On Cannabis, Cooking and Cakes

I guess it's okay to show you this particular birthday card only because the receiver is anonymous! The greeting on the card simply says 'Happy Birthday Brother and Uncle' and since only my customer and I know who the 'brother/uncle' is, I can comfortably still show you a card with some illegal substances depicted on it! It was certainly a move away from the usual themes that I work with, but a request for a cannabis leaf and a bottle of beer seemed easy enough to do, even if the leaf details were a little fiddly to create.

The same customer wanted a chef style card for a "fabulous friend" (below). I went for some simple cooking icons - a chef's hat of course, with some utensils, stripey red and white oven gloves and a big cooking pot. I used a colour scheme of mainly red and white for the card because it seemed fresh, clean, cheerful and  somehow suitable for a kitchen.

Whilst we're on the subject of cooking and kitchens, I made some 'Marvelous Marble Cake' last weekend . It was perfect for a sweet treat after a big Friday night Shabbat meal. (I keep a kosher home and do not serve dairy after meat.)  I used a recipe from Food.com that does not contain any butter and the end result was delicious and disappeared very quickly! I have posted the recipe below.

Marvelous Marble Cake - Parve

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
1 cup margarine
5 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup water
3 Toblerone chocolate bars (or equivalent), melted

Directions
Cream sugar and margarine.
Mix in eggs and vanilla.
Mix flour and baking powder.
Add flour mixture and water, alternately in small amounts.
Pour 2/3 of mixture into a 9x13 inch pan, pour on melted chocolate, pour on remaining batter.
Swirl with a knife.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.