Naaleh! Naaleh!

First and foremost, a little more parental pride. This month was the infamous Chodesh Irgun, with the B'nei Akiva insanity that makes it something you can not describe to those who have not experienced it. I have waxed poetic about it before, so I will not do so here, but I will share with you the video of Ayelet and her shevet - newly christened "Naaleh" - doing their daglanut. They did an awesome job. It is hard to describe in words, and probably sounds funny, but the emotions that the kids dancing with the flag stirs up are very powerful. Call me an old-fashioned American, but seeing someone wear a flag upsets me to no end. It feels disrespectful. But see a bunch of kids twirling and waving the same flag to rousing music, now that's patriotism! I can't point Ayelet out to you, but she is there in the thick of things. Enjoy! (BTW, if you don't get the full picture in the embedded version, click on it to head straight to youtube for a better view.)

Dani's shevet also did a great job on their dance, and had a fun BA Shabbat. Of course he was chosen to bring a dessert for his arucha shivtit, so we made a giant (11" diameter) chocolate chip cookie drizzled with chocolate. Which we failed to photograph, so I guess things are just about back to normal. And now back to our regularly scheduled life.

Some new mini-desserts made their debuts recently - banana cream pie tartlets - bananas in pastry cream, topped with whipped cream, all in a cutie pie little crust,

mini chocolate cream tarts - a larger crust, chocolate ganache, pastry cream and whipped cream,and lemon raspberry parfaits, lemon mousse layered with white cake and raspberry sauce. So yummy!!

Boston cream cupcakes also made a reappearance, accompanied by some acceptable photography. They look rather unassuming,

but everyone knows you can't judge a book by its cover; you have to open it up and see what's inside.

Then there was the birthday of Josh S., who is possibly the world's biggest whoopie pie fan. Arica ordered him a tray of his faves, topped by a sugar cookie.

Finally, there were cookies. In between all the craziness, painting, rehearsing, no one home for dinner, late classes, early classes, chugim, we still had to make the cookies!

Robin is a friend and a great customer. She is also a woman with a discriminating palate. When she orders cookies, she wants what she loves and she knows what that is - first and foremost Linzer cookies, then she has a few additional favorites. So this week, she had Linzers and alfajores, to make both her and her husband happy.

The regular assortment was delicious too!Chocolate espresso cream wafers, hermit sticks, linzer cookies, double decker brownies, and triple chocolate cookies.

In other news, my baking life has taken a small turn for the better - Dani has been retested for allergies, and CAN eat peanuts. Probably. And I can age five years every time he does, even though nothing happens and he is fine. So go ahead, order peanut butter bites without any guilt or worries! I didn't worry anyway, but I do not want my customers to fret... That news makes sending him off to bar mitzvahs slightly less scary. Which is good, since he has one tomorrow night!

And that's all the fun here. I have several cakes to work on, so my hands will likely be too messy for the keyboard for a few days. Will post a sneak peak IF I have a chance...

Have a great week!

Dvora