Cloud

I’m so easily tempted by cake. The combination of tender, sweet crumb and rich frosting on top is always decadent and usually a sign of a celebration. The new book Layered: Baking, Building, and Styling Spectacular Cakes by Tessa Huff has you covered for every type of cake you could want to bake, and I received a review copy. These are all very pretty, polished cakes, and there are instructions for achieving each type of finishing touch shown throughout the book. But, don’t be intimidated by the professional look of these cakes. There are photos and instructions for piping, swirling, and smoothing frosting. There are also options for applying frosting and decorations in different ways, and you’re encouraged to mix and match flavors and toppings however you wish. Many of the cakes are constructed from six-inch layers, but there are some eight-inch cakes as well. They’re organized by category like Classic Cakes, Chocolate Cakes, Casual Cakes, Whimsical Cakes, Adventurous Cakes, and Holi...

All journeys, no matter how fruitful, come to an end. After a little over nine and half years I decided to leave SAP last week. What a journey this has been! Making Design Thinking real I was hired into a multidisciplinary corporate strategy team, set up by Hasso Plattner, the chairman of SAP's supervisory board, and the only co-founder still with the company, whose mission was to help SAP embrace “design thinking” in how it built products and processes as well as how it worked with customers. It was the best multidisciplinary team one could imagine to be part of. We were multidisciplinary to a fault where I used to joke that my team members and I had nothing in common. I am proud to be part of this journey and the impact we helped achieve. Over the years we managed to take the double quotes out of design thinking making it a default mindset and philosophy in all parts of SAP. It was a testament to the fact that any bold and audacious mission starts with a few simple steps and can ...

The dish I’m showing today would be perfect for celebrating Midsummer. I’ve never been to Sweden or any part of the Nordic region, but I’d love to visit during the Midsummer festival and enjoy daylight all night long. As usual, I’ve been virtually traveling with a cookbook, and this time it’s The Nordic Cookbook by Magnus Nilsson. I received a review copy of this hefty book that covers traditional and contemporary foods from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland. Nilsson set out to show the similarities as well as the differences between each part of the Nordic culture. Several dishes are found in multiple locations and go by different names in each place, and some are unique to one area. He accepted that the book could never be a complete record of all the recipes from this large area, but it was intended to inform the reader about this food culture and provide guidance in creating some of that food. It also includes beautiful photos of the areas...

You might not immediately think that summer and soup go together, but give me a chance to explain. I’m declaring this a perfect soup for summer because it’s so easy to make, because the ingredients can all come from the pantry or freezer, and because it would be as good chilled as it is hot. This was a treasure I discovered in my recipe files. I keep physical files of magazine pages I’ve cut out over the years. All the pages are filed according to type of recipe like soup, cake, pasta, etc. It had been ages since I’d gone through them. A couple of times a year, I flip through the recipes to pull out ones that I’ve since tried from other sources and to find inspiration from ideas I’d forgotten. This soup was a long-overlooked gem, and it’s from the October 2012 issue of Food and Wine . In its original format it’s even easier than how I prepared it, but I’ve never met a recipe I couldn’t make more complicated. In the magazine, it was made with store-bought hummus. Instead, I used canned...

Baking books can be dangerous for me. Dangerous in that I’m tempted to bake my way through them, marking more pages than I leave unmarked and wanting to start multiple recipes at the same time. Little Flower Baking was definitely in this category. It’s the latest from Christine Moore of LA’s Little Flower Cafe, and I received a review copy. The style of baking here is familiar and comforting with a few surprising flavors and twists. The scones include versions like Peach Ricotta, Plum Ginger, Strawberry Basil, and Curry Pineapple. I was dizzy from the pies, fruit-filled tarts, layer cakes and simpler cakes, muffins, vegan and gluten-free options, and then came the cookies chapter. I absolutely have to try the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies made with two different types of dough that get smooshed together to form each cookie. And, the Chai Sugar Cookies and White Chocolate Chai Cookies have my complete attention as well. I actually went straight to the kitchen when I saw the Pink Pepp...