DelightfuLea Sweet

Spiderman cake, Spiderman cake!

2009-11-14T20:58:00.000-08:00

Last year, I made the Diego cake, for the daughter of Autumn, a lady I work with. That cake wasn't a situation where I had the creative room I'd prefer. This year, however, she came back asking if I could make a birthday cake again - only criteria, Spiderman! Blue. Red.

It was fun :) And my first topsyturvy!

I started out by searching photos of Spiderman. As well as checking out what has been done in the past. Autumn also showed me a few photos of cakes they had found that they liked, so I had a direction, and made a doodle.

I sent this to her, and she gave me a thrilled response. So I knew I was on the right track.

I started out a week ahead to make all of the buttercream, since the colours I would need - red, blue, black were so vivid that they needed a few days to set. The amount of dye in this cake was almost sickening. I would never suggest a vibrantly coloured cake for a wedding - the guests the day after would be reminded in the worst way of what they ate the day before. I also warned Autumn ahead of time that the dye content would have... certain repercussions.

After the frosting was taken care of, I spent an evening with the gumpaste to cut out the buildings. Simple, random building-ish shapes.

The cakes were my favorite buttercake recipe, nice and dense. I made those two days before the due date. That gave them overnight to chill and become more workable the next day.

All the frosting was done on the night before, as it is buttercream, I didn't want to frost and leave it in the fridge overnight, because the buttercream tends to take on the flavors of the refrigerator, if nothing more than just that "refrigerator air" smell/taste.

Carving the cake was far easier than I had thought. I watched a video on you-tube that made it pretty easy for me to apply their suggestions. Unfortunately I didn't get photos of the unfrosted cake. So the next photos are of the first stabs are the frosting.

A lesson I have certainly learned is that transitioning colours on a corner is really really difficult, especially if you want a nice clean edge. I did however learn quite a few tricks to working with buttercream, and getting a nice smooth look. I'm no longer scared to attack a fondant-free cake!

All assembled, here is the final cake. (Unfortunately, it seems that flash does weird things to shiny, butter surfaces, so it looks strange)

Olivia Ears

2009-11-03T15:28:00.001-08:00

This isn't a food blog.
Although I think you've noticed that I post about a lot of cake and food and cookies and things that make me fatter by the day.
Ok so maybe it's a food blog.

But I so other things too. Sometimes I'm crafty.
Crafty like a fox.

For Squeaker's Halloween this year, we went for Olivia. Oh do we love Olivia, she's independent, out spoken, wishful, and endearing. Maybe I'm the one in love with Olivia, but whatever.

I had this conversation with my mom.

Me: So Des wants to be Olivia for Halloween.
Mom: Oh how sweet!
Me: Yeah, that should be fun. Now I just have to figure out how in the world to make big pig ears. And find stripy fabric.
Mom: You could use felt?
Me: Hmmm.. Felt.. Yes. I wonder...

Ok so there was more and that's from memory from over a month away, but you get the idea.
Anyway. Here's what Mom was thinking
"Yeah, you could cut the felt and stuff it, maybe glue or sew it together, and attach it to a headband.. Hmm"
And I was thinking
"Wow, I have no idea how to Felt. Hm... I'm going to have to look on YouTube and see if anyone has tutorials. I wonder how hard it is. Oh here's a tutorial, oh cool ok I can do this.. Hmm.. Fabric, wire, needles, check... Lets stab the living heck out of the felt, well hey, it's like fabric clay! This is AWESOME! Yeye ! EARS!"

So erm, apparently we have a communication issue. And if I had realized what Mom meant in the first place, I would have totally done that - but no, I went the hard way. I molded my own ears out of felt. There's no sewing here folks. And the only glue I used was to attach the ribbons to the ears, and the ears to the headband.

Sweet, huh? I'm pretty proud.

Step by step on this coming up.

Hot Creamy Polenta Cereal

2009-11-03T15:06:00.000-08:00

Let's get rejuvenated.
It's been months. Sad and pathetic months since I've blogged, and the guilt has been pecking at my toes. It's annoying.
So here I am! (sans photos in this post, sadly. cope)

I'd like to come back to you with something new to me. Something amazing, something I cannot believe I've never had (double negatives 4 u!) before.

What is this mystery? Creamy Polenta!

OK, so I've only eaten polenta a small handful of times. Maybe more of a generous pinch. And I've only ever cooked with it once - all of my experiences were savory adventures - tasty, but not thrilling.

The other day, Squeaker requested Oatmeal for breakfast. "Not on the stove, the kind in the microwave, Mommy" nice that she can be so specific, but we had neither the stovetop nor instant varieties on hand. It also turned out that the box of Malto-O-Meal was 1/2 TBS away from empty.

It's sad when you have to tell your child that you don't have food.* That you're broke and she'll have to settle for uncooked noodles, rotten bananas, and almost molding bread**. So I scoured the cupboards for some sort of morning meal replacement. 'Lo and behold! The Tupperware of Polenta was available, and I had heard on some Food Network show sometime long ago that Polenta was eaten as a warm breakfast cereal. So that's what I made, and boy is it good. I want you to try it.

Creamy Breakfast Polenta with Fresh Fruit and Sweetened Sour Cream
Prep Time : 30 minutes
Makes enough for 2 hungry hungry hippos

1/2 cup polenta (I think it really is just coarse corn meal. Lets pretend I know what I'm talking about)

2 cups milk

1 cup water

1 1/2 TBS sugar

1/2 TBS salted butter

Large Dash o salt

Combine everything but the polenta into a saucepan, bring to a boil, stirring (don't scald the milk to the bottom of the pan, man that's a mess). Once boiling, pour in polenta while stirring to avoid lumps. Mix mix mix until lumps have been eradiated. Turn the stove down such that you have a very gentle simmer going on.

Every 5 minutes or so give it a stir, let cook for about half an hour until thick and soft.

Sweetened Sour Cream which is heavenly should be served with the cereal - stir a hand-dash** of sugar with about half a cup of sour cream.
Also recommended, fresh fruit (or maybe jam? Sounds too sweet to me though, maybe nuts. yes, nuts would be good).
We ate ours with sliced strawberries. JOY!

*We have food
**Dear lord, do you think I'm serious??
**Hand-Dash: A quick handful, not a tight fisted one, just kinda throw your hand in the jar and scoop some out. Maybe an 1/8 cup, maybe less. I guess. I have no idea.

I'm hip, I'm cool, I'm with it

2009-08-11T18:43:00.001-07:00

Nope. Still don't have a computer. However, being totally techie
savvy, I've discovered blogging by email, sent on my iPhone. Soooo
badass.

Having moved to Salinas, I've been looking around for local goodness.
Fancy that the first thing be the Saturday Farmer's Market - Salinas
being the Salad Bowl Capitol of the World or somesuch (check your
lettuce, from Salinas?)

I'm trying to make a visit to the market part of the weekly routine.
So far, so good! And so good it is! Last week I picked up some meaty
heirloom tomatoes which fabulousized a lasagne quite well. This week,
I decided to fancy them up a bit - sliced, oil-drizzled, sprinkled
with parmasan, and smeared with basil (yes, I use the basil in a tube
sometimes).

They cooked up sweet and juicy.

And did you know that heirlooms aren't all gushy and liquid in the
middle? These things are tasy tomato flesh nearly all the way through!!

This phone blogging is a bit cumbersome...

later edit: unfortunatly the photos I so expertly included didn't make it. Not so awesome as I thought :( ... Going to have to work on this.

Testing... Testing...

2009-08-11T18:26:00.000-07:00

Just you wait

I've failed so terribly

2009-08-03T12:11:00.000-07:00

There are a few dead blogs in my Google Reader.. blogs which never update but for that once-every-few-months-post simply stating "I'm so sorry, I've neglected you my readers, I'm here, I am, but life has taken the front seat and thrown blogging in the trunk.. I'll be back, I promise!"

I keep these blogs on my list and wait, hope.. some end up being deleted. Some have that final message "I'm sorry, it's not you.. it's me. I just can't blog anymore" and some simply don't ever return.. but there is that one-in-a-bunch blog that does come back. So I stay hopeful!

I make no promises. But I do want to blog again soon.. heck, I want to bake! I haven't done either in so long, it is a very sad thing. See, life did that thing where it got.. busy... it's all a big pile of excuses, which I've already used at that, and I am so sorry, I am.

I'll be back. I will.
Wait.. that's a promise... oh fudge.

mmm... fudge...

Huh?

2009-05-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

Oh.

Hi!

Long time.. no, err.. posty.

You see... I'm busy, and well.. yes, too busy to update.

I'm the worst blogger ever.

I have some photos of things. But I can't upload them. Both. BOTH of the computers have gone totally to hell. I use the iPod Touch to play online now, and, well.. posting here isn't that easy.

I'm also moving. Well, not just moving, but buying a house. BUYING A HOUSE. !!!

So I'm busy, and as much as I miss you, I do, I really do... I just can't make the time right now..

Oh I'll be back, I will. Just let me have this time to slack somewhere in my life, please? The stress is getting to me!

Chicken McNugget Happy Meal ... Cake?

2009-03-09T15:37:00.000-07:00

Oh boy. This was a fun one. I'm calling it a successful failure... my plans for this 'cake' were far greater than I achieved, however, I'm so thrilled about the look of the McNuggets that I'm over it!

Besides, I've realized that whenever I do a test cake.. the second cake ends up at least 500x better (examples? the Quilt before and after and Rubber Ducky before and after cakes) - so I'm confident if I were to do it again, I would get what I had originally envisioned, and that's good enough for me right now.

The plan was a Happy Meal - for Ryan (of cakes past). As he correctly guessed, it was a poke at the fact that he doesn't ever eat more than a kid (Des once ate more than him...)

The Failure:
I had hoped to have a happy meal box, built much like a gingerbread house over the vanilla cake, frosted with chocolate icing. I had also planned a McNugget box as well - both of these were casualties of icing crappiness, and last minute doing of things. I should have done more ahead of time.

The frosting was done all in an hour or two - and because I was semi-rushed, that meant that the colours bled and things just weren't as sharp as I would hope.

The Success:
The chicken nuggets and fries! OMG love it!

Served with chocolate syrup "BBQ Sauce", the fried cake nuggets (yes, yes I DID fry cake and it was everything I wanted it to be) are dead ringers for chicken nuggets! The fries were cookies - baked long and slow to brown them), glazed and sugared to give that oily shine, and salty look. They were served with some tube frosting "Ketchup".

Dan stepped in on this project and made me a fry bag and cup out of French butter cookies (much like fortune cookies). And it was awesome. He also did some cool design things that I might have to make him do for future projects.

Oh and yes, that's a happy meal toy on top of the cake.

A Romantic Dinner

2009-02-26T20:40:00.000-08:00

Dan and I recently celebrated 8 years of being together (8 years!)
We decided that instead of going out, spending lots of money, and having to get a babysitter, we would stay in and make dinner together.
This was an amazing night, and decidedly far more romantic and intimate than going out to eat at any fancy pantsy restaurant. The meal was amazing to boot! This was by far one of my favorite anniversary celebrations, and I look forward to next time!

The menu we decided on was Lobster Thermador, Bacon Wrapped Fillet Mignon, French Onion Soup, and ginger carrots. All said and done - we forgot the carrots.

Dan took care of the fillets, seasoning lightly, grilling briefly and then baking, simple and elegant.

The lobster was a good amount of work, and full of butter and cheese (so healthy).
Lobster Thermador

I purchased frozen tails - and thawed in a water bath earlier in the day.

First the tails are boiled about 10 minutes - before they are cooked through.
Rinse with cool water until you can handle them - split the shell down the middle and take out the meat. Cut into bite sized pieces. Wash the shells and put aside.

Next, finely chop 2 shallots, 2 tsp fresh tarragon (we later decided that more would have been welcome), and 2 tsp chervil (the produce guy at the store helped me pick out fresh parsley instead - since they didn't usually have chervil. Boil these all in 1 cup of fish stock with a splash (or three) of white wine - reduce to half.

While this is reducing, start a roux - in a pan melt 1/4 cup butter - add 2 tbsp flour, 1 tsp dry mustard and stir constantly over low heat for 2 minutes. don't let it brown.
While stirring, slowly add the reduced stock and 1 cup of milk while the pan is off the heat, stirring until smooth. Pout back on the heat and slowly bring to a boil, stirring all the while. Allow to simmer (Stir every now and again) for 3 minutes, the sauce will thicken. Add 1/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan. Taste. YUMMY isn't it? Add salt an pepper in small amounts until it's irresistibly good (like a really really rich bisque).

Leave that pan where it is - and now use another pan to melt another 1/4 cup of butter. Fry the lobster until *just* done and starts to brown.

Preheat the broiler.
Divide half of the sauce among the 4 shell halves. (photos shoe the soup in ramekins as well)

Add the lobster to each tail in even amounts - and then pour the rest of the sauce over them. Divide 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese over them.

Put them all in the broiler until the cheese starts to colour a nice golden brown. remove and serve!
oh it's to die for... artery clogging joy.

The soup, I started around 5... we didn't eat until midnight because the soup took that long... while it was very good, and even Des enjoyed leftovers - I've made French onion Soup before will a different recipe and it was far better, so I won't detail the recipe I used here, since I don't care t share a recipe I wasn't thrilled with!

Our meal was excellent, and although it was certainly a good amount of work - it was all easy. The ingredients themselves cost us less than going out for this meal would have been, but it was still not a cheap meal..

Can you believe it? MORE COOKIES!

2009-02-24T23:07:00.000-08:00

After receiving one of the cookie bags that I made for the baby shower last week - my friend Darlena asked if she could put in an order for herself - HECK YEAH!
80 cookies total (plus an additional 24 that I made *just in case*), it's been far more work that I thought it would be (if they had all been the same one or two designs it would have been infinitely easier) but I'm done, a day early - and pretty happy with the results!
I learned, as always, a lot - and I can see a noticeable difference in the first cookies I decorated vs the 100th (bees and ducks were last, bunny was first). Also - I got to use my shimmer dust on the inset wings, and I almost never get to use that stuff.

She's giving most of these away as gifts, but liked the cookies themselves so much, she divulged some would make it to her own freezer.

The colouring and shimmer doesn't come through well in photos - but the lines you see in the frosting are colour from the dust, and the whole wing glimmers like ruby slippers...

Would you believe that I hardly ate any?
Eh, me either.. about 5 made it into my tummy over the three days of preparation.

Cookies cookies cookies COOKIES!!!!!!!!!! (Part 3)

2009-02-19T22:40:00.000-08:00

Brandy got this sinister book for me.
I craved chocolate.
I looked for a simple recipe in this book to satisfy.
I found it.
The cookies were simply called "Chocolate Cookies" and they were more than just that. Mmmmm...

I made ice cream sammiches with a bunch of them - and I have to say I don't know that I can every justify buying ice cream sammiches ever again, because these blow store-bought ones out of the water.

So yes. One recipe down, and Crave is a winner so far.

Cookies cookies cookies COOKIES!!!!!!!!!! (Part 2)

2009-02-19T22:33:00.000-08:00

Lemon Drops!

What you need:

Sugar cookie dough
small cookie cutter, or not, you could just roll and flatten little pieces of dough
lemon juice
powdered sugar

Cut and bake little cookies, I used my linzer cookie cutter set, and actually cut small lemons

Mix up a thin glaze by combining lemon juice and powdered sugar

Toss cooled cookies in the glaze - spread on a rack and left dry - toss again in glaze for more flavor if desired and let dry again

Toss cookies with powdered sugar to coat

Devour

Cookies cookies cookies COOKIES!!!!!!!!!! (Part 1)

2009-02-19T22:14:00.001-08:00

My birthday happened recently.
My sister sent my way an assortment of cookie cutters and candy molds that made me giddy - a butterfly set I'd been eying, and a bunch of totally cute animal cutters - totally random too!

So, of course - I had to make me some cookies!
I finally found a fantastic sugar cookie recipe that actually works for me - the dough holds it's shape as it cooks, and the cookies come out soft yet firm - perfect!
As usual, it's a recipe I found on AllRecipes - which if you haven't noticed already is one of my favorite recipe resources.

As I was babbling to Erin about my cute new cutters at work, she asked if I would be able to make some cookies as favors for a baby shower tomorrow - of course!
We decided that the person the shower is for is so random (no, he's like crazy random, in the more awesome way) that the cookies didn't have to - and perhaps shouldn't - make any sense whatsoever.

Thanks Kristi for giving me a frog and camel cutter - the perfect totally odd pair of animals!

This was my first time using the color fill method for frosting - and considering that I'm totally happy with the results. This is a great technique that I really want to play with some more. (and man do I need to work on my piping)

These cookies will be paired up and put into cello bags tied with blue and light blue ribbons. I'd take a photo - but they aren't dry enough to bag yet!

Thanks Kristi - I can't wait to make a huge batch of bumble bees! I think that's my favorite cutter! (oohh.. I could also make flies for a poo cake. someone request a poo cake so I can make some flies!)

Tastes like chicken

2009-02-19T22:04:00.001-08:00

While stocking up on my 50lb bag of sugar, and 25 lb bag of flour (oh yes, really - I've gone through a few of each too) at Smart & Final last week, I passed by chickens - and they called out to me.

I decided to stuff the bird with mushrooms, which I sweated with onions, butter, cloves, thyme, and ginger before stuffing and dressing the chicken (with.. toothpicks and green sewing thread. yes. thread. I might consider investing in some kitchen twine... )

While the bird was roasting, I sauteed up the innards and gave them to Gabby and Fizzgig. - I actually had reservations about that, since it seems I really should have attempted to cook up and eat the bits, but I just couldn't bring myself to be that brave - besides, the animals were *stoked*.

The chicken was tasty, but a little dry, and the stuffing was bland. Dan made up some lemon tarragon cream sauce and pasta - which was super totally awesome - and the sauce was just what the chicken needed! (that sauce could have fixed anything)
It was a pretty bird though!

10 minute pizza

2009-02-19T21:56:00.000-08:00

On the way home the other day, I asked Des what she wanted for dinner - Pizza!
I spend the ride home trying to convince her that we do not, infact have pizza.

"We don't have any pizza at home honey.. what about chicken?"
"No, I want pizza"
"We can't have pizza.."
"Pizza!"
"What about... grilled cheese and soup?!"
"No soup, Mommy, pizza for Dessy" (she has started making things, and herself sometimes, cuter - Dessy, chairy, shirty.. you name it)
... etc.

So anyway, when we got home I had finally decided "Hey, why can't we make a pizza? Duuhh... I bake things, I can bake pizza!"

And so, we did.
And it was actually pretty awesome - and unbelievably easy, and fast. It really did only take us about 10 minutes to mix, assemble and toss in the oven.

This recipe for dough was great, and the toppings were just a conglomeration of what was in the fridge, leftover marinara and a shredded 'mexican' cheese mix. Des helped measure and sprinkle toppings - she's getting pretty good at helping cook - and is learning what the measurements are called!

Friends and Food

2009-02-07T10:46:00.001-08:00

Chris and Brandy have come over a few times now for dinner - they bring something, we make something, our powers combined - we eat awesome food!

This last week was no exception. Dan and Brandy were in charge of this meal, and it was stellar.

Chicken burgers with slices of grilled pineapple and thousand island dressing. Roasted veggies, and fried rice. It was awesome!

The burgers were *really* big. Des's was practically the size of her head! All of us had something of a struggle taking bites of those monsters.

I'm pretty sure we're doing dinner again tomorrow... I need to clean the house!
And make something for tomorrow!

Apple Fritters!

2009-02-01T10:30:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, there was a conversation.

Me: Man. I want a donut.
Dan: I've been craving them all week!
Me: ME TOO!! We could make some you know.
Dan: Yeah, but do we need to?
Me: Well... no...

I won't bother repeating the recipe here, since we followed this one with no modifications.

They were excellent.

Splendid Brownies

2009-02-01T10:15:00.000-08:00

A long while back, I bought a bag of Splenda for Baking - because I was curious. I've only used it once, with not so great results. So tonight, while trying to think of a tasty, and not so unhealthy desert to make for the dinner we're having with Chris and Brandy tonight - I decided to try to make brownies - with Splenda!

These are cakier than I would prefer for a brownie (next time - one less egg), but once covered in chocolate and refrigerated they almost have an ice cream cake quality that I really like.
Since the recipe has chocolate in it, there is sugar present, which is I think why the recipe actually works. These come out to about 100 calories a cake, and 5 grams of fat. (Next time I will also work to lower the fat - its all those chocolate chips)

Ok, so theyre not so healthy either, but they're a start...

I modified this recipe

Splendid Brownies

1/2 cup Splenda for baking
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease an 8x8 inch square pan.
In a medium saucepan, combine the splenda, butter and water. Cook over medium heat until boiling.
Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until melted and smooth.
Mix in the eggs and vanilla.
Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the chocolate mixture.
Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
Bake for 15-20 minutes.
Turn out of pan and cut into squares.
Allow to cool completly in refrigerator.

Melt choclate chips of varying flavor and coat brownies.
Place on parchment paper to solidify - put in fridge to speed up solidification.

I dipped mine in combinations of mint, milk chocolate, white chocolate and butterscotch chips.

Best cold, in my opinion! (and the mint are stellar, next time, all mint/milk chocolate!)

Home Made (Lazy) Bread

2009-02-01T10:03:00.000-08:00

Dan spent the last year pining for a bread maker, and finally got from from work simply because it was so cheap. So now we have a bread maker (a cheap one, but so far it's proving to work just fine).

We've only made a few loaves of bread in it, but this one is the first that I really liked. I adapted this recipe.

Pecan Oat Wheat Bread

2 1.4 tsp (1 packet) Yeast (I used Active Dry)
1 cup warm water (about 110F)
2 TBSP sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/5 cups all purpose flour
1 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup ground oats (I attatcked some oats with a mortar and pestl)
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Combine the water, sugar and yeast in the breadpan. Let rest for 10 minutes. Add all other ingredients, set on Whole Wheat setting. Start.

Only downside to this recipe is because of the time for the yeast to rest, you can't leave it on the timer and have it ready and warm in the moring.

Talk about lazy.

This is not a cake

2009-01-25T12:17:00.000-08:00

These little cakes are devious - they're not cake at all! They're candy in disguise! (That's Charlie the Unicorn, for Dan, btw)

Well, I guess that's the idea, to emulate the candy they were made to taste like - eating it is just like biting into a nice rich candy.

I wanted to make a cake for my Mom's birthday visit yesterday, and when I came across this post over on How To Eat a Cupcake I stopped looking. (I won't post the recipe here, as she explains it very well)

First, the making of the buttercrunch candy - it took me three tries to get the candy right - first batch was grainy, second batch burned, third batch - perfect! I documented this with photos. The sacred heart is the second batch, fitting no? (The colors on my camera are coming out weird. Hrmmm..)

God I hate making candy. Sugar requires too much perfection/patience for me to handle.

The candy then has a layer of poured chocolate, and a sprinkling of pecans and sea salt. (Yes, sea salt!)

I decided on a simple white cake (actually, the recipe on the back of the SoftAsSilk box, it's not too bad). This I baked in a 12in round pan, and then sliced into 4 thin layers. Then, in the most wasteful way, I used cookie cutters to make cute individual cakes. The leftover tidbits were munched on, but in a fit of anger I threw them out the following morning. Dangerous stuff.

Two more steps, almost done - next, the making of the caramel filling. This was awesome stuff, and you may question the salt, but don't, simply do not question the salt. Try it - you'll like it! (this goes for the sprinkling of salt on the candy as well, it is so critical to the taste)

After filling eat layer of the cakes with caramel, the final step was to make the ganache. Sadly, I only had half and half - which of course turned out some thin not-so-ganachey-ganach. it of course tasted and worked just fine, but didn't create the lovely silky chocolate coating I had envisioned.

These cakes were so rich, thick, and very tasty!

Craftmonkie

2009-01-23T15:07:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've been able to sit down and blog. (or bake, or craft, or...)

Here are two little things I've done that I wanted to share!

Purple Elephant!

Gemma and I played with Sculpy the other day - I made a purple elephant! She reminded me of Chris, and so was gifted.

Every time I go into the garage, I see this half full bag of wild bird see and think "I should get a bird feeder" - well this past weekend was so pretty, I finally had a chance to clean the backyard, and decided that we needed a bird feeder, so I made one! Super simple - peanutbutter container, and a broken hanger.

After I got it put up, Des stood under the bird feeder holding seeds from the ground in the air saying "HERE BIRDY! COME EAT! STOP HIDING!" (she told me the birds were hiding in the trees)

Today is the first day I've seen birds at the feeder, it's a drizzly rainy day, so I'm glad to cheer it up a bit for them! I can't wait for Des to wake from her nap so she can see them!

So Sorry, Cupcake!

2009-01-23T14:47:00.000-08:00

A weekend or so ago, my niece and nephew came over to visit. Dan took them to the aquarium in the afternoon, and I had planned to make cupcakes in the evening.

Victoria helped me bake chocolate cupcakes, some with chocolate chips, some with mint chips - yum!

The plan was to make shark cupcakes, from Hello, Cupcake! for Ricky.

Photo from the Hello, Cupcake! Blog

I had asked Victoria's dad before what her favorite animal was - sea turtles! So i had a "brilliant" idea for how to make turtle cupcakes! (Madeline cookies and gumdrops somehow = turtle in my mind)

Well, I'm just going to say that the ideas in Hello, Cupcake! are good, they're cute, they're downright awesome - and they *look* easy.

I should have practiced, or at least played with these before hoping to have kids replicate the fantastic pictures.

While I was stressed out about how it just wasn't working, Tori reminded me why kids rock - she had a great time! (We all did, how can you not have fun when there's sugar EVERYWHERE?)

BTW, that blue blobcake in the lower right? That's a shark. Yup.

De-lurk d'lurkers week

2009-01-18T22:54:00.000-08:00

Saw this over at Wandering Cyote's blog, and felt the need to make use of it.

Just say hey, let me know you're there.

(This is one of those posts that could end up with only 3 comments and thus make me very sad, so please do comment!)

That's a funny fish!

2009-01-11T17:31:00.000-08:00

That's what Des says about her new fishie, Brownie!

We went to the pet store yesterday, and since Hitler recently passed, I figured she could get her own fish. Since we have goldfish and a catfish - really the only other compatible fish are more goldfish.. so we chose a Moor Goldfish from the large assortment of possibilities. All the while, wearing her fairy princess crown and making the sales associates fall in love with her.

On the way home I asked what her fishie's name was. At first is was bubbles - but then she decided solidly on Brownie. Very cute.

Cheesy Awesome!

2009-01-11T17:18:00.000-08:00

I love cheese. Loooove it. So does Des! So we made these super easy cheesy bites today. As you can see, while I was taking photos - Des managed to take some biscuits for herself!

These are a huge hit with Des and I! It's hard not to eat them all!
These were great to roll out with Des, as the dough wasn't sticky and melty like cookie dough. They came out softer than I expected, but I may not have cooked them long enough, they are also kinda greasy, I will try these again with less butter (and maybe sneak some veggies in them? Hmm...)

Super easy Chicken Pot Pie

2009-01-11T17:03:00.000-08:00

Yikes! This was easy. Not only that but pretty much all of it can be substituted, added to, removed.... The whole wheat biscuit top makes this very hearty - but if you don't have whole wheat flour, just use all white flour.

You will need..

Chicken (i used 2 breasts, cubed)
Carrots (2 carrots, halved longways and then sliced)
Peas (1 can)
Potatoes (2 yukon gold's)
Can of Cream of Chicken Soup
Mushrooms (about 10 button)

Cut things up into moderately sized pieces. Put into a casserole dish or otherwise large enough vessel (I used a round deep cake pan). Pour in soup and equal amount of water. Mix it up.

Whip up this biscuit recipe using an extra cup of water and pour the dough over the top, spreading it over the whole dish.

Bake @ 400 for an hour.

TaDa!!!
10 minutes of work - rave family reviews.

Ah the bounty!

2009-01-02T13:16:00.000-08:00

The holidays seems to have eaten into my desire to blog.. maybe that a good thing - I can focus on life instead...

I thought it would be fun to post the exciting items procured during the Christmastime whirlwind that is my winter Holiday.

From my Brother in law and his wife (sister in law in law?) - Hello! Cupcake - a book I've quietly coveted online, but would never have afforded myself the luxury (Thank you!) So many cute cakes.. Des loves this book as well.

From my Sister, who responded to my request for arm protection (I currently have 3 healing burns on my left wrist.. it's pathetic) with super cuteness (and I hear some seriously awesome failed effort to do it herself <3 ) these awesome mitts (Check out their website for some uber adorable aprons!) - If you know me, you know that these two mitts really are like old-me meets new-me (I had like 6 parakeets when I was 12 - bird crazy)

And my Mom provided me with much awesome in the kitchen.

One of those super awesome push measures for sticky liquids - for the spoon sizes ( keep picking these up and putting them back before I get tot the checkout in the store)
A set of small cookie cutters (I've been hunting for something just like this for fondant useage)
A pretty cake decorating set of items from Wilton
And a scoop measure (perfect for shopping nuts, veggies, etc.)

Also - monies to spend at Sur La Table - my new favorite online shop! Oh did I have fun on that shopping spree - they were having a winter sale too, so I think I got a decent about of stuff from the cash!

This will be awesome for my next multi tier cake!

These are so cute! I got the Unicorn (!), Butterfly and Dress

From this set I got the shooting star - I love it!

My SilPat is getting worn out - it's got cuts in it :( so I ordered another!

I constantly *almost* buy the leaf mold when i'm at Micheal's

Tiny fruit shaped cutters - sure they're for linzer cookies, but they could do so much more!

While my current verification of conversions involves running to the computer and looking it up - my computer could do with some less flour in the keys, so maybe this will help!

In making about 10 Krantz this holiday - I often needed to measure more than 1 cup of liquid, so I got myself a 2 cup measure - sadly, they just told me it's on backorder, so I'll have to wait.

And these - this are just *cute*

And there it is. I have more happy to play with than I think I can handle. The joy is thick in here!

Des wasn't left out of the baking funtimes, though! From each of her gransmothers, she got some super cut cookie baking fun!
From Grandma, she got a wooden slice and bake cookie set - the cookies and frosting stick together by velcro! Des is constantly feeding me cookies! (and she uses the mitt when she opens her little oven, so cute)

From Nana she got a real cookie baking set- cookie pan, cutters, apron.. we made cookies the other day! Des cut them out herself. Totally cute.

I broke the blender!!! :o(

2008-12-21T13:07:00.001-08:00

Don't try to grate chocolate in a blender.

Edit: Awesomeness that is Dan....

Dan got home just now from a quick trip to the store - diapers etc.

Me: "I broke the blender"

Dan: "You didn't try to grate chocolate in it did you?"

Me: "Maybe..."

Dan: *goes to the car to bring in stuff that was purchased, comes back and hands me a chocolate grater*

Me: *handface*

Time Passed - a look back in pictures

2008-12-21T00:02:00.000-08:00

We won't lament over my lack of posting lately... instead, I'll take a moment to show you what you've been missing, through photographs!

Banana chocolate chip muffins

3/4 c cake flour
3/4 c all purpose flour
3 large bananas
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 c butter
2 eggs
1/2 c pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp cinnamon
1 cup white chocolate chips

Oven 375
prepare a muffin tin or bread loaf pan
Sift dry ingredients
Beat in wet ingredients
Pour into pan
Bake 15 min or till passes done test

Bake and Craft Sale at work
Erin and I somehow were convinced to make cupcakes for the work bake sale - and we went crazy. 80 cupcakes - Ginger Bread with Vanilla Cream Frosting, Mocha Cocoa with Vanilla Cream Frosting, and Erin's Red Velvet with White Chocolate Cream cheese frosting.

Also, many loaves of various sizes of cake breads. My Mom's Apple Spice, the Pumpkin Zucchini of previous posts, Erin's Peanutbutter Chocolate Banana, and Lemon Almond.
Madness I tell you.

We make cupcake toppers, and Dan designed a logo. It was fun, stressful and whatnot though.

In the end, we sold everything but what you see here...

and then a few people came by and bought all but 4 cakes!

Snowman Cake
The evening before his work holiday party - Dan mentioned that there was a desert contest. Damnit. He hada good idea too - a snowman cake! And so it goes.

Sadly, he did not fare the car trip well - and started to melt.

He did win me 20 bucks though.
Cocoa and Marshmallows

I made a test batch of marshmallows today. As well as developed a recipe for hot cocoa - christmas gifts! (more when they're done)

Krantz!!!!

2008-11-13T22:40:00.001-08:00

I LOVE the holidays. Love love love.

There are so many birthdays, so many holidays, days off, excuses to make and eat baked goods galore. One of my very favorite baked goods is still a mystery to me.

(just imagine it drizzled with a sugar glaze, that's how it will be served tomorrow)

My father always obsessed about Krantz. A Polish pastry he had as a child. My Mom procured the recipe (from my Dad's mother, I believe), and handed it on to me when I decided I'd make it a few years back for Daddy for Christmas morning breakfast. Since then I've decided that it shall be a tradition. I also brought this bread over to Dan's family dinner for Christmas, and was told that it will be expected from now on! This year I'm going to bring it to two separate potlucks at work - partly because I want to expose the world to it's wonderfulness, and partly because I have a Polish co-worker, and I want to share the love.

I've done some (admittedly half-hearted) Googles on Krantz, and really not made much progress on what it exactly is. A Polish/German braided or knotted egg bread. Often includes poppy seeds - however, none of the recipies (as few as there are) that I have found have looked anything like our family's Krantz. It's buttery, it's eggy, it's got nuts and cinnamon and sugar and poppy seeds, it's doughy and flakey, rich and light, sweet and decadent.

Thing is, this recipe is quite unique on it's own. It's descriptive, yet leaves out many details. It's the sort of recipe that should be learned at Grandmother's side, measurements done by feel and eye, kneading just so to get the dough texture just right. Problem is, all I have to go on is my Father's description of the pastry he grew up with, and this curtly written recipe.

And so, it's never ended up the same, I'm always experimenting with the leeway the recipe gives me. And so far, it's never ended up anything but irresistible.

Sadly for you, I will not share the recipe - I feel it should remain a family secret. So you'll just have to come over to my place around Christmas time and hope we haven't eaten it all!

Crayon Cake

2008-11-13T22:19:00.000-08:00

While she was learning her colours, Des would default everything to green if she didn't know what the color was, hence the green crayon! Des painted the Pooh Bear colouring page with dyed royal icing.

The cake itself was Green Velvet (read: Red Velvet, but.. green!) and baked in a large can. I must say, I do not recommend baking cakes in tin cans - the heat distribution is all wrong and ends up producing not-so-leavened cakes. The tip was baked in an aluminum disposable pan which I molded into the shape I wanted. Again, not suggested - that part of the cake was a solid mass.

Somehow, the part of the cake served was actually good, lucky me!

While I was assembling before the party, there was a big moment of "I can't do this. This sucks. $*@()!! Daaaann.. is it too late to go pick up some cakes from the store?" Dan, being excellent, promptly went out and procured some cakes. While he was gone I started to get very angry with myself for giving up and decided that there was no way Des's birthday cake would be from a store! Not after I've come so far!

So I finished it! BWAHAHAHAHA.. yeeeah...

Also, I made blue peanut butter ice cream and red mint fudge ice cream to be served with it - obviously a colour theme! I also wouldn't really suggest the heavily dyed ice cream...

The yard has been blessed!

2008-11-08T16:43:00.000-08:00

Maybe it really won't die this time! Des and I were out planting out rosemary and heather plants in the *new* backyard, when, as I leveled out the last of the soil, the heavens opened and rain poured down!
I'd take that as a sign. And, water was saved! All good.

In other news.. Des was working on her cake pan. I gave her some thinned icing and a paintbrush, and let her colour in the Pooh Bear background I made earlier this week.

Go Diego Go!

2008-11-08T11:37:00.000-08:00

Here he is!

He's a shortbread-ish vanilla cake filled with sliced strawberries and Swiss Buttercream.

It took eons to do the buttercream colours for Diego - he was one of those Wilton pans with specific colouring directions. I think it was around 12 different colours - meaning 12 little bowls of buttercream individually dyed. Pain-in-the-butt.

Anyway. He's hanging from a fondant vine with some accenting leaves - Baby jaguar is in the corner, made of colorfill, as is the entire background done on the back of a large plastic serving tray. I think I really like the diea of doing cake boards this way.. adds another dimention to decorate and develop the cake's environment

Corn Starch - wierd, useful

2008-11-03T19:26:00.000-08:00

Here's that piece you saw yesterday, with the airbrushing and detailing. Not entirely what I wanted, but better than I thought I would get.. it was still wet when I took the photo, hence the shine.

So on a whim, I mixed the dye and water for the airbrush with corn starch, to make it thicker and hopefully cover better - and it really really did! It didn't pool on top of the surface nearly as much, and seemed much easier to control in general.

Also note the frosting butterfly in the corner! I have a jaguar to go with it, it's drying now... this is all for the Diego cake, apparently the jaguar is a main character in the show (I've never seen it, this is what google image searching has taught me)

Weird stuff, corn starch.

(I love love love to mix it with water and just play with it)

Time, Capes, Cakes, Grass, and Goodbye

2008-11-02T19:14:00.000-08:00

I gained an hour today (did you?), and oh boy is it awesome. It's only 7 pm!! OMG!
Love it.

Halloween was wonderfully fun. We all dressed up and had a good time. Trick or Treating was adorable, not to mention the capes! Oh the capes.. I can't wait until Erin gets her pictures up, because she has the ones of Brianna and Des together.

My Mom made the green dress, and I made the cape and aprons. It all came together so very well, I'm thrilled. And according to Erin, when she presented Brianna with her cape, Liam, in dismay asked "Where's my cape surprise??" - so another cape will be started soon, I'm sure!

I am currently working on both Des's cake, and a co-worker's daughter's cake. One is due Saturday, and one due Sunday - so already I'm busy-busy! A sneak peak that will make little sense, I'm sure... lots of outlining, airbrushing .. and of course actual cake to work on.

Dan and I have been wanting to get something decent going on in our backyard, and finally got going today. We were just going to clear ground and put down bricks - but when Dan went out to get a new rake - he came back with rolls of sod and bags of dirt, so now there's grass! Here's hoping it lives this time !!!!

Finally, this morning, after a rather drawn out period of looking not-so-well, Hitler departed. He was about 7. RIP Hitler.

Get your ass out and vote this Tuesday!

2008-11-02T16:10:00.000-08:00

I hate politics.

I'll just remind you that whatever you do or do not vote for or against might effect someone's life. Think about your vote, and make sure that you do vote.

Please. It's important.

Pumpkin Apple Pie - Oh my!!

2008-10-31T17:36:00.000-07:00

You heard that right - Pumpkin AND Apple in one pie.

Randomly thinking this would be good, I did some net sleuthing and came across a few recipes. Turns out it really is just pumpkin pie + apple pie.

The combination brings about various contradictions though...

Pumpkin pie is best cold... apple is best warm!

Pumpkin is eaten with whipped cream... apple best with ice cream!

Pumpkin pie is single crust... apple pie is double-crusted!

What better way to solve all of these issues than by making one? And so I made two.

I used this recipe - except for the pumpkin pie part, I made half of the Libby's recipe - because in my family, pumpkin pie ain't pumpkin pie unless it's Libby's.

The recipe does not call for a top crust, but the conflict between pumpkin and apple pie bothered me enough that I was forced to make a compromise with the crust cutouts which I placed on top after the 20 twenty minutes of baking, when I removed the foil.

Not surprisingly, this was a very very tasty pie. Strangely though, it didn't taste anything like I thought it would. Certainly there was apple pie and pumpkin pie, and all the flavors you'd expect, but the textures were different, and the flavors melded in the most wonderful way.. Dan described it as a sort of apple cobbler.

Either way, I am very much making this again. It doesn't replace a pumpkin pie in any way, but it may be my new favorite over pumpkin pie.

Oh, and I served it warm, with whipped cream.

I was exceptionally please by the results.

Velvet Capes

2008-10-27T22:45:00.000-07:00

Finally - DONE!

Taking on both Des and Brianna's capes (and aprons, I'll do those tomorrow) for Halloween was more work than I anticipated. I'm a novice sewer, so hemming etc. took much seam-ripping - often on the longer seams in the garments (AUGH!) ... but now they are done!

Trying to hem a garment meant for a toddler - that I was making too tall for the toddler is silly-hard. Toddler isn't going to stay still, and besides, since I was making both capes too big (so they'll fit later) the hem line was hard to measure. So, I improvised - I mounted a doll on top of the vacuum!

Hey, it worked. Lol.

The capes are red velvet, lined with satin. They have tassels on the tips of the hoods (white for Brianna, black for Des) and frog closures in the front (white for Brianna, red for Des).

They have buttons on the inside to fold up the hem until the girls get taller, at which time the hem can be let down an additional 4 inches.

I had to rip out a total of 6 seams, and re-cut one large piece. I'm too impatient for this sewing stuff, I make mistakes too easily because of it.

'Tis the Season for Pumpkins!

2008-10-27T19:44:00.001-07:00

Tonight was a night of pumpkin happiness! Gem came over and we all carved pumpkins.

Gem brought along an electric carver - which we all decided was totally awesome, despite how completely cheap it was to use such a cheater device!

Des decorated her pumpkins with finger paints...

During all this, I was baking pumpkin butterscotch cookies!

Yummers. Yet another winning recipe from Big Fat Cookies (at Dan's suggestion, I threw in some oatmeal, and it added some great texture to these very light, cakey cookies)

Oatmeal Cookies, Snickerdoodles, and PUPPIES!

2008-10-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

Chris and Brandy came over last night, in desperate want of cookies. I promised the making of cookies.. but it was soon discovered that I didn't have the necessary supplies, and we were all quite saddened.

So today, I went to the store and got stuff. And then made Oatmeal Cookies and Snickerdoodles! I shall bring some over to C&B later tonight.

The oatmeal cookies didn't turn out as well as the recipe usually does, which was sad. But they're still oatmeal cookies!

The snickerdoodles, however are AWESOME. I have had this great book, Big Fat Cookies from my Mom for probably more than a year now and only cracked it a few times to drool over the recipes, never to make any.. but now that I've tried one, I'm going to try them all, as soon as possible!

What are the rules about posting recipes from cookbooks on a blog? Can I do that? I dunno...

Anywho... what's been keeping me out of the kitchen lately?
The hunt for a dog! Finally, our family was ready to bring a dog back into our lives, and so we have been going to the local shelters quite frequently, looking for the right dog for us. Yesterday, we brought that dog home, and named her Gabby.

She's of unknown breed (likely Dachshund, maybe terrier or chihuahua as well), and unknown age (totally seems to be a puppy, has her adult teeth, maybe 1?).
She's fun, she's energetic, she's *houstrained*, she's extremely tolerant of toddler antics, and she's cuddly!

So yes. Happy happy happy happy.

More Bread!!

2008-10-16T23:55:00.000-07:00

I baked some more Pumpkin Zucchini Bread - same recipe as before but a slight modification - half the eggs, and replace with equal volume pumpkin!

It's *EXCELLENT*
Well, I think it is at least.

And I'm bringing it home to Mommy and Daddy.

They'd better love it, 'cause I got a booboo making it :( Stupid hot oven.

There's Red Thread and Fuzz Everywhere!

2008-10-15T18:53:00.001-07:00

Who has time? Everyone seems to think that I do - since I bake and do crafty whatever whenever I can, but that's not because I have time, for sure.

If I want to bake - Des either has to be napping or helping - or I run back and forth from the kitchen to the living room - putting in a cup of flour, running to colour with Des, cracking an egg, running to get Des off the table.. etc.

If I want to do cake decorating, after the baking fiasco above, I must wait until Des is asleep, or Dan is home to watch her as I craft in the dining room/office - which is a dark lonely, messy room.

If I want to sew, I have to wait until Des is in bed, at night. I can't do it while she naps, because her naps aren't long enough to warrant taking out the sewing machine and all the items I need and then cleaning up and checking for needles before she gets up again.

That means that sewing eats into sleep time. Des goes to be around 9. I go to work around 7. You do the math.

So lately, I've been sewing. Costumes for Des and Briana, they are going to both be Little Red!! Oh the cuteness possibilities.. well I didn't want to make just a felt cape and buy a plastic dress, I wanted to make a cape she could dress up in for some time now - so I'm using velvet, which is expensive (nerve racking, don't make a mistake!) and I am lining the capes (which is apparently tricky). Much learning to be done here - many seams to be painstakingly ripped out (Mom, you know how I told you I sewed the front closed on the lining? Well guess what I did to the velvet yesterday? @#$%@!!!!)

Later I'll be making dresses, but for now, I've got one cape just about done...

oh and I'll hopefully do pumpkin seeds tomorrow. Hopefully - but I have to finish two capes and two dresses in .. what.. less than two weeks? EEEEKK!!!!

Preparing Fresh Pumpkin for Baking

2008-10-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

The other day, we had 12 pumpkins in the house. 4 were for carving/painting from the pumpkin patch, 8 were pumpkin pie pumpkins - because when I saw "2 for $3" I thought "OH hey! Now that seems like a deal... lets buy 500!"

So anyway. Since first baking with fresh pumpkin last year, I'm now a total advocate. It's cheaper, and really not difficult - also, for a little extra work you get pumpkin seeds out of the deal as well!

With my bounty of squash, I made Pumpkin Zucchini Bread. This is a *most excellent* recipe, not only was it a huge hit at work, but we've all been gobbling it up at home too!

Making Pumpkin Puree

Preparing pumpkin mash is easy (time consuming, but easy). Buy yourself some pumpkin pie pumpkins - yes, this is a specific kind, and not the huge ones they sell for carving. They might be sold as "sweet pumpkins" as well. These little guys will yield around 1 1/2 cup pumpkin mush each, so purchase accordingly. Wash the pumpkin, get a big knife and split it in half - if you cut everything but the stem, you can pull the sides apart and it'll pop in half pretty easily.

Next, get a sharp edged spoon and scoop out all the mush. If you want to save the seeds - do yourself a favor and try to scoop it all out such that it stays in a few big lumps - that means scraping into the walls of the pumpkins just a bit. This way separating the seeds from the goop will be a little easier.

Now, turn the oven on 350, and get a pan with edges (not a cookie sheet) and lay down a sheet of tin foil. Pour in about an inch of water, and place the pumpkin halves each cut side down. Stick them in the oven and let them cook until they give easily when touched - this is anywhere from 30 minus to an hour.

If your house starts to smell like Halloween (that wonderful cooking/burning pumpkin smell - I really do love it) check and make sure that the water hasn't all evaporated out of the pan, and replace if necessary - it keeps the pumpkin from drying out.

Now that your pumpkins are cooked, take out of the even and turn over to let the steam escape - let them cool. Now you need to remove the flesh from the skin. Either scrape it all out with a spoon, or, if cooked enough, you might be able to just peel the skin away. At this point, all you need to do is puree the pumpkin flesh with an immersion blender, stand blender, or food processor.

You can use it right away, or do like I did with what turned out to be 11 cups of pumpkin, and scoop 1/2 cups of it into a muffin tin and freeze.

Once solid, stick those pumpkin puree cubes in a zip lock bag and you have it for later!

I've read (but so far not experienced) that you really need to strain the puree well, get the extra liquid out, since some recipes don't do well with it - so keep that in mind. I've made pies and breads without bothering with the straining, and been fine.

Saving the Seeds

If you'd like to salvage the seeds from your pumpkins (this is good for while the pumpkins are cooking) get a bowl, a strainer and a cookie sheet, and put the pumpkin guts in the bowl, in the sink. If you scraped so that you have a few large lumps of guts, pick up a lump and just kinda squeeze the seeds out, throw away the guts. Once you've separated all the pumpkin from the seeds, fill the bowl with water, and stir the seeds up a bit to rinse and get the extra pumpkin goo off of them. Strain. Pour the seeds evenly over the cookie sheet. At this point you can either cook them straight away or just let them dry and cook later.

I'll post later my recipe for candied pumpkin seeds!

Decadent Derriere

2008-10-06T17:32:00.001-07:00

Here it is.. the post I've been waiting for... the PIMPLY BUTT CAKE!!

Now, truth be told, it's not for the faint of heart. But all in good fun. So, to be fair, I'll put a ton of space between this text and the rest of this post, so you can run away if you want to. Get ready for some gratuitious grossness.

Although any person that is even partially human won't be able to resist the urge to scroll down to see what I'm talking about!

Now wasn't that fun? All that scrolling?
Anyway. Erin's brithday was last week, she just turned 29 again, and wanted a cake "so gross no one will eat it" and so.. after some brainstorming we decided that a pimply butt just might be gross enough. Pimples that you could pop! Hair! Butt!

So I got an air brush, in anticipation of detail and skin tone (was the cake just a really good excuse for an airbrush? you decide).

So here we go. The cake it'self was red velvet. Within the cake I swirled cream cheese lumps (think flesh and fat). Between the cake layers was red cream cheese buttercream and rasperry preserves. (blood, duh)

The cake was carved to look much like, as one co-worker described it "a burn victem"

Next, ivory tinted fondant.

Now, this is where I took some white buttercream in a piping bag, injected it under the skin, and made some pimples in choice locations. Then, airbrushing added detail thoughout. And.. tada! A nasty-ass pimply butt cake!!
Some work needs to be done on my air-brushing skills and technique, as I had to take off the colour on half and do it over - which then made it look a little wonky.. but I'm still exceptionally please with the results. I'm quite proud of this monstrosity.

Oops!

2008-10-01T18:49:00.000-07:00

I forgot about this place!

Quick update.... butt cake is this week. So far red velvet with cream cheese swirled in .. for you know.. ribbons of fat..
Yes, i'm going all out on gross for this, at specific request. It's fun too.
Although, it's harder than you'd think to find a proper photo at a proper angle of a not-so attractive male rear end.
Anyway... photos of that project soon to come. You know you're curious.

Other things I've been doing..

Cinnamon Roll Cookies - posted by Megan at The Black Oven.
These were *to die for*
Litterally. You felt the butter coursing through your veins moments after consumption. evil evil evil...

These will be some of the christmas cookies I make, for sure.

I got an air brush!
Oh boy it's messy funtimes. To practice with it, I made poker chip sugar cookies for Dan's friends to eat while they watched Vegas movies - in preperation for thier Vegas trip last weekend.

I made waaay too many and sent them to work on my way to the Spa.

The Spa! I went to the spa with Erin and it was most excellent. I spent the *entire* day there. Massage, Full Body Scrub, Facial, Pedecure, Manicure, Saunna... mmmmmm.. so lovely. We have vowed to take a mommy-day more often.

And last but absolutely not least.. Des has become my sous-baker. She is an excellent helper, and loves it! We made Erin's Peanut-Banana-Chocolate Bread together.

YAWN

2008-09-17T22:56:00.000-07:00

Blogging is weird for me. For a while I'll think about if I could blog about what I'm doing at any moment of the day - and freak out if I don't have the camera readily at hand.
Other times, I entirely forget I have a blog.

Anyway. Here are a few things I've been working on.

First off, the table. The table is done! The wall-table has been posted on freecycle, and the new table is in use and happy.

Next - Pineapple Upsidedown cake for Dan's Mom's birthday! Lucky me - My Dad, Dan's Mom, and Dan all request this desert on thier birthdays! (almost unluckily though, their birthdays are all within 2 months). This is the first time I made the cake from scratch, and I tweaked a few other things... next time I want to tweak that even further. Once I get it right in my eyes, I'll post a recipe.

Two bloggers have recently posted recipies which caught my attention - Cinnamon Roll Muffins (Cupcakes, come on), and Cinnamon Roll Cookies - I want to make both, so I polled my coworkers on which they would like to try first. Cupcakes won by a landslide - 10 to 3. So that's what I made! They nummers. These were posted by Joy The Baker (who took them off of Baking Bites).

Mine are hardly as pretty as Joy's, but they're tasty! (I don't want to put frosting on them until they get to work, messy!) And I have tons of leftover cream cheese buttercream from an old project that goes so well with them!

Next week.. Cookies!

Bah, told you I suck at this.

2008-09-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

Chris works for Excelligence - a toy distributor - they have a website - and printed catalogue. Tons of really awesome toys, children's furniture, and craft supplies. For this they like to have photos of kids enjoying the toys, and so, she asked if Des would be interested. Thus, we went for her first shoot this last week. It was pretty cool, all she did was go in and play with toys in front of a camera. I worried it would be stressful, but that worry went away because the first moment she seemed grumpy, the photographers called it a day - no pushing to continue unless she was totally up for it.

She also got to hang out at Chris' desk with her co-workers and play with crafts (I have no idea exactly what these people do all day, but it involves being SURROUNDED by piles and drawers and shelves full of toys and craft supplies, quite a heaven for a curious little girl). She was talking about the visit all that night when we got home, it was fun, and they asked if we could come back again this upcoming week for some more photos.

I'm still unsure if I feel like it's fair to have Des model - I don't want to be exploiting her in any way - but as long as she enjoys it, I don't think I mind - there's no makeup, no costuming, just her being herself, the photographers were so nice and didn't ask anything from her but to check out the toys and be cute - also, she gets credit at the company for toys! They also sent me a few of the photos they took!

Now I'm pretty sure we have no legal ownership of the photos I've posted, they belong to Excelligence, so no distribution or copying of them for commercial use, OK? :p

Oh and I was planning on trying to keep it a secret from some people until the catalogue was out, but that won't be until January or so - and there's no guarantee whatsoever that they'll use her photos.

I've got a secret

2008-09-12T16:28:00.000-07:00

And I'm soooo bad at keeping secrets.
I also like to confuse any annoy people by being vague.

Bruin Bear brings the love

2008-09-03T08:41:00.000-07:00

Bruin Bear: I love you. Who do you love?
Daddy: Who do you love Des?
Des: Mommy!
Mommy: *SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE* *tear*

Working on progress

2008-08-31T17:07:00.001-07:00

This weekend has been busy! Amongst cleaning and toddler-chasing, I've been sanding, lacquering, baking and tasting (tasting.. and tasting..)

Indoors, I've been working on my most recent cakecapade. I have a few recipes I want to try and baked two of them today with some rich success.

The first is a Cola Cake, which is very interesting. I made it as directed in single cups to resemble a cup of rum and coke. I then made the frosting, replacing half of the Coke with Malibu Rum (maybe a bit more than half). I poured the frosting equally over each cake and let them sit. I didn't have pecans, so I used walnuts.

They came out rather neat looking, and insanely rich. Chocolatly and rummy. Not so much Cola-y. Very tasty, not sure if it's what I'm looking for for this project though.

The second cake was a rum cake - made using Malibu again, and in coffee cups. After pouring on the glaze I poured an extra capful of rum over each cake. Over two of them I poured a few capfuls of Coke.

The cake turned out lovely, tasty, I'm not so sure about the extra rum or coke on top though. Coke just doesn't carry on very well as a flavour - it's not strong enough. I might try cooking it down to syrup or something.

In the end I'm hoping to create a "Rum and Coke" cake. But we'll see how that goes. In this theme, I also tried making Coke candy the other day.

I ended up with carmely candy, with only the slightest hint of a cola flavor, if any. A waste of time, I think.

Outdoors, I've been working on our new (old) dining table. A while back - this was crazy-nesting-pregnancy-time - I cut our dining table in half, re-stained it, and attached it to the wall, because I thought it was too big or something. Well.. it's been 2 years, and the wall isn't faring so well, that is... I'm worried one day the table will rip out and land on Dessie's head. So, I picked up this solid oak table off of Freecycle a few weeks ago.

As you can see, it's a little worse for wear. (and in pieces, but that's because I took it apart)

At this point, I would like to interject me love of Freecycle. It's a fantastic place. While feeding the need to feel helpful, you are able to get rid of things you no longer use - which maybe aren't ready for the trash, and may or may not be sellable. I've been able to hand off many baby items, some furniture and dishes which we just weren't using to people who I hope are finding great use from them. At the same time, I've picked up this table and an immersion blender (YEY!!!). After getting the table and remembering the sore arm which comes from refinishing by hand - I put out a request for a sander, and got one from a lady who just wasn't using hers anymore! She thanked me for helping her reduce her "stuff" load, while I thanked her repeatedly for making my life infinitely easier - and with our tight budget of late, I am ever so thankful to avoid the extra expenditure.

My plans for this table were to sand out the old stain, and then add some detail with a wood burning tool, or maybe some *tasteful* decoupage.. however, after sanding off the stain, I realized how gorgeous the wood is, and have decided to simply lacquer it as is.

I've only finished sanding this one leaf, and it's only two coats of lacquer in, but I'm very excited by the potential elegance of the table.

Small Town Labor Day Parade

2008-08-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

Apparently Marina has had a Labor Day Parade every year for the past 39 years. I've lived in Marina for about 8 years now, and this is the first time I've seen the Parade (or, uh.. heard of it..)

So anyway, we were supposed to try to meet up with the Boyds, but an early morning conversation gave me the impression it started at 10am, instead of 11 am as I'm sure Erin actually said (oops..) So Des and I got there very early and sat in the single set of three level bleachers that were brought out for the occasion. A definitive part of Marina's character is that the weather is unpredictable. Yesterday was warm, sunny, beautiful... today however was cold and foggy, which means that my lack of foresight to this left Des dressed in a skirt and tank top - so she spent the parade wearing her daddy's sweater, which was luckily available in the back of the car.

Sweet little girl in Daddy's sweaterI didn't take photos decent enough to truly represent how small and.. sad this parade was. It was cute, there was lots of fun had, but man.. when one of the most entertaining (because I was crying inside for Marina and the sadness) parts of the parade was a bunch of dancing moneybags advertising RaboBank.. well.. you know it's a sorry situation.

Dancing money bags
But anyway.. after the parading there was food and a small petting zoo, Des enthusiastically pet the little goats, and was so good with them - sadly, I spent so much time taking photos of old cars for Dan, that the camera's battery only lasted a moment in the petting zoo.

Very cute indeed.

A few more photos of the parade..

A Sentence

2008-08-29T20:28:00.000-07:00

As Dan and I debate who gets to go to bed and who has to stay up to watch Des - She pulls out a book (Cookie Monster) and says "Read a book about.. cookie!" "Read a book about Petee" (We figured out peter after a little while) and sits down in her chair with her cookie monster book - Peter Rabbit near by... to read on her own as she repeats "Read a book about... cookie!"

She's made a sentence. Not only that, but she's not just copying what we said, she's assembling this sentence on her own.

wow.

A sweet summer day

2008-08-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

I mentioned a "personal" blog.. well.. sorry to disappoint, but, here it is! Dividing the two seems silly, I'd never update, so here and there I'll post smatterings of life amongst the powdered sugar, oven and spatula.

Today started out rather rough. I had some trouble with work which kept me telecommuting all night. I did not sleep - and ended up at work at a lovely 5:30 am. This did however have some benefits

Driving to work I saw a deer, and about 50 fully clad soldiers. The dear was grazing, the soldiers were disembarking a bus and queuing up to get checked off on a roster. I assume they were going to do some back Ord training.

I had the first few hours at work in total peace. During which I did an insane amount of work, as well as was able to enjoy a lovely sunrise over the Fort Ord fog.

Oftentimes, on a Friday before a long weekend, we are given the opportunity to leave 59 minutes early (yes, 59, not 60). This was one of those - so being that I got to work so early I was able to leave early in the afternoon.

Aside from these things, I was deliriously tired a good portion of the day (I remember when I could stay up multiple days in a row and not feel as loopy as I did today).
When I got home, we all went out to the Child Development center to see if we could get Des signed up for the daycare waiting list. We aren't sure exactly when we will start needing it, as plans are nebulous right now as we try to work out what will be best for the family, but we figured we should at least get the info and give them ours so that getting in when we need to will be easier. Turns out the people we needed to meet with about this also got the 59 minutes of administrative leave - and so we didn't really accomplish much.
After this, we went to the park. A family outing to the park - together! I came armed with the camera.

It turned out a rather nice day, and there's still evening left :) Tomorrow Des and I will meet up with the Boyds to see the labor Day parade in the morning (if I succeed in waking up in time)

I'm so full of lies. And I bought new toys!

2008-08-27T17:37:00.000-07:00

Ah ok, so I said I was going to work on a personal blog.. but I'm liar. I did, however, update this blog's layout - granted, I didn't make the layout, just updated the banner to match and chose one of Blogger's templates.. but I'm rather fond of the new look.

My current project is a cake for a friend's girl. While I highly doubt she even knows this blog exists, I'm going to keep the planning under wraps - however, I will divulge the items which I am working on for this cake. Among various other ideas I had and am working on for this cake, many of them so far being rather big failures (note: 2 liter bottles literally crumple under the heat of poured sugar), the most recent is sugar shot glasses!

These molds by Fred (a favorite designer of household things - I want prettymuch everything they sell) are made of silicon - which means two fantastic things for me and sugarwork - they will be able to withstand the high temperatures - and I will be able to get the candy out once it's hard!

While shopping, i gave in to pressure from Amazon to get my products faster for free and signed up for Amazon Prime for a free 1 month trial and ordered these two other ice cube molds to maximize the use of this free shipping fantasticness - for future candy making joy.

Oh the joy! Toys are awesomeness.

Fried... what!?

2008-08-27T12:05:00.000-07:00

Oh! And at our recent venture to the fair I found the most miraculous and devilish things... FRIED REESES PEANUTBUTTER CUPS

I stole this photo. from here
Yes. Fried.

and they are *GOOD* if you ever come across 'em, I highly recommend.

That is all.

Nap time.

2008-08-27T11:56:00.000-07:00

I haven't departed the blogging world entirely.. I'm just taking a nap.

I guess the vanity cake and all of it's stresses (not exactly cake-related) took it all out of me and I needed a break.
Also, my daughter and I went camping this last weekend, and I've been trying desperatly to recover.

I will be posting again soon though, I'm working on a sugary, liquory cake-heaven, as well as the appropriate presentation for it. Soon my dearies, soon.

In other news, I am going to try to start up a personal blog, family and such. I'll link it once it's live.

Baked goods are the best goods.

2008-08-11T00:10:00.001-07:00

Ain't that the truth.

Red Velvet Cookies

2008-08-10T22:07:00.000-07:00

One day in summer (late July to be precise) I needed butter cream.. I made butter cream... and for some reason it tasted all wrong. So i tried to fix it by adding things. Cream Cheese being one of them. I ended up with a tasty cream cheese frosting.. and a need to start over and make some plain butter cream for the original purpose.

So what do you do when you have a bunch of cream cheese butter cream sitting around in the freezer?
You make Red Velvet! But I need a cake break - so I mooshed the general idea of Red Velvet Cake a bit to get some Red Velvet Cookies! Hurrah. They're tasty and soft.

Red Velvet Cookies
(This recipie makes like 500 times more frosting than you need, I'd scale it back to about 1/4 of this.)

3/4 cup butter (unsalted)
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 heaping tbsp cocoa
1 1/2 of those plastic little containers of liquid red food coloring (i only had neon colours, and so mine are kinda purply because i used 1 hot pink and 1/2 violet)
2 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp white vinegar (next time I think I would use 1/2 - 1 tbsp more)

Fluff together butter and sugars. Mix eggs in one at a time until well incorporated. In separate small bowl mix vanilla, food colouring and cocoa until a paste. Add to mixer and blend. Add flour ans salt and beat. Now, in a cup, over the mixing bowl, combine vinegar and baking soda. Make sure any fizzles end up in the bowl, mix with a spoon, and dump into mixing bowl - beat well.

Spoon onto greased cookie sheet in teaspoon balls, at least 3 in apart. bake in preheated oven at 350 for about 10 minutes or until fluffed up and done-looking.
let cool on sheet for 5 minutes, and then transfer to cooling rack.

Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup salted butter
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup crisco
3/4 10 oz can (that would be 7.5 oz, yo) evaporated milk
1/2 cup or so cream cheese
4 cups powdered sugar (not exact)
2 tsp vanilla

cream butters, crisco and cream cheese together. Add milk and vanilla, mix well. add sugar until desired consistency/taste.

You can have your cake - and cookie too!

2008-08-01T21:48:00.000-07:00

How is it I've never seen a cookie cake? Seriously, why would you NOT do this?
Nice, thick cookies, frosted or, cake the texture and taste of soft cookies, whatever you think it is* - it's good stuff.

Chocolate Chip** Cookie Cake

1/2 Cup shortening
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 table spoon baking soda
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
package of chips or nuts or whatever of your choice

Preheat oven to 350
Beat butter, shortening, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time incorporating completely. Beat in vanilla and baking soda. Beat in flour until combined. Stir in extras as desired (i used mini peanut butter cups)
Pour into baking dish of choice - I used two 6in round cake pans.
Bake until done - this is the hard part.

I pulled one out after 40 mins when it passed the toothpick test - turned it out on a cooling rack - and it started to drip uncooked middle! So test with a knife, press the center and look for a feeling of firmness. These took about 50 minutes each to finish cooking in the 6in round pans - they were pretty thick cakes though, so I expect they'd cook better in 8in rounds.

When they're cool you'll have a *really big* cookie, that's just soft enough to cut with a knife when cool.
I frosted mine with a very simple buttercream - no vanilla flavour added, to give it more of a "cookies and milk" taste.

*It's the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipie from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, with added eggs and baking soda.
**Chocolate Chips, Butterscotch Chips, White Chocolate Chips, Peanut Butter Chips, Mini Peanut Butter Cups.. etc

Really Big Cupcakes!

2008-08-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

I have a large co-worker. Not large like you are thinking, no, large as in very tall. Big guy! He's like 6'7" or something. So anyway, one day, he was in Costco when he saw thier cupcakes - big cupcakes for a big guy! Cupcakes that would make him feel "normal"! He was so excited that it was decided these cupcakes must be purchased and brought to the weekend BBQ. I caught wind of this and tsk'tsked the cupcakes, assuring them all that i could make larger, better cupcakes!
So I did.
Least, I think I did. I, however, have a high opinion of myself.

I also made normal cupcakes, the size difference between the two is best demonstrated in the below photo, which portrays Des enjoying a normal every-day cupcake, and Zeke (the tall guy) consuming a GIANT CUPCAKE.

I should ahve made tiny cupcakes too. Next time!

Lessons Learned from the Vanity Project

2008-07-27T10:59:00.001-07:00

Dan, having lived through me while making that cake wanted to be sure that I assess and record all the lessons learned about this cake - so it doesn't happen again!

He's so awesome. The cake I had planned was actually larger than the finished project by 2 more cakes - but at the last hour, we decided that the cake stand just wouldn't be sturdy enough to hold it all. He was my voice of reason as I started freaking out, claiming that the cake was a huge disaster and mistake (about 11 pm night before cake delivery).

So anyway... here are some points to consider while making a large cake with a specialty cake stand.

Even if you have months to plan, everything will still fall apart at the final hour, and usually end up OK

Test and verify the integrity of your cake stand BEFORE putting the cake on it

Assemble on site if at all possible

If your favorite piece of the whole thing breaks, it's OK because no one will notice the gluing except you

Royal icing is an awesome glue

I need to practice laying fondant. Like - a lot

Poured sugar is mysterious and devious, perhaps learning more in depth the science behind it all would help. Who knows, man I hate working with sugar.

Storing poured sugar: wrap well in plastic wrap. Make sure any gum paste or fondant pieces with it are totally dry first. Use silica gel - be sure to check and dry out the silica if needed often.

When cooking poured sugar, once you reach clarity, turn the burner way up.

Leveling a cake is a two person job.

A Dremel is not just a garage tool.

Husbands are amazing and quite indispensable. Listen to the husband, he's sane while on the last night before the cake is due - you are not.

Measure the fridge and your cake stand before anything begins

Figure out and plan how you will transport the cake ahead of time. measure the car and your cake stand before anything begins.

Clean as you work. clean clean clean. leaving it all for after is a bad idea because you'll be exhausted

Yey Rockstar!

If you have a cake in multiple pieces that will end up being under one sheet of fondant, be sure that you have a board big enough to hold the whole thing, 'cause you're going to have to *move* it all as one piece.

KMR Make-Up Academy Vanity

2008-07-26T14:20:00.000-07:00

DONE.
Finally.
I just got back from dropping it off with Kristi Ryan, the make-up artist, teacher, and owner of KMR Make-Up Academy, which is now open!

This cake has been... a bit more than I knew it would be. It didn't end up like I thought it would, but I think I'm happy with the results. Krstie was very excited about it, and that's the thrill about cake making.

I learned so much from this cake. I feel like I should blog about it all, but really, for now, I'm going to sit here with a big beer while Des naps and stare at the TV for a while. I'm exhausted. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Brandy for helping me get it there :)

Here are some photos.

This cake is 24" x 16" in the vanity, and 10" diameter in the chair.
The Chair is a white cake with lemon butter cream and MM fondant.
The Vanity is white cake with butter cream and fresh sliced strawberries, all under MM fondant.
The mirror is a combo of poured sugar and gum paste.
The accessories are all gum paste.
The cake stands are wooden bases covered and styled with gum paste.

And here is my original planning design. Mad Photoshop skills here.

KMR Cake Update

2008-07-09T17:51:00.000-07:00

Today I painted (Yes, I've been really taking my time on this thing. The event has been pushed forward enough that I've been lazy about actually working on it)
These still un-finished pieces are sitting on top of part of the cake stand. I have gum paste EVERYWHERE. And the other day, I took a Dremel to some of the larger gum paste pieces! (Instead of sawdust, i was covered in sugar!) It's been an adventure.

Des painted too.

An Itsy Bitsy Wedding

2008-07-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

My friends Chris and Brandy were legally wed yesterday (Yey California!!!) in a small ceremony. I decided to make a small wedding cake to mark the event - because you just have to have cake! It's fashioned to look like a single sugar cube (we always gifted Chris sugar cubes for her birthday, it's an old joke/tradition - and coincidentally yesterday was also Chris' birthday!)
The interlocking hearts are poured sugar.
The cake was a simple white cake.
Chocolate ganache between the layers.
Violet buttercream and white chocolate fondant, all dusted with loads of sugar.

I really wish I had gotten better photos. I need to actually start staging things instead of taking haphazard, last minute "OH! I should blog this!" photos.

The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts all on a summer's day

2008-07-02T21:23:00.000-07:00

Had some berries going bad, so Dan requested I figure out what to do with them.

The tart is reminiscent of a delicate Orange Juilus flavor, the berries add a nice bite to it all. After Dan's first bite - of the still-warm-not-quite-set-I'm-too-impatient-to-wait-till-it-cools-all-the-way-tart was a sudden - distracted from WOW - "Oh MMM!"

Orange Cream Berry Tart

Shortbread Crust

2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp or so salt

preheat 350
Beat butter, shortening and sugar till light and fluffy
mix in flour, salt, and baking powder
press into greased pan on bottom and up sides - it'll be rather thick.
prick all over with a fork to avoid too much puffing
Bake 15 minutes or till just starts to turn golden brown.

Orange Cream Tart

4 eggs
2/3 cup powdered sugar
2/3 cup orange juice
2/3 cup whole milk or cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients, mix to blended well, try not to overmix. Strain out the larger egg yolk lumps as you pour into the cooked pie crust.
Cook in oven at 350 for 20-25 minutes. the middle will be runny - it'll become sold as it cools. Cool completely.

I topped this tart with three different berries, blackberries, raspberries and .. white raspberries?

Cupcake Hero - Melon!

2008-06-30T18:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've gone missing for so long, I was visiting the lovely (humid) D.C. area - quite nice, in fact, we decided it wouldn't be bad at all to live there for a while.

Anyway. I'm in under the wire - I spent a day two weeks ago preparing the syrup I wanted to use for Cupcake Hero this month, and then ran out of time before we left. Hurray for getting them made though because they're SO dreamy!!!***

My submission for Cupcake Hero are these cute, cakes sweetened with watermelon syrup. The syrup itself is a project, but I'd have to say I would totally do it again, these are so yummers! Adapted from the white cake recipe on the back of the Softasilk box no less! Anyway - if you weren't told, I doubt you would know that the flavour is watermelon, since it's such a mild taste, but all of the flavour and some of the sweetness of this cake comes from pure watermelon syrup - and the blueberries go so well with it! Eat these warm out of the oven for the best taste/texture.

Summer Cakes
makes about 18

3 1/2 cups cake flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup watermelon syrup
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup milk
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups butter - unsalted
optional - dried blueberries and dye

Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together.
in separate bowl...
Cream butter and sugar 'till fluffy (i always over-cream). Add syrup and whip like the dickens. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add milk and flour mixture and beat until just mixed. add dye and blueberries and beat till mostly smooth.

Using greased or lined cupcake pans, fill cups a little more than 3/4 full.
Bake for 15-20 minutes to until pass the toothpick / press test.

Allow to cool completely before glazing if you want a thick glaze - reheat for a few seconds in the microwave before eating. Otherwise, glaze and eat *right* out of the oven!

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup watermelon syrup

combine, mix, add colouring

Watermelon Syrup

a few watermelons
a few drops of vanilla extract

remove pulp from watermelon(s). Cube, puree in blender. Strain into heavy bottom saucepan.
Cook juice over low heat (210 f), skimming occasionally for a few hours - until reduced to 1/8 volume, or to thickness desired.
add a drop of vanilla extract at a time, stirring and tasting until it's the taste you desire - i found the pure syrup to have an off-putting cooked melon taste that just a touch of vanilla helped. i think i used 3 drops and that was almost too much - the flavor of the watermelon is very very mild.

I used 2 of those mini watermelons and reaped something shy of 1 1/2 cups of syrup

***I typed that right after making and trying them fresh out of the oven. The next day I had another and they weren't on the level of dreamy anymore - just tasty tasty cupcakes. These cakes really are *best* super fresh.

Making Cream Puff Puffs

2008-06-10T20:42:00.001-07:00

I have a friend, she knows who she is! Who has been trying to make cream puff puffs (you know, the nice crispy, hollow, light outside bready part) ever since I made that batch of lemony ones, and for whatever reason, they aren't turning out. So, I made a batch today, and took lots of pictures to walk you through it!

These things are great for lots more than just cream puffs! I used the ones I made tonight to house tuna salad. They'd be good with soup, maybe to serve a casserole serving in, or chicken and dumplings or.. mmm yummy stuff!

Recipe:
1/2 Cup Water
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 400f
Combine the water and butter on the stove. bring to a boil, be sure the butter melts.

Dump in the flour, and then turn off the heat on the stove.

Stir until the dough all comes together and kinda sticks and rolls into a ball mass.

Let it sit like that for 5 minutes - no more no less, just so it cools down a bit, but is still hot.
Crack in your eggs and stir or beat the living heck out of it until you get a nice smooth dough - it'll be sticky and kinda thick.

Dollop this batter in 6 blobs onto parchment paper laid on a cookie sheet, each blob about 3 inches apart.

Check that your oven has infact reached 400f at this time.
Place in oven - set the timer for 35 minutes, and leave until you hear that beep. Do not open the oven to peek at any time* - when you come back you should have six rounded golden balls.

Pull them out of the oven and as soon as you are able, cut the tops off and allow them to cool off.

Once cooler, run a knife around the inside of the ball to loosen the soft dough inside, and pull that out.
Throw that away, or, be like me and cover it in powdered sugar and eat!

Allow to cool completely and store in an airtight plastic bag if you're not using them right away.

*unless you smell smoke or hear screams of "Help! Help!" from inside the oven.

Flourless Chocolate Cake Chili

2008-06-09T17:30:00.000-07:00

Er.. that is... Flourless Chocolate Chili Cake! Oh how the order of words can change things!

We had a THROWDOWN* at my second life** today.
A week or so ago, Helen brought in - and had practically anyone she could find who might appreciate it try it - Chili Chocolate. A dark chocolate with a rather spicy kick. It was tasty! A few days later, I came across this recipie for Chipotle Flourless Chocolate Cake - so I sent Helen the link, planning to make it for her if she responded in a positive manner. She did - and forwarded it on to Leslie, who jumped up and said she'd make it - to which I said I was going to make it, in a huffy huff. So, we decide to have a THROWDOWN. Each making it but with our own twist - she didn't want to do Chipotle because of the smokeyness, and I wanted to do.. something, I wasn't sure. Then in comes Helen again, who insists she will make the original recipie. And there it was. The THROWDOWN was planned for today - Monday.

So, wanting of course to win, because I'm competitive as hell like that, I made a practice batch this weekend. First - I purchased three different kinds of dried chilies from the local Mexican market. They had a wall of chilies, lots of chilies.. all air-tightly packed, so my plan to purchase based on smell fell apart rather quickly. So I purchased Ancho (because everything I read about chili and chocolate talked about ancho), Puya (it looked spicy), and Cascabel (it looked different).

Taking these home, I immediately ripped into the bags, and started to chop the chilies up.

Being scientific, I decided to do a taste test. I chopped the chilies up seeds separate from flesh - since I figured the seeds would be spicy, and the flesh flavorful. I then mixed each of the 6 powders into a ganache and let them sit.

Then, Dan and i went through them all, tasting.
I tasted nothing. NOTHING! It was a waste of time! YAR! Not sure why I couldn't taste the chili at all. Wierd.
The spices by themselves offered a good idea as to whether I wanted them in chocolate, though. The Ancho was tasty, but not spicy, the Puya was spicy but had no taste, and the Cascabel was icky. So I'd use the Ancho and Puya. (The seeds, incidentally, had no flavor or spice and i threw them away)

I then decided to make the cake recipie, and split it into four small cakes. The first had 1/4 tsp Puya, and 1/2 tsp Ancho. The Second was 1/2 tsp of each. The third was 1 tsp Ancho, and the fourth was 1 tsp Puya.

I tried all of the cakes, and was fond of the all Puya cake - however, apparently after trying all of the cakes, my resistence to spice had gone up considerably, because when Dan tried it he totally freaked out about how hot it was. He liked the 1/2 and 1/2 one. So that's what I made for the final cake.

The topper was that I made an unsweetend espresso whipped cream to go with and cut down the spice for those who needed it.
The cake was awesome, if I do say so myself. It was like a non-chewy, totally fudgy, but crisp on the edges brownie. Very rich.
And it won the THROWDOWN.

*Bobby Flay was not present.
**At least that's what it feels like, I have my own coffee machine there, it's like home! (uh, work that is)

Mirror Mirror

2008-06-04T19:35:00.000-07:00

Chris and Brandy came over yesterday to play! Brandy came over to see if she could help me make a decent looking mirror out of sugar. Chris came over to play with Des and spent some time playing with gum paste - she made some super pretty flowers.

The night before, I made some frames out of gum paste to pour the sugar into. The first mirror we made was poured directly on top of the tin foil. At first we thought it was great, but a few minutes later, Chris became rather fascinated with the crystallization that was occurring. Chris could be seen intently watching the sugar for the next 15 minutes or so...

We then decided to pour the sugar onto parchment paper, deciding that the crystallization (it only happened near the tin foil) was the tin foil's fault. We tinted the sugar with a little bit of violet to give it a less brassy colour. We were very thrilled with the results once we placed the pane onto tin foil after it cooled.

The final gum paste frame we had left for the night was the largest one. Unfortunately, we cooked the sugar too slowly and it started to caramelize just before it reached the required temp. We poured it anyway, but it's now living in the trash can.

I'm in trouble

2008-06-01T11:40:00.000-07:00

Des and I were blogsurfing just now - and I found The Tattooed Mama. As I scroll through posts we come across this one, cute photos of daddy and baby playing on the beach.. she points at the little girl in each photo "Babee!" and we get to the one of the cute little girl trying to eat her new toy cupcakes (oh my god those are cute). Des points at the girl "Babee! dat babee!" and then points over at the cupcakes "Cake! cake cake cake cake"

She's learning the important vocabulary for life!

Making Makeup

2008-05-31T23:22:00.001-07:00

KMR cake update - been playing with gumpaste, here's a sample of the real deal vs the gum past versions.

I'm finding that gumpaste is very elastic and almost rubberly, so it's kinda hard to form and get it keep the form I make, it prefers to be rounded rather than create hard edges - nice sometimes, others, very frustrating.

For my next cake... I had to shop at Home Depot

2008-05-31T17:14:00.000-07:00

This is the cake stand / structure for my next cake. I'll leave you to imagine what I'm thinking here, it's more fun for me that way.

I have been asked by Kristie of KMR Makeup Academy to provide a cake for her Grand Opening event. She has this terribly cute new studio that's nearly finished - she'll be teaching makeup lessons, and hosting make-over parties and such. It's all very fun. She's a good friend of my friends Chris and Brandy - and did their wedding makeup, so I'm really excited to be doing this!

She's given me total creative control - and I'm running with it.

A week of lemony goodness

2008-05-30T22:52:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, Erin and Greg gave me a bag. A big bag. This bag was full of lemons. Fresh, wonderful, ripe lemons from their tree.

While I had started of thinking that I'd use some and then freeze the rest - I ended up having a week-long bake-fest, which I think my coworkers were appreciative of.

I did a great job of failing to take photos though :( So you only get a few.

Tuesday - Lemon Cream Puffs

These were simply fantastic right after being baked - the shell lost it's crisp-ness when I brought them in on Tuesday for my co-workers. The cream is lovely, so lovely, in fact, I used it later in the week for something else.
This is a "fancy" recipie that is unbelievably simple, and easy.
We (Dan and I) followed the recipie on all points except for adding twice as much lemon to the cream. I like lemon.

Thursday - Ultimate Lemon Bunt Cake

I made two of these. One s the recipie prescribes and one slightly altered. The recipie version was OK. The texture was great, it was light and soft - but the flavor was lacking on all fronts, in my opinion.
The altered version used all purpose flour instead of cake flour, and instead of 1 cup of milk - 1/2 cup lemon juice, and 1/2 cup cream cheese. This was because I didn't have lemon extract until Dan brought some home for me. So instead of lemon extract - I used vanilla extract. The flavor of this was far superior, and had that fantastic tartness of lemon while still being light. The texture, however, was off - the all purpose flour really did make a difference :(

Friday - "I Hate Lemon Meringue Pie Lemon Pie"

This was me wanting a lemon meringue pie without the meringue - I love meringue cookies, they are crisp and melt in your mouth - meringue on pies, however, is soggy and weird. So anyway..

Shortbread Crust -
2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp or so salt

preheat 350
Beat butter, shortening and sugar till light and fluffy
mix in flour, salt, and baking powder
press into greased pan on bottom and up sides - it'll be rather thick.
prick all over with a fork to avoid too much puffing
Bake 15 minutes or till just starts to turn golden brown.

Now, make this lemon tart recipie - pour into the pie crust and bake as described.
After baking allow to cool, and then put in fridge and let cool *completely*

Now, make the cream from the cream puff recipie above - and spread it all over the top of the pie.

EAT!
This was so great - the crust is so tender, thick, crumbly and tasty - the tart is tart, and the cream is fabulous, it's just.. lovely, like an ultimate lemon bar.

Reactions to Purple Cashemere

2008-05-22T07:55:00.000-07:00

I took the batch into work and here are some reactions... as I guessed, lavender is a rather particular flavour for people...

"Lovely!" *takes another*

"I like it.. but it's not my favorite.. I mean, it's a cupcake, of course I like it!"

"I like *this*" (me)'You mean it's not soapy?' "Yes, the first time I had lavender it was soapy, but this is good!" (she mentioned earlier in the week that her first experience with lavendar and chocolate was a soapy disaster)

"I don't dislike it - it's an interesting flavour though -it's not what you would expect. These would be excellent for a garden party!"

"I like it! But I think the chocolate on top (frosting) is unnecessary, maybe lemon instead?"

"I'm confused. My nose says I may have just eaten soap. But my tongue says, no you didn't."

"Oh wow! Surprisingly that was a really good balance."

"Hmm. Different. It's good! But different. Definitely taste the lavender." *has another* "These are good!"

I myself have eaten 5 (they're mini cupcakes.. so..) :-O

Dutch Baby

2008-05-21T20:33:00.000-07:00

Once I finished with my purple mayhem Dan felt inspired to try a recipie he'd found recently - Dutch Babies!

What the heck is a dutch baby? It's apparently a German pancake of buttery evil. So very tasty.. so so so very evil...

Here's the recipie.

1/3 c. butter
4 eggs
1 c. milk
1 c. flour

Put the butter in the pan and set it into a 425 degree oven after first dusting the pan with nutmeg, then mix batter quickly while butter melts. Put eggs in blender container and whirl at high speed for 1 minute. With motor running, gradually pour in milk, then slowly add flour; continue whirling for 30 seconds.

(With a rotary beater, beat eggs until light and lemon colored; gradually beat in milk, then flour.)

Remove pan from oven with the butter melted and pour batter into the hot melted butter. Return the pan to the oven and bake until puffy and well browned, 20 to 25 minutes.

Serve at once with any fruit topping, i.e. canned pie filling, hot fruit, fresh fruit. (Best - fresh strawberries then topped with whipped cream.) Syrups or powdered sugar is good, too.

Purple Cashmere Cupcakes

2008-05-21T19:55:00.001-07:00

I recently stumbled across *Quirky Cupcake* the home of Cupcake Hero, which I've seen mention of here and there.. well this month's Cupcake Hero ingredient is cocoa, and even though I'm not sure I've been officially entered into the Cupcake Hero ranks to participate, I went for it anyway, and here's my entry.

Purple Cashmere Cupcakes. These are lavender cupcakes using an adulterated recipe for Red Velvet (get the name now?) - with lavender chocolate buttercream. They actually taste like something of a spice cake all on their own - but with the frosting, they're quite heavenly (in fact, after eating the first one I did a little dance of joy around the kitchen).
Here's the obligatory "hey look! cute kid eating it!"

I was inspired to the lavender use with chocolate because of some chocolates Dan recently got me - Newtree's Rejoice. It was so lovely, I had to see if I could apply the same idea elsewhere.

So, on to the recipes..

Some prepwork -

Lavender butter -

Grind or rub 4 teaspoons lavender into a food processor, blender, whatnot along with a squeeze of lemon juice, and 2 cups unsalted, room temp butter. run till all well blended. again, let sit a few hours or overnight (in the fridge if it's overnight).

Lavender Oil -

Grind or rub between your hands 3 teaspoons of culinary lavender (i found some in the spice section at my local supermarket, actually) and immerse in 1 1/2 cups of cooking oil (I used canola). Peel half a lemon and drop the peels into the oil as well, shake up and let sit - i only let it sit for a few hours, but overnight would probably be better.

Purple Cashmere Cupcakes
(adapted from here)

2 1/2 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 teaspoons cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup lavender oil (lemon peels removed, but otherwise unstrained)
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1/2 container liquid purple dye (blue and red make purple!)
4 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla

Heat oven to 350. Prepare either 3 8in round cake pans, or enough cupcake tins for 24 large cupcakes

Sift dry ingredients together

Whisk wet ingredients together

Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Pour into pans.

Bake 15 - 30 minutes or until cake bounces back when touched.

Chocolate Lavender Frosting

4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups lavender butter at room temp.
3/4 cup cocoa powder

Combine water and sugar in heavy-bottomed saucepan, stir until all sugar is moistened. Heat on medium, careful not to burn, till candy thermometer reads 240.

Which heating sugar, in blender, whisk egg whites on high until just at soft peak. don't over-mix.

turn mixer on high and *slowly* pour sugar mixture into egg whites. leave mixer on high for about 25 minutes.

Add butter 1/4 cup at a time. at some point the mixture will get all lumpy and weird, just let it keep mixing. blend until smooth - continue to blend while adding vanilla and chocolate. again, blend till smooth. taste - add more chocolate to taste. you're going for a milk chocolaty flavour.

S'more baking with Erin

2008-05-18T21:58:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, Erin and I had been blogsurfing together, when we came across these. Of course, if you clicked the link, you would know what we were thinking "Oh my god I have to have that!"
But we wanted to try to get an authentic S'more eating experience.

Sunday, the kids played in the pool with Greg, while Erin and I played in the kitchen.

First, we made the graham cracker cupcakes.

The batter was most excellent, although looked, as Erin said "Like puke."
The cupcakes came out very moist - rather greasy, and tasted only remotely like graham cracker. We were rather disappointed, but decided we'd make up a few just to see how they turned out.

So we dipped some in the ganache - which we then decided was far to runny.
And then we topped it with a melted marshmallow/vanilla/powdered sugar/corn syrup concoction. It didn't solidify, and blobbed itself all over before we torched with with the blow torch. Oh, and they looked rather disgusting.

All in all - the first batch was something of a total failure.
Liam didn't mind though.

So, starting over, we went for a new plan of attack. First, the graham cracker. We wanted a crunch to it, and a genuine graham cracker taste - so we made mini graham cracker crusts.

While the crusts baked, we worked on our ganache - added more chocolate and some butter - it became most excellent.

Next, we filled the crusts with ganache (many samples were tested to find the correct chocolate ratio)

Finally, the S'mores needed to be topped with marshmallow. Since the first attempt failed miserably, we decided to try making a marshmallow meringue, something pipeable - by melting the marshmallow and whipping it into a meringue. Tasted good.. and looked good initially, however, after a while the meringue was disintegrating - we had no cream of tartar and we were only torching the outside. It wouldn't last to give to our co-workers tomorrow.

After much deliberation, trial, and error, we finally produced a working marshmallow topping and technique that would torch appropriately. I'm not sure we'd ever be able to recreate it again though, since it was a "little of this" "little of that" "oh now it's too runny.. do this!" etc situation....

Dan's first words after eating one "Those are gooood!!"
He then proceeded to complain that there weren't enough.

How to Cook / Eat an Artichoke

2008-05-10T20:29:00.000-07:00

This is a blog about cakes.

This is a post about Artichokes.

Oh how I love thee.. thine leaves of rich, delicate yummyness. Thine hair of a spineyness to be avoided. Thy leaves able to destroy a garbage disposal.. (as you might be able to tell, I'm not so good at the Shakespearian whateverspeak)
A good artichoke is a wonderful thing.
And living in the Salinas valley is even more wonderful, because this is the land of strawberries, garlic, and the vegetable many are afraid of.. artichoke!

Do you see this still steaming flower of beauty? Do you see the plate it is on? THAT IS A DINNER PLATE. This is the largest artichoke I have ever seen. *snoopy-like dance of joy* And it was 2 for $3! Sweet! I love artichoke season! (And the artichoke festival is coming up, we might actually go this year!)

Have you never had an artichoke? Is it because you have no idea how to prepare and eat one? Or because you live in a sad desolate land of sadness which does not have them often?
If it's the former, I suggest out go out to the store and buy yourself some, for I am going to try to make you brave! If it is the latter, I suggest you move to somewhere that sucks less.

What does it taste like?

This is a hard question to answer, because they are so unique, and I honestly can't think of a comparison that is really fair. If you have had pickled artichoke hearts, you might have an idea of the flavor, but really, just as a pickle tastes nothing like a cucumber.. same thing with pickled artichoke hearts.. canned as well for that matter. You're really just going to have to try one for yourself.

Purchasing an artichoke:

Artichokes come in many sizes, if you don't live in California, I have been lead to believe that your selection is smaller - literally - but the size rarely matters, it's all about the leaves. And funnily enough, to a point - the uglier the leaves are, the better. Now don't take that to the extreme, listen to what I have to say first.
A perfect artichoke, with unblemished green leaves isn't always the best choice - you see, for whatever reason, a little frostbite is *good* for the choke's flavor, frostbite causes brown patching on the leaves - not holes, not bruising, but slight discolouration. So seeing frostbite isn't bad. If I see a pile of artichokes, I go for the uglier ones in general.

You want the leaves to be just *slightly* opening, not flayed open, and not super tight and closed. Some say you should do a "squeek" test - sweeze the leaves together and if it squeeks, you're good. I just go by looks myself.

Cooking:

Chop off the stem about an inch down from the base of the artichoke.

Most artichokes have spines at the tips of their leaves, if you like, take a big knife and shave off the tips of the leaves, you're only going to be eating the stuff near the stem, so you don't need to worry about wasting leaves, just shave off the last cm or so of leach leaf - you can also use kitchen shears. I don't usually bother doing this, but sometimes those spines are quite sharp!
Now, I've only ever cooked artichokes two ways - steaming or boiling. I've noticed no difference in the product of the two, and boiling is faster - so that's what I usually do.
Boiling: Get a pot large enough that you can cover the artichoke with water, and the water has room to boil. Lid is optional. The artichoke will float, so just make sure it's well submerged, stem down if you can get it to stay down. Boil.
Steaming: Need a pot large enough to hold the whole artichoke and a lid. Make sure you watch the water level as you cook since artichokes take FOREVER to cook, you might need to add to the water periodically.

I like to add herbs to the water for either method - my favorite is to add a bay leaf or two. Today i added Herbs de Provence (I don't know what all is in it except for rosemary and it smelled good :p ). As you eat them more you'll figure out what you may want to add to add flavor - plain is perfectly fine as well.

For either method - you cook for, generally, 45 minutes. Check at 30 minutes, and then every 15 or so. To tell if it's done, reach in (with your hand or tongs, depending on your bravery) and pull on a leaf. If it pulls away rather easily, that's good, if you pull and it starts to lift the whole flower out of the water, forget it and come back 15 minutes later. If you do get a leaf off - let it cool, and then eat it (see directions below) if the meat comes off easily, and is tender, not hard, you're good - take the artichoke off the stove and out of the water and let drain. If not, again, just come back and try again later.

Preparing to eat:

You will need:
a plate - to put the artichoke on
a bowl - to put the eaten leaves in, generally a small salad bowl size
a dipping sauce of your choice
a fork
a napkin or three

Dipping sauce:
Lots of choices here. I grew up using mayo, and I know many people use melted butter. This is going to be a personal preference thing. If you like mayo on your broccoli, I'd try that first. If you hate mayo - try butter.
Recently a friend told me to try mixing a *little* bit of basalmic vinegar in with the mayo - yowie, it's good!

Eating:

First, peel off the first layers of leaves from the outside. You'll notice that they come away with stringness at the base. You want to peel away until the strinyness is no more.

Now you've got tasty, edible meat at the base of your leaves. Pull leaves away one by one, as you eat them, and dip the end in your sauce of choice, just a bit, a whole lot - tha of course is up to you.

Now turn the leaf so that the inside is down and the outside is up, you are going to use your bottom teeth to scrape away the meat. Place the leaf about an inch into your mouth, and bite down. Scrape the bottom with your bottom teeth - lightly, don't scrape too hard or you'll get a mouth full of fibrous yuck. Don't scrape with your top teeth, the outside's no good either.

And that's it! you're eating an artichoke.
It'll take a while to figure out how to maximize the meat you get without eating yuck.
Continue to eat leaves until you get to the middle leaves - you'll notice as you go that the leaves get more and more delicate (and the tips often get sharper and sharper). Once you're at the point where you can't get meat off the leaf without biting off a chunk of leaf - stop.

Take hold of the center leaves and pull them away (experienced eaters can try eating the meat off of these all at once).

Now you'll see the spiney center - artichokes are thistles, you know. To get to the best part, the heart of the artichoke, you need to get rid of these spines.
I saw an episode of Good Eats where Alton told viewers to take a knife and cut away the artichoke with the spines, which you can do - but it's sooo wasteful of goodness. Instead, take your fork in hand, and use it at an angle to scrape the spines away at their base. This will take practice, and is really messy 'till you know what you're doing, hence the napkins.

Once you've delt with all of those spines, turn the heart over and scrape away the stringly fiberous outside with your fork. I leave the stem, since it's a huge pain to get off.

Now you can eat the meat of the heart, fork it and enjoy! It's exactly the same as the stuff you were eating off of the leaves, just in large chunks! (as a child i REFUSED to eat the hearts, I was a moron)

I hope that someone out there reads this and tries (and loves) an artichoke because of me.

Fat and Thin

2008-05-08T19:07:00.000-07:00

Ashley's birthday was today - and three days ago, we (Erin and I) decided to make a cake - Kim's suggestion.. A fat Ashley that we could cut away into a thin Ashley! (Ashley has been losing weight lately and has an odd sense of humor - it was rather perfect)

It didn't end up exactly like that.. but quite the same idea!

I photoshopped some images to use as templates, and printed them out. Erin and I made a 16" x 16" cake, arranged the cut-outs, and used them as guides. First we cut the "fat" silhouette.

We then cut pieces away from that to make a "thin" silhouette. We saved the pieces of "fat" for later.

The thin silhouette was then frosted with butter cream.

Then, a late night of fondanting created "thin Ashley" which was left uncovered to dry overnight.

The next day, I buttercreamed and fondanted (two new verbs there) the pieces of "fat", and placed them around the thin sillouette. And finally.. did another layer of fondant over everything - with a layer of parchment paper between the two.
For realism, Ashley's photo was used.

So in the end - we were able to undress the Fat cake to reveal the thin cake underneath!

Creepy? Quite.
A strech of my creative and technical abilities? Very much so.
I'm rather pleased with the final outcome, and the fact that the reveal of the Thin cake went as planned. I wish I'd had more time to plan this cake though, there's a lot of details I'm unhappy with.

Deconstructed Lemon Meringue Pie

2008-05-02T23:41:00.000-07:00

While trodding through ReTorte the other day, I saw the posting about Epicurious' Lemon-Ginger Frozen Yogurt, and since had terrible cravings.

The flavor reminded me so much of a lemon meringue pie that I decided to make pie crust cookies, and soft meringue dabs to serve with the ice cream. I also made some ginger sugar to sprinkle on top. Yummers!

This weekend I'm going to make various meringue cookies, I always forget how much I love them - and they are so light, that it's almost OK to eat them all in one sitting! After having these dabs, which were cooked to the same texture of the topping of a meringue pie, I've been craving some nice crispy melt-in-your mouth meringue cookies!

not all my cakes are tasty

2008-04-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

Ninjas EVERYWHERE!

2008-04-27T22:03:00.001-07:00

Erin and I got together today to make Ninja Teddy brownies! They are sweet-awesome.

Making all these brownie cut-outs made for lots of leftover brownie bits, so we decided to make Bakarella's mini-cupcakes! Maaan they are more work than we expected, but quite cute, and we didn't waste* all the leftover brownie bits! Photos to come in a later post (once I take some)

*eat

Sneaky Bear

2008-04-26T17:20:00.000-07:00

To make him I used the Wilton Teddy Bear pan to get the basic shape, pressing dyed rice crispie treats in with all my might to get a dense and strong shape, trying to pick up all of the details of the pan.

Turns out rice crispies really aren't that strong, so it was lucky I decided to paint this guy with chocolate rather than using butter cream or fondant - since the former two really don't add any structural integrity - chocolate however, dries hard and is great to work with.

First I coated him with a layer of melted white chocolate - tinted blue, to fill in the cracks and try to even the shape out. After which I painted him once more to get the texture I wanted.

Next some detailing with more tinted white choclate..

I used bittersweet chocolate clay for the button eyes, nose, and mask.
The sai and shuriken are from gumpaste (previous posts) painted black and then heavily dusted with silver shimmery goodness.

Last minute addition:
I used some of the leftover chocolate clay to make a pair of nunchaku. (the rest of the leftover clay will go towards making Annie a small town of stick figures which she has expressed desire in being able to eat each in one bite) Seems the oil-based nature of chocolate won't let me paint them with waterbased food colouring (maybe if i made a paste with powdered sugar?), or the chain would have been silver. oh well!

Silver Sai

2008-04-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

sai

2008-04-21T17:53:00.001-07:00

I had ninja stars yesterday... but Des ate them :(

Moroccan Wedding

2008-04-11T18:16:00.000-07:00

The finished product!

Bottom layer was chocolate with a chocolate mint ganache
Second layer was white cake with a chocolate ganache
Third layer was white with funfetti icing
Top layer was chocolate with chocolate buttercream
All layers done up in chocolate buttercream, chocolate fondant, and chocolate paint. Decorations are white and milk chocolate, ropes and pearls are fondant.

And for comparison, here's the final design I had.

Ninja Teddy

2008-04-07T21:42:00.000-07:00

Baby shower coming up - it's for a guy friend at work, and we're making it more guy-like than a regular baby shower, and thus, I shall be making a.. NINJA TEDDY!

Here's the sketch.
The thing he's holding in front of his face is a ninja star - the cake pan I'm going to use is molded with the bear's hand in front of his face for whatever reason, so we're making him devious.

Work in progress

2008-04-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

Just some photos of the insanity of making what turned out to be a VERY large cake (45 people at the wedding.. this thing would have fed 100, easy. This, however, meant generous portions and seconds to your heart's content)

I didn't get to take any photos after this because I was working feverishlyon the cake at the site - although the wedding photographer checked in on me continuously and got lots of fascinating action shots ;)

All the items I had made over the past week, just waiting to be assembled into one big 'ol cake.

Just checking to see how big it was going to be assembled.

Buttercreamed layers.

Fondant covered layers.

tedious, but pretty!

2008-04-03T01:03:00.000-07:00

so much chocolate...

2008-04-02T15:52:00.000-07:00

more playing with texture and color...

Fantastic Buttercream

2008-04-01T22:23:00.000-07:00

The recipie Buttercream - Classic Recipe on this page is phenomenal.
I just made it

(after two failed attempts - follow DIRECTIONS Ammy, sheesh - note to those who don't know better, fat and oil causes egg whites to fail miserably at the whole fluffing/stiffening thing when you whip them, so if there are even traces of butter in the bowl, or if you add something with fat in it (melted chocoalte) before the eggs are as whipped and stiff as you want them - you will RUIN EVERYTHING)

with about 3 oz melted bittersweet chocolate (added AFTER the butter), and probably almost a cup of cocoa powder. (added at the very end) And it's.. god it's good. I ate so much I feel ill. I regret eating as much as I did, that's for sure.. but it's super awesome frosting, I must tell you. And so very smooth and beautiful too!

tidbits

2008-03-31T21:05:00.000-07:00

Chocolate fondant painted with.. what else? chocolate! and some sparklies, because we all like shiny things.

finding a good recipie

2008-03-29T22:16:00.001-07:00

.. is a lovely thing. I finally found a good yellow cake recipie that isn't the texture or density of pound cake. Hurrah!

a wedding is on the way

2008-03-25T19:22:00.000-07:00

I've been AWOL, sorry. Traveled to Texas for work and haven't had a chance to post.

I'm working on a cake design for the wedding coming up in 12 days, and I'm pretty excited.

The theme is Moroccan, and this isn't the final design, it's just the one the couple has seen (the final will be a surprise, I've changed a few things up and added some fun)

It'll have three layers, chocolate cake - mint chocolate filling, yellow cake, chocolate filling. The fondant will be chocolate brown, and all of the embellishments will be milk and white chocolate! Except the ropes on the third layer, those will be fondant.

I've done some practice with melted chocolate and found it to be quite fun, although I failed at taking photos.

There won't be any photos or updates until after the wedding though!

Hummingbird Disaster

2008-03-05T19:11:00.001-08:00

My Grandmother's birthday was this weekend, sadly, the hummingbird started out fairly doomed.
The colouring ended up far more like a parrot, the beak wouldn't stay on, the gum paste cracked every chance it got, and the whole bird had an unnatural sheen to it - because of the many repairs of the cracking.
So in a way - once I got it to the location, and had it ready to put on the cake - when I found that it had broken in half - I wasn't terribly sad.

So the cake was finished without the bird - a good thing.
Although, I'm rather displeased with the end result, I suppose I should be proud at my skill level, and with the amount of experience I have.

And since people have been asking how much time I spend on this stuff - overall, this cake took me - including the 10 hours of work on the hummingbird - probably 20 hours from the making of the cakes and frostings, the flowers, and then the overall decoration. Some of that mindless tv watching time as I created flowers.

I have 5 cakes ... none of them are fake

2008-02-29T20:22:00.000-08:00

I do hope I made enough!

Sugar sugar baby

2008-02-28T23:10:00.000-08:00

Today was a day of sugar happiness. Brandy came over to play and we tested out blowing sugar with a copper pipe - it was fun and educational!
It's late and I am tired, I will leave you with some photos of the progress with the cake and wish you sweet dreams.

Sugar flowers

2008-02-25T21:20:00.001-08:00

So I ventured into the world of sugar paste the other day. Made a batch, and then attempted to made a flower with it. I made my own petal template and then used shot glasses to help the pieces keep shape.

I sort of managed it, but Des found the flower and it died :(

So I did some research and found out that having the proper shape cutters, and technique was really key to getting decent flowers. I found a really awesome starter kit at Michael's chock full of cutters - and a very good instruction guide. With these new tools in hand, I tried again.

Until I can afford better cutters, and proper petal and leaf veiners (this set is very.. hmm.. novice? but that's what I am, soo..) I'm really pleased with this $20 purchase.

Another evening of flower making (these photos reflect the fruits of my labors for the evening - yes, it is that tedious, but I also have a little girl at my feet who needs attention, so I'd say a total of maybe an hour, hour and half of work - a few flowers died due to their delicacy ) I will move on to the humming bird, and then.. cake assembly!

A Tribute to Ryan's Particularly Large Head

2008-02-23T01:13:00.000-08:00

So as of last night, I wasn't going to make this cake.

I made three yellow cakes for sampling for the wedding cake - and NONE of hem turned out particularly good, or anything like he yellow cake I know from a box :( they were very much like pound cake, and quite dense and/or flavorless. After last night's total failure, I got really mad, and told Dan to dispose of all cakes for the night. There would be no tribute cake!

After work I had 2 hours before people came over, and Dan hadn't gotten rid of the cakes. So I had two round layers of two different yellow cakes. I found a cake mix in the cupboards, and made one more layer while cleaning the house. Basically, I frosted and fondant-ed his cake in well under 30 minutes, on a warm, fresh baked cake. It's ugly as far as technical execution goes, but it really did serve it's purpose - you see.. oh it's too hard to explain, but it's supposed to represent a balloon with a sharpie drawing of Ryan's face on it - this balloon (the real one, not the cake) has represented Ryan by sitting in his chair at work for the last month or so. Anyway.. here's the cake.

The only part of it I was acually happy with was the end here.

And Ryan cutting his head.

Mixer on Overdrive

2008-02-20T21:01:00.000-08:00

Today I made stuff.

Yellow Cakes
For Chris and Brandy's wedding cake, they requested a yellow cake - so I'm testing out recipes as I find them. Conveniently, we are having many people over from my work this Friday to play Rockband, and one of my coworkers will be visiting from a long-haul TDY to D.C. - so in honor of him and his particularly large head, I will be making a cake to honor him - out of these test yellow cakes - two birds, one stone. So, each batch I'm making one round tin of cake, and one mini-bunt for Chris and Brandy to taste. I made the following today
- One half batch of David's Yellow Cake
- One half batch of Yellow Cake

One batch of m.m. fondant
This is for the next test humming bird, as well as to cover the Tribute to Ryan's Particularly Large Head (if I have enough left over after the hummingbird, might need to make more)
Also, I used some (3 tbsp) meringue powder in this batch - I want to see how that effects the hardening of the fondant

One batch of gum paste
This is also for the hummingbird, I used gum-tex and glucose which I picked up recently from Michael's. Gum Paste is, from my understanding, a more versatile (yet less tasty) version of fondant which dries hard

One batch of butter creme frosting (no chocolate or flavor yet this will be for the wedding cake testers, as well as the Tribute to Ryan's Particularly Large Head)

So yes. Lots of mixing, lots of baking.