Orange Pound Cake

One of the first chick flicks/romantic comedies I ever watched was My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I think it's kind of what started me and my mom having shared interests (and also our friendship despite the fact that I was a teenager and what teenage girl wants to be friends with her mom?). One of the scenes that has always made us laugh is the beginning of the family dinner when Ian's parents meet Toula's family and Ian's mom brings a bundt cake, which Toula's mom has a hard time understanding (both the concept and the name).

So when my mom asked me to make for her birthday an orange cake that I had pinned on Pinterest but couldn't remember which one, I decided to make one that used a bundt pan. It was perfect because we were celebrating at Anthony's girlfriend Kati's parents' house (we ended up basically copying the movie because Anthony and Kati announced their engagement at the part =D). OK, I mainly made the cake so I could reference the movie and the scene in this post. But when Mom saw the cake we both laughed about the scene, so mission accomplished? (Except we forgot to put a flower pot in the cake's "hole." Oh well.)

Gingerbread Cookies

My mom likes to plan things and have events. No idea why; she just does. I'm not talking about family parties/get-togethers (those are a given). I'm talking about the tea party she had earlier this year. And the cookie exchange she decided to hold this month. While trying to figure out what recipe to make (lots of decisions involved, the first one being a choice between a recipe I would find online and a recipe I would find in the cookbooks/magazines on my bookshelf), I had a lightbulb moment: the snowflake cookie pan! A few years ago I received a Wilton cookie pan from Nonni for Christmas. It has 12 cavities for snowflake cookies of different designs. The "packaging" included a recipe for gingerbread cookies so I decided to make those.