French connection: What's the story behind Stella Artois beer?

Q. Recently I've been seeing a lot of TV ads for a beer called Stella Artois. The beers I am most familiar with have powerful one-word names. Budweiser. Stag. Falstaff. Pabst. Schlitz. What's the story behind an odd name like Stella Artois, which I'm not even sure how to pronounce?

-- sudsfan, of Belleville

A. Funny you should mention it, but my first thought was that it might have been the maiden name of that character in "A Streetcar Named Desire." In the movie, didn't Marlon Brando yell for Blanche to fetch him a cold STEL-LA?

OK, OK, that was DuBois, but bear with me, there is a French connection here. The beer that's puzzling you is less than a century old, but its roots and name go back nearly 650 years in brewing history. There's even a little Christmas merriment involved -- and I'm not full of hops on that. Here's the story:

If you look closely at a Stella Artois label, you'll see "Anno 1366." That's the year official tax papers tell us that what is now brewing behemoth Anheuser-Busch InBev originated in Leuven, Belgium, a city of about 90,000. Back then, though, it was just a small brewpub known as Dennis Horeney's Brewery. For short, they called it Den Hoorn, which is Dutch for "The Horn," a symbol that's still prominently displayed on the Stella Artois label.

Then, in 1708, the beer in question started to take shape when Sebastian Artois won the coveted title of master brewer. Nine years later, the brewery took the name of Artois, which historically referred to an area in northern France that was considered part of the "Low Countries."

The Christmas cheer came in 1926 -- in more ways than one. As usual, the brewery produced its annual holiday brew, but this one was such an exceptionally clear beer, that the public demanded they keep pumping it out. Since it was such a stellar product, they named it Stella (Latin for "star") and added Artois to it. Now, they reportedly produce more than a quarter billion gallons of the stuff every year in what is now a fully automated brewery.

In the United States, of course, it is imported and distributed by Anheuser-Busch, which is likely why there's been such an explosion of ads.

Q. I have an antique Baker's Coconut lamb cake pan, but I can't get the thing to come out with a nose on it. Suggestions?

-- C.F., of Belleville

A. Nothing worse than facing the humiliation of putting a schnozless lamb on your Easter table, right? Baa, humbug, I say. Well, since my idea of baking is ripping open a Hostess Ding Dong, I turned this over to News-Democrat Food Editor Suzanne Boyle, who sniffed out a host of hopefully helpful tips from fellow foodie Suzanne Martinson of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Sailboat Themed Number Six Birthday Cake - creative jewish mom

Here's a fun sail boat birthday cake idea for any age, and I can tell you the kids in my son's class went wild over this one! And not to brag, but the teachers and the principal were pretty excited too, especially since the cake was big enough to share a slice with everyone.

Now I have to admit, that like most of my crafting projects, this number six birthday cake was made with very little planning ahead, and even the wood patterned tray, which I love, was an idea that thankfully came to mind in the wee hours of the morning when I couldn't find the large plastic tray that I usually use for cakes. And let me tell you, the smooth contact paper is perfect, since you can wipe off any little messes quite easily. Got it? Cover a piece of styrofoam that you'd been saving with some ancient contact paper that you snagged from your mother's house, and you've got yourself a great base for your cake! Plus you can stick things into it, like flag posts and paper sail boats, or just about anything that you'd like to stay put!

Other than that, bake a double recipe of chocolate cake, (my favorite no-fail recipe here ) in the largest disposable aluminum cake pan you can buy (and do recycle it, or cut it up for crafting afterwards!) and that will hopefully be enough cake to work with. I was able to cut most of the number six in one piece, with just one added piece at the top. I cut around a dinner sized plate for the bottom of the six, and the hole was made by basically pressing a drinking glass into the center of the cake. I iced the cake with blue tinted non dairy whip, added some chocolate candies, added the boats (see instructions here ) and some mini bunting and wiped my brow as I sent the cake out the door. To be continued next month for the next birthday, which happens to be a nine......which in case you're not paying attention is actually an upside-down six! Now that should really be a piece of cake!

Here's a fun sail boat birthday cake idea for any age, and I can tell you the kids in my son's class went wild over this one! And not to brag, but the teachers and the principal were pretty excited too, especially since the cake was big enough to share a slice with everyone.

Now I have to admit, that like most of my crafting projects, this number six birthday cake was made with very little planning ahead, and even the wood patterned tray, which I love, was an idea that thankfully came to mind in the wee hours of the morning when I couldn't find the large plastic tray that I usually use for cakes. And let me tell you, the smooth contact paper is perfect, since you can wipe off any little messes quite easily. Got it? Cover a piece of styrofoam that you'd been saving with some ancient contact paper that you snagged from your mother's house, and you've got yourself a great base for your cake! Plus you can stick things into it, like flag posts and paper sail boats, or just about anything that you'd like to stay put!

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