Good Press

If you are looking for a green St. Patrick's Day dessert, try this cake that you can make with children while also sharing this book with them. It is rich and flavorful and you could just as easily omit the food coloring. But the sweetest part is the story. The recipe appears in the back of a children's book, "Micah & The Magic Helmet" by Kat Parrish. Kat's daughter used to wear an angel food cake pan around the house as a helmet that helped her be courageous and strong! Kat and her daughter made up the story together! The book is available for sale on Amazon.com and can be ordered from any bookstore or direct from its publisher, www.headlinekids.com. A note about ingredients: I couldn't find key limes or key lime juice at any of the major grocery stores where I live (not even the ritzy Giant Eagle in Morgantown, WV.) I ordered a bottle of juice from Amazon.com. GREEN DRAGON CAKE Cake 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened 2 1/4 cups sugar 3 large eggs (at room...

The first cake I remember decorating (other than just placing those hard formed sugar disks pressed into letters and shapes) was to celebrate my cousin's Special Olypics gold medal. Roberta competed in the International Games the first year they were held in South Bend, Ind., 1987 I believe. When she was due to visit to show her medal to our grandfather, I baked a cake mix and frosted it with canned icing. Then, using tubes of decorator gel, I drew a gymnast with long dark hair, arms raised in victory and a gold medal around her neck. I figure I wrote something on the cake, too, crooked no doubt, but I can't remember what. Fifteen years or so later, I would get the urge to create again. For one of my mother-in-law's birthdays I decorated a cake to look like a grill. Simple enough -- just draw evenly spaced lines of dark chocolate frosting crosswise on the cake; slide dried fruits such as apricots, pineapple chunks and prunes, a-HEM DRIED PLUMS, on bamboo skewers; and unwrap...