Lately..

Well, I know it's been awhile. But I really actually have been kind of busy. I finished my junior year of college/culinary school, went to New Orleans, made a couple of wedding cakes, went to China, moved apartments, and started a new year-long pastry program. See? I wasn't kidding.

PHOTO STORY!


NOLAAAA





Wedding Cake #1: Kyle and Lynette. Vanilla cake, fresh strawberry and vanilla buttercream fillings.





Wedding Cake #2: Kayla and Andy: Half Chocolate, Half Vanilla



Went to China...



Chinese Pastries!


Posey and I moved to a new apartment with a much bigger, much more awesome kitchen!



New kitchen, new pot rack, new kitten perch:


Other random cakes:








The Pastry program that I started at St. Philip's in June is 1 year long, and comprised of 8 separate classes.

Class 1: Breads & Rolls:











Class #2: Pies, Tarts, Teacakes and Cookies (Currently in Process)











4 More days of this class, then off to California, and back for the fall semester!

A Photo-story

Picking up from where I left off... I think I might have skipped a major cake!



This guy was the biggest cake i've done so far, and it was HEAVY. Yeah, yeah, I know my letters are twisty, but it doesn't say "SO" it says "50" !! This was for a big 50th black and white themed birthday party down at a nightclub downtown. It was also my first experience doing a quilted effect on fondant. I figured out pretty quickly that you 1) Cannot quilt the fondant and THEN put on the cake. 2) Can only quilt the SIDES of the cakes, not the top. (Or then it looks awkward and none of the lines match up. and 3) It's probably not the best idea to try new ideas on a commissioned cake...

BUT it turned out really nicely, and everyone was happy. Oh! And it was a lemon sponge with vanilla buttercream. It also almost didn't fit in my fridge.

Next.... Meow times.

There has been a new edition to my family:



This is Posey, climbing Max mountain. She's a mess.

No, actually, she's pretty darn cute.


In celebration of said kitty, and my roommate Barb's 25th birthday, we had a cat party! (...obviously).


Cats!.... and Posey.

For the Occasion Jessica came over and we made the "Fat Cat" Cupcakes out of the "Hello Cupcake" Cookbook. This book is hilarious and actually everything really turns out just as awesome as the pictures!


Close up fat cats


Whole tray of fat cats!

Next... one of my regular at the bux asked me to make her a birthday dessert, and gave me creative license to do whatever I wanted (eeeeeeeee!)

SO. Since I love chocolate, and everyone else loves chocolate, I did not one, not two, but four little mini chocolate layer cakes with different fillings.



From the top left: Chocolate with Chocolate Buttercream and Toasted Pecans and Coconut, Chocolate with Espresso Buttercream, Chocolate with Mint Whipped Cream, and Chocolate with Raspberry Whipped Cream and Raspberry Curd.

NOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! SO CUTE. Totally Obsessed with my 4 inch spring-form pan now.


Next.. School Produce assignment. Pick a produce item, discuss it's season, availability, uses, and create a dish containing the item to share with the class.

My item: MANGO!

Dish: Mango Cheesecake

Swapped out the traditional graham cracker crust for crushed coconut cookies found at HEB. A GOOD CHOICE.


Ready for the oven... forgot to take a picture afterwards... but let's just say I got a 100 on the project.. so you can imagine how tasty these puppies were.

Lastly..

Manager from bux's baby shower = cute cake opportunity!

Vintage wooden block... Not gonna lie. Picture doesn't do this guy justice.



There is also a red 'D' and an orange 'E' on the back.

This cake was inspired by the bux drink the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate. It was a Chocolate Tuxedo cake base, with Salted Caramel Buttercream (made with homemade caramel!)

Let me just say, this is not the last we will see of the salted caramel buttercream. I could probably eat it with a spoon. Wait, I might have already started that with the leftovers...


Just got asked to make my first wedding cake for some friends getting married in March.... SO EXCITED (Maybe more than the bride.) A little nervous.. doing lot's of reading and lots of TLC- watching "research."

Updates to come... hopefully sooner rather than later!

Lately..

Since school started I haven't been doing a ton of cooking/ baking.

I did make eclairs the other day though!



nom.

Speaking of nom.



This is one of my new favorite shows- one of the trucks is the "nom nom truck"

They serve banh mi vietnamese sandwiches, which look something like this:



NOM is right.

I need to find somewhere in SA to get one.

I also have a couple of cakes lined up for the next month or so:

A baptism cake for this weekend

A baby shower cake

and some sort of mango-containing something for a "produce" project at le pastry school

look mom, I updated!! :)

(i'm also currently skipping class. But it's raining, so that's ok, right?)

CAKE

I've been fairly Cake Crazy lately... and here is just a quick photo update of my most recent projects...

June 14th... Mom's (39th? Again?) Birthday Cake



Now THIS was a delicious cake!
Like... you don't even want to know how much butter went into this thing.

I mean maybe you do...

Yellow Layer Cake With Chocolate Frosting

Adapted from Junior’s Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

FOR THE CAKE:

Butter, for greasing cake pans
1 2/3 cups sifted cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
10 extra-large eggs, separated
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

FOR THE MACAROON CRUNCH:

1 1/2 cups finely chopped nuts (almonds, pecans and/or walnuts)
1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes

FOR THE CHOCOLATE FROSTING:

8 cups (2 pounds) sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 2/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup margarine, at room temperature
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup heavy cream, or as needed.

1. For the cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter two round 9-inch cake pans, and line bottoms with parchment or wax paper. Sift cake flour, baking powder and salt together.

2. Using a stand mixer, beat egg yolks on high for 5 minutes. With mixer still running, gradually add 1 cup sugar and continue beating until thick, light yellow ribbons form in bowl, about 5 minutes more, scraping bowl two or three times. Beat in the vanilla and lemon extracts. Sift flour mixture over batter and stir it in by hand until blended. Add melted butter, and stir until completely incorporated.

3. In a large, clean bowl, and using the mixer’s whisk attachment, beat egg whites and cream of tartar together on high until frothy. Gradually add remaining 1/3 cup sugar, and continue beating until whites are stiff but not dry. Stir 1 cup of whites into batter, then gently fold in remaining whites until blended. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake until golden and center springs back when lightly touched, about 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely.

4. For macaroon crunch: Toss nuts and coconut together, and spread on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until golden and crunchy, 10 to 15 minutes, tossing twice. Set aside to cool.

5. For chocolate frosting: Sift the confectioners’ sugar, cocoa and salt together. Using a stand mixer, cream together the butter and margarine on high until light yellow and slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. With mixer still running, add corn syrup and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add sugar mixture in two batches, beating well after each. Blend in 3/4 cup cream until frosting is a spreading consistency, adding more if needed. Increase speed to high and beat until light and creamy, about 2 minutes more; there will be about 8 cups of frosting. Spoon about 1 cup into a pastry bag fitted with a medium star tip.

6. For assembly: Using a long serrated knife, cut each cake horizontally into two equal layers. Spread first layer with about a fifth of frosting, then place second layer on top of it and frost it, too. Repeat with third and fourth layers. Frost sides with all remaining frosting except what is in pastry bag. Pat macaroon crunch on sides of cake (not top) until covered. Using frosting in pastry bag, pipe 6 rosettes on top of cake. Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate, allowing cake to stand at room temperature for about an hour before slicing.

That was kind of long... but SO worth it.



It looks even prettier when cut!

NEXT!

Father's Day Cake!



I was going to make a large bow tie..



But once I made this cute one out of fondant... I just decided to do a shirt for it to go on!

NEXT!

Mom's Book Club Cake:



This cake certainly gave my perfectionism a run for its money... FRUSTRATING! It is much easier to cover a whole cake than only 3 sides of one...

AND...

Due to all of this baking...




RIP 50 pound bag of flour!

I also just got commissioned to do a beautiful 50th birthday cake for a friend's mom... pictures to come next!

Sorry I've been slacking...

I'm sorry i've been so busy but here is a rundown of what i've been up to:

My Strawberry plant is blooming!



Here is Max cleaning our first harvested strawberry:



Max cutting the Strawberry:



And tasting our first homegrown strawberry!




Next... Sister Beka turned 18 and we celebrated with a giant cupcake cake

I used the tuxedo cake recipe that i talked about earlier (what I made for max's great aunt's birthday) for the inside, and had to get a little creative with the outside.

Here is the top of the cupcake cooling:



I wanted to frost the bottom of the cupcake, but i was afraid that if I just frosted it with a knife, I would loose the cupcake ridges, and you wouldn't be able to tell what it was. My original idea was to turn it upside down and pour magic shell (the stuff you pour on ice cream and it instantly hardens) It turns out that the COLD ice cream is what makes the shell harden, and cake is definitely not cold enough. So that was a minor speed bump. To work with what I had, i just tempered some white chocolate, poured it over the bottom, and stuck the cake right in the freezer to set.



Here is the cupcake fully assembled!



Also.. DEEP DISH PIZZA!

My mom made this a few weeks ago, so I decided to give it a try for dinner tonight. Deep dish is SO much more filling than regular pizza. I made 2 9 in. pies (I mean there were two big guys, i figure they would at least eat a whole one by themselves.) Nope.. We didn't even touch the second one. (More leftovers for me!)

Recipe: The Frugal Gourmet! Chicago- style Deep Dish

http://www.pizzamaking.com/deepdish.php

Dough Recipe

2 packages rapid rise dry yeast (Or 2 1/4 tsp.)
2 cups warm water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup cornmeal
5 1/2 cups flour Pizza

In the bowl of a stand mixer, dissolve the yeast in the water. Add the vegetable oil, olive oil, cornmeal, and half of the flour. Beat for 10 minutes. Attach the dough hook and mix in the remaining flour. Knead for several minutes with the mixer. (Note: because the dough is very rich and moist, it would be difficult to do this by hand.)



Remove dough and place on a clean countertop. Cover with a very large metal bowl and allow to rise until double in bulk. Punch down and allow to rise again. Punch down a second time and you are ready to make pizza!



Oil your deep-dish pizza pan. Depending on the size of your pan, place some dough in the pan and push it out to the edges using your fingers. Put in enough dough so that you can run the crust right up the side of the pan. Make it about 1/8-inch thick throughout the pan.

Filling:

1/3 pound sliced mozzarella cheese
2 cups Italian-style whole peeled tomatoes, drained and squished
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt to taste
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons olive oil

This filling really needs to be doubled, or even maybe tripled. I used two huge cans of tomatoes, but once they are really well drained, it really wasn't quite enough for two pies.
It is also really important to strain the tomatoes REALLY well, or else your sauce is going to be way too sloppy.





Place the cheese in tile-like layers on the bottom of the pie. Next put in the tomatoes and the basil, oregano, garlic, and salt, reserving the Parmesan cheese for the top. Drizzle olive oil over the top of the pie and you are ready to bake.

Here it is all ready for the oven:



Bake the pie in a 475°F oven until the top is golden and gooey and the crust a light golden brown, about 35 to 40 minutes.

Done and delicious!!




I WILL be better about updating!

I also started my Nutrition summer school class today, so hopefully my menu will take a healthy turn here in the next few weeks!