In honor of Snickerdoodle’s birthday on Jan. 29!!!

Ingredients:

Solid vegetable shortening for greasing the pans
Flour for dusting the pans
1 pkg. (18.25 oz.) plain white cake mix
1cup whole milk
1 stick butter, melted
3 large eggs
1 t. pure vanilla extract
2 t. cinnamon
Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease two 9-inch round cake pans with solid vegetable shortening, then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pans aside.

2. Place the cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look well combined. Divide the batter between the prepared pans, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula. place the pans in the oven side by side.

3. Bake the cakes until they are golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 27-29 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of each layer and invert each onto a rack, then invert them again onto another rack so that the cakes are right side up. Allow them to cool completely, 30 minutes more.

4. Meanwhile, prepare the Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting (recipe follows).

5. Place one cake layer, right side up, on a serving platter. Spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer, right side up, on top of the first layer and frost the top and sides of the cake with clean, smooth strokes.

Buttercream Frosting

1 stick butter, softened
33/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
3 to 4 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and add the confectioners’ sugar, 3 T. milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1 minute more. Blend in up to 1 T. milk if the frosting seems too stiff.

Recipe taken from The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn

It was awhile ago but since then I have read about 30 Indian-themed novels and bought this book for about 6-7 people. It’s just so beautifully done. I applaud Roy on her current mission and works, but I am longing for another work of fiction. Beautiful, original use of language. This may be my favorite book read in years.

This was one of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time. It’s fun, paced well, and a great read. The story is really interesting, very well done with great research behind it, and the ending is a delightful surprise.

I really love how Banville is in the head of the character and describes with such eloquent language his past, with such an eye that even the exquisite things in the character’s memory are tainted with the damage of the plot twist and with the psychological cloud of his personality flaws. It’s beautifully done, and I recommend this.

This is a fascinating story that keeps the reader hopping between generations and continents, on common threads of the human condition. I recommend it – it is written beautifully, in wonderful prose.

That having been said, I caution that it is not the most enlightening book about India, or about immigrants. It also does not have the most descriptive prose or unique writing style. When I get around to reading the rest of the short list for the Booker for 2006, perhaps it will shine brightly, but at the moment, while I do recommend it, I am comparing it to other Booker winners, and it pales a bit.

Funny, entertaining, but just not my type of book (generally speaking, no offense!) Very quick read, and I would recommend it for a plane flight or doc office visit type thing.

Moroccan pastry, contains shredded chicken or pigeon meat combined with nuts, ...
It looks like a complicated recipe!