This was a little girl's first birthday cake. It was a lot of fun to make. I'm not a fan of fondant covered cakes. Although beautiful, I believe cakes should be equally delicious in the mouth and to the eyes. Covering a cake in fondant requires that you put a thinner layer of icing underneath than normal. Since I use Italian buttercream, the icing is one of the most decedent, desirable parts of the cake. This cake I iced in Italian buttercream, but did a finishing technique to make it look like fondant. All the accents (stripes, balls, butterflies, flowers, dots, and letters) were fondant.

Salmon with pesto cream sauce, and an arugula salad

Yum yum! You will love this very simple, wonderfully flavorful meal! My husband devoured the salad before I got a chance to get a good pic. Guess he liked it *smile*

Pan seared salmon with creamy pesto sauce

Fresh pesto
1/4- 1/2 c. Cream
1 pound Salmon fillets
2 Tbs Butter
Salt and pepper

Melt butter in a stainless steel pan. Heat to medium high heat. Salt and pepper the salmon. Once the pan is sizzling hot- add the salmon skin side down. Once nicely browned flip over. While salmon is cooking, warm the cream on the stove. Remove cream from heat and add pesto (to taste). Pull salmon off while still translucent in the center. If your pan is hot enough- you will sear the salmon quickly without over cooking it. Should only take 4-5 minutes on the first side, the 1-2 minutes after flipping to finish the cooking.

Arugula salad

1`/2 fennel bulb
2-3 c. arugula
2-3 Tbs lemon juiced
1/8 c. parmesan cheese
4 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
fresh salt and pepper

Tear arugula into bite size pieces. Taste the arugula. If it's really strong/peppery- then use less lemon. Dress with oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Thinly slice and and cut into medium size pieces the fennel bulb. Layer on top of arugula. Add freshly grated Parmesan and drizzle with oil.