Cake for Twins

I had a first birthday cake to make for twins this weekend. This was complicated by the fact that I had to go from Friday-Sunday to a La Leche League conference. So, time had come for me to employ some of the tactics of my busier counterparts. After being very reluctant to freeze my cakes, but reading many a baker saying they often freeze on PURPOSE to improve taste, I went for it.

Baked Thursday night, froze, removed on Sunday, layered and crumb-coated with buttercream and covered with marshmallow fondant. I found clear vegetable shortening, and my god, the difference it makes in handling the fondant is unbelievable. It's ever more delicate, however. I was so tired but honestly having split up the days for decorating it wasn't as big of a task as I had thought. Each cake is three layers- one is vanilla/chocolate/vanilla and the other is chocolate/vanilla/chocolate.

The rainbows nearly came out too light, but I brushed darker royal icing over the fondant and the colors came out just how I pictured them. I really hope the customer liked the cake as she had a very clear idea how she wanted them to look and I'm unsure how close I came to what she had pictured. They are not exactly the same, but they flow together, and they are each special in their own way.

The good news is I had Cormac taste test the cakes when I cut them to shape and he said they tasted just fine (he may as well be an expert at these sort of things). I'm off sweets, as we are expect spawn #2 and they are making me feel pretty horrible. So much for the worry that all this cake making would pack on the weight!

Stir fry-like chicken and rice

This was a creation of necessity, as are many of my dinners. I open the cupboards and the fridge and pull out what I've got. This time I threw on 5 cherry tomatoes halved, and cut one red pepper into cubes, tossed them in olive oil and put them in the oven to roast.

I put on rice to cook with 1 cup rice to 1 cup chicken stock(homemade from the freezer) and 1 cup water. I slowly added more water as the rice cooked, and some of that Goya seasoning I mentioned earlier. Dash of white pepper, sea salt, and dumped in the tomatoes and peppers when the rice was cooked and the peppers and tomatoes were roasted. Add a big lump of butter. Handful of baby spinach, stir until softened. Done.

Chicken. Chop into cubes. 1 tbsp of white vine vinegar. Cover the chicken in a tiny coating of flour. Few lugs of Worchester sauce. Dash of white pepper (I love white pepper, god help me) and a good huge dash of garlic powder (or some minced garlic but I was feeling lazy). Lob of butter (yes, I used up a lot of butter in this recipe. I had butter sitting out left over from making cakes and felt, why not?).

Consume.



Lucky I remembered to take the picture, I was halfway done inhaling this before I remembered to share it with all of you ;)

Baked Bean Chili and Roasted Potatoes

I am aware how difficult it is to make beans look appetizing in a picture, so I made sure you could get a good glimpse of those deliciously crisp potatoes.
We're going away to England next week, so this was a meal of "use up all the stuff in the fridge so nothing will go off" necessity.

I made roasted potatoes and a beefed up version of American-style baked beans, and it was gorgeous. I got a thumps up from Cormac, my measure of delicious, so I thought I'd share it here-- in spite of the fact that the photo doesn't do the taste justice.



Baked Bean Chili

2 cans of beans (I used pinto and kidney, you can use anything you've got in the cupboard)
1/2 cup BEER (I used Guinness left over from my chocolate cakes!)
1/2 cup bbq sauce OR ketchup (I had bbq sauce so it was a bit zippy)
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup dijon mustard
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp Worchester sauce
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red pepper
3-4 tomatoes (I had vine tomatoes, medium sized)
2 strips of bacon
3 slices of ham (can you tell I was using up the contents of the fridge? Obviously, adjust this to suit yourself. I'd say a 1/2 lbs of bacon would be awesome, or a chuck of ham chopped up)

Directions
1. Cook up your ham/bacon in a large pot. Add garlic.
2. Remove from and lower heat, add your beer, molasses, ketchup/bbq, dijon, brown sugar, worchester sauce and stir well.
3. Return to heat, add chopped tomatoes and chopped red pepper. Add rinsed beans.
4. Let simmer on low heat for 30 minutes to 1 hour. The longer, the better-- but keep stirring so nothing sticks to your pot (or maybe you have such a nice non-stick pot that its none of your concern, but I don't, so be forewarned).


Roasted Potatoes in Bacon Fat
That left over bacon I used in the beans was left over from our Valentine's Day breakfast-- from which I saved the bacon grease. It was very little, and I'm sure if you replace that little bit with more olive oil these will turn out just fine.
Ingredients
4 potatoes
3 pinches of sea salt
several large glugs of olive oil
optional: approx 2 tbsp animal fat
polenta/corn meal

toss it all together on a pan, sprinkle potatoes with a tiny bit of polenta, cook 30-45 minutes at 180C (350F). Stir them around occasionally to keep them from sticking. If they are sticking too much, you need more oil.

Valentine's Day

Red Velvet Cake made for promotion at my last LLL meeting. Red marshmallow fondant, decorated with royal icing. Vanilla buttercream filling. The cake went down great and I ever got an order from it!





Red Velvet Cake
3 ½ cups cake flour (you can use AP flour, minus 2 tbsp per cup + 1 tsp baking powder)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 ½ cups sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
6 tbsp red food coloring
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar (I've used regular vinegar without issue)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. This recipe can make 2 8-9" round cakes or ~24 cupcakes.

1. Sift the cake flour.

2. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time.

3. In another bowl, whisk cocoa, red food colouring, and vanilla.
4. Add to creamed mixture.

5. Stir salt into buttermilk, add to your batter alternating with the flour.

6. Combine vinegar and baking soda and fold into your batter.

For cupcakes, bake about 20 minutes. For cakes, bake 30-40 minutes.




Cake Balls
adapted from Bakerella's Cake Balls

Red velvet cake crumbs (I used a whole 10" round cake)
8oz cream cheese
1 cup butter cream icing
(alternatively you can use one of those cans of premade cream cheese icing from the grocery store).

Mix together with your hands and refrigerate.

I melted a large bar of cadbury's milk chocolate in a double boiler, and used two spoons to cover my balls. I probably didn't use enough chocolate so they were sticking a lot. I don't like keeping extra chocolate in the house if you know what I mean!
The pink balls were melted strawberry chocolate chips from Ardkeen Food Stores.

Christening and Birthday Cake

The other cakes I made for this weekend. I had a great time making these first "for clients" cakes. These are also chocolate with buttercream filling, and covered in thick buttercream before I placed the fondant over them. I'm a little sad my fondant dried out on the christening cake-- it just took so long to roll out!

Christening Cake




Birthday Cake



Time to deliver!

First Birthday Cake for Ruben

This is the first "1st Birthday" cake I've made, and sold today. I desperately undercharged after I thought about my ingredients and the time I put into the cake, but that's alright. I knew the customer and it was great practice with the fondant. Now I know why most cake decorators buy the crappy tasting stuff. Oh well- I'd rather be proud of the work and the taste.

This is a moist chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling, covered in buttercream and fondant. It's the same cake I'm making today and tomorrow for a Christening which I'll post by tomorrow.




Again, I apologize for the quality of the photos. I blame it on lack of natural light this dim winter! I'm mostly annoyed that the light/flash bounces off any of the moist bits- those decorations don't actually appear so wet. The letters on this one were probably a tad too big. I wasn't completely happy with the text. I want to get some letter punches, but sometimes the bubble letters turn out great (see the 'Breda' cake). The customer was delighted, though, so that's all that matters!


I should also announce that I recently won the theme contest on the BakeBakeBake community on Livejournal for my LLL cake. Not so much the decoration but the cake/recipe. I won 2 months paid LJ account :)

Vanilla cake with Fresh Strawberry and buttercream filling topped with Whipped Cream Icing

So on a whim I whipped up a little cake to try out a recipe I have for whipped cream icing. I'm no fan of plan whipped cake just spurted on to a cake, so I wanted to experiment with something nice.
I made a quickie round cake with fresh strawberry and buttercream filling, and my vanilla cake altered a bit. Then, I topped it with a small bit of whipped cream icing. Oh boy-- was it yummy! I'm fattening up my family. Each cake is better than the last.



I took a stroll through Superquinn today, and it must be cake day as they were whipping up about 20 cakes at once. I watched them saw through what looked like pretty dry sponge cake. Bleh. I'm glad they are one of just a handful of competitors out there in Waterford. I priced a cake off them just to get any idea, and trust me, I'd rather pay an extra and get one of my cakes than walk off with one of theirs!

Birthday Cake for Cormac's Mom

I learned a few lessons doing this cake for Breda's birthday, one of them is that marshmallow fondant doesn't keep well in the fridge. It got too dry. Perhaps if I had heated it a bit and then worked it I wouldn't have had the cracking that I did.
My first attempt at fondant roses went well, I think. I did a good job of covering the areas that cracked as well. Cormac thought the cake looked great-- I have to agree. Next few cakes I'll do will be simpler. Maybe just cream or buttercream.

note: the rose of the top right got knocked over off its buttercream anchor and I didn't notice until after I took the picture. Bah! I also need to improve on my photo skills. I try all the settings on my camera that I think will work, and it doesn't.


Click on any of the pictures to see a larger image:

Oatmeal Pecan Pancakes

I've just realized I've been feature in the Blog Digest at the Irish Independent

...which is pretty neat. So if you are visiting me from there, welcome! Feel free to ask me for conversions for some of these recipes-- I realize most of my recipes are in cups and not by weight.

Update: I will be going into business selling cakes. We checked out the farmers markets and I think to shell out the money for a table, covering, insurance, etc it's going to rip me a new one. I'd rather spend that money on cool gear for cake decorating and truly make a profit. Plus, there is nothing fun about baking zillions of cookies and just breaking even on expenses. So, if you are in the Waterford/Cork/Kilkenny area and need a cake for a special event (no weddings, yet, I'm not ready to tackle the bridezilla cartel quite yet! too much pressure), get in contact with me. After playing with the various combinations Candi + cake can create, I've decided to leave my sweet name out of it and stick with Boho Kitchen (creations)!

Anyhow, on to the food!
-----
I knew last night that I wanted a hearty little breakfast this morning. We're out of bread (you'll recall I discussed this phenomena in our house before), and I'm totally egged out.
Pancakes it is! I'm able to convince myself these pancakes are healthy... because... there are nuts, and, er, oatmeal.

Problem: My stovetop isn't great. As a result my pancakes don't always come out golden and beautiful. So I'll leave you with the recipe and you'll have to trust me there are as delicious (more delicious) as they sound. I've got left over batter SO I might snap a good shot of these babies later this week.

Oatmeal Pecan Pancakes
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (plain flour)
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/4 cup pecans
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 LARGE eggs (if your eggs are medium sized, you need 3-- most recipes are like this and I notice a lot of people make the mistake of not adding an extra egg to baked goods when they are using medium eggs)

Throw your oats and pecans (and flour, baking powder and soda, salt if you don't have a sifter) into a food processor.
Mix your buttermilk, vanilla and oil and add to the dry ingredients. Then mix in your eggs just until its blended. Try not to over mix it.

Scoop onto a hot griddle, flip when the top bubbles, eat with butter and syrup-- yum!

Choux

I recently tried my hand at making choux pastry. I didn't have any cream, so I later smeared chocolate on top (which wasn't pretty so I didn't take pictures). However, these babies are purty.



I robbed this recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini:
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2003/10/sugar_puffs.php