seriously!

Leland treats me so well!

Thanks to you all for the birthday wishes and for making my birthday so awesome!

I am one lucky girl.

Seattle and Your Travel Suggestions

Here's another one of my New Year's Resolutions.

This resolution came around because of my work.  I started working full time last year in April. Before that, I was happily working 20 to 30 hours a week. When I had that sweet work schedule and Lee was in school, we would go on a lot of short trips whenever we could fit it in.  It was great.

Then I started working full time...which is great.  Don't get me wrong--I love my job and the people I work with. However, it really puts a damper on just up and traveling somewhere whenever we please.  

Which brings us to my/our next resolution: Go somewhere once a month.  It can be near or far--just somewhere to help keep that travel itch well scratched!

In January, we went to Seattle.  I know, I know--going somewhere kind of cold and dark in the middle of winter doesn't make too much sense, but I've been wanting to go back with Lee ever since my trip with Mom K there while Lee was hiking Mt. Rainier a couple years ago.

Lee and I had a blast.

Here are 12 things that we loved about Seattle:

1.  The giant popsicle sculpture we happened to find on a walk one evening at 4th Avenue and Blanchard in downtown Seattle.

It's ginormous!

2. The Mecca Cafe for a good greasy spoon diner breakfast (526 Queen Anne Ave N in Seattle).

I love breakfast!

3. Hanging out with our good friends, Kararara and her husband, the Scandinavian.  And the Daily Dozen Doughnut Company in Pike's Place Market.  A) Our friends are wonderful.  B) The mini doughnuts are to die for.  Add A + B together, it's pretty much the awesomest thing ever.

The Scandinavian and Leland

Kararara and the doughnuts

4. Finding Sunny Day Real Estate on the big map which connected all these musical groups back to Nirvana at the Experience Music Project Museum.  Lee loves SDRE!

Sunny Day Real Estate and Fire Theft...great bands!

5. The fact that it snowed in Seattle and shut everything down while it was nice and sunny in Utah.

At the Westlake Center watching the snow come down

At the Cakespy Shop...closed!

6. The Crab Pot on the pier. Fun to get messy!

Lee and his leeeelte fork!

7.  The Wishing Chair in the Smith Building.  Apparently, the last Empress of China was good friends with the owner of the building, Mr. L.C. Smith of Smith and Wesson fame.  As a gift to him, she decorated a room on the 35th floor, and one piece of furniture she sent was the Wishing Chair.  Apparently, if any unmarried woman sits in it, she will be married within the year.  I am not sure what it does for those who are already married, so we just made a wish when we sat down.

Plus, we got to see the room when the tour was actually closed because of the snow and ice. The door man and elevator hop felt bad for us, so they let us go up for a couple seconds to take a picture!

There is phoenix and dragon carved into the chair = marriage for single women!

8.  Piroshky Piroshky at Pike Place Market.  Having both served church missions in Russia, we appreciated the authentic piroshkies, one with cabbage and the other with potatoes and mushrooms.  Makes for a nice snack at the airport.

These are fancy!



The Russian eating his Russian food


9.  Pike's Place Market. Yeah, I know--it's a tourist trap, but I love it. I love how crazy it is there...it reminds me of Russian markets.  And I love the pig statues.  And the flowers. And the fruit. And the samples. Even the gum wall in Post Alley. Love it all!

Leland cheeseball smiling.  He never does that...weird.

10.  Taking in the Seattle skyline at night from the Space Needle with Lee.

Gorgeous!

They also take these pictures of you before you head up to the Observation Deck. You can choose a background for your picture and send yourself a free copy, which you can conveniently post in your blog!

I am trying to pull off a Russian smile and Lee is trying to be smarmy.

We're such cheeseballs!

11. Dim sum at the Dim Sum King in Chinatown. And seeing a white girl that was dressed like a crazy Asian at the Chinatown metro stop (weird!).


Yes, those are chicken feet.  They're a delicacy.  Ask Lee sometime about his first time eating chicken feet.



Yes, Lee totally got a picture with her.

12.  Getting to spend some needed time with Lee and having a fun, fun time!

Here we are, waiting in line to see Laser Daft Punk at the Pacific Science Museum.  Lee was trying to get the Space Needle in the background, but it just wasn't working!

We love love Seattle!


But we need help, dear readers! We now need a place to visit for February.  We want to go somewhere close, somewhere we could drive to since February is more than half gone and we'd probably make a day trip or overnighter of it. 


Where would you suggest?  What should we see and do there?  More importantly, what should we eat while we're there?  Anyone want to come along?

Our Valentine's Day Cards

We feel that Hallmark just doesn't do justice to our love for one another, so we made each other Valentine's Day cards.

From me to Leland:

I love you like a rock star.

Well, not the rock star kind of love that involves drugs and alcohol and promiscuous women who may or may not have STDs.

Yeah, not that kind.

More like rock star parking kind of a rock star love.

Much awesomer. And less warty.

(By the way, we always pride ourselves in getting rock star parking (i.e. awesome parking) whenever we go out, hence the rock star parking reference.)

And from Leland to me:

When the zombie apocalypse infects the earth and I am turned into a bearded zombie...

I won't eat you. In fact, I will let you keep me as a pet after we kill all the other zombies.

And if you were the one infected by the virus and became a hot Asian zombie...

I would let you nibble some of my flesh...

Just a little bit though.

(By the way, we discuss zombies and the zombie apocalypse a lot. I'm not sure why, but we do.)


Aren't those so romantical???

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!