This painting is another in the series of Kitchen Art, or I'm Too Busy to Go Anywhere & Paint series. It's fun to go into the kitchen and drag out some interesting packages. It really gives you an appreciation for graphic design.

I just watched Alton Brown on The Food Channel do a whole show in chocolate ganache. I know I'll be making something chocolate before this day ends. I'm thinking about trying to make my Aunt Anita's black and white angel food cake, which she iced with buttercream milk chocolate and walnuts. I could easily have eaten the whole cake whenever she made it. And angel food cake is very low in fat - yeah, that's the ticket!

I wish I was a good baker, but I can honestly say it is an art that eludes me. My sisters, Maria and Marietta, are very good bakers. My mother is also, but she rarely baked anything other than a cheesecake on the holidays. She didn't need to really since her sister would provide the apple pies for Thanksgiving, the gingerbread cookies at Christmas, and the cannoli at Easter.

I love the whole romance of baking on occasion. I enjoy lugging out the Kitchen Aid, breaking the eggs, even the mess of flouring the pans. I plop some flour into a buttered pan, hold it on its side, and twirl it while gently tapping the back, tap, tap, tap, and the interior of the pan turns snowy white. The other night I made a yellow cake with buttercream coconut frosting and the family thought it must be for someone else because when was the last time I baked a cake after work? Let's see, would that be - never? Yes.

However, in the process of satisfying some domestic fit brought on by the early darkness of fall, . I discovered that my oven is out of whack. It's gas and it's too hot on the right side and anything I bake burns on that side even with the rack in the middle or higher. I don't know if it's something that can be adjusted, but since we just paid over a hundred dollars to have the thermostat fixed, I'm pretty sure we're not buying a new oven anytime soon.

So what's a girl to do? Why go to the bakery of course! Here in New York we are blessed with amazing bakeries. Italian, Polish, whatever your choice, you can find it here. There's no excuse for buying a big ol' warehouse store cake when you can find a beautiful cake within blocks at a neighborhood bakery. When the kids were little, we lived near a fantastic bakery that specialized in Napolean cakes and chocolate mousse cakes, and we ordered either for special events like first birthdays and christenings. The Napoleon cake was essentially a huge Napolean, and the chocolate mousse came with a hard chocolate shell.

Ah, lovely cake memories....must go see if there's a scrap of that coconut cake left for breakfast.....happy sweets eating this Halloween weekend.