Tapas & Cakes

These last weeks have been all about Astrid’s baptism/christening (the 15th of March). Optimistic and naïve as I am I decided to cook Spanish tapas for our 20 and something guests. Not one tapas dish and not two tapas dishes, but seven different dishes! Needless to say I ended up living in the kitchen the last week before the actual day.
In addition to tapas we had three cakes. Here in Norway it’s all about the cake(s). If you want a celebration to be successful you need to have good cakes. Luckily I am blessed with some very good friends that volunteered as cake bakers. My friend T made a beautiful Marzipan cake, decorated with delicate marzipan flowers in pastel colours and Astrid Vida’s name. Inside the cake: rich and luscious pink filling made by the raspberry marmalade. My friend M made my favourite cheese cake, the kind that melts away in your mouth. There was also a chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting and a layer of whipped cream with raspberry in the middle.

We had a wonderful day. The priest made the ceremony special by letting Astrid’s christening be present during the whole mass, and by asking all the children in church to gather around her when he did the actual baptism. After mass we had a wonderful day together with family, drinking cava eating tapas and trying all the different cakes.

This past week was spent sleeping, resting and stitching some more on what will be part of Astrid’s quilt. I’ll show you in a day or too, just need to finish the last word.