Several of our community members have been responding to our latest challenge about using Windows Live for the holidays. I thought I better get my contribution added to the list as well, at it all centers around a coffee cake.
Several years ago we had this great coffee cake when visiting some friends. I asked for the recipe and they graciously made me a photo copy of it. Now fast-forward to today. As my wife and I prepare to go “home for the holidays”, I wanted to share this recipe with my in-laws and make it for them while we’re at their house.
Now I could just fold up the recipe and take it with me. But being a geeky guy, I thought of another solution. I’ll use Windows Live Photo Gallery to scan in the copy, fix it up, and then post it to SkyDrive so I can download it and print it when I’m at my in-law’s place. As I was doing this I found a few tidbits about Windows Live that came in handy.
First, Photo Gallery isn’t just for photos. I used the File, Import… command to get the recipe scanned in:
Second, I used the Crop and Straighten features of Photo Gallery to fix up my sloppy scanning:
And finally, I used the Publish menu to put this into a new album on Windows Live Spaces. With this new release of Windows Live, albums are now stored on SkyDrive:
I can download it now from anywhere in the world and start baking the cake, providing I have all the ingredients. Actually, now that I think about it, my mother-in-law can look at it ahead of time to make sure we have everything on hand.
I’ve put this in a public SkyDrive folder, so if you’re looking for something to bake for your holiday celebrations, just click here.
Wishing you a most happy holiday season,
- Marcus
P.S. Let me know if you like the cake! 
