Alright.

Since Tori’s birthday cake has since been created & consumed I can now begin the task of documenting the 3 day bake-fest.

Tori happens to be one of my dearest friends on the planet, and I was asked by her mom to bake a cake for the party. The only guidelines I was given was that it needed to be, “chocolate with white frosting,” and that it was going to be a surprise. Hence the reason why I couldn’t tell you about any of my shenanigans until now.

She's one of my very favorites!

In the weeks leading up to the cake’s due date (April 9th), I tried to do some reconnaissance work to see exactly what type of “white frosting” she was in love with. After several gChat conversations & texts, I learned that she’s in love with plain ‘ol vanilla frosting. The difference is for her the frosting must have a texture that isn’t too heavy, but still stands up to the cake. And it also can’t be uber-sweet or buttery.

After a week of searching through all of my bakebooks (Like a cookbook, but its only about baking. Yeah, I just made that word up.) and Google I settled upon two recipes to try: Creamy Vanilla Frosting and 7 Minute Frosting. I kinda had an idea about what I was getting into with the 7 Minute Frosting, but I was totally bewildered by the concept of making a large batch of roux to add to the Creamy Vanilla Frosting.

So I set out on a random Wednesday night to create two different kinds of frosting to taste with 2 different kinds of chocolate cake in order to find the perfect combination for one of my very best friends.

This is my story.

7 Minute Frosting

After reading several different 7 Minute Frosting recipes I realized that this frosting is very similar to a meringue. In fact, I’m honestly not too sure what the difference is between a meringue frosting and 7 Minute Frosting. I’ll try to get some research done, and get back to you with a good answer.

The frosting is super easy to make. Basically you just combine all the ingredients in a bowl and place it over a pot of simmering water. Beat the mixture until stiff peaks begin to form. Once the peaks are there, remove the icing from heat and continue to beat until it cools. Theoretically the process should take roughly 7 minutes.

Whipping the egg white mixture over a pot of simmering water. Potholder is a NECESSITY, my friends.

It took me closer to 12 minutes to achieve the level of stiffness that I was looking for, but once I did it was TOTALLY worth it. Hahhaa… please no jokes on that last sentence.

Chef Gordon Ramsay says a perfect "stiff peak" will stay in the bowl if you turn it upside down. He's right!

I was very pleased with the aesthetics of the icing.  It was thick, shiny, and very easy to pipe with. Unfortunately I wasn’t a huge fan of the taste. It was noticeably eggy, and did NOT hold up to the richness of the Devil’s Food Cake cupcakes. It was pretty, but I wouldn’t recommend using it on a dense, sinful cake.

The easiest way to fill a piping bag... because otherwise you need 3 hands.

Seeeeee... toldja it pipes nicely!

Finished! Devil's Food cupcakes with 7 Minute Frosting and 72% Dark Chocolate Discs.

Creamy Vanilla Frosting

This frosting, however, was a WHOLEEEEEE other beast. First of all I’ve never ever read a frosting recipe that uses a mixture of cooked flour and milk as a thickening agent, but it had amazing reviews so I had to try it. Also, this recipe isn’t one that you can just whip together at the last second either… it takes some time, so be aware of that when you try it.

Start by whisking your flour and milk together, and then cook the mixture over a medium flame until it gets thick. Once its sufficiently thickened, remove the mixture from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. About 45 minutes. (See, told you this takes time!) Also, you’ll want to place a piece of parchment paper on the surface of the milk/flour mixture to prevent it from developing a film.

PS: I’m going to refer to the milk/flour mixture as “Milour” from here on out because I don’t want to keep typing out “milk/flour mixture” for the rest of the post.

Milour with parchment paper on top. Yummy, right?

I’m going to tell you a secret about the icing that isn’t in the recipe: the Milour must be completely cooled before moving to the next step!!!!!

PSS: I bolded AND underlined the phrase “completely cooled” for a reason… it’s THAT important.

Here’s why: As the Milour is cooling start beating together the butter and sugar. Once that mixture is, “light and fluffy,” add the Milour into the mix. If the Milour isn’t cool enough, it will actually melt the butter & mess up the icing that you’ve worked so hard on. I learned that from experience, and that story will be in the next blog post.

Adding the Milour. Can you tell which mixture it is?

Once everything is combined refrigerate the icing for 15 minutes exactly (not a minute more… not a minute less), and use immediately.

Creamy Vanilla Frosting... made with Milour!

I didn’t actually take any photos of the Milour frosting cupcakes, and I apologize. See, as I was washing off a spatula (to put the Milour frosting into a piping bag) my sink happened to EXPLODE and I was immediately drenched by an indoor water cannon.

D.R.E.N.C.H.E.D.

No offense, but that impromptu shower (combined with the fact it was pushing midnight) totally killed my creativity. So how about I just describe the cupcakes and you can imagine them as you like! Picture these: dark chocolate cupcakes slathered with a generous 1/4″ of Milour frosting and rainbow-colored sprinkles.

Ultimately this frosting held up much better to the taste and texture of the cupcakes, and ended up being the winner for Tori’s cake! While I’m not sure I consider it the best vanilla frosting in the world, it definitely isn’t bad. It is super creamy (as opposed to fluffy), but I personally thought it kind of tasted like cookie dough. Everyone else, however, loved it.  Even my boyfriend who isn’t the biggest fan of sweets liked the Milour frosting. I brought the cupcakes to work the next day to gather more intel, and even my manager admitted that though the cupcakes carried a heavy helping of frosting, it wasn’t overbearing or overly sweet.

Stay tuned… Tori’s cake is coming up next!

xoxo

Cake stories and food photos tend to be much more interesting than book reviews, but for the most part I do really feel the need to share what I’m reading so you’ll have to put up with them from time to time. Capische?

Good. Glad we’re clear on that.

Cover

(Photo from here.)

This morning I finished the book Hungry by Crystal Renn (with Marjorie Ingall). Some background information for you: Crystal Renn is a 23 year old American plus-size model who nearly died from anorexia while trying to fit into the image of the “perfect” straight size model. She wrote this book to tell her story, and it accurately details her life before, during, and after her struggle – when she finally found success as a plus-sized model.

To be honest, the book didn’t really grab me until the last two chapters. Up until that point I felt pretty indifferent about the memoir. Its not that her story wasn’t interesting or heart wrenching, but I think the style of writing turned me away. I didn’t feel that the writing was as serious as her disorder, and for me it took away from the severity of the situation. What did grab me were here lessons that she explained towards the end, specifically:

“Do stuff. Be. Don’t wait to be thin to start living… ‘Life begins now’.”

I’m convinced that roughly 98% of American women have body image issues – myself included. I’m great at conveying all this confidence on the outside and claiming I don’t care what people think, but in truth that preaching is verrrrrrryyy hard to practice. So I stopped preaching it, and over the last year and a half I’ve found myself slipping into a pattern of being one of, “those girls.” You know… the annoying ones that count calories and talk about their thighs in the bathroom. The ones that sigh when they go out to dinner because they won’t eat what they want since they’re trying to be, “good.” The ones that annoy you to no end because they have zero confidence in themselves.

Its sad and its sick, and I’m awfully ashamed that I’ve started to act in this type of manner. I can honestly admit that the reason I’ve never tried to go to an open call is because I feel like I should lose 15 lbs before I even try. Similarly, singing used to be my absolute favorite thing in the world. Then one day I was singing in front of someone that I think very highly of and this person laughed and told me that I sounded nasal-ey. Since then I’ve hardly sang a note. Sad sad sad. Even though I am my own worst critic, I don’t think its too far off to admit that it’s pathetic that I’ve let the thoughts of others dictate my actions for so long.

There are a lot of factors that contribute to low body self esteem, and Crystal does a great job of explaining them and backs her thoughts with evidence. I understand what triggered my insecurities, but how long can I use that as an excuse and blame others for the way I feel? The quote up above really has been ringing in my ears over the last couple of hours. Yes I’m absolutely frustrated that my weight has creeped up another 10 lbs in the past 2 months despite my efforts to incorporate more cardio into my life and be wiser about my food choices. It feels as though my efforts have completely backfired, but I can’t give up on myself. Besides, even if I do lose those (now) 20 lbs that I’ve been dreaming to lose who is to say that I’ll be any happier than I am now???

I’m thankful to have stumbled upon this book. I had heard about Crystal Renn before and admire her work as a model. Once I had heard a synopsis of her story I immediately went to Amazon to order her book. I’m not sure if I’d read it cover to cover again, but the latter parts of the book made the purchase worthwhile for me, and I plan to pass it along to a couple of people in particular.

Crystal reminds her readers that, “confidence is ultimately what makes us attractive,” and that we need to, “accept that the only person you have to please is yourself.” She’s very correct in asserting that, “life is too short to hate yourself,” and I’m personally going to make a commitment to me to start turning my hateful thoughts around.

Thanks Crystal.

xoxo

For my birthday my amazing landlord, D, gave me a wonderful gift in the form of Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book: Committed.

Committed was written as the sequel to her fabulous memoir Eat, Pray, Love, and if you haven’t read Eat, Pray, Love then stop reading this post and read it. Well, you don’t haveeee to stop reading my post, but definitely read Eat, Pray, Love before Committed. It makes much more sense that way. 

Read this first... (photo from Google Image search)

... read this second! (photo from Google Image search)

Alright… on to my thoughts! First of all, Committed is a non-fiction piece all about the wild and wonderful concept of marriage. At the beginning of the book she explains how she’s, “sentenced to marry,” and sets on this journey researching anything and everything about marriage in hopes of reconciliating her relationship with the blessed institution.  The book is well organized into 8 sections: Marriage and Surprises, Marriage and Expectation, Marriage and History, etc. etc. I thought the organization was very helpful as it made the information more manageable and easier to digest.

It is kind of incredible what this book did for my thoughts and feelings towards the institution of marriage. The last couple of years has really thrown my vision of what marriage is. I have had a difficult time believing that forever exists, and until I read this book I really didn’t understand why people even got married if all it lead to was pain and betrayal.

After this book I find that I am looking at marriage in a new light. I now understand the intense legality of the union, and from a woman’s perspective… we give up a LOT when we pledge those vows to another! I understand why people got married 600 years ago, and I understand how its different from why people get married now. You know, I grew up thinking that you go to school, get a degree, fall in love, get married, have kids, and then you’ve done a good job. Now I think as much as I would love to be married someday, I don’t feel like I’m failing anyone if it never happens. This book also reaffirmed that its ok to let your significant other in, and that you can trust and rely on that person despite the wrongs that have marred your heart in the past.

I honestly have a very hard time explaining what I got out of this book. Not because I didn’t get much from it though… the truth is that I got so much that I don’t know where to begin. I’ve tried explaining it to my friends and it didn’t work. I’ve sat on it, and then written this blog post, and guess what… it didn’t work. All I can really say is that I want all of my non-married girl friends to read this book, because I think that everyone can get something out of it. And in the days of 50% divorce rates, I think we all owe it to ourselves to take a piece of advice from, “Auntie Liz.”

Well done Ms. Gilbert.  Thank you, again, for letting us into your heart and mind on a subject that is so private and tender.

xoxo

I halfway baked this weekend.

I can’t say that I fully baked because a boxed mixed was involved, but I did temper some chocolate and try out a new theory so therefore I halfway baked. Here’s what happened:

Unless you live under a rock in the furthest corner of Antarctica you were probably aware that Apple launched its latest piece of amazingness, the iPad. My BF currently works for Apple, and I used to, so being the sweetheart that I am I decided to bake some brownies for him & his coworkers… since I know how ridiculous product launches can be.

My first attempt at a treat for a launch day: A leopard cake for the OS X 10.5 "Leopard" launch! Unfortunately it didn't survive the car ride. Photo from October 2007.

At the same time I had an incredibly busy Saturday ahead, so I made the decision to use a box of Ghiradelli brownie mix as the base. Unfortunately I realized a bit too late that I wasn’t in possession of an actual brownie pan, so I had to make do. The BF bought me these awesome silicone cupcake molds last year, and I wondered if they’d do the trick. Turns out, they did!

After greasing the molds, I used a scoop to uniformly measure the batter. I wasn’t sure how much the brownies would rise, so I wanted to make sure I didn’t overfill the cups by accident. Baking time was another guesstimate. The box said 39-43 minutes at 325 for an 8X8 glass pan, so I set the timer for 25 minutes and went from there. At 25 minutes they still looked a little damp, so I put them in there for another 5. It would have been wise to take them out at 28 minutes and let carryover cooking take care of the rest, because once they cooled the edges felt a bit firm for my liking. Whatever, you can’t fret when you’re on a timeframe, so I focused my attention on my decorating plan.

My vision...

Using the microwave, I melted 3 oz Ghiradelli white chocolate. Just so you know, you can definitely melt chocolate in the microwave so long as you keep an eye on things. Generally you want to melt in 30 second increments at about 65-70% power to make sure that you don’t burn the chocolate, because NOBODY likes burnt chocolate. Afterward I melted the chocolate, I scraped the gooey goodness into a prepared parchment cone, cut a tiny hole at the end, and drizzled the chocolate over my cooled brownies.

Here’s where I went wrong – I didn’t temper the white chocolate. I learned in my Chocolate 1 class at Baking Arts that untempered chocolate doesn’t dry the same way that tempered chocolate does. In fact, you’re lucky if it dries at all! For some reason at 9:30 am on a Saturday my head forgot this fact…

Second time around went much better. The dark chocolate was melted in the microwave, and then tempered to 91.5 degrees Farenheit using the seeding method I learned from Baking Arts. I drizzled the chocolate, and viola, it dried within 2 minutes! Tempering chocolate works WONDERSSSSS… don’t let anyone tell you different!

Brownie Cupcakes with White & Dark Chocolate Drizzle

Not surprisingly the brownies were a hit, but trust me, if you’re an Apple employee working a new product launch any sort of food substance would be a hit! Still, I was pleased with my ingenuity for making “brownie cupcakes” and for another lesson in tempering chocolate. Once I passed off the treats and said hello to some friends, I stepped up to the counter and purchased my newest obsession: my iPad.

Apple love! (Yes, I'm a geek, and I'm fully aware & in love with that fact!)

Hope everyone had a happy Easter / great weekend!

xoxo

PS: The iPad is absolutely amazing! My main reason for purchasing one is so that I can cook/bake in the kitchen without risking the well being of my laptop. Since the iPad really has no openings or movable parts, its much more kitchen-safe than my MacBook. The Epicurious app is absolutely mouthwatering, and the WiFi access makes connecting to any recipe site a breeze!

1. Follow Martha’s recipe.

2. There is no step 2. Just follow her lead, and you will have the most incredible baked goods on your block!

True story! She's amazing!

(Photo from here, Edits by Me)

Well, at least that’s what I’ve found. I’ve used Martha’s recipes as the base of many different cake and cupcake adventures, and I can honestly say that the woman has never let me down. In this instance, I was looking for something yummy to make for my friend Jon’s birthday.

Earlier in the week Jon had requested something with blueberries, but I was having a hard time envisioning cupcakes that didn’t taste like they were muffins. See, blueberry isn’t an exceptionally strong flavor and I felt that if I used whole blueberries in a cupcake batter then they’d just sink to the bottom because the batter is so light.  Plus, vanilla cupcakes with whole blueberries is eerily reminiscent of blueberry muffins, and I just didn’t want to go there.

So I abandoned blueberries and went in a completely different direction: the Whoopie Pie.

Have you heard of Whoopie Pies? Williams-Sonoma recently started selling Whoopie Pie pans and Whoopie Pie mix, and apparently gained some fame on Sex and the City a few years back (under the guise of “Sweetie Pies.” Essentially they’re a two cake-like cookies with buttercream sandwiched in the middle. Almost like a giant Oreo cookie sandwich but MUCH larger and softer.

The classic 'Whoopie Pie' (From: Google Image Search)

(Photo from here)

Traditional Whoopie Pies are a dark chocolate (almost black) cake, with Vanilla buttercream in the middle. Legend has it that in the 1800’s, Amish wives would pack this treat for their husbands when they went out into the fields each morning. Apparently when a husband would open his lunch pack and see this treat, he’d yell, “Whoopie!” thus giving the dessert its charming moniker. Obviously there are many variations to this story, but I like this one best.

The batter was really easy to make, and I was very impressed with how thick it was. See, I chose not to invest in a special Whoopie Pie pan, and so I was a bit nervous with the batter spreading out and running all over my oven. However, it was very thick and stayed together nicely. You could use an ice cream scoop to keep things uniform, but I used a trusty tablespoon measuring spoon & a regular cereal spoon to get the job done. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper, scoop them out, and into the oven they go for about 12 minutes.

Allllll cute & ready for that 375 degree oven!

I was also surprised by how much they DID NOT spread out on the baking sheet. Usually when you make cookies you space them pretty far apart to allow for all that spreading/rising action, but for the most part these ‘lil buggers stayed put. I’d guess that they doubled or tripled in size from when I scooped them out, but a lot of that growth went up (if that makes any sense).

I wish you could smell them from here... omg amazinggg!

After a quick discussion with the birthday boy via Twitter, it was decided that the filling would be a peanut butter flavored buttercream rather than the traditional vanilla. I have to admit that the original recipe was a little too peanut-buttery for me, so I added extra powdered sugar and a couple teaspoons of heavy whipping cream to make it more sweet and airy.

Mmmm peanut butter goodness...

You can find the original recipe for both the cake and buttercream here.

Once your cakes are cooled, pipe (or smear, if you’re out of time) the buttercream onto one cake and sandwich with a second! Much like cupcakes these beauties can be rolled in sprinkles (on the side), drizzled with melted chocolate, or dipped into chocolate, white chocolate, candy melts,etc… Mmmm, I’m getting hungry.

There really are endless variations to this dessert, so don’t be afraid to get creative! But if you’re out of time, or simply just too lazy to decorate, you’ll still get tons of, “OM NOM NOMMMMMM”s by serving this treat as is.

"Holy sh*t this thing is f*cking amazing!!" - The Birthday Boy

Enjoy! xoxo

By now I’m fairly sure that most of you out there don’t believe I do anything at work.  That’s not true, I do a lot in the office, but my entire job requires me to be on the internet for long periods at a time, so therefore I find cool things.  And ultimately I feel that its my required civic duty to share these cool things with you.

My coworker and I were chatting one morning about past college discussions and intellectual conversations in general which sparked us to listen to few different Ted talks while going about our regular tasks.  I listened to Chef Jamie Oliver speak about his goal to bring food education to children in the US (and subsequently, all over the world) in order to reduce the fatal disease of obesity.  Mr Bill Davenhall spoke of the concepts of geo-medicine and how where we’ve lived & travels ultimately affects our health.  I heard the comical, yet heartfelt commencement speech that author JK Rowling made to Harvard graduates last year, and I finally caught up and listened to the talk by another fabulous writer – Elizabeth Gilbert.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the talks, and found it interesting how they all tie into my dreams in some way or another.  Obviously I have a huge passion for food & nutrition (you wouldn’t know with all my baking obsessions, but I truly love to cook), and so listening to Mr Oliver’s talk about how we must change our diets & educate younger generations really resonated with me.  Also, a big part of me wanted to be a doctor for a really long time so the added health benefits of a proper diet definitely touched my, “I just wanna help people,” side. The only class in high school I truly enjoyed was my cooking class & the lessons that I learned during the fall semester of my Senior year definitely helped me stave off the dreaded, “Freshman 15,” once college rolled around.

Mr Davenhall’s quick chat on the concept of geo-medicine totally blew my mind.  I’ve always believed that our environment is a huge factor in why people get sick, but it never really clicked that physicians should be asking patients about their environment.  Maybe if they had they would have realized sooner that my Grandpa’s cancer was probably a result of working with Asbestos as a young man.  Maybe treatments can be altered and more lives can be saved with this information…

Ms Rowling’s speech was a bit lengthy, but heartfelt and true. Though I felt she didn’t command the amount of attention from her audience that I thought she deserved (I mean, she was talking to Harvard kids about failure…) the talk resonated within my heart. Nobody wants to fail, and in fact, its something that I’m deathly afraid of.  I’ve never been much of a risk taker, and as I grow older  I find that I take even less risks because I don’t want to mar my wonderful bubble of comfort. It turns out that Ms Rowling had to fail miserably at a couple of things before she was exposed to the overwhelming success she has now. She reminded me to dust off the dreams that I shelved long ago, and I can admit that I’m starting to take a few more risks. Right now I’ve only gone as far as to order a different dish off the menu, but someday I’ll audition for that one song that I’ve wanted to sing for a very very very long time now.

Last talk, and by far the most influential for me: Ms Gilbert invites all of us to think about nurturing creativity and creative genius. At 20 minutes, her talk was by far the lengthiest, but I found myself most engaged and moved by her topic of discussion. Ms Gilbert speaks of creative genius, and how the world has moved from reveling in creativity to a position of incredible skepticism towards creative minds. She talks of fearing the genius, the genius and its demons, the difference between being genius and having genius, and finally of letting genius find you. She closes her talk by reminding us that we should stop fretting about every small detail of our lives and realize that if we just, “show up,” that it will all miraculously fall into place.

I feel that I have had a love / hate relationship with creativity.  I love being creative, and I live for being able to express myself through song, collage, words, canvas, and chocolate. At the same time, I fear the skeptics and being thought of as, “unstable,” simply because I choose to express myself in this manner. Its really difficult to fully express what I personally got out of that talk, but for anyone out there who believes they are (or are not) creative… you should set aside 20 minutes and listen what Ms Gilbert had to say.

Ole to you, and none the less.

xoxo

Hiiiiiii friendsssss!

I realize that I’m a bit hit or miss on my posts as of late, and I’m sorry. 

I’ve got some decisions to make, and would loveee your feedback.  First of all, as you are aware, I bake.  I hope to someday turn this hobby into a profession of sorts (lots of ideas going on there).  I’m curious to see if I should continue this blog as a random place for all my thoughts,  if I should focus it into something more structured (i.e.: A blog based on baking), or if I should create an entirely separate blog for my baking adventures and keep this one for my raves and rants.

What do you think?

Secondly… as for postings.  My goal is to post one thing a week.  I also have a goal to bake one thing a week, so there is a chance that the postings & baking could coincide.  I did recently start a new job, so I have been busy with learning the ropes, and I’ve also been working on a travel-related blog with my friend Chelsea (check it out here).  And that is my poor excuse for why I haven’t posted lately.  I apologize, and I will work on that, because the 3 of you that read this thing make me really happy.

Okok, back to work now.

xoxo

My landlord, D, is one of the most amazing people that I’ve ever met.  She’s so creative and caring, and living with her has been a fantastic experience.  She’s encouraged me to pursue my travels (hi, Australia tickets!), consider my dreams (in chocolate & chiropractic), and live in the moment.  She’s one of the first people in my life that has made me feel like its OK to not work 24/7 and that spoiling myself is an occasional necessity.  She approves of my sassy boots, and completely understands when I forgo vacuuming on a Monday night because I need to catch up on Gossip Girl.

A couple of weeks ago we were chatting and I was talking to her about my topsy-turvy cake class.  Oh, I forgot to mention that to you, didn’t I?  Well… here’s a picture of my not-so-perfect topsy-turvy cake that I created with the help of Tracy at Spun Sugar:

Topsy-Turvy "Baby Shower/Wilma Flinstone" Cake

Here’s my problem with these cakes:  In order to make them look pretty you have to use a cake with a “tight crumb” (aka: doesn’t taste good), and you also need to use “mixed buttercream” (aka: REALLY doesn’t taste good) in order for the cake to hold together, and then its recommended that you chill the cake in between steps (which also doesn’t make it taste good).  So I used terrible tasting cake, and terrible tasting frosting, and guess what… my cake still slid all over and came out looking wonky.  WTF.

All ranting aside, I suppose they can look kinda cute.  You really have to make sure to exaggerate the angles though otherwise it’ll just end up looking blobby and weird.  Oh, and for really vibrant & fun colors you should start with a pre-colored fondant.

ANYWAYSSSSS, back to my story:

I was talking to D about my cake and the class when she suddenly inturrupts me and goes, “HEY! Will you make me a cake?!?!”  I stopped talking, and looked at her quizzically, and then she began to explain that she decided to throw a surprise “Miss Sixty!” birthday party for her mom, Auntie Lyd.  D needed a cake to feed about 20-30 people, and she’d sort of forgotten about that part until I had shown her my lovely topsy-turvy mess.

“Will you do it?  Please, please??” She asked.

Of course I agreed.  I need more baking practice anyways, and its PERFECT when you can bake and then not have to eat the final product yourself.  She requested a lemon cake and then gave me what Grammy would call, “creative license,” for the rest.

PREPARATION:

I spent the next couple of days brainstorming and taking inventory of the supplies that I had.  Normally people request cupcakes, so I was mildly peeved when I realized that ALL of my cake pans are still in storage at my Mom’s house.  Yup, had to buy ANOTHER 6″ and 8″ round pan, but I guess one can never have too many round pans…  My ultimate plan looked like this:  A two layer Lemon Cake with Vanilla Swiss Buttercream icing and gum paste Calla Lily decorations.

PS: I’ve never used gum paste in my life.

I will not lie, I didn’t have the time or extra money to make the cake itself from scratch.  So I decided to use boxed Lemon Cake mix from Betty C, and doctor it up with fresh lemon zest & Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract.  I borrowed the frosting recipe from Martha.  This tried and true buttercream is absolutely the most indulgent thing ever, and I figured it would go over great with everyone.  It is super buttery, so you might use a touch of lemon extract to cut the intensity, but ultimately it is the smoothest, silkiest, and yummiest icing ever.

The gum paste was another adventure that I’d like to claim that I conquered easily.  I must have watched like 10 gum paste how-to’s on YouTube last Friday, but they all paid off!  My flowers looked very similar to the flowers online, but I’m definitely going to need a class to get the technique down.  The best video was a 4-part series by Edna De La Cruz.  Her video was very easy to follow and understand.  She was very thorough, and though my flowers didn’t turn out like hers, I was still very pleased with the outcome.

One of my flowers... (via iPhone photo)

THE BIG DAY

Alarms went off at 9am on Saturday morning, but I still managed to hit the snooze until 11.  Oops.  To be fair, I wasn’t feeling 100% so the extra sleep helped my mood immensely.  Methodically, I baked & whipped & leveled & frosted for a solid 5 hours with the sounds of Ghost Hunters International keeping me company in the background.

I only had one major disaster – I dropped the top tier while trying to place it on the cake.  Did it frustrate me? Yes, absolutely! But it wasn’t anything that a good amount of icing wouldn’t fix.

All in all, I’d say it turned out pretty well for one of my first stacked, buttercream-only cake.  What do you think???

Happy Birthday Auntie Lyd!

PS – Yes I realize that top flower looks a little smashed.  Bad angle, but more importantly, paper cones are IMPERATIVE when making gum paste calla lilies and I didn’t have any.  Boo.  :(

I gave into my cravings and went to Godiva today.  I wanted to try out some random truffles to see what the flavor combination was all about, and see how I could replicate those flavors in my own kitchen.  What I didn’t expect was the price tag… yes Godiva is pricey, and yes truffles tend to be the priciest of all, but $11 for 5 truffles?? REALLY?!

Then it got me thinking… I brought home 22 truffles after my truffle class last weekend.  That was about $50 worth of chocolate that I gave away to my coworkers because I didn’t want to eat it myself!  Ridiculous!!  I think I’m going to be doing a lot of thinking about chocolates and truffles in the future.  I mean, I love chocolate.  The whole premise of my theoretical confectionary shop is based on chocolate.  But I could delve in some more… Do you see where my mind is going with this?  If not, think a little bit harder.

Anyways, of the 5 I took home with me I ended up trying the champagne truffle.  After a mishap with champagne cupcakes (NO FLAVOR!), I was hesitant, and pleasantly surprised to find that the ganache had a SOLID champagne flavor.  Now I’m on the hunt for lessons in infusing alcohol with ganache, as well as pastry schools too.

Love.  My.  Life. <3

PS – Creating a 2-tier lemon goodness cake to feed 20-30 people this weekend.  Wish me luck!

*drool*

So my birthday was NOTHING short of amazing this year!  Thank you SO MUCH to all my amazing friends & family for all the calls, texts, tweets, comments, drinks, & dinners over last weekend.  Really, its nothing like a birthday to let you know how loved you really are!!! <3

My Beautiful Cake from my Seeeesterrrr!!!

I <3 my flowers... My favorite colors too!

Surprisingly, I got more gifts this year than I ever have before!  I’m not complaining, but I feel the need to give you a review on a couple things because I’m finding that they’re ABSOLUTELY essential to every day life.

1. The Magic Bullet

So I technically got this a couple of days after my day as an afterthought from my amazing BF, but regardless, nobody should be without!  Obviously you can be boring and only make smoothies with it, but I’ve found a couple of other uses that make it a must-have gadget this week.  Salad dressings, flavored butters, pestos, sauces… I really have yet to find a day where I can’t use this thing.  I have heard some negative feedback about the manufacturers & how you can’t order replacement parts, so for the time being I’m just going to make sure I don’t break it.    But really, its fantastic, and even if the company does suck its still worth it to have fresh & different salad dressings for lunch every day!

2. Verdun Chocolates

Let me stop for a second and just say, “wow.”  These chocolates are INCREDIBLE!  The company is from Lebanon and they opened their first US shop in Portland a little while ago.  The BF’s parents gave me a box of these incredible treasures!!  I’m MESMERIZED by their packaging… These chocolates aren’t like your traditional box of Godiva or See’s where each piece is laid out in a tray and you have to guess.  With Verdun,  each piece is individually wrapped in a pretty foil and there is a paper map telling you what shape & color is what.  There are many different colors and shapes! When you open the box it looks like you’re opening up a toy box full of jewels.  I don’t even want to eat them because they’re so pretty!  But then I do… and oh man, its SUCH a different flavor.  I don’t know how to explain it, but they seem earthier & most of the chocolates are mixed with nuts rather than a cream or ganache like in the US.  They just seem fresh, and they don’t weigh you down.  You can revel in the taste of the treat rather than immediately wonder how you’re hips are going to look after.

3. Parisienne by YSL

(Since Wordpress seems to be having trouble w/ links right now: http://www.sephora.com/browse/product.jhtml?id=P247202)

Most of you know that I collect perfume, and if you didn’t, well you do now.    One of my good friends actually sells perfumes in department stores and came up with a clever way to surprise me!  She got me a cute brown bag, and when I opened it up I found that it was FILLED with perfumes, lotions, and other samples.  I’ve found many new favorites, but the one that has really stuck with me is Parisienne by YSL.  Its an amazingly floral, yet fresh scent that wears remarkably well.  I’ve been in love with Mademoiselle by Chanel for the last couple of years, and while its still a tried and true favorite, I have been wearing Parisienne non stop since last weekend!  The nice thing is that I think its a scent that translates well for all age groups, so you could always share it as a gift for someone if you yourself do not wear womens perfume.

Anyways… those are my 3 must-haves of the minute!!  I hope you enjoy them as much as I have been!Yay for birthdays and best friends!!!

xoxo