The Tale of the Three Tiered Cake Plate

I love to entertain. I love deciding which recipes to make (generally I begin by looking through all of my cookbooks, but end up getting most of my recipes online), making lists, going shopping for parties, cleaning the apartment, choosing the wine (ha! and by 'choosing the wine,' I mean 'making my decision based on which bottle is the prettiest for under $14'), cooking the dishes, setting the table, and finally, being able to relax in my home with my friends. There's just something so enormously satisfying about seeing my friends relaxed and happy in our apartment. I love it.

So when my friend Ashley asked if she and her boyfriend Blake could swing by the jungle, I mean apartment, last weekend, I said ABSOLUTELY PLEASE COME I WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOU, but what I really meant was YES!!!! This means I can FINALLY use my three tiered cake plate!!!

The three tiered cake plate, lovely readers, was possibly my very favorite thing we registered for. It's from Hampton House, a boutique in Richmond, and after being dragged there against my will at the very insistent suggestion (re: ultimatum) of Preston's mother, all of my reservations about registering at Hampton House (which I won't bore you with here) evaporated as soon as I saw it. Several friends/relatives were skeptical about my choice, swearing that I would never use it, that it would gather dust in my house for decades, and that my children would have to give it away at some tragic garage sale after I died. Ok, so the nay-sayers didn't actually go into that much detail. They just told me it was kind of frivolous. And yes, it is kind of frivolous, but I love it. Many of my favorite things are kind of frivolous (why would I have 20 pairs of ballet flats if I were not a supporter of frivolity?), and I care not.

So when Ashley told me that she and Blake were coming, I immediately started thinking about three tiered cake plate possibilities: Petit fours? Different kinds of exotic fruit? Cheeses? A motley collection of baked goods? And finally, I hit upon it: fondue. Preston and I, somehow, ended up with two fondue sets, and we NEVER use them. I gave him one for his birthday in 2004 (The summer anorexia struck. I'm pretty sure I gave everyone I knew kitchen related items that summer, so that I could at least imagine other people eating.), and then his brother gave him a set for his college graduation in 2005. And we've used one set once, a couple of years ago. Hurrah! The perfect plan! I piled pound cake (which I made earlier in the week, then put in the fridge to set till Friday night) cubes on the bottom tier, strawberries and sliced bananas on the middle tier, and absolutely delectable fresh pineapple on the top tier. DELICIOUSNESS is all I can say.

In addition to the fondue, we also had Chocolate Earl Grey Cake (to celebrate an early 26th birthday for Blake), and then a yummy sausage/pepper/polenta dish and balsamic glazed vegetables for dinner. Aside from the utter joy I got from using the three tiered cake plate, it really was fantastic to see Ashley and Blake, and as I mentioned in an earlier post, they were absolute saints for sleeping in our un air-conditioned den (though we did provide them with lots of fans).

Everyone before dinner!

I take pictures of our food. ALWAYS. Please note our classy trivets. And by 'classy' I mean 'not classy.' They are in fact homemade pot-holders normally made by six year olds. I, however, was probably 19 when I made these. I made one in Princeton colors (orange and black) and one in Middlebury colors (white and blue).

Happy Birthday to Blake! Also, this was the first time we used our wedding china (the unfortunately titled "Sheer Bliss" set from Lenox).

Ashley gave me an early birthday gift (wonderful smelling ginger pomelo dish washing detergent and countertop cleanser)! She gave me cleaning supplies. She knows me too well. Also note how sweatastic I look here. Now multiply that by one million, and you can imagine how terrifying I look now. There will be NO photo shoots in the foreseeable future.