Is that a chartreuse rose?

There is nothing wrong with a chartreuse rose. Who says you have to make lifelike fondant flowers in lifelike colors? Is there a rule book somewhere that I am not aware of? I will make lime green roses if I want to make lime green roses.

Maybe I am just a little extra feisty after the week that I have had. You know those food network competitions where they build the huge beautiful chocolate sculptures and the clock is ticking down and the chefs are going to put the final touches on and the thing crashes to the ground into a million little pieces in what seems like slow motion? I can officially say I know how that feels. A whole quarter of chocolate work and nothing to show for it. I didn't even get a picture before it was destroyed by a too warm chocolate kitchen. It capped off a already crummy week and drained my resolve to keep a happy face on and work through the all the crap.

I don't think I have ever been more ready for the holidays than this year. Between the stress of classes wrapping up for good, a possibly totaled car, being sick every other week, all I want to do is be home with my family and friends, not worrying about real life for a while. Soon, I will be sitting at the dinner table surrounded by all my favorite people, eating delicious turkey, brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes and cheesy corn, drinking some beaujolais nouveau, and just taking it all in.

There is just something about sharing a meal with the ones you love to set everything right, if even just for a little while. When I get back from home, its back into cake making and work mode full force until after new years. I am actually very happy that I have quite a few side projects lined up, even though I am incredibly busy. The cakes and desserts that I make for freelance projects are always the most fun, and the ones that I can pour my creativity into. No matter how many hours I put in, or long, late nights I stay up working on a cake, it's pretty much always worth it in the end.

To give someone a original, delicious, and gorgeous cake that you designed and created with your two hands is one amazing feeling. And that feeling can mean a lot when other things in your life aren't going so well.

I hope everyone reading has an absolutely wonderful thanksgiving and has some time to spend with the people in their lives who make them happy. Or at the very least I hope you get to eat a lot of mashed potatoes. 

Autumn Cake

At one point this week, I had four fondant cakes of different shapes and sizes sitting in my kitchen. I can't bring myself to throw them away, but I don't know what to do with them. Maybe I will just let them petrify and make a cake shrine in our second bedroom. That probably won't happen, but it's an option. It's hard to dump something in the trash that you spent such a long time on, but nobody wants to eat two-week old cake (not that they will admit anyway). This cake luckily found a home this weekend for a friend's birthday and wasn't sacrificed to the garbage bin.

I am in my last quarter of pastry school, and one of my classes is a cake decorating class that focuses on fondant cakes. Unfortunately, I am not learning as much as I had hoped from this class, so I had to change my way of thinking about it. I now look forward to class as a chance to play and experiment for five hours a week with unlimited materials and lots of fun tools. This week our only restriction was an autumn themed cake, and since I love fall, I was really looking forward to it. I wanted to make a clean and classy fall cake, one that wasn't covered in pumpkins and marzipan fruit, perhaps something that could even be used as a wedding cake. We got to play with the airbrush machine to make more realistic leaves (Santa, if you are listening, Bria has been a very good girl this year and would like an airbrush machine for Christmas).

One great tip I did pick up this week was that I should start hoarding my egg cartons and always be on the lookout for other containers that can be reused to hold gum paste flowers and figures. Drying petals or leaves in a round cup gives them more dimension and movement than if you were to let them dry flat. You can purchase little round cups made specifically for this purpose, but why spend the money when there are things already in your house that work just as well? I happen to shop as Costco, and when honeycrisp apples came out this year, I bought a huge container of them. As I was reaching for the last one this week, I realized that the plastic clam shell they came in was perfect for flower shaping.

A drawback of using bowls that I had around the apartment to hold flower layers was that most of them had a flat bottom, but these apple cups are perfectly spherical. I cannot wait to test them out. Next time you are at the grocery store, check out the produce section, there are all kinds of egg carton-like packaging in different shapes and sizes that may be very useful in your cake creating endeavors.

Hope you enjoyed your extra hour of sleep/play/work this weekend. Happy fall!

Roasted Rutabaga Beer Cheese Soup

Naaaa na na SOUP!! Na na, na naaa, na na. Naaaaaa na na SOUP!

So there is a bass-laden jock jam's song stuck in my head with a stadium of screaming fans in the background, and they are yelling SOUP instead of HEY! It must be fall.

This is how excited I get over soup season. I may or may not actually shimmy around the apartment humming this to myself while my 13-quart le crueset is full to the brim with bubbling soup. Those of you who know me probably aren't very shocked by this startling confession.

So let's talk about this soup. It's got beer, it's got cheese, and it's got buttery roasted rutabagas and parsnips. That's enough vegetables to allow you to feel like it's good for you.

Beer Cheese Soup with Roasted Root Vegetables

makes 12-16 servings

you can halve this recipe if you like, it makes a lot of soup, but I almost never make small batches so that I can eat it for lunch for a few days and freeze a bunch.

1 large rutabaga, peeled and diced into 1/4 inch pieces
4-5 small-medium parsnips, peeled and diced into 1/4 inch pieces
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large vidalia onions, diced small
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 - 12 oz bottles of beer, preferable a full flavored lager or ale
6 cups vegetable stock (use the good stuff that comes in the cartons, not the 99 cent cans, you want the full flavor of the vegetable stock)
2 sticks ( 1 cup) unsalted butter
3/4 cup flour
8 cups whole milk
2 large bay leaves
3.5 lbs cheese, shredded (I used a mixture of Monterrey jack, white cheddar, and extra sharp cheddar)
3-4 tablespoons chipotle-adobo sauce, depending on how spicy you want it
2-3 teaspoons salt, to taste
1-2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, to taste
few handfuls of italian parsely, minced

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Toss the diced rutabagas and parsnips with olive oil to coat and season well with some of the salt and pepper. Spread evenly on a lined baking sheet and roast until browned and cooked through, about 45 minutes - 1 hour.

Meanwhile, in a large stockpot or dutch oven melt 4 tablespoons of the butter (1/2 stick) over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, and bay leaves and sweat until the onions are very soft and translucent, about 20-30 minutes (if you are doing a half recipe, this probably wont take as long). At this point I opted to remove the onions with a slotted spoon into a bowl and add back into the soup a bit later. I felt that making a good roux would be easier if I didn't have to worry about mashing up the onions.

So, turn off the heat, and using a slotted spoon, remove the onions to a bowl and set aside, leaving whatever liquids are left in the pan. In a small saucepan, gently heat your milk over medium-low heat. You do not need to boil it, you just want it hot to add to your roux. Add the rest of the butter to your stockpot and melt over low heat. When the butter starts to bubble, add the flour and cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly until light golden brown, about 5 minutes. Slowly whisk in the hot milk and continue cooking until it is completely combined and slightly thickened, just a minute or two.

In a few additions, add the cheese to the milk mixture and stir over low heat until cheese has completely melted. Add the beer, vegetable stock, and adobo sauce, and bring to a very gentle simmer. You want to be careful not to scorch your cheese. Add your onions and roasted vegetables to the soup, season with salt and pepper, and cook over low heat about 30-40 minutes until soup is nice and thick.

Make sure to taste the soup a few times while it is simmering, you may need to add more salt and pepper, or perhaps some more adobo sauce. You want to have a little heat at the end, but not have it overwhelmingly taste like chipotle peppers. Also, if the beer you used is bitter (I used an IPA the first time I tried this soup) you can add a few big spoonfuls of sugar to balance it out.

Garnish with fresh parsley, and serve with some n ice crusty bread. To take the soup to another level, grill some bratwursts and serve them sliced on top of the soup. It almost makes you feel like you are in Wisconsin, which is a good thing entirely.

If you have a killer soup recipe, please please please leave it in the comments, I am always on the lookout for new ones! Happy Fall!

Topsy Turvy Mummy Cake

I don't know what it is about Halloween, but it is quickly becoming one of my favorite food holidays. It is not necessarily the meals associated with Halloween that I love, but as an aspiring pastry chef, the treats and sweets that come along with this holiday are just so much fun. Pumpkins, ghosts, witches, mummies, bats, and monsters, with these creatures the possibilities for fun desserts, spooky to silly, are endless.

Since I no longer let myself buy five bags of Halloween candy (I have no trick or treaters and therefore would just eat it all myself) I like to make something from scratch to fill the void left by the lack of bite-sized butterfingers.

After last Halloween's very popular, and delicious, ghost and pumpkin cake pops, I wanted to have a little fun again this October. My cake decoration class's topsy turvy cake assignment was the perfect vehicle for a whimsical Halloween treat.

Topsy turvy cakes aren't as hard as they look, and didn't take very much longer than a regular cake.   There is a great tutorial on how to carve and frost a topsy turvy cake over here at My Sweet and Saucy. I cut, frosted, and then covered the tiers in fondant, and then used a gauze patterned rolling pin on strips of fondant and arranged them randomly all over the cake.

The bats are cut from black gum paste with wires put in before they were dry. We used purchased cake, but I would go for a more appropriate cake flavor such as pumpkin, gingerbread, or even a spooky red or black velvet.

Here are some great cake recipes that would be perfect for this type of cake:

Gingerbread Cake
Black Velvet Cake
Red Velvet Cake
Pumpkin Cake

I hope your Halloween is a little spooky, a little silly, and a lot delicious.

Banana Streusel Muffins

I have a love-hate relationship with bananas. I love the taste of them, love how well they go with peanut butter, and I love that they are a healthy, easy to grab snack. The thing I don't love so much about them is that when I eat them raw, they give me a stomach ache. It's tragic really. Now, despite this, I keep buying them. I must be a glutton for punishment. I keep finding myself with a small bunch of them in my grocery cart, or sitting next to me in the car on my way to work, just willing me to eat them. So I will get about two bananas into my purchase and then tell myself not to eat any more so as to avoid the stomach ache, which results in those poor bananas going bad on my counter.

What to do you ask? I have discovered a solution. If I cook the bananas prior to eating them, no stomach ache. Unfortunately, this will probably negate the health benefits, because all I want to put them in is cake and banana bread and muffins, which all have mucho amounts of butter and sugar, but at least those poor things don't go to waste. I am really just trying to look out for the bananas, you know?

These muffins provided the perfect vessel for my abundance of bananas. They are no ordinary banana muffin though. I topped them with a banana chip walnut streusel to take them up an extra notch. With the hint of cinnamon and slightly crunchy topping, these have provided me with delightful breakfasts this week. They are both filling and easy to grab on the go, but the best part is that they are so incredibly quick to make.

Banana Walnut Muffins with Banana Chip Streusel
makes 12 muffins
adapted from Jenny Steffins

Streusel:

1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons banana chips, chopped finely
2 tablespoons walnuts, chopped finely
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch salt

Muffins:

2 large very ripe bananas
1/2 cup sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.

Make the topping. Mix the flour, sugar, walnuts, banana chips, cinnamon, and salt together in a small bowl. Add the melted butter and mix until well combined. Set aside.

Peel the bananas and place them in the bowl of  stand mixer fitter with the whisk attachment. Mix at low speed until bananas are mashed. Add the sugar and mix on medium-high speed for a few minutes until a bit frothy and sugar beings to dissolve.

Mix in the butter, egg, and vanilla, and mix until well incorporated, scraping down the sides a few times. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix just until incorporated. Remove bowl from mixer and add the walnuts, folding them in with a spatula. Divide between 12 muffin cups and top with 1-2 tablespoons of streusel.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, until muffins spring back with pressed gently with your finger and are golden brown.

Let cool in pan for a few minutes, then remove and cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container at room temp for a few days, or freeze.

On the mend

Breathe in.....breathe out. Sometimes I forget these two simple tasks. Taking the time to take it all in has been a lost art as of late. I looked up from my powdered sugar - covered counter top one day, and the summer had ended without my knowledge. My favorite time of year was passing me by without a second to enjoy it. That transition period between the hot humid summer, and the crisp cool fall, that's the best part, and I was missing it.

Not this week. I am taking the time this week to sit on my deck with a big spicy glass of zinfandel, in a big cozy sweater, and read or write, or do nothing at all besides sit, stare, and sip my wine. I just wrapped up another quarter of school, and it all finally caught up to me. The five hours of precious sleep a night, the guilt of not having talked to my parents or friends in weeks, the constant streaming to do list in my head, it can wreak havoc on one's body.

So this week, I am on the mend. Catching up with the emails and the phone calls, catching up on my sleep, taking some time to relax, and putting some good food into my body, that is all that is on my to do list now.

This cake, although I made it over a month ago and am just now getting around to posting it, would be near the top of my list of nourishing foods right now. It is just chocked full of blackberries, so you almost feel like you are eating something healthy (even though we all know it is still a cake). With a little bit of ice cream, and it is perfect for those lingering warm afternoons, and ever so slightly chilly evenings. Here's to the last days of summer, and a big warm welcome to the autumn months.

Blackberry Buttermilk Upside Down Cake
recipe from Bon Apetit Magazine

The original recipe calls for making this cake in a deep spring-form pan, I made it in two 9 inch cake pans for a thinner cake. I actually liked the thinness of my cakes, because there was a higher blackberry to cake ratio that way. If you would like to use both of them, you could sandwich some freshly whipped cream in between the two stacked layers, or just serve a single layer by itself, with some ice cream like I did.

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/3 cups cake flour, sifted
2 1/2 cups fresh blackberries
1 1/3 cups sugar + 1/4 cup for dusting blackberries
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 eggs, room temperature
1 vanilla bean
zest of 1 large orange
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 9 inch cake pans with parchment, and then butter and flour pan. Toss berries with the 1/4 cup sugar, and spread them in an even layer on the bottom of each pan.

Split the vanilla bean and with the back of a knife, scrape out the seeds and mix them with the buttermilk. Set aside.

Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. In a stand mixer, cream together the butter and remaining sugar on medium high speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl and mixing well after each addition. Beat in the orange zest.

On low speed, add 1/3 of the flour mixture, then half of the buttermilk, then another 1/3 of the flour, and the other half of the buttermilk, scraping down the bowl and mixing well after each addition. Mix in the last 1/3 of the flour just until incorporated. Split the batter evenly between the two pans and smooth the top for even cooking.

Bake cakes on middle rack until golden brown, and the cake springs back when pushed gently with a fingertip, or a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 30-45 minutes. Let cool in pan for about 15 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack with the berries facing up and let cool completely.

Another Brick in the Wall - A 100th Post

I must be crazy. In a good way, yes, but crazy nonetheless. I thought that working two jobs and going to school three nights a week would be a fine and dandy idea, but let me tell you, it's a bit harder than I thought it was going to be. At one point this week when my alarm went off at 6:00 it took me a good hard minute to figure out if I was getting up in the AM to go to work or if I was waking up from a nap in the PM to go to class. I am also crazy for sketching up this Pink Floyd cake even though I have only worked with fondant oh...twice ever? You can put another tick in the crazypants box for staying up all night sticking little teeny tiny fondant bricks together for 50 pink-floyd themes cupcakes.

But you know what? I revel in the crazy. I am at my best when I am stressed out and way too busy. I feel better about myself when I have stuff to do, it makes me feel more grown up and responsible. Just  getting up in the morning with enough time to make breakfast and coffee before work makes me feel like I accomplished something. It's sad, yes, but its the little things in life, am I right? It also helps that I actually LOVE going to class, and now, going to work. I am two weeks into my new job at a specialty cakes bakery, and each day I think to myself, I can't believe someone is actually paying me to do this all day. This is awesome. Those thoughts are what is going to sustain me over the next few months with this insane schedule of mine. Hopefully my body clock will adjust to it's new pattern, and I can make time for relaxation and spending time with the ones I love. Until then, bring on the crazy.

This is my 100th post on this blog. It seems nuts to think that it has been two years since I started writing, and when I look back it makes me laugh when I realize how much has changed over that time. I wouldn't do a thing differently either. Thanks to all my lovely readers, your comments brighten my day, and without them, the motivation to sit down and write a post at 1:30 in the morning just wouldn't be there.

Onto the cake! One of my co-workers approached me a few weeks back and said he was throwing a Pink Floyd themed birthday party for one of his friends and if I could make a cake and some cupcakes. I of course said yes, even though I wasn't sure when I would possibly have time to make all of it, or even how I was going to make the damn thing. Sure I can totally cover a pointy cake with fondant, and have a giant rainbow sticking out if the side unsupported, why not?

This was by far the most difficult thing I have ever made, but it was so worth it to see the grins on peoples faces when I delivered it. 'Thats a cake??' is such a compliment. The cake is black velvet with a white chocolate buttercream frosting. A small departure from the typical cream cheese frosting, but it turns out its another great pairing.

Black Velvet Cupcakes & White Chocolate Swiss Buttercream
frosting adapted from Krissy's Creations
makes 24 cupcakes

Cake: 

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 - 1 ounce bottle of black liquid food coloring

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon white vinegar

Butter and flour your cake pans and set aside. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl sift the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, mix the food coloring and cocoa powder until completely incorporated. Set aside.

In a stand mixer (or using a hand mixer) cream the butter and sugar on medium high speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat until thoroughly combined, being sure to scrape down the sides. Add the vanilla and the red food coloring-cocoa mixture and beat well to combine. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, beat on medium speed until combined, then add 1/2 of the buttermilk, and beat until incorporated. Add another 1/3 of the flour, beat well, then the other half of the buttermilk, scraping down the sides after each addition. Finish with the last 1/3 of the flour mixture and beat until just combined.

In a small bowl, mix the vinegar and baking soda, and immediately add to batter. Mix on high speed for just a few seconds until evenly dispersed, and pour right away into lined cupcake pans. Bake for about 20-30 minutes, until a toothpick entered into the center comes out clean. 

Frosting:

5 egg whites

1 cup sugar

2 cup butter (4 sticks) room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

8 oz. white chocolate, melted and cooled to room temp

In a medium sized heat proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, combine the egg white, sugar, and salt. Whisk constantly until hot to touch and foamy, it should reach about 160 degrees F. 

Transfer mixture to stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whisk on medium-high speed until completely cooled. It should form a shiny meringue with stiff peaks, and it should take about 5-10 minutes. Once mix is completely cool, turn mixer to medium add the butter a few tablespoons at a time, mixing well after each incorporation. Once all of the butter is incorporated, turn speed to high and whip until buttercream comes together into a smooth creamy frosting. 

Pipe onto cupcakes, and decorate as you please. 

Here's hoping for another 100 fun, satisfying, and delicious posts.