For Easter, I decided I wanted to make these awesome cakes baked in egg shells. I find them pretty magical, and fairly easy to make, if a little tedious. Then again, we did make a lot of them.

I tweaked the recipe a bit because I couldn’t find any egg nog, and I also wanted lemon cakes. The differences between my cakes and the cakes in the recipe are as follows:

-Doubled the recipe.
-Added low-fat buttermilk instead of egg nog. (Whole fat would have worked better, but the store didn’t have it.)
-Added juice of one Meyer Lemon.
-Added lemon zest of two Meyer Lemons for flavor.
-Forgot to oil the insides of the shells.

If you don’t feel like making cake from scratch, a cake mix would probably work just fine. In conclusion, cake in egg shells kicks ass. Happy Easter!

Loobylu is up and posting again, after a year away! Hello, dear.

More scenes I hope to see as my life flashes before my eyes, numbers 26-50:

26. Riding through the canals in Amsterdam with the baby
27. Picking confetti from my hair
28. Catching fireflies in Tuscany
29. Jumping on the hotel bed
30. Mixing Pimm’s Cups at my Great Gatsby birthday
31. Surge of joy on the swing set when I remembered there were no doctor or dentist appointments looming
32. Passing out signs at the Boston convention
33. Popping my first champagne cork
34. Swinging out above the river from a rope
35. Walking around the park at night with my tipsy college roommate
36. Giving the wedding toast
37. Dancing in the middle of jam circle–perfect partner, red dress
38. Dappled light on the deck with girlfriends
39. Swing band in our living room, sailors smoking on the porch
40. Slipping on my engagement ring
41. Watching the old couples tango over a bottle of wine in Argentina
42. My name beneath an article in the New York Times
43. Riding through the cave on an inner tube
44. Tea in the claw-footed bath with an ocean view in Malaysia
45. Wading in the backyard creek, hip-deep, my Keds sucking on and off my feet.
46. In line for the De Young Museum opening at 4 a.m., ludicrously painful stilettos
47. Archery in the mall in Asia
48. Flying on the swing ride at the California State Fair
49. Floating in the unearthly hot springs in Iceland
50. 4 a.m. tea and peanut butter toast with mom before an antique show

Emerging themes for me: travel, the sensation of flying, water, dancing, and being awake when I’d usually be asleep.

Again, if you haven’t already, please add a few of yours in comments.

You must watch this commercial featuring gorgeous, enormous kinetic sculptures. It will make your dreams better.

At SxSW, I did an interview with Michael Nolan. He works with Peachpit, the publishing house that produced No One Cares What You Had for Lunch.

I hadn’t slept in three days, so I was too exhausted to assume my Rich and Throaty Media Voice. Click through to hear the valley-girl lilt that persists into my thirties. For some reason, I always thought that one day I’d just awaken sounding like Maya Angelou. You want world peace, I want the voice of an 80-year-old black woman. We all have our dreams.

Anyway, here you go:

Maggie Mason, Part I
Maggie Mason, Part II