We're All Mad Here!

For my sister's Sweet (maybe) 16, she chose an Alice in Wonderland theme complete with miniature "drink me" bottles, hand made invitations (200 of them!), playing card towers, and of course, an Alice inspired three-tier cake (drawing included).

When I asked her to come up with a design, I had no idea that THIS is what she would think of. How did the party work out? Wonderfully.Was everyone relieved the day AFTER the party? Yes. It was like a mishmash combination of My Super Sweet 16 and Bridezillas but we persevered! I also have to admit that everyone had a great time, my sister looked beautiful in all of her Alice in Wonderland glory, and I was able to get in a lot of practice creating this cake. 

Lets start off with the card soldiers and mushrooms:

These little guys were lovingly created with gumpaste in order for them to completely harden and be capable of standing on their own without added supports and resulted in two very red hands.

Teacups:

Working through a way to get that cup shape without leaving any seams and a way to harden without sinking down left my head spinning in the same way as though I had just gotten off their iconic ride in Disney World.

Finally...

In all of it's topsy turvy glory, Alice's cake made it to the event without being upended by the March Hare or Mad Hatter. A very merry unbirthday to you, and you, and you. Happy baking everyone!

No Time Like the Present

One of my favorite styles of cakes to make are present cakes. These consist of a base color for the "wrapping paper", another color for the bow, and a highlighting color for the bow's edging which adds a little bit of depth to the cake and makes it look a tad fancier. The best part about this style cake is that it can be dressed up for the holidays,graduations, or any other celebratory occasion, and depending on the colors could be for either a male or female.

Although most real presents are typically square or rectangular, I usually prefer a circular shape. As they say, you should always think out of the box! Until next time, happy baking everyone!

Movin' and Groovin'

The little man is growing up fast! For my cousin's baby's first birthday, I was asked (ok, volunteered) to make a cake inspired by music, particularly guitars and drums that also matched the design for his invitations.

The trickiest part? Getting those darn guitars to stay upright without the cake behind it for support. Spoonfuls of melted white chocolate and light blue fondant later, I discovered a solution. Toothpicks! Who knew the little things could come in handy in more ways than eating appetizers and cubes of cheese. As for matching the invitations...

Now let's not forget the whole drum aspect here, every one year old deserves a cake of their own...

...and a sugar rush to last until next year!

Happy baking everyone!

One Fortunate Cookie

Sorry for such a long absence, with finals and the holidays all packed into the past two and a half months things have been a little hectic. However, there has been a lot of baking going on, particularly cookies.

Buttercream filled macarons are my family's favorite with their light, crisp shells and smooth, melt in your mouth centers. There particular ones are almond flour based with almond and strawberry flavored buttercream fillings.

For Christmas I decided to try something a little different with these Craisin almond cookies which are bite sized but packed with flavor.

My mom and I have a huge love for Italian anisette cookies and our mouths practically water at the sight of them at the supermarket. They were actually not as difficult to make as I originally assumed and add a beautiful pop of color to an otherwise golden brown cookie tray.

Last but most definitely not least, my signature white chocolate hazelnut cookies. These were actually created through a happy accident in one of my culinary classes where we were each asked to bring in and replicate a recipe. I had chosen a toffee white chocolate chip cookie recipe but my chef instructor was unable to order the toffee and left me standing in front of a pantry and walk in refrigerator stocked with a vast amount of ingredients just waiting to be chosen. The hazelnuts almost seemed to beckon to be toasted and added to my dough therefore creating this sweet and hearty cookie.

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season and wish you the best in the upcoming new year! 

Caramel Delight

As a culinary student, I am often asked to come up with concepts for potential dishes or desserts and then put them into production. For my advanced contemporary pastry class, I had to dream up a dessert utilizing methods that we had learned in class. Being a bacon lover, I attempt to incorporate it into as many dishes as possible which resulted in this:

Chocolate sponge cake with caramel mousse topped with bacon crumbles and a caramel drizzle. This may sound like a very odd combination, but it has a similar flavor to chocolate covered caramels sprinkled with sea salt with an additional smoky depth added by the bacon crumbles and the salty/sweet combination worked out well thank goodness. 

Batter Up!

I went into making this cake with the thought that carving a cake into a ball could not possibly be too difficult. Fortunately, I wasn't completely wrong but on the other hand, I also wasn't completely right either. One thing you definitely need is a turntable because no matter how perfectly round you think it looks, it does NOT look like that once you turn it around. And around. And around. After about ten minutes of carving and five minutes of spinning and staring at it to check for imperfections, I finally deemed it "baseball shaped" and stuck it in the fridge to set up while I made the fondant. I typically use store bought fondant but I recently found a recipe using marshmallows, powdered sugar, water, butter, and vanilla extract and decided to try it out. The texture ended up being a lot easier to work with and it tasted a lot better too. A little melted red colored chocolate stitches and voila, a baseball! 

I used this recipe for my fondant: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/marshmallow-fondant/ but if you prefer a different flavor, by all means change it up and switch out the vanilla for something a little more unexpected. Until next time, happy baking!

A Rose By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet

Over the summer, I started my internship at Montilios Bakery where I was promptly stuck in cupcake land. Since the end of my very first day, I've had swirls of frosting running through my mind and sometimes catch myself automatically moving my arm in the tell-tale piping cupcakes motion. Finally in the midst of sprinkling, one of my coworkers asked if I could pipe roses. I said yes but asked for a mini refresher and nervously reached for the bag after she went from a clean and shiny rose nail to a hot pink buttercream rose in approximately .5 seconds. After a few tries, I found my stride and ended up with this:

THAT is the moment that I fell in love with piping roses along with everyone else loving that I loved piping roses. Apparently its everyone's least favorite job, but to me it's another step up from where I started. Happy baking everyone!