pure poison

Drew's birthday was last weekend. Elizabeth made him a beautiful twelve layer Chocolate Cinnamon Torte. It reminded me of the frozen Viennetta cakes from my childhood, but tasted so much better. It is a unique combination of thin layers of cinnamon cake and light creaminess. We drank mimosas with strawberry purée and enjoyed the spring afternoon. My friend Erik remarked, "Drew and Elizabeth are the king and queen of afternoon parties." Cheers. This wasn't the first time she's made this cake, so I asked Elizabeth to tell me the torte story. Here it is: "It kind of takes forever to make so you can see I have taken to making my self comfy in our little kitchen. I first had it as a kid in Switzerland. My mom had this "Good Housekeeping" cookbook from the 50's and would let us pick whatever cake we wanted for our birthdays. The cookbook had a full page picture of it, it was probably the size of my head, and it seemed almost unreal. Leave it up to my brother to take my mom by her word and pick it for his birthday cake one year. I think I remember her cringing a little, but she did it and it was pretty mind blowing. My mom is a great baker and it seems to have become something of a family tradition.

12 layers of cinnamon crisps layered with cool unsweetened whipped cream, topped with dark chocolate curls and maraschino cherries and walnuts--I'm just sayin'... my brother calls it "pure poison."