Happy Birthday, baby

I guess Seven is officially a Big Boy now, all of 2. Time certainly does fly. I can still remember the taste of the hospital chicken & dumplings I ate for every meal after having him, it seems so recent. (By the way, those dumplings were good enough to warrant getting pregnant again.)

Tonight we celebrated his birthday for the third time in a week…and each time I made a cake. First was the Devil’s Food Strawberry Cake. Then came the huge party cake with the farm animals. Then tonight was another Devil’s Food, but this time with tons of raspberries and both White Chocolate and Milk Chocolate Mousse.

I made the cake today and used raspberries from our garden, which, for some reason, decided that our first harvest in late June wasn’t enough and have since rebudded and offered us a ton of fresh berries for the past two weeks. Hey…I’m not complaining. It’s like a Christmas Miracle, Charlie Brown.

I divided this torte into 4 layers of cake. Two of the layers received white chocolate mousse with a bit of raspberry extract mixed in as well as loads of fresh berries. The center layer I filled with milk chocolate mousse and again threw on as many berries as it could handle. The top and sides were iced with leftover vanilla buttercream that I piped on with a star tip. As you can see, a few rows on top were piped with more of the chocolate mousse. On it;s own, this cake was very good looking. But….

Helen. It’s all because of Helen and her site, Tartelette. If you aren’t a reader of hers, you should be. Her photos are ridiculous, her recipes knock my socks off. Anything she dreams up comes to life on her blog and does so in such an amazing way. Add to that she is kind hearted and eager to help a newbie like myself and well, I’m just a sucker for her.

She just recently posted about pulling sugar. For those of you who have ever attempted ANY kind of sugar work- glass, caramel, hard candy – you know how unstable and scary it can be. I know it scares the bejesus out of me. However, she had such a soothing way of making me think I could do it. It’s easy, she said in a Tweet to me this morning. Easy. Umkay. If you say so.

But I went for it. What was there to lose? A little bit of sugar and some time? Worth it to try. I’ll admit, the first few pulls were not so good. I followed her directions to the letter, and they were spot on…only I had to use rubber gloves instead of pastry gloves and the hot sugar kept sticking to them. By the time I pulled the candy off the gloves, the rest had hardened too much to pull. So I tweeted. “What to do? Am I screwed?” and calmly, she says to grease the gloves. From that point on I was set. Everytime the candy hardened, I slipped it into the oven at 220 and waited for it to soften. After about an hour of the pulling, twirling and rewarming, I had a ton of sugar curly-cues.

FYI – these can NOT be made ahead. They are sticky and very prone to humidity, so they will only last a day. I made mine at around 11 am, and while they are now 12 hours old and still looking okay, they won’t make it much longer. So don’t plan on making any in advance to use on a cake 3 days from now…it will be a total waste of time. And no, you can’t refrigerate them. Just don’t.

So see…I did it. No ER visit, and I’m not yet in the loony lock up. If I can do it, so can you. I fully expect to hear about your sugary conquests in future blog posts…so get on it! You can do it!

billhilly bash 2009

Back in 2002, the summer we moved into our finally renovated 1920’s house (all remodeled by family and friends – it took over a year) we had a big barbeque to thank everyone who had a hand in helping us.  We had close to 100 people there, and we had such a good time that when the next summer rolled around, we decided to do it again.

And thus began the Annual BillHilly Bash.

I used to work with a very swarthy Italian man.  He always wore designer suits and instead of washing his underwear and tees, he just threw them away every night and bought new ones. Don’t ask me why I knew this, it was just a rumor that he did not deny.  But I digress.  His English was certainly good, but he carried it with that thick southern Italian accent – Sicilian maybe? – and some of his colloquialisms came out a little skewed.  One day he was enraged at his dining room staff, probably for coming in late or not at all, and he was in a tirade.  Half of what he said was in English, the other half Italian…but the part I will never forget is when he called the whole lot of them BillHillies. BillHillies. So that’s what I am, too…and so are my friends and family.  We’re an elite crowd, folks. E-Leeet BillHillies.

 This year we had a crowd of about 75 or so.  Good crowd!  it’s also the first year I have had my catering business going, and I stupidly booked a picnic to cater earlier on the same day nearly an hour away.  But thanks to my Mom and my new friend Sue, everything went off without a hitch.  Everyone got fed, everything was on time, and nothing ran out.

It was a little more formal looking this year since I had all of my own chafing pans – these really make a picnic buffet look a lot more polished.  Wish I had bought those things years ago!  I kind of went with a subtle farm theme as it is also the party where we celebrate Seven’s birthday, and that boy is somekinda big into tractors and cows.  So we had hotdog buns in a straw hat, silverware in John Deere containers, a Bluegrass band, and the biggest cake I have ever made with little barnyard finesses all over it.

This cake was another first for me – it was stacked, tiered, and actual CAKE.  The cake competition I won a few weeks ago was a dummy cake, which is a lot easier to deal with. Dummy cakes don’t smoosh. They are perfectly level. You can pick them up and handle them…unlike real cake. So this cake was a bit scary. So scary, in fact, that I begged Carrie of Fields of Cake for assistance via Twitter. Where do I put supports? How many? What would you do? Blah Blah Blah.  This kind lady was nice enough to give me her phone number, and I did call.  So strange to step out of the computer once in a while and hear an actual voice that goes with a Blogger. I may have to do this more often.  Thanks Carrie for all of your advice!

By the time Saturday afternoon rolled around, I had the two bottom tiers iced and decorated.  The top layer was baked, but not yet iced, so Sue – that new friend I mentioned earlier – iced it for me.  Sue and I met online as well, as she was one of the first Baking GALS ever.  She’s been baking along and mailing cookies to the troops every month since we started!  She, like me, lives in the great state of Virginia, and although she lives about 4 hours from here, she came all the way to our party!  (It was so great to meet you, Sue…and thanks for ALL of your help here in the kitchen!)

So the cake.  I’ll admit it…I am darn proud of this cake. The other cakes I have done I’ve liked, but this one – well, I loved it. It was huge.  I made all of the little animals out of fondant, as well as the fence and the Seven Banner.  Everything else was buttercream.  The inside though, was amazing.  The bottom level was a lemon and cream cheese cake with a whipped cream, cream cheese and strawberry filling.  It was super tasty, but my real love was the next layer.

Chocolate.  Milk Chocolate Cake with a layer of caramel, chocolate mousse and tons of Snicker bits. Oh. My. God.  This is possibly my new favorite cake EVER.  Those little bites of Snickers were incredible.  Like Holy Crap good.  Not your typical 2 year olds birthday cake at all.  I did, however, make a standard little FunFetti type cake for the kiddos, and that was out top level.  Not that the kiddos around here seemed to mind the more “adult” layers – I think they all ate some of each flavor!

All in all, it was a great party, with great friends and, yes, great cake.  I hope you had a great weekend, too!

…If you Like Pina Coladas…

Oh, I doooo.  Not enough to actually compose an annoying song about them or write a classified ad about them, though.  I do, however,  like them enough to sit on an All-Inclusive beach in the Dominican Republic and get schnarky off of their tropical goodness. Uno mas, por favor.

(Toes in the sand, I can smell the sunscreen…wait…why does Kenny Chesney keep popping up in this little scenario?  Scoot on over to Margaritaville, Kenny.  This is my daydream, and you mustn’t be in it. I made a list and I heard you on the radio 6 times in 5 hours. That’s 5 too many times. And stop with the steel drums already…you aren’t from the Equator…you’re from a holler as deep as mine. And Yes, I did really make a list. I heard Tim McGraw 5 times in the same 5 hours. So I have list making issues...we all have our quirks.)

Where was I?  Yes, Pina Coladas.  I had a couple of aging egg whites that begged to be macarons again this week, so being the coconut lover that I am, I made them into Pineapple and Coconut Macarons.  Delicious choice.  I added pineapple extract to the shells and mixed in some sweetened coconut to a nice semisweet chocolate ganache for the filling.

I might just write a song about them.  Mr. Chesney, however,  will not be singing it… just so you know.

Pina Colada Macarons

• 1 ounce almonds
• 1 ounce hazelnuts
• 1 cup Confectioners Sugar
• 2 Egg Whites, Room Temperature
• 5 Tbsp. Superfine Sugar
• 1/3 tsp. Pineapple Extract
• 1 Tbsp. Meringue Powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat and have a pastry bag with a plain tip (about 1/4 to 1/2-inch) ready. Grind together the powdered sugar and nuts in a food processor until finely chopped. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until they begin to rise and hold their shape. While whipping, add in the granulated sugar a little at a time, until very stiff and firm, about 2 minutes. If you can turn the bowl upside down and the meringue stays put, you've got it. Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. Before dumping in the second half of the dry ingredients, add your  meringue powder and extract. Stir quickly and gently, then add remaining dry ingredients. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding and scrape the batter into the pastry bag (standing the bag in a tall glass helps if you're alone). Pipe the batter on the prepared baking sheets in 1-inch circles (about 1 tablespoon each of batter), evenly spaced one-inch or more (3 cm) apart. Rap the baking sheet a few times on the counter to flatten the macarons. Place an empty baking sheet on the lower oven rack, then place the macarons in the upper third of the oven. Bake them for 14-16 minutes. Let cool completely then remove from baking sheet. Macarons that are not being baked (waiting their turn on the counter) are fine, and can be left out unbaked for a half hour or more.

Chocolate Ganache Filling with Coconut

5 ounces Semisweet Chocolate

3 Tablespoons Heavy Whipping Cream

1/4 cup Sweetened Coconut Flake

Bring Whipping Cream just to a simmer. Turn off heat, add chocolate. Allow to sit for 5 minutes, stir to combine. Add coconut.  Spread onto cooled Macaron shells.

 

Now…what’s your favorite flavor combination?  As you may have realized, I have become quite a macaron fiend, so I would love to have some new and interesting combos!  Next up I believe will involve Blackberries and Peaches, but that’s only if you don’t give me a better suggestion!

Until then… Have a great weekend!

Best Birthday Cake…ever

Or is it a torte?

You see, I am still new to the kitchen/baking lingo.  What’s the difference between a torte and a cake?  Sure, I could Google it, but I feel sure one of you will know and fill me in.  Until then, this is a cake.

Over the weekend, my in-laws were in town for a wedding that we all attended on Saturday evening.  On Sunday, we were going to gather at my house and have brunch to celebrate Jon’s folks 40th wedding anniversary and Seven’s second birthday.  We’re having a big bash for Sev this coming up weekend, but since this side of the family won’t get to come, we decided to go ahead and celebrate his 2nd birthday a little early for them.  But birthdays need cake, and I am not going to be the mommy who leaves her child cakeless.

So it’s 9:30 on Saturday night, we’ve just gotten home from the wedding, and I have to set about making a cake.  No time for a fussy from scratch recipe – heck, I wasn’t even sure what ingredients I had on hand at that point – so I dug out a Devil’s Food cake box mix and went to work.  Scoff if you must at the use of a box, but when time is tight and you don’t have room for error nor time to remake a failed attempt, boxes are down right lifesavers…especially when you alter them to suit your needs.

What transpired from a box mix absolutely amazes me.  It was a fabulous cake – dense, rich, and full of the most amazing flavors in each of the layers.  It tasted expensive.  I should keep it a secret, this recipe of mine, but it’s so good I feel I must share it with you!  Seven loved it and so did we! 

Devils Food Layer Cake

with Chocolate Orange Mousse, Strawberries, & Whipped Cream

Devils Food Cake Layer

• 1 Box Devils Food Cake
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup Canola Oil
• 1/4 tsp Strawberry Flavoring
• 1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 cup water
• splash of milk
• 1/2 box (small size) Instant Cheesecake Pudding
• 3 Tbsps. Chocolate Syrup

Combine all ingredients in stand mixer and beat for 2-3 minutes. Pour into 10 inch springform pan that has been greased and lined with parchment circle.  Spread evenly and rap on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake 35-38 minutes, or until toothpick test indicates done.  Allow to cool before proceeding.

Chocolate Orange Mousse

1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream

3 Tbsps. Sugar

8 oz. Melted Semisweet Chocolate

1/4 tsp Orange Extract (I used LorAnn Orange Oil)

Beat whipping cream until just stiff.  Add sugar & Extract, beat again until well combined.  Add in melted chocolate (I heated mine in the microwave at 30 second intervals until melted then allowed it to cool a bit before adding it to the whipping cream). Mix thoroughly.  Cover and allow to chill in refrigerator.

Assembly

Baked Cake, cut in half horizontally to form 2 layers

1/4 cup Strawberry Jam

8 oz. sliced strawberries

Chocolate Orange Mousse

3 Tbsps. Chocolate Syrup

Sweetened Whipped Cream in Piping Bag (Use your favorite recipe)

Place one layer of cake on cake board, cut side up. Top with chocolate syrup.  Spread  strawberry jam over the syrup. (If jam doesn’t spread easily, heat it for 10 seconds in the microwave.) Place sliced strawberries over the jam, covering entire layer.Top with a little over half of the prepared mousse.

Place second cake layer over mousse, finished side up.  Ice with remaining mousse, going just to the edges.  (I left my sides uncovered so that the layers could be seen.)  Pipe sweetened whip cream over top.  You can cover the entire top if you wish, but I chose to only do a thick border and a center circle which I garnished with a berry.  Chocolate curls or shavings would have been really nice on this as well.

Hope you’ll reconsider the box mix cake after reading this post…I wish you could have tasted it for yourself!  Do you have a box mix you have adapted that you’d like to share with me? I would love to know it!

Custom Cookies…yet again

Some of my readers seem to like seeing all of the different cookie designs I have done, so bear with me if you aren’t one of them…this post has two orders on it.

The first is for one of my favorite online friends. She is having a birthday party with a Madeline theme for her soon-to-be two year old, and thought cookies might be just the ticket. For reference sake, here is a picture of what Madeline looks like. If you are like me, and have a son, Madeline may not be on your radar. I know she wasn’t on mine! Typically, she can be found wearing a cute little blue coat and red tie/scarf, but is always wearing a big yellow hat with a bow. So I made cookies shaped like her hat, her coat, her little brown dog. I also made little circles with her face, as well as some Eiffel Towers. I hope little Caroline enjoys them!

For the other order, another one of my online gal pals wanted to send her sister a sweet pick-me-up. The sister on the receiving end is a jewelry designer, so I chose to make necklaces and rings. To be extra sweet, my foodie friend wanted me to make cookies for all of the other jewelry artists that work with her sister at Roseark so that they could all have a brighter day! Here is a glimpse of that order as well…

Here’s hoping everyone has a great weekend!

So Very Cordial…Cherry Cordial, that is

cor-dial /ˈkawr juhl –adjective

1. courteous and gracious; friendly; warm: a cordial reception.
2. invigorating the heart; stimulating.

Last week I decided to use the egg whites that were sitting in my fridge. Every time there are egg whites in there, I think macarons!…and only macarons. It’s never a question, really, other than “what flavor”?

as luck would have it, I recently picked up some Cherry Flavoring from LorAnn, and I was eager to use it. Therefore, Cherry Macs were to be the order of the day. I Tweeted that I was about to get baking, and wouldn’t you know who joined me in the Macaron Making Extravaganza??

Helen. Mrs. Tartelette herself. The queen of all that is Macaron. it was Helen's tutorial that taught me to make a no fail (or at least a rarely fail) macaron. If not for her, I would have never attempted them in the first place last year. So it was a pleasure sharing the day with her, even if it was only via Twitter.

I have come a long way since my first macaron baking, making up my own ways to flavor them, pushing the envelope a bit when it comes to method. This cherry flavoring wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, but it was new to me, and I got to make my first pink macs. Love the color. So girlie, so pink, so sweet!

What you really need to know about making macarons is to be careful with your added moisture. If you are adding liquid food coloring and your flavor is also liquid, you need to be not only sparing, but preventative. For me, the way to counteract the moistness is to add a couple tablespoons of meringue powder, and it seems to do the trick.

My best piece of advice, and I’ve said it before…is put an empty pan in the bottom of your oven. I have found that my oven gets too much heat from the bottom, and this pan diffuses the heat just enough that I get perfect macs with no split tops, no burned bottoms, and the cutest little feet you’ve ever seen.

Once I had my pretty little shells, I needed something gorgeous to fill them with. Luckily, I had a bag of Cherry Cordial Kisses. I was a little timid about melting them down – what would happen? Would they gunk up? Would they even melt? But I went with it. I unwrapped about 8 of them, melted them down with a half cup of Bittersweet chips and a little bit of whipping cream and voila – the perfect Cherry Cordial filling for the perfect pink Macarons. Give them a try, won’t you?

Cherry Cordial Macarons

• 2 ounces almonds
• 1 cup Confectioners Sugar
• 2 Egg Whites, Room Temperature
• 5 Tbsp. Superfine Sugar
• 1/3 tsp. Cherry Flavoring
• 1 Tbsp. Meringue Powder
• Rose/Red/Pink Food Coloring Gel

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat and have a pastry bag with a plain tip (about 1/4 to 1/2-inch) ready. Grind together the powdered sugar and almonds in a food processor until finely chopped. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until they begin to rise and hold their shape. While whipping, add in the granulated sugar a little at a time, until very stiff and firm, about 2 minutes. If you can turn the bowl upside down and the meringue stays put, you've got it. Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. Before dumping in the second half of the dry ingredients, add your food coloring, meringue powder and extract. Stir quickly and gently, then add remaining dry ingredients. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding and scrape the batter into the pastry bag (standing the bag in a tall glass helps if you're alone). Pipe the batter on the prepared baking sheets in 1-inch circles (about 1 tablespoon each of batter), evenly spaced one-inch or more (3 cm) apart. Rap the baking sheet a few times on the counter to flatten the macarons. Place an empty baking sheet on the lower oven rack, then place the macarons in the upper third of the oven. Bake them for 14-16 minutes. Let cool completely then remove from baking sheet. Macarons that are not being baked (waiting their turn on the counter) are fine, and can be left out unbaked for a half hour or more.

Fill with your Cherry Cordial Chocolate Ganache or your favorite filling and enjoy!

Do they invigorate the heart? Are they Stimulating?

You bet your butt.

cake for a baby shower

I am loving this cake decorating thing, people. For those of you who don’t know me well, you may or may not be surprised to learn that I got my degree in Art/Art History and English. (Stop Giggling. It’s a real degree.) Even Jon, Mr.Negative, Mr. HeheHaHa of My Degree offered up this bit of positivity - “You’re degree’s finally coming in handy.”

Thanks, Hon.

So, this cake was fun for me to do. It was based on the Jungle Babies by Nojo Bedding. Elephants, Giraffes. Monkeys.

The Mommy-to-Be let me know that her favorite Candy bar was Almond Joy. Girl after my own heart, I tell you. I LOVE anything chocolate and coconut. So, I made her a very tall 3 layer cake (each layer was nearly 2 inches thick) of Devils Food Cake with Coconut Milk. One layer of filling was a coconut cream cheese with bits of candy car spread on top of it, the other filling layer was a semi-sweet chocolate ganache with coconut flake. The outer icing is just coconut flavored cream cheese buttercream, tinted green like the bedding.

I rolled fondant and made a giraffe and an elephant, made a few leaves as well, and then piped on green “leafy dots” (you know me and dots.) For a final touch, I made a 3D monkey out of fondant and perched him on top. All those “coconuts” around the bottom of the cake? Chocolate covered almonds. Unbelievably, my icing was so smooth all over the cake, that even the bottoms were crisp and clean- so I didn’t bother piping a fussy border, I just added those coconuts and called it a day! What do you think??

I really hope the gals at the baby shower enjoyed it!

Now – PenPal Bloggers. Wow! Lots of new joiners…great to have you!

For the first round, I think we should do it like this:

If you were the first signer-upper, contact signer-uppers 2 & 3 and get their mailing address. Number 2, contact #3 & 4, and so on. Those of you at the end? Just loop back around to numbers 1 and 2. This means that each of us will be mailing 2 different people. Please include a handwritten recipe to share with your penpal- if you also want to include a copy of your novel, that’s fine too. A note will suffice…just do be sure to have a recipe card. i think this will be a great thing to collect…a book of recipes written by friends from around the country? Who else can say they have one of those?

Let’s try to mail this first round by the 1st of September. Then we will rearrange and mail again in another couple of weeks after that. Do you all want to mail once a month? Twice? Any other suggestions for what we can do after this round? I am all ears!

Have a great weekend!

Mastering the Art of French Cooking…Week Three

Not since purchasing Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours have I loved a cookbook as much as I am loving Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I find myself reading it, as I would a novel. It sits beside my bed when it isn’t being abused in the kitchen. I think about it throughout the day, wondering what I could be making if only I had the time.

On Tuesday, I had the time.

Having picked up a huge pack of chicken at the grocery, I found that all of the ingredients needed for Poulet Saute aux Herbes de Provence were already in my house. Seven and I took a field trip up to the garden and picked thyme and basil (the basil is the most aromatic and flavorful Lemon Basil and Purple Basil) and the rest we found in the fridge.

This recipe comes together easily, and Julia’s directions once again produced a no fail entree. For those of you not into French, the recipe is translated as Chicken Sauteed with Herbs and Garlic, Egg Yolk and Butter Sauce. It wasn’t our typical chicken recipe…but we all enjoyed it. Even little Seven, who rarely likes meat other than bologna and hot dogs, called out for it more than once. The sauce is savory and rich, and the chicken is just the right amount of crisp and juicy. I can see it being made here again…but oh! There are so many more recipes for me to try!

Poulet Sauté aux Herbes de Provence

Bon Appétit August 2009

by Julia Child

Chicken:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 3- to 3 1/2-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces, rinsed, patted dry
1 teaspoon dried thyme or savory
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds, ground in spice mill or with mortar and pestle
3 unpeeled garlic cloves
2/3 cup dry white wine or 1/2 cup dry white vermouth
Sauce:
2 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon dry white wine or dry white vermouth
2 to 3 tablespoons butter, cut into 1-inch cubes (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, fresh fennel fronds, or fresh parsley (optional)

For chicken:

Melt butter in large wide pot over medium-high heat. Working in batches, if necessary, add chicken pieces and cook only until golden, turning occasionally, about 8 minutes per batch. Transfer chicken breast pieces to plate. Sprinkle remaining chicken pieces in pot with half each of thyme, basil, and fennel seeds, then salt and pepper. Add garlic to pot. Cover pot; reduce heat to medium and cook 8 to 9 minutes. Sprinkle chicken breasts with remaining thyme, basil, and fennel seeds, then salt and pepper. Return breast pieces to pot; baste chicken with butter in pot. Cover and cook until chicken is cooked through, turning and basting occasionally, about 15 minutes. Transfer to hot platter; cover.

Remove peel from garlic cloves; mash garlic with spoon or fork in same pot. Add 2/3 cup wine to juices in pot; boil until liquid is reduced to 3/4 cup, occasionally scraping bottom of pan, about 8 minutes. Pour reduced pan juices into measuring cup and reserve for sauce.

For sauce:

Off heat, whisk egg yolks in heavy small saucepan until beginning to thicken. Whisk in lemon juice and 1 tablespoon wine. Gradually whisk reserved pan juices into eggs, 1 teaspoon at a time. Set sauce over very low heat and whisk constantly until warm and slightly thickened, 3 to 4 minutes. If desired, whisk in butter, 1 piece at a time. Remove from heat. Stir in herbs, if desired. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon sauce over chicken and serve.

UPDATE:

For those of you who signed on for the Blogging Pen Pals, hang tight! Tomorrow I will be announcing our mailing rotation. In case you want to join us, scroll back a few posts, catch up on the details, then sign on! We’d love to have you!

The New Way to Invite…Paperless Post

Of course, I have a Tweet to thank for introducing me to the greatest online invitation source-so fancy, elegant & well done you can’t even believe it-so I thought I would share it with you, too…Paperless Post!

Click the Stamps to Register, you’ll LOVE it!

(This post was One Sentence Posting, dreamed up by NancyO. Crazy Lady.)

tuesdays with dorie…brownie buttons

Thank the Lord a recipe as simple and uncomplicated as Brownie Buttons was the recipe choice for this week’s Tuesdays With Dorie. After a week of cake baking, competitions, golf tournaments, getting up at 430 to shop in North Carolina and friends moving back to town, my butt was TIE-YARD. To open up my Baking: From My Home to Yours and find that not only did the recipe seems simple enough…I also had all of the ingredients on hand was, in a word - Sweet. Thanks so much to Jayma of Two Scientists Experimenting in the Kitchen for choosing this recipe!

Just so you know, it would be wrong of me to say that this recipe was a slam dunk for me. It had… issues. The first issue was baking time. Unfortunately I got a Tweet a little too late that the baking time was a tad too long. Therefore, my buttons baked a tad too long. Second, white chocolate topping. Mine seized. A crash cart of butter could not revive it…so I ditched it. That being said, I would probably make these again sometime, just reducing the bake time to more like 12 or 13 minutes versus the 15 I baked them. And the topping? I could take it or leave it.

Moving on…the Cake. The cake I have tweeted about for a week. The cake that was nearly the death of me. The cake.

Yes, the cake. I made a cake last week for a competition, which I have to say was either supremely stupid or downright brave of me to enter. The cake was to be for a regional hospital’s 10 year anniversary…the Carilion Clinic. The competition was to make a cake that would celebrate this fact. If you have followed me for any length of time, you’ll note that I have practically zero experience in the cake department. I’ve made what? 6? 5? And none of them have ever been covered in fondant. So why I chose to enter a competition using a cake with rolled fondant is beyond me. But I did it.

As of last Wednesday, I was told that there would be 22 Cake entries. Twenty Two. And yet on Saturday, I showed up at the Mall with my cake, not sure how embarrassed I would be once I got there. Luckily, a few bakers bailed before they even showed up…but there were still quite a few. My biggest competition was the Wilton Cake Class Instructor…that made me nervous. Instructor? Crap. Instead of hanging around and watching all of the cakes being set up, I escaped to the movies and returned in time for the awards.

Guess who took First Place in the Professional Category? Holy Nuts.

I won a trophy with a little gold chef on top. And a Visa Gift Card, which rocks. But most of all, I didn’t embarrass myself like I feared. So, if you are out there reading this, just do it. If there is something out there you’ve been wanting to do – a cake competition, a recipe contest, an Art Show – DO IT. You never know how it might turn out. Sure, it may be a total fail, but you can always pick yourself back up and learn from the experience. I hope you’ll try. And let me know how it goes , okay?

Mastering the Art of French Cooking...Week Two

On Saturday, in between the time I dropped off my Competition Cake (more on that in another post) and the time they announced the winners (of which I WAS, yippee!), I took myself to see Julie & Julia.

If you are a Foodie (and you probably are, if you are reading this post) you will find this movie right up your alley. Personally, I can admit that until I saw this film, I knew absolutely nothing about Julia Child. Hell, with that whacky accent, she could have been French for all I knew. I had never watched her on television, but know who she was...that bigger than life, loud, cheeky lady who cooked. The one mimicked on SNL by Dan Akroyd. I never knew what kind of person she was at all.

Now, I think I may love her. I started making recipes out of her Mastering the Art of French Cooking last week and became hooked. Seeing the movie just made me want to keep on cooking. I wish I could tell you what it is that draws me to her. Perhaps it is the fact that she was so stubborn, yet full of heart. Perhaps it was the fact that she started her dream so late in her life. Truly, though, I think it was the way she dealt with being childless. It is such an incredibly difficult thing to cope with.

There is a scene in the movie where Julia reads a letter announcing another's pregnancy and she cries...and then says how happy she is. I have been that person. We tried for so long to have Seven, and it seemed everywhere I turned, another friend or family member was getting pregnant. It was so hard to be happy for them without aching for myself and Jon. I have yet to apologize to my sister-in-law for the way I handled her announcing her own pregnancy...I feel terrible still about leaving the restaurant where we were and taking time to pull myself together so that I wouldn't have a meltdown in front of the whole family. It wasn't that I wasn't happy for her - I really was - it was that I was twice as unhappy for myself. To see how that is played out in another's life in front of you really makes it hit home, or at least it did for me. It made me feel like maybe I wasn't crazy for feeling the way I had...Julia felt that way, too. I wept right there in the theater, as I imagine anyone who has been through that would. That being said, I think Meryl Streep could play a Latvian snake charmer living as a Brooklyn street dancer/rapper and pull it off, she's that good. She made this movie what it is.

So, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I really pushed myself today. Not in the cooking sense, but in the comfort zone sense. I was actually talking aloud, psyching myself up...to make mayonnaise. Julia's Mayonnaise.

I followed her recipe for making it in the Food Processor, and even though I was ready to fail, it turned out perfectly. I love that she advises you in each step what to do, how things will look and act, and then tells you how to fix any boo boos that may have occurred - not that any did because I followed her recipe to the letter. You can also make mayo by hand following her method and recipe that can be found at The Nibble. If I were you though, I would just buy her book. Seriously, you know you should.

I just got the thumbs up from the Hub, who ate it on a tomato sandwich. While I wanted to love it for myself, I really made it for him. Him, and well, Julia.

First Paid Cake

Whodda thunk it? Me, who could barely turn on the oven 15 months ago, would be paid to bake and decorate a cake? I certainly wouldn't have believed it.

And yet, earlier this week, I was contacted by a lady who heard i could probably do it...that is, bake and decorate a cake for her mother's birthday. I can't say no. I just can't. The trouble was, she wanted it to be a sheet cake, but coconut. Coconut cake, most often, is round and layered. And there's the icing, which is chock full of, well, coconut. So that makes the decorating of it a wee bit difficult. I did my best.

I baked off a coconut flavored cake and iced it with a White Chocolate and Cream Cheese Buttercream that I amped up with a little coconut extract and coconut flake. I reserved some icing and didn't add the flake, so that I could pipe a border.

Her only request was that it have a rose, in the mauve/pinkish red frame of mind. So I made a rose and bud out of fondant. And then, because there were so many pretty things in the garden, I added them to this cake instead of more icing adornment. I added leaves from a blackberry plant, Purple basil (It was gorgeous) and some unripe baby grapes and blackberries. The pictures don't do much for it - I was in a hurry and using my Mom's camera that doesn't behave like I want it to. I think you get the idea though.

Thoughts? Other than the writing is a little wanky looking? (It wasn't QUITE as wonky in person, it was 3D and curved on fondant ribbon, just one side ended up more curved than the other.) Pros/Cons to the fresh greenery other than wilting? And what, if I may be so bold, is one expected to pay for a cake such as this? Thanks everyone!

Blogging Pen Pals?

Okay. So, yes, the internet is faster. Email rocks.
Twitter is genius.

But there's nothing like opening your actual MAILBOX and finding a letter. Ugly envelope or gorgeous stationary, I love getting a letter.

And apparantly, lots of YOU do, too.

So, I have set up a Mr.Linky here at the bottom of this post. Sign up, and we'll get a little Write-a-Thon going. Just make sure you add your link here, even if you mentioned your interest in my other post. Do I know how it's going to work yet? No, not really. But I envision writing 2 times month, and including a little handwritten recipe in each letter sent. How's that sound? We'll let some computer genius figure out a method for who writes who and when, and that's that. I'm kind of excited about it - should be fun!

Now, who gets a head start because they won a great set of stationary form Yoplait? That would be:

#4 - Jacque, and #8 - Tracy. Congratulations! Please email or DM me your address and I will have them get your prize out to you!