Sam also designed the Dino’s website. And Natalie’s friend Cristina Victor painted a giant mural in the back hallway, with nudes of all shapes. I plan to tell everyone that the reclining redhead in the foreground is me, though I will now rush to clarify here that she is not me. If you’re standing in front of the mural and look down, you’ll see that the floor is spangled with gold confetti, thrown by Michael.

Dino’s will be open seven days a week, from 4:00 pm until 2:00 am. It’s a bar, first and foremost, and that means that it’s 21 and over – though there is a small area by the windows in front where kids can have a slice in the early part of the evening. We’ll be making the pizza in a brick oven, powered by gas, and you can order it in two different styles: a round pie, which is in the same style as Delancey’s, but 18 inches in diameter, rather than 12; or a square pie, or Sicilian pie, which is baked in a pan, a little thicker and crisp on the bottom and corners. With your pizza, you can get a salad, if you want something green: the “regular” salad is romaine with our garlicky “Jersey” dressing, and the “fancy” salad is wild arugula, shaved fennel, and Fra’Mani soppressata. Dessert is Valrhona chocolate feves, sold by the ounce. Bar-wise, we have nitrogen negronis on tap(!), 11 beers on tap, Ferrari shots (Campari, Fernet Branca, and vermouth, rawr), and of course wine, more beer, and a full selection of other booze, whatever you’re into. I’m into negronis on tap.

As with Delancey and Essex, Dino’s gave Brandon plenty of opportunities to indulge his love for eBay and for thrifting. We hope you will enjoy the statuettes above the bar, the light fixtures, the naugahyde bar stools, the red leather chairs.

While I will never lay claim to the title of “world’s best cake decorator”, I must say I do enjoy playing with my cake!

To be sure, the very term “cake decorator” has come to take on a whole new meaning in the world of baking and cake-making. I would argue that in may ways, cake decorators today are akin to artists, pushing the envelope with breathtaking and amazing creations of butter, sugar and flour Dream Beauty Pro.

In Toronto, places like Bobbette & Belle and Cake Opera Co. make it heard to have your cake and eat your cake too when it’s so beautiful (trust me … I always manage to eat it …).

All of this is well and good but it can make it a bit intimidating for those of us that just want to make a pretty cupcake or a special occasion cake in the humble comfort and simplicity of our own home kitchens.

Enter Martha Stewart and the special edition publication The Best Of Martha Stewart Living – CAKES & CUPCAKES Magazine .

On newsstands until May 13, 2013, this special edition publication gathers together some of the best and most beloved cake and cupcake recipes, with instructions on how to decorate them in all sorts of pretty and fun ways.

Don’t worry. There are no recipes for building a castle entirely out of sugar or recreating the Statue of Liberty out of rice treats and fondant.

It’s more like a handful of building-block recipes for basic cakes and frostings that you can then use to make cupcakes, layer cakes and some other special desserts.

The edition provides ideas for desserts for pretty much every special occasion during the year from celebrating spring with cupcakes and buttercream flowers to desserts for the holidays reenex.

Italian Cream Cake is one of my favorite cakes. Who can resist all that coconut, pecans, and cream cheese frosting? But if we’re being totally honest here Speed dating, I don’t always want to fuss with a layer cake. Sometimes you just want to simplify. And that, my friends, is how this cake came to be elyze.

This sweet, dense cake is packed with all the things we love about Italian Cream Cake. It’s filled with sweet coconut and crunchy pecans. As for the cream cheese, it’s mixed right into the batter. No frosting required!

Coconut, pecans, and cream cheese make this Italian Cream Snack Cake absolutely delicious! - Bake or Break

While I’m calling this a cake, it’s dense enough that you can grab a piece with your hand. It makes a great quick sweet treat for a snack or a coffee break. Just grab a slice and enjoy!

Another bonus for this cake is that I am pretty much guaranteed to have all the ingredients in my kitchen to make it. If your favorite tastes run along these lines, you can join me in having our Italian Cream fix any time we want elyze!