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!

Bunnies and Eating Contests

So a few weeks ago on a trip to the San Marcos outlets I came across this $50 3-D bunny pan on sale for $14.. So clearly I had to get it!



I of course wanted to make the bunny cake for easter, and decided on a nice lemon cake with vanilla buttercream.

Ingredients for Lemon Bunny Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1⁄2 tsp. salt
8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1⁄2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3⁄4 tsp. lemon oil
4 whole eggs plus 2 egg yolks
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat an oven to 325ºF. Grease the bunny!

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the butter on medium-high speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar, beating until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and lemon oil. Add the eggs and yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Reduce the speed to low and fold in the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour, beating until smooth and combined.



Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.



Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Set the rack over a sheet of waxed paper, invert the pan onto the rack and lift off the pan.

I actually ended up having to double this recipe because it didn't fill up the bunny all the way, and since i had some left over, I just made a few cupcakes:



Here is bunny cooling:



And here are where the issues start:



I COULD NOT get the buttercream to stiffen and stay on the bunny so I ended up just having to move the whole process INTO the freezer:



All issues aside.. he turned out great, and tasted even better!




On another note.. Last weekend was the Poteet Strawberry Festival. I had never been, so I decided to go with one of my co-workers, April, and her 2 year old daughter.

Here is Mikayla, adorable as ever:



As we were walking around.. we noticed that there was a Strawberry eating contest.
There was an 18-20 year old category.. and April jokingly said that I should enter... so I did... and I won!



Showing the judges I was done:



A proud moment :)

March: Herbs & Cake

So since i've moved out and been doing all my own cooking, i've discovered how expensive fresh herbs are. They give you a plastic container of way-too-many-for-one-recipe herbs that spoil before you get the chance to use all of them, so I decided to start an herb garden. :)


Oregano, Basil, Cilantro, and Rosemary

Also...

Max's Great Aunt and Uncle are in town on vacation from France, and I was asked to make his Aunt Karin's 70th Birthday cake.

The cake that I decided to make is a recipe from the the Rather Sweet Bakery in Fredericksberg.

The Tuxedo Cake:

For The Cake



1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
2 cups water
1 cup canola oil
4 cups sugar
1 cup high-quality unsweetened cocoa powder
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For The Whipped Cream Frosting
4 cups chilled heavy whipping cream
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

For The Chocolate Glaze
4 ounces high-quality bittersweet chocolate , chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup lyle's golden syrup (*this is imported from britain if you can't find it you can substitute light corn syrup)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
To make the cake: For a three-layer cake, place one baking rack one-third from the bottom of the oven and the second two-thirds from the bottom.

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°.
Line the bottom of three 9-inch or two 10-inch pans with parchment paper rounds, grease with butter, and dust with flour (Or spray with Baker's Joy).

Combine the butter, water and canola oil in a medium saucepan set over medium heat.


In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, cocoa and flour.


Pour the butter mixture into the sugar mixture and whisk until smooth.
Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, then whisk in the buttermilk.


Whisk in the baking soda, salt and vanilla all at once.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pans.


For a three-layer cake, stagger the cake layers on the oven racks so that no layer is directly over another.
Set two layers on one rack and the third on the other.

For a 2-layer cake, stagger the layers on the middle rack with one placed more toward the front of the oven and one toward the back.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Monitor the layers carefully for doneness; each one may be done at different times.

Remove the cakes from the oven and cool on racks for about 15 minutes before inverting onto baking racks.
Cool the cakes completely, at least two hours, before frosting.


Since I needed to make this cake a day ahead of time, I actually decided to freeze the layers overnight so that they wouldn't dry out. all i did was wrap each layer in saran wrap, and then again in foil, and froze them overnight.

This is traditionally just a three layer cake, but I decided to experiment with torting the layers. This basically just means to slice in half through the center of the cake to make 2 thin layers instead of the 1 thin layer. I actually found a cool little contraption for $3 that used a wire to cut evenly through each layer so that they were all even.


Here are all 6 after torting each layer:


In order to lock in as much moisture as possible, I made up some simple syrup with 2 parts water, 1 part dissolved sugar in a little spray bottle. I sprayed each layer with just a little bit of the syrup before frosting.



To Make Frosting:
Using a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the cream in a large bowl on high speed until soft peaks form.
Add the powdered sugar and whip until thoroughly combined.
Place one cake layer on a plate and spread some of the frosting over the top.
Top with the remaining layers, thickly coating the top and sides of each with frosting.
Refrigerate the cake until the whipped cream frosting has stabilized, at least one hour.



To Make The Glaze:
Place the chocolate in a medium bowl.
Heat the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until it is very hot and just beginning to steam.
Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until it has melted completely.
Stir in the syrup and the vanilla.
Pour the glaze into a medium pitcher or measuring cup and let cool for ten minutes.
Do not let the glaze sit longer because it will stiffen and become difficult to pour over the cake.
Slowly pour the glaze over the cake, ensuring that it covers the top of the cake entirely, but make sure some of the cream frosting shows through the drizzles on the sides. (If the glaze doesn't flow easily over the edge of the cake,don't be afraid to add an extra tablespoon or two of the syrup. I probably should have added a little bit more on this one).

Refrigerate the cake until the glaze is set and the whipped cream frosting is firm, at least one hour.



Even after 12 people, there was still quite a bit of cake left-- even though it didn't look as pretty anymore. But it was definitely very tasty--(Tasty enough to keep a 5 year old quiet for a full 5 minutes.)


As a side note:
Here is my new strategy to working off all of these cake pounds: