St. Patrick's Day!

I found a cupcake recipe for St. Patrick's Day that I really wanted to try.  I found it a few months ago, so I was really excited when it was finally time to make them last week!  They were pretty easy, but pretty time consuming as well.  They were Guinness Chocolate cupcakes, filled with Jameson Whiskey ganache and topped with a Baileys Irish cream icing.  I didn't try any, but the people I passed them around to seemed to enjoy them, so I'm considering them a success!  =)

Until next time..

Not the best picture, but the inside with its gooey whiskey ganache. =)

Lemon-Limoncello Cupcakes

I came across this recipe and they looked too cute not to try. =)   First, I made the lemon curd.  You can buy it already prepared at the grocery store, but it's super easy to make at home.  It's just lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar and butter.

The finished lemon curd

Then I made the cupcakes.  Pretty basic cupcakes, with a bit of Limoncello in the batter.  They came out super light and fluffy!

Cupcakes

Next was the icing. It's a cream cheese limoncello icing, only four ingredients! Butter, limoncello, powdered sugar and cream cheese. 

Cream cheese-Limoncello icing

Once the cupcakes are cool, you carve a little hole out and fill it with the prepared lemon curd. 

Finally, ice and add the decoration!

Finished!

Superbowl

So I had a plan for my super bowl cupcakes - the Giant's 'ny' logo and the patriots logo.  I piped them out and they actually turned out pretty well.  Christy and I ended up having some people over, including some small children. One of them reached onto the counter and hit the 'ny' so it never made it to a cupcake..bummer.  oh well, just a cupcake!  =)      

Next up is Lemon-Limoncello cupcakes!!

I'm back!! =)

Hey all!  I just realized I haven't updated this in 27 years, so here it is!  A lot has changed since July.  I was back home in SD from July to September then moved to AZ with Christy in October!  I am nannying again, taking care of an 9 week old and a 7 yr old.  I've started making some not so usual cupcakes, so I thought I'd share them with y'all!   Christy asked me to make Dr. Pepper cupcakes the other day, and they actually tured out pretty well.  I don't like chocolate, but was told they were delicious.

Then a couple of days later I made Caramel Apple Cupcakes. It was a cinnamon cupcake filled with homemade apple pie filling, iced with caramel butter cream and drizzled with caramel.  I don't mean to brag, but they were soooo good!  lol

Next up are my Superbowl cupcakes.  I hope both teams lose. =p

Pictures will be up soon!

More cakes from Palmer's

Another cake!

Just wanted to show another cake I made this weekend!   We sent this cake with the delivery kid and two minutes later he came back and the cake was all smashed up on the bottom.  We had to try and fix it as much as we could in 30 minutes to get it there on time, which was hard because it was covered in fondant and painted.  We got it back to looking good though, and got it to the venue on time. =]

What uuuuuup??

Hey there all.  So this weekend was graduation out here as well as Father's Day tomorrow, so it has been a very busy week. Thursday was nonstop filling and icing cakes, 7 to 5. But time flies when you're having fun. eh? =]  Friday was more decorating, which is fun.  I did a delivery Friday after work with my car. The restaurant was only 3 miles away, but it took me 40 minutes to get there!  First, I was at a standstill on the highway. Of course I had to deliver it during rush hour.  Then the gps told me the place was on the interstate. lol  So I drove around for a bit and finally found it. It was a three tier cake and I found out when I got there that it was for TEN people.  Crazy leftovers. lol  Here's the cake!

Here is another graduation cake I made this week

Today was so busy that I had to help in the kitchen.  I got to scale out 5 lbs of eggs and slice 10 lbs of peaches. Super fun! =]

Then I got to do a delivery in the big van, by myself.  Lots of fun!  =] 

That's all for now!

My first delivery alone!

Hola!  So on Saturday, I made a cake for a bridal shower. It was a four tier cake with sea shells cascading down the front. We didn't put any of the shells or sand on until we got to the venue, to make sure everything would be in place.  So I went on the delivery with the delivery kid(they also ordered a dessert bar) without another pastry chef.  We left the bakery, drove about 10 minutes, and then realized we didn't have the sand for the cake. So we turned around, drove back to the bakery to get the sand, and left again for the restaurant.  We were supposed to be there by 12 to set up because the party started at 1. Well, we ended up getting there at 1:10. =/  So we go in and I start puting the shells on the cake while the delivery kid sets up the dessert bar with the wedding planner.  The tables were in the same area as the guests were seated for lunch, so I had to decorate the cake with everyone glancing over to see. Nervous...lol   I finished the cake about 20 minutes later and the bride-to-be came over to see it. She said it was exactly what she wanted, so it was all good.  So that's how my first delivery by myself went!   More to come!

Also, here are pics of a couple other cakes from the last couple weeks.

Externship!

Hola!  I started my externship on Thursday at Palmer's Bakery in Darien, CT. I am doing three days a week in the cake decorating room and one in the kitchen, doing the pastries for the display case.  I have only been in the decorating room so far, but am looking forward to the baking day.  I start out every morning getting cupcakes ready for the display case.  We do a chocolate cupcake with oreo buttercream, a chocolate with peanut butter buttercream, a white chocolate raspberry, a coconut and of course just plain vanilla and chocolate.  Here's a picture!

After the cupcakes are done, we start filling and crumb coating cakes for the days orders. When the crumb coats are done, they sit in the fridge for awhile then we ice ad decorate them. Most of the cakes so far have been pretty simple.  The bakery gets a couple wedding cakes a week right now, but that number will go up when wedding season starts in June.  Here are a couple of the cakes I made this week. 

This one was chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream

Vanilla cake with coconut buttercream covered in coconut flakes

On Friday, they let me do a wedding cake! It turned out really nice and I hope the bride and groom liked it!  Here is is!  =]

That's all for now!  I'll keep you posted on the rest of my internship and fun things I make! =]

Sorry guys

Well, it's certainly been awhile.  A lot has happened.. I graduated from culinary school on Saturday! I've still got 210 hours of an internship to complete, which I will be doing at Palmer's Bakery in Darien, CT.  There, I will be baking one day a week and icing/decorating the other three days.  It's not quite what I want to be doing with the rest of my life, but it's a great start and wonderful practice. Since I haven't posted since Mod 2 (bread) I'm puting up pictures from Mods 3 and 4. I'll be taking pictures at the bakery too, and will let y'all know how that goes. =]  After the internship, I'm planning on going down to Arizona for a bit.  New York/Connecticut has been wonderful to me but I think I'm ready for a change, something new.  Well, that's all for now..I'll let you know how my first day at my internship goes..  =]

Charlotte

Genoise

Petit Fours

My Chocolate Showpiece

My Final-a wedding cake

They gave me a chef's hat!  =]

Mod 2

So we started our Mod 2 last weekend, and it's all about bread.  I made a hedgehog out of bread dough. Complete with top hat and cane.

This weekend, we made focaccia, ciabatta, pizza, whole grain rolls, sourdough, doughnuts and pretzels.  I think that's it? lol  No injuries!! =] I don't have pics yet, but will upload them when I have them.   Sorry so short, but I don't have much to write about. =/

Until next time..

Finals!

So I had my first final on Sunday. It was easier than I thought it would be, which is great. =]  I didn't do too bad.  We start a new module next week. Not sure what it is yet, we get our books when the class starts.  We made croquembouche on Saturday. It's a traditional French wedding cake. It was fun, but mine fell apart. =/  This is what it is supposed to look like though..
http://www.cake-off.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/finished-croque.jpg

We also had a career preparedness workshop. Worked on our resumes, cover letters, etc. I have to start looking at places that I want to trail at, to find somewhere to extern. Should be fun. Not much else happened this weekend, sorry for the boring post..  =/  

Until next time!

Schooooooooool lately

Hola!  So this post is for the last two weeks of school. Two weeks ago, we made cheesecake. SO good. The class favorite was mascarpone.  We made that, NY, Philly and No Frills.  They were gone pretty quickly after I got home. =]  We also made bread pudding, creme brulee and torrone. I got my first test back-93%.  My first final is on Sunday, which I am super excited about.  Who has a final on Halloween? really. We have to make a souffle, creme anglaise and also have a written test. We'll see how that goes!  I'll be making some souffle and creme anglaise if anyone wants some this week!  =]

This last weekend, we made ice cream and sorbet. My partner and I made baked alaska, with vanilla ice cream, blueberry sorbet and praline filling. We also made cream puffs and eclairs. I made a cream puff swan!

Baked Alaska

Cheesecake

Bread Pudding

Cream Puff Swan!

Creme Brulee!

Recreational Class

This last weekend I didn't have class because of Columbus Day, but did volunteer to help with a recreational class. The class was on Red Velvet Cake.  Another student and I were the two volunteers who helped Chef Kathryn with the class.  Though I would like to think that I was a huge help, I didn't actually do that much.  Red Velvet cake isn't too complicated, so everyone had a fairly easy time figuring it out. We used two different recipes for the cake, one that used red food coloring and one that used beets. If you didn't already know, beets don't add any flavor, just color.  We also made two kinds of icing, a cream cheese frosting and a milk based frosting.  They turned out very good.

So this coming weekend, I've got a paper due and my first quiz! The paper is my critique of a few different bakeries.  I tried Monkey Bread from a local bakery in Ridgefield, and it was really good, until i bit into a piece of pastry brush.  =/    

Well that's all for now, I'll let you know how next weekend goes!

This weekend at I.C.E.

So Saturday was Evan's third birthday party and I made him a cake. His party was at the aquarium, so I made a cake with turtles, crabs and dolphins. I also made cupcakes with fish on them. I started making the decorations on Wednesday, started baking on Thursday and finished the cake Friday night.  I went to wrap the cake on Friday night and dropped the roll of cling wrap on top of the cake. At 11:30pm. The night before Evan's party. And I had to be up at 5 to go to school.  So I had to bake a new top tier and make another batch of frosting, and of course I didn't have all of the ingredients. I met Michelle who brought me some Crisco and vanilla. Life saver!  =]  So I baked the cake, had to let it cool, re-iced it and decorated it. I finished around 1:30 which was earlier than I thought it would be. Everyone seemed to enjoy the cake, which is always a good thing. =]

So Saturday at school we made Panna Cotta, Gelle, marshmallows and Soufflé.  I got to bring the Soufflé and marshmallow home and everyone liked them. I brought the Gelle and panna cotta home tonight but no one has tried it yet, so we'll see. =]  I sliced my finger open cutting a lemon in class. It looked a lot worse than it was, because it wouldn't stop bleeding. I bled through about five band aids/gauze wraps. It's all good now though, no worries.

Today at school, we walked to six bakeries in Manhattan and had to buy and critique something from every place.  It was fun, but tiring. We went to Baby Cakes, a vegan bakery, and it was pretty cool. Most of the cupcakes we tried weren't very tasty(no dairy or gluten) but a couple were really good. Now I'm supposed to use whatever my budget allows to go to as many bakeries I can and taste test in the next year. Not sure I can handle that much sugar. =]  This afternoon in class we just practiced butter-cream piping.  We had to make rosets and shells. not as easy as it looks. lol  

Well that's all that happened this week! There are no classes next weekend(Columbus Day) but I am helping my instructor with a recreational class, making red velvet cake.  I've got my first test in two weeks too! =/

Wish me luck!   =]

I.C.E.

Sorry it's been so long! I've been busy?  =]   So, I started at the Institute of Culinary Education two weeks ago.  I am taking weekend classes, so I'm working Monday to Friday and in school all day Saturday and Sunday.  It's busy but I love it so far.  We haven't done much baking yet, it's mostly reading and learning our workspaces, etc.   Sanitation is SO much fun to learn about. Especially when it is presented in a 1980's VHS.

My class is pretty small, which is nice. There are 15 of us, most in their mid 20's.  They are all from the tri-state area, so of course they are interested in exotic South Dakota. =]  Most of them asked if Fargo was in SD. There are a couple of people who want to go into cake decorating, but everyone else is pretty mixed as far as what they want to do.  There are a couple who are into artisan bread baking, a few into classic French pastry and a couple who have no idea.

We got our Wusthof knife sets this last weekend and started by learning what each one is used for, how to keep them sharp and clean them. We practiced using them by cutting all different fruits. We had to slice grapes, quarter apples and fan out strawberries, as well as cutting pretty much every other fruit there is. I only cut my finger once. (They are SO sharp!)   So part of my homework this week is slicing fruit, making sure they are sliced evenly at the right width.

We also made Pate de Fruit.  It's almost like a gum drop.  We made them with apricots, but you can use pretty much any fruit.  It was super easy and I am for sure going to try them again at home.  If you want the recipe, just let me know. =]


Well, that's pretty much all I have for now. I will keep you updated on what's going on with school.  Thanks for reading!

Courtney's Birthday Cake

Courtney's birthday is on Memorial day and she asked me to make her cake. Of course I said yes.  I also went on a camping trip that weekend. =]   So I baked the cake Friday night before we left. I had planned on being back home around 2 on Monday so that I would have time to fill and decorate it. It didnt work out that way.. We ended up leaving Lake George around 2, which meant we would be home around 5. The party started at 3, but Courney was fine with me being a little later.  So we are driving home and decide to stop and eat. Then got rear ended at the toll booth. Plus Memorial Day traffic.  I ended up getting home around 630.  I had to fill and decorate as fast as I could (without completely sacrificing the design..)   I finally finished and got to the party around 9pm. Only 6 hours late.  =]   Courtney was a good sport.  She loved the cake, and everyone enjoyed a late snack.    It didn't turn out exactly as planned, but such is life.  =]

Aaron's First Birthday!!

Aaron turns one tomorrow, but his birthday party was this last weekend. Susan asked if I would make Aaron an Elmo cake(to go with the whole Elmo theme) and of course I said yes. I tried a new vanilla cake recipe as well as a new butter cream icing. The cake was good, but not the best. I made the cake two layers with an Elmo figure on top.  I made the Elmo out of rice crispy treats molded and covered in Fondant. I was worried that my red looked more pink, but it turned out nicely. Now I know it's not the best Elmo, but it's not bad for the first character I've attempted to make. =]

My next project is my bake sale!  Lots of delicious treats being sold to help end childhood hunger in America! Stay tuned!

Oreo Balls

Ushir had been bugging me for weeks about making oreo balls for him to take to work.  I finally made them for him, and of course they were a big hit at work.  =]    So the thing with oero balls is that they are REALLY difficult to make. There's the oreos, the cream cheese and the almond bark.

First, you crush the oreos in a food processor then mix in the cream cheese. It works best if you use your hands.

Next, you roll the mixture into balls(or whatever shape you want, i guess.)  Refrigerate for an hour to let them firm up.

Next is the almond bark. I melt it in the microwave, mixing it every 20-30 seconds.  Now all that's left is to dip the oreo balls into the almond bark and let them sit and dry on wax paper.  See, SO HARD!

My next big "creation" is Aarons 1st birthday!  I've got to start planning his Elmo cake! Stay tuned =]