what's in a name

in Pannekoekentaart, the cat Findus celebrates her birthday on any day she feels like it, and her grumpy loving old boss Pettson always makes her favourite cake for the occasion. Isabelle was inspired by the idea and decided that she wanted to celebrate her birthday as often as she felt like it. an idea i approve of in principle but am less excited about if it means i have to organize full-blown birthday parties every two weeks. a while ago, i came up with a possible compromise: the name-day. reviving a good old catholic tradition and getting stuffed on lovely cake. today was Isabelle's name-day. (incidentally, her name means 'my god is a vow' in hebrew) (i don't know about hebrew, but what does that mean in english????). so we baked (a sugarless confection, see below). and celebrated. and found out that, amazingly, today wasn't only Isabelle's name-day but also, believe it or not, the Nutcracker's. speaking of coincidences. who would have thought? we don't know what his name means, though. google remains silent on the matter.

(Chocolate Fudge Torte with Miniola-Mascarpone Frosting, adapted from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest
I. Cake
preheat oven to 180 degrees. grease cake tin. in large bowl, mix 1/2 cup of butter and 3/4 runny honey until creamy. add two eggs. one at a time.
in small bowl mix 1/2 cup of cocoa powder with 1/2 cup of hot water until it becomes smooth paste. add to the butter mixture.
in medium-sized bowl, sift together: 2 cups flour, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt and some vanilla.
stir this mixture into cocoa/butter mixture. add 1 cup of yoghurt. mix well. pour into tin.
bake for 20 to 30 min.
II. Frosting
in small bowl, combine 1 cup of mascarpone cheese, 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp grated miniola rind with 3 tbsp. of honey. beat until fluffy. spread over cooled-down cake.
decorate with violet petals.)