Ann Pearlman's Blog, page 8

#Sisterday

Sisters

I was not raised with a sister, but my father had five and my mother had three.  These aunts, along with my mother’s lifelong best friend who married my father’s only brother, imparted flocks of family love and closeness. The sisters cooking together, raising children together, playing scrabble and bridge together, talking about ideas together, that joyous family stew of shared passion, history and love is what I remember as a child. As I grew older, I became conscious of the shadows of competition, triangles, and resentments that also played between sisters.

But as a child, it seemed only joy and fun with all my cousins gathering to play as we grew.  Maybe it was especially precious to me because we moved away for five years and then returned to the welcoming, loving fold which I had not realized I missed.

I wanted a bigger family. I wanted a sister.  Now, I have a perfectly fine and wonderful brother whom I love dearly, and share many interests and fun.  In fact, he called me yesterday to tell me of a book he just finished that I absolutely had to read! But I wanted a bigger family.  More people to love.  A sister seemed like a good start, and after all I didn’t have one.

Alas it was not to be.  Instead, my cousin, the daughter of my uncle and my mom’s best friend, became my best friend.  Through the years, other girlfriends have held the place in my heart  for sister.  All this may be why I’ve written one novel about girlfriends, and another about two apparently different sisters.

I can’t tell you how much fun it was to write A Gift For My Sister and feel the pleasures and pitfalls of sisterhood vicariously through Tara and Sky. Because I wrote in both of their voices, it was like having two sisters!  I also have the pleasure of witnessing the love and friendship my two daughters have for each other. A miracle resulted from the publicity fromThe Christmas Cookie Club; one of my dear friends found her sister!  

All these thoughts swirled as A Gift For My Sister is coming to term. Too often we take our family and friends for granted.  Rituals of recognition, appreciation, and gratitude can firm bonds and seal frayed edges. I thought of having #Sisterday Fridays.  Each Friday, I’ll suggest a different way to appreciate your sister. You get to define sister, if, like me you don’t have one. Thank you for joining.  And thank you for telling me about your sister!

New Facebook Page

I know we’ve had lots of fun on my Christmas Cookie Club page, but now I have a new page and I’d like you to join me .  So many new things are about to happen and so I’ve had to expand.  The mass market of my paperback is coming out in a few weeks; it has the complete novel along with a new chapter including recipes from the three winners of our contest last year! There’s also a chapter from A Gift For My Sister which will be on the stands this spring and the U.S. and in the U.K. in November.

 

I promise we’ll have scads of fun on the new page. I have lots of exciting and delicious plans. So please like my new author page.  Then I will be able to send a few of you copies of the new book!

 

See you there.

The Luck of the Storm

A few days ago, during the afternoon rush hour, a tornado touched down a few miles from my home turning 100 homes into shreds.  I was working at my computer when I heard startling cracking sounds around me. The sky was dark, in the distance thunder rumbled and lighting splashed outside my office windows.  It wasn’t so close that I shut down and unplugged my computer, a lesson learned after loosing two computers to lightening strikes regardless of my surge protector.  This time it sounded like my windows were splintering.  Upstairs, they revealed a clear view of balls of ice crashing into them, my siding, my deck, the ground.  But the glass was intact.

I returned to my work, answering emails, tweets, and posting on FB.  The suspicious sounds continued, I went outside amazed at the size of the hail, the harshness of its pounding, and snapped a photo of one in my hand.

A while later, I turned on my TV, but alas, my satellite service was interrupted and I was unable to get the news.  When it finally came on, I saw a picture of a home a few miles from my house that had been torn to splinters by a tornado. The park where I walk (and which has appeared in several of my novels) had been damaged.  I received a tweet from a business acquaintance, Hey Dude, You ok? I’m trapped in the mall. They won’t let us out.   I tweeted back that I was fine; the hail was hitting my house.  He tweeted: They have us locked in a shelter in the mall. I tweeted back,  Amazing.  There was a tornado in Saline and Dexter. Last one hit Ellsworth and State an intersection close to the mall. A new person tweeted asking if it was a tornado touched down or if it was the storm moving over. The TV announcer complied by reporting that a tornado hit State at 6:29.  It was now 6:48.  For a short while, I relayed the information from the TV to the shelter in the mall.

The blistery cracking of my house stopped. On TV, I witnessed the devastation of homes a mile or so from mine. A phone captured the tornado itself as the owner drove for safety, the funnel whirling up the earth, the trees, a community.

The next morning, it was as if nothing happened. The sky clear, birds singing in the unseasonal warmth. The hail melted.  My crocus that bloomed way before their season, now frayed purple scraps battered to the soil. My life uninterrupted.  Other lives, at least for some months to come, totally altered. 100 homes had been smashed by the storm.

I was so lucky. So lucky.

The cashier at grocery store asked if I would round up my bill to the nearest dollar so the money could help the people whose homes were damaged.  Over $20,000 had already been donated. I know no one whose house was seriously damaged, but friends do.  One friend’s next door neighbor lost pieces of her garage.

And my house? A few days latter, I noticed strange pebbles littering my deck, my driveway, the ground.  The first day, I paid no attention, assuming them beads of rain.  But when I looked closer and picked some up, they were the size of a fingernail, black on one side and speckled with fleck of gray on the other. Pieces of my roof. The cracking I heard was the hail splintering my roof, parts of it lay all around my house, like a bad case of weird dandruff.

My life goes on almost without a hiccup. Other lives are permanently changed. Having witnessed people lose their houses by storm or fire, they will rebuild and go on, learning hard lessons.   The sky has seamlessly healed itself as though nothing happened.

Luck: one house torn to splinters. Another (mostly) untouched. One life changed forever. Another altered slightly by a few hour loss of TV, a roof that needs repaired.

Turns out that the roof needs more than a little repair. When the insurance adjuster came, he reported that the hail had gauged away 2 1/2 inch chunks all over my entire roof.  The great majority of shingles were compromised.  I need to have an entire new roof.  Right now, it doesn’t seem like much of an annoyance compared to an entire house.  I still consider myself lucky.

Luck is one of the main themes of my about-to-launch novel, A Gift for My Sister in which eccentric luck throws one sister vicious wrenches and another bouquets of great flowers, complicating their difficult relationship.  It’s one of the possibilities that adds exhilaration and a dread in how we manage our lives.  Just so we never forget serendipity,  we get the astonishment of witnessing the border where our control ends and luck arrives and vanishes.

 

Three watercolors, three music genres, and the awe of creation

Kelp Forest

I was in southern California walking the beach, writing, doing research for my next novel, visiting family and friends, and, I must confess, escaping the Midwestern dreary winter. As many of you know, I love to paint and make art.  It’s as much a compulsion, a passion, a way I breathe as my writing, part of whom I have been since childhood.  So, if you check out the gallery on my website, you will see metal sculptures, jewelry, altered books, watercolors, and acrylic paintings.   When I travel, I solve my need to make things by carrying watercolor paper and paints and then I listen to music, usually classical.

While I was in there, I visited an aquarium and captured images with my smart phone. Sitting by the sea, listening to the sounds of Yo Yo Ma accompany its lapping, I painted a picture of a kelp forest. One bright orange fish stuck among grey and silver fish, and dusty green of the fronds.  I never before noticed the expressions on the faces of the fish. Some look like grumpy old men. Some look like sleek sirens.  The bright orange one was good news in the midst of a recession. If you write, if you do art, if you run, if you dance, if you are one of the lucky ones you know the experience of awe that transports.  If I’m lucky, I induce it through creation.

Coral Reef

While there , I read Keith Richard’s Life fascinated by his lifelong musical passion, and creating as a collaboration—rare in visual art or writing.  He and Jagger actually invented together, spontaneously, experiencing that moment of awe simultaneously. I did something different. I painted a coral reef to Jumping Jack Flash, Love in Vain, Little Red Rooster, Brown Sugar. I have a lot of Rolling Stones on my ipod and just let it roll, enveloped by the bright colors of the fish, and the coral, the music.

     L.A.’s Chinatown

Then, there was L.A.’s Chinatown: red lanterns throwing an orange glow, neon lights highlighting ornate gingerbread.  Perfect for rap. So I put in the earphones and painted to old school Tupac, I ain’t Mad at Cha, Dear Mama, Life Goes On and Lil Wayne’s President Carter.

Each time — classical, rock, rap –I was lost in the music, the colors, the visions that flowed from my head, to my hand, to the paper.  Did the music impact my painting?  The music helped evoke the images.  Music and colors are tied—they remind me of each other. They’re both about rhythm and sounds and they impacted the tempo of my movements, my brush dancing with its treasure of color onto the paper. Each time, the awe of creation filled me. The feeling of invention is always more impressive, more pervasive than the finished product because the final image, the next day, surprises since it, like sex, looks different than it feels.

So I wanted to share this experience with you…the great diversity of the music we have created, the great diversity and visions that surround us. And the pulse which threads through all of it.

 

 

Thank you!

Now my giveaway is over and three books winding their way to the winners. It was lots of fun watching the numbers of participants rise and running my first Goodreads giveaway. The winners are spread across the U.S. One in Washington State, one in Rhode Island, and one in Idaho!

I want to thank each of you-- almost 1,000-- who hoped to win an ARC of my novel A Gift For My Sister.

You can read it and learn what happened to Tara and Sky from The Christmas Cookie Club soon. The hardback book will be at bookstores, internet vendors, and libraries May 1. Additionally, there will other giveaways especially around its publication date. Please look for the giveaways on Goodreads, and perhaps on my facebook page: www.facebook.com/annpearlman/ Good luck!
You can keep up with what's happening on my website: www.annpearlman.net

And thank you so much for participating in my Goodreads giveaway.


Ann
Ann Pearlman

Sweet and That’s It Proves Generosity is Rewarded

Once again the world comes comfortably closer around me, my fingertips reach across the oceans with a click here and there on my computer.  Once again a Christmas present comes from afar, this time from the northern corner of Switzerland and Italy in an email from a reader with a favor to ask:

A couple of days ago I bought your book “The Xmas Cookie Club” as I am fascinated by the US “Cookie Swap” (I’ve come across it while surfing Great thing Internet!

I’ve cried reading chapter two (Charlene) as I’ve lost my mother 5 1/2 months ago and my Grandmother 3 weeks ago (not a good year for me) and I was totally feeling the pains of the loss Charlene was going through  The reason I am writing to you is to ask you whether I am allowed to quote your recipes in my Facebook blog.  I was thinking to start a “project” of baking the cookies from your book, take a picture and post on my page. Of course I’ll mention that it is from your book. I’ve already mentioned your book when I bought it – please come to FB and have a look and leave a message, if you’d like.

Carola

I responded:

What a fabulous idea!  Could we have a cross-ocean communication/cookie club on each other’s fb pages?  I’ll be thrilled to put something on your page…how ’bout I do that when you do your first baking of the cookies?  And I want you to post your pictures and comments on my facebook page, too.  Is that okay?  This will be sooo fun.  I’m excited about this bridge across the continents and waters!

Then she wrote:

My mother tongue is Italian and I’m trying hard to write my stories feelings in English as colourful as possible…which is sometimes quite difficult. I hope I pick out the right words!  I live in the Northern and foggy part of Switzerland (Canton Aargau. The little village I live in counts 2100 souls and is called Lupfig. In this part of Switzerland we speak German) but I was born in the sunny South (Ticino).   I had my first job at Zurich Airport and decided to stay in the North as I love the fact that I can use my languages… it’s a daily challenge for me. At home I speak Italian with my husband and children, I speak German outside and have some English speaking friends. From time to time I can refresh my French, too…  In 2004 I left my job and gave birth to my daughter and in 2006 to my son. (18 months apart).  Then the children’s birthdays came and I became aware how boring and unhealthy the cakes at the stores were… That’s how it all started.  

PS: I really have to tell you this:   I cannot stop laughing thinking about it: One o’clock at night… I was reading the cookie recipes with extreme care, trying to figure myself baking (I have to do this for two reasons: 1: English is not my mother tongue and I have to make sure I understand the recipe well and 2: I have to check that we have the required ingredients in Switzerland ) and found out that something was wrong with Tracy’s recipe: the nuts listed under ingredients were invisible in the cooking instructions. I re-read the recipe 3 times, …slow, …slowlier, ..the slowliest. In the end I gave up, finally turned the page and there they were, under the “PS:” Oh did I laugh and laugh and thought: Ann Pearlman, you got me! And the best, the “PS” was on the back of the page…impossible to see at first, second, third sight Loved it!!!

I, who am fluent only in English and have not yet accomplished fluency in another language, which is one of my life goals, admire her ability to waltz across four tongues. And so, she baked the cookies from the book and arranged a beautiful diorama. My pecan butter balls were on a plate in front of a Santa who held my book. Next to him was a gingerbread house. The recipe posted in English and Italian.

A week later the chocolate-almond bonbons with Almond Glaze, Chocolate Glaze and Confectioners sugar were laid in a Christmas Tree Configuration.  Again the recipe translated into Italian.

The next week, she was asked by an Italian Blog to write for them. Carola wondered if she should because she is “just a mom at home baking and they are professional cake designers.”   I encouraged her, telling her stories about success that start from home, and that the line between ‘amateur’ and  ‘professional’ is sometimes only in the degree, not the effect. So she stacked graduated baked stars glued together with icing into gorgeous Christmas trees festooned with garlands, candies and tiny Teddy Bears.  She made a battalion of snowmen surrounding the tree.

Here are parts of her first guest blog, translated from the Italian:

I love baking books and this passion I have for them has given me the possibility to cross the borders of the tiny Switzerland and introduced me to new worlds, new smells and new tastes: the U.S. and the United Kingdom (UK).  Having two small children at home, I wasn’t able to go there in person but I could bring them to me in my library, in my Facebook page, in my kitchen and in my extra pounds too!

A few weeks ago I wrote the word “Cookies” in a British site that sells books to search for the latest publications on biscuits.  Among the many books of recipes listed, “The Christmas Cookie Club (Ann Pearlman’s novel ) stood out with its beautiful and shiny cover.

Intrigued I read the story and immediately was fascinated by it: the book tells the story of the “Christmas Cookie Club” formed by 12 girlfriends who meet every year in December and spend the evening together and share their cookies, according to well defined rules…

A couple of days later, I had it in my hands. I read the first chapters in one breath but then I could not resist and I did go quickly through the pages looking for the cookies recipes.

“Reading first all the recipes will not ruin the surprises of the book,” I said to myself … but then I felt like when as a child, I secretly opened all the windows on the Advent calendar (let he (or she) who has never done it, cast the first cookie).

I had not yet finished reading all the recipes when an idea jumped to my mind: “Why not make a” blog “of these international cookies on my Facebook page of Sweet and that’s it?”

So I sent an email to Ms. Pearlman to ask for permission to publish her recipes along with my photos and comments and within a few hours and she answered “What a fantastic idea,” followed by 10 other unforgettable lines.

I was so happy! One, because she had taken the time to answer me and send me a nice email, and two, because she had given me the permission to copy from her book.

Ms A Pearlman is a wonderful person!

Although I was a “nothing” and she a well known author (Nominated to Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award), I was immediately treated with a lot of kindness.

A beautiful email exchange started and a wonderful collaboration continues today.

I’m so happy for what we achieved in these few days, and I am “honored” that she, too, feels excitement for my project.

And so my Facebook project, the “Christmas Cookie Club” was born. And like every project to be respected, here are my rules:

1: Been able to find and use American ingredients, avoiding substitutions.

Should there be, describe what has been replaced.

2: Follow the recipe in the book literally.

3: have fun.

4: Been able to stop eating the cookies before they are finished

I forgot: the book (in English) “The Christmas Cookie Club” has been translated into German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Croatian and Chinese, but unfortunately not yet in Italian. We hope this happens soon. For you, I will translate and have translated the recipes into Italian, without adding anything new.

Doubts or questions arise, please do not hesitate to write me on my FB page.

I hope that this adventure will sweetly enter with its magnificent fragrances into your home, and I will be happy to publish photos and other recipes as soon as I’ce baked them.And finally: the cookies of the first and second chapter are really simple to prepare, and delicious!A sweet goodbye to all of you.

 To me, I’m the passionate writer who is never quite sure if I write primarily for the benefit of my computer, which may finally learn to write on its own, or whether my words will be read by many.  The Internet, if it’s anything, is the great spreader of democracy.  People “like” me from all over the world. My president sends me tweets.  Recently, it has enabled important political revolutions and changes. And, perhaps, my relationship with Carola from a small town in Switzerland is part of an everyday revolution that is taking place, as the internet gathers people together around shared interests and passions. She’s amazed that I took the time to respond to her, since she is “nothing” and I’m a famous author.  Maybe the internet humanizes all of us, and levels the playing field. Or at least it can. I’m always honored when a reader contacts me.  So I chose to use the internet that way, responding to her and encouraging her.  She still has nine more cookies to bake and share with her family, friends and blog readers, a project which could stretch until the season to once again think about this time of year in earnest. And I will gladly post her Hermit cookies, her fortune cookies with all their good wishes (Can’t wait to see what wishes she devises).

I will continue to learn from her: I did not know that brown sugar is an American invention; we do not have an art here of turning cakes into Cinderella carriages. So I witness her creations stunned.  If my gift to her is giving her permission to use my recipe, she gives me back the gift of making the cookies in an even more elaborate and artistic way than I imagined. Once again, giving proves generosity is rewarded. And cookies, though a conventional feminine task, have become a way to bring contemporary women together internationally, doing something traditional but in a very professional and fun way.

Meanwhile, a bridge has been built across two continents and a vast ocean bringing us all that much closer together. As close as a few clicks and our similar love for baking and creating.

Levy and Tara’s Snowmen Cookies

Here’s a sneak-peek at a recipe from A Gift for My Sister.  

Tara and Levy, who is four, invented theses snowman cookies together for their first cookie club.  They started with a basic sugar cookie recipe.

Cookies

4 cups sifted flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice and the grated zest of 2 lemons

Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.  Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in eggs.  Add the flour mixture and mix on low until combined.  Stir in vanilla or lemon juice and zest.  Wrap dough in plastic and chill for one hour.

Frosting

4 Tablespoons of milk

½ teaspoon of almond extract

4 cups of confectioners’ sugar

Stir milk and extract into confectioners’ sugar.  Add more milk if necessary.

Roll the chilled dough out and cut into circles of three different sizes, the largest one about 1 1/2 inches.  Transfer to ungreased cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.   Overlap the middle sized piece over the large one, and the smallest over the middle.  Press the overlapping dough into each other. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.  Cool.

Frost with white frosting. Then decorate as you wish. Colored shredded coconut can make hair of different colors, just place coconut in a plastic bag and add food coloring.

The rest is up to your imagination, and time.  You can mix the remainder of the frosting with food coloring and paint features, or clothes on the snowmen.  Store bought balls, sprinkles, or stars can become eyes or buttons. Frosting tubes add colorful scarves, stripes, shirts, pants, or hats.

Have fun!  Play!

 

Feedback from a Book Club

The Mother’s and More Book Club from Findlay, Ohio follows me on twitter and shared me their comments about The Christmas Cookie Club.  How fun to get to be ‘a spy’ at their discussion:

Comments:

I really liked the “real life” feel of this book! The description of each woman gave me a feeling of “connectedness” with “her” and bought a sense of closeness to each character. Each story was down to earth, true to life, and was easy to relate to. Easy, fast read and wonderful stories.

This was a fast and easy read. I loved how each chapter started with a recipe and the history of ingredients. I have a new found appreciation for spices and ingredients I didn’t typically think about. I loved the characters and could relate a little to each.

I really enjoyed the book and all the recipes and ideas on having a Christmas cookie exchange. I liked how Marnie had a wide variety of friends- ones that she made and met throughout her life and her ever changing life. It is so real to life how we have different types of friends throughout our stages of life and how Marnie is able to keep them throughout her life and unite all of them at the Christmas cookie exchange. This was a feel good book and a joy to read.You want to be a part of this Christmas cookie exchange after reading this book.

–Suzy Nauert

I really enjoyed reading the information on the spices and ingredients and all of the recipes. My favorite part of the book was when all the women were dancing together; it was such a feel good part. I felt connected to the story and related to the problems having trouble with having babies.

Great read. I really enjoyed the interesting information about the everyday ingredients that we take for granted. How neat that they come from all different cultures and corners of the world combined in some of our favorite goodies. An interesting metaphor to a group of friends. All different, from different backgrounds, together form a strong bond.

-Lauralee Vonlehmden

I really enjoyed Marnie’s story and her relationship with her daughters. I hope our Mothers and More group can do our cookie exchange like the one in the book. I enjoyed where the spices were from. A really good read!!

-Amy Grimm (Mothers and More Book Club Coordinator)

First of all I love Christmas time!! So when I came across your book I knew I had to bring it to our book club meeting to read this year!! With that being said I am very thankful I did! What a wonderful story about friendships and traditions. I loved how each character not only had a story about their personal life, but about their cookie. I must say I wanted to jump right in and join their exchange because that is exactly how I envision a cookie exchange!  Our group currently does a cookie exchange,but will be changing things next year!!

-Holly Keckler (Mothers and More Co-Leader)

Book Club Discussion as a whole:

Everyone seemed to really enjoy your book and most finished within a week! We have decided that your book inspired us to use several of your ideas for our cookie exchange next year! In fact our exchange takes place next week and the first rule put into place is “No plastic wrap and paper plates”. The creative packaging was something we all enjoyed. Second, we are going to donate a set of cookies from each of us to the Hospice at our local hospital. This was something very important to one of our members who recently had her grandfather pass away in hospice and remembers the offering of cookies they had for them as they sat by his side not ever wanting to leave. This will hopefully be a continued tradition each year.

Thanks to you for such a wonderful, heartfelt story!!

Sincerely,

Mothers and More

Findlay, Ohio Chapter 

Thinking Thanksgiving? Here’s a great Maple Pecan Pie

3 large eggs

2 T. flour

1 C pure maple syrup

3 T. melted butter

1/4 t. salt

3/4 cup light brown sugar

2 C pecans (1 C coarsely shopped. The other almost whole)

1 prepared pie shell (unbaked)

Heat oven to 425. In a large bowl with electric mixer, beat eggs until light. Gradually beat in flour, syrup, butter and salt until thoroughly blended. Stir in pecans. Pour into pie crust and bake 10 minutes. Reduce oven to 350 and bake 40-45 minutes longer.  If they begin to get brown earlier, cover the edges with tin foil.  Cool.

This pie, which is everyone’s favorite Thanksgiving pie, is rich enough without topping. But:

In a medium bowl, with mixer at high speed, beat 1 C heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form; gradually beat in 2 T maple syrup until stiff.  Swirl over center of pie. Decorate with pecan halves.

Amaretto Chocolate Cake

This is everybody’s favorite Chocolate desert.  It is very rich and the amaretto adds a special flavor.  Warning: it is time consuming, expensive (especially if you use good chocolate), but worth the effort. Friends and family ask me to make it and beg for the recipe!

Cake:

Shortening to grease pan

5 ounces of unsweetened chocolate (I use ScharffenBerger)

1 ¼ cups unsalted butter (2 ½ sticks)

5 eggs

2 ½ cups sugar

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

2 T Amaretto Liqueur

1 ½ t. Vanilla

¼ t. salt

1/3 c. chopped toasted almonds

2 T of Amaretto to sprinkle over the warm cake.

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 inch springform pan with shortening.  Cut a circle of parchment paper to fit in the bottom of the pan and grease.

Melt the chocolate with the butter over low heat or microwave but watch it. Don’t let it scorch.

Combine eggs, and sugar in a large mixing bowl and whisk until blended and smooth. Stir in chocolate. Add the flour, amaretto, vanilla and salt and mix until blended. Stir in chopped almonds.

Place the pan on a baking sheet. Pour in the batter and bake for 60-75 minutes until the center is firm. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, invert onto a rack to cool, and remove the parchment paper.  Sprinkle while still warm with 2 T of Amaretto.

Glaze:

2 bars ( 3 ounces each) of Tobler Tradition bittersweet chocolate or Lindt Excellence

1 ounce unsweetened chocolate

3 T water

3 T unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2 T of Amaretto

24 -36 blanched, toasted whole almonds.

Melt the two chocolates with the water as you did before.  When smooth, mix in the butter until melted, remove from heat.  Leave at room temperature for no longer than two hours before glazing the cooled cake.  (I often make the cake early in the morning and start the glaze in afternoon.)

Place the cake upside down on a piece of waxed paper. Set the pan of glaze in a larger pan of ice water and beat by hand until it’s thick enough to spread.  How long this will take depends on how cool the glaze is.  Remove glaze from ice water and pour over the top of the cake, spread it evenly over the top and sides with a spatula.

Before the glaze has hardened, press almonds around the top.  Make another circle, if you want, an inch closer to the center.

Cut into thin slices.

This cake can be glazed 24 hours before serving.  Store at room temperature.  Freezing changes the appearance of the glaze but the unglazed cake can be frozen for several months.

Enjoy!