Wedding Cakes

My last post got me thinking about wedding cakes. Originally wedding cakes made to bring good luck to the happy couple. I suppose not everyone spends hours dreaming up the perfect wedding cake and to some people the cake is an afterthought, but to me there is something about that multi-tiered cake that is a thing of beauty.

Black & white cake

The last week or so before my culinary school finals was dedicated to wedding cakes. Our chef asked us to choose designs that would make us practice our piping. He taught us to properly construct a wedding cake, how to price it out considering the amount of work that goes into one and even gave us some handy advise about not being drunk while making wedding cakes.

My first (well first one in class) wedding cake attempt was a black and white wedding cake. The random filigrees are in vogue right now and gave me plenty of practice when it came to my piping. The roses were made from gum paste or marzipan I honestly couldn't tell you. I remember that as soon as I put the roses on I thought to myself, "Oh yes these are perfect." I look at them now, only a year later, and wonder how in the world I could ever think they were so perfect. They look sort of cute, perhaps if I squint my eyes I can see what I loved about them so long ago. I suppose I could always try to convince myself that they were meant to the look that cartoon-y. After all there is no way I could have possibly thought they looked real. Either way they added a beautiful splash of color to my cake.

The embroidery cake that took over 8 hours to pipe.

My next wedding cake took me hours to complete in regards to the piping. My wrist slightly tightens just thinking about how I spent over eight hours sitting and piping with a size 1 Wilton tip. I think part of me was crazy enough to think that I would whip right through this cake when I saw the design like I whipped through the black & white cake. The latter took me less than a class period to pipe but this embroidery cake I had to work on over the course of two days. Also, let me just say that when you are on your fourth hour of piping you begin to feel every shake of the table that you are working on. Suddenly someone placing their stand mixer on the opposite side of the table feels like a damned earth quake and you fear you will ruin hours of work. I am truly glad that this design was on a Styrofoam cake because I have been able to save it. The same could not be said for my favorite wedding cake.

Seriously my pride and joy

The Pac Man cake was my absolute favorite. I know that it is not as technically complex as the other two but it was something I wanted to do the moment I learned we would be decorating wedding cakes. I wanted a "nerd" wedding cake. Something sweet, appropriate for the occasion, but something that could still give a nod to the fact that popular culture is influencing our special days now. Nerds get married too. Creating black fondant is an all around pain in the neck. Do not think that you can just put some black food coloring into fondant. You will get grey and it will more than likely be an ugly shade of grey. I was lucky enough that a classmate of mine had done most of the work and had quite a bit of black fondant left over. I did have to add some brown and red to get the purplish tinge out and by the end of the day my hand were covered in colour but it was all worth it.  My chef hated the idea, or rather he thought I was just being silly about the task at hand . Our final day of class it was the first cake he threw into the dumpster. I knew it was nothing personal we needed to clean and get to the graduation ceremony, he probably knew I wouldn't be able to do it myself. Oh but how I loved that cake.

All this talk of weddings makes me think of my own wedding cake. I once heard that it is bad luck to make your own wedding cake, I'm not sure there is much truth to that (especially if you are not superstitious) but part of it might come from just how stressful it is. I could not imagine planning a wedding on top of making the perfect cake.

I really do not even know what my wedding cake will one day look like. It will be chocolate, but not red velvet, that is for sure.

Red Velvet Wedding Cakes

There comes a time, maybe in everyone's life I don't know I'm not an expert, when you look at what you do and wonder if it even means anything. I mean there are people out there saving lives, writing books that will change the world, performing music that makes others feel emotions. I make cake. Who is to say that making cake isn't important though? I mean yes I admit that I know that making cake is not nearly as important as other jobs but when I come to that ultimate realization that I only cake I remind myself that cake is present at some of the most important occasions.

I have been most fortunate to do a handful of wedding cakes. They are a bucket of stress but ultimately they are something that I love tackling. I remember the first wedding cake that I put together for someone that wasn't family (someone that wasn't blood at least). It was for a friend's wedding. She had requested  three tiered red velvet cake, fill with chocolate mousse and then covered in a ivory fondant. I remember being so stressed the day of the wedding, I had somehow managed to get myself in such a tizzy that I actually assumed she would hate the cake and it would ruin her day. I guess I had been watching too much Bridezillas. The wedding was lovely; and the cake, from what I was told, was delicious. That was four years ago. Now I have been asked by another friend to be apart of her very special day, and my red velvet cake has been called to the tasting.

Red velvet has been very in style in recent years. I admit that I roll my eyes whenever someone calls it their secret weapon on cupcake wars. It's not a secret. It is another delicious chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. It would seem that a lot of people (presumably that do not bake) do not know that red velvet is actually a chocolate cake that has had red food coloring added.  I do not know of many people that have tried the original red velvet, where the red color has been achieved by adding beet juice; nor do I know of any bakeries that really use that recipe anymore.

I've never used beet juice to create a red velvet but it might be fun to try at some point. I think I must be very fortunate to work with very calm brides who already know what they want (and what they want is red velvet). I created red velvet cupcakes for my latest bride. It is always exciting to know that you are making something for someone that they will cherish. There is nothing like red velvet cake with fluffy cream cheese icing.

Let's Talk About Flan

Smooth, creamy, and covered in its own caramel sauce; what's not to love about flan? Flan is a dessert that for a long period of my life I knew I loved it even if I had never tried it. There is something about custard based desserts that sends my senses to the moon and back. The taste of vanilla, the smell of the caramel (which for someone like me, who does not like caramel very much, is saying something). 

No, not that flan. Silly Final Fantasy you do not fight the flan you eat it.

So what is flan? It is essentially a sweet custard that has been baked in a mold, lined with caramel, until it is set. Since pastry school I have come across three types of recipes for flan. All fairly similar but different enough that if you have difficulty with one you are sure to find another recipe that you prefer.

The first is similar to a creme anglaise, it consists of milk, eggs, yolks, sugar and vanilla. This recipe is a bit more difficult than the following two but that is only because it requires you to boil the milk and then temper it in with the eggs. If you do not constantly whisk while adding the hot milk you are going to get scrambled eggs, and while scrambled eggs may be good for breakfast they have no business being in dessert. When I say constantly whisking, I mean constantly whisking. The first time I made a pastry cream on my own I thought I might be able to pour the liquid in, place the pot down then begin whisking. Nope, in those few seconds I had already prepared scrambled eggs. 

The second is a recipe I learned at work. It is similar to the first in that you need to temper the ingredients. However the difference is that instead of milk you used condensed milk and cream. You boil the cream and add it to the condensed milk and egg yolks.A little bit easier but not as easy as the following recipe.

The recipe I used most recently required absolutely no tempering at all. Before we get into the custard we must first make a caramel. This is also fairly easy once you learn what to look for. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar

Method:

1. In a small pot, over medium high heat, place about a 1/3 of the sugar. once the sides begin to liquify move the pot back and forth to distribute the liquid and add a bit more sugar.
2. Keep doing this until the sugar has melted. Do not leave it settled for too long or it will burn. Another important note about caramel to remember is that it is always darker in the pan than it actually is so it's okay if it looks a bit darker. 
3. Pour into ramekin or pan of your choosing.

See? How easy was that? You are on your way to making caramel. Now onto the worlds easiest custard recipe.

Ingredients:

• 6 Eggs
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract 
• 14 oz condensed milk
• 24 oz evaporated milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Whisk the eggs, sugar, and vanilla together until smooth. Whisk immediately after adding sugar or you will burn the yolks.
3. Add each of the milks and whisk until smooth. 
4. Pour into caramel lined ramekin or pan.
5. Drop oven to 325 F and bake in a water bath for 35-45 minutes. When it is finished the flan will still jiggle slightly but it should not look watery. 
6. Once the flan is ready remove from the oven and allow to cool before placing it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. 
7. When you are ready to serve run a knife around the edge of the pan and flip onto an appropriate plate. 

This was made using the first method.

Then that's it! You have delicious flan! The great thing about flan is that it is so easy and delicious, it's a light flavor that is not too heavy on the stomach.  I tried this recipe last night and it was delectable but unfornately I only took a blurry picture of it, and now it is half devoured so taking a new picture is out. So if you are wondering what flan should look like (I guess you could always google it) here is a picture of the flan from my final exam at pastry school.

I recently had a birthday and my wonderful mother-in-law gave me a Le Creuset tart pan. You've seen this cookware before, chances are you know them because they are heavy and they come in a variety of colors. Le Creuset has been in business for nearly 90 years, so they know what they are doing when it comes to cookware. I am so excited to have my first piece and cannot wait to continue adding to my collection. 

From the moment I unwrapped my present and saw the beautiful purple tart pan there my mind was buzzing of what to bake in it first. Naturally I could make a tart as that was the intended use but instead I decided that this marvelous gift would need to make something extra special. It turned out to be the perfect thing for making a large flan and it came out wonderfully. 

Where are all the cookbooks?

I recently received  a gift card to Barnes & Noble for my birthday so I set out this morning in the hopes of purchasing a cookbook or two. I've recently been re-inspired at work (which might be another entry at another time) and I wanted to get some fresh ideas. Imagine my surprise as I went through shelves and shelves of cookbooks I could not for the life of me find a dessert cookbook with variety. I don't want to seem over dramatic but I was a bit dumb founded. It seems that, when it comes to desserts, cookbooks fall into one of three categories:

Specialty: Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free, or what you can make with microwave. Not terrible, there is certainly a demand for these types of desserts but for me I want my gluten, I want my sugar and I want to use my oven ( or what have you). I admit I know I probably could have looked through these for ideas but it just wasn't what I was looking for.

Cookies: Cookies, cookies, cookies. If you need to find a cookie recipe I'm sure it will not be difficult. There are books on dietary cookies, cookies that look like things, cookies that can all be made from one recipe and cookies that promise to be better than your mothers (which could never be true in my case). Cookies are, of course, a wonderful comfort food and with all the varieties you are certain to find something you like but as with the specialty books a cookie cookbook was just not what I was in the market for...especially considering I already have two.

Last but certainly not least are the Cupcake books. Oh goodness the cupcakes. I counted not two or three but eight different books dedicated to cupcakes. I'm not even talking about books on cakes that you could possibly turn into cupcakes. I am referring to at least either different books that are dedicated entirely to the art of the miniature cake. I have nothing against cupcakes, I love them in fact. I used to work in a very charming cupcake shop (where the own use to let me have them everyday) but I have to admit a bit of frustration when I cannot find a dessert cook book but I can find eight different cupcake books.

I am certain there has to be a cookbook dedicated to the most important meal of the day out there. For whatever reason it was just not at my particular Barnes & Noble. I just want something that has a range of recipes. Cupcakes and cookies may be permitted but they should play harmoniously with the fruit tarts, bundt cakes and various fruit curds. I suppose that is what the internet was invented for. 

Keep your station clean or I will kill you

Anyone that knows me knows that I am not the tidiest person. It is true that before culinary school cleaning while baking seemed unimportant, something that could be saved for afterward. It was something that I even admitted during my interview for culinary school, I was embarrassed but the woman conducting the first interview told me not to worry that would be fixed during the program.

She was right, for the first few weeks it seemed my chef was constantly reminding all of us to "CLEAN AS YOU GO". On more than one occasion my chef  would pull a student away from their final (thankfully not me) and tell them to clean. It seemed by the end of the program the problem was, for the most part, fixed. Cleaning as I cooked became second nature.


I will make this easy to remember, "Keep your station clean  or I WILL KILL YOU"

Holidays in the pastry world

I was grabbing a cup of coffee before work yesterday and the barista asked me how my three day weekend was. It took me a moment before realizing that Memorial day weekend, for a lot of people, means barbecue and an extra day off from work. I smiled and said fine, I knew he was just being polite and making small talk. Truth is I don't remember the last time I had a three day weekend; not that I really mind, I knew what I was signing up for.

My three day weekend was comprised of people wanting more and there not being enough hours in the day. Really nothing out of the ordinary for a holiday weekend. While I do desserts and pastries for most of the eateries in the casino my main focus is desserts for the buffet. Cakes, pies, individual servings of creme brulee, all of it delicious and all of it in large quantities. Sometimes you feel as though you've just refilled the tower of cookies, you turned around and everything is gone.

This is par for the course with most holidays. Christmas? New Years? Valentines? Don't bother making plans, you're working. The last holiday I had off was Thanksgiving and that was because my regular day off is Thursday. Sometimes I feel utterly helpless, like there's no way I can keep up with demand, but at the end of the day I see customers smiling. Every once in a while a customer will pop their head in my little area and tell me that my desserts were just perfection.

Really that's why we do it isn't it? To make people happy. Well that might not be the entire truth, there is something wonderful about creating sweet things. At the end of a 9 hour shift I might be covered in chocolate, flour and frosting; but it's heaven.

Must begin researching vanilla bean cremeux. Father's day is coming up.

Cheesecake Pie

I have to say Operation Cheesecake Pie was a success.

As I mentioned in my last post being in the culinary industry  leaves very little time for much else in your life; that being said I, for the most part, have difficulty finding much time to bake on my days off.  This cheesecake pie is delicious and saves quite a bit of time. I purchased one of those premade graham cracker pie crusts from the market, due to the aluminum tin I don't have to worry about getting my spring form pan out or that pesky water bath associated with cheesecake. Another upside to this cheesecake pie is that it only takes 35 minutes to bake! That is nearly half the time of most cheesecake recipes and like 1/4 of the time of my usual recipe. That's less time baking and less time between me and eating the thing. 

This was the first time I ever baked a cheesecake without sour cream and the first time I used evaporated milk in the recipe. The texture is not quite as smooth and rich as my normal cheesecake recipe but it is still delicious. Additionally, since the recipe is so easy I might have experiment with the flavors.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 9-inch graham cracker crust, baked

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs until thick and light yellow. Add 1/2 cup of sugar and the flour, beating until blended.Set aside.
3. In another bowl, beat cream cheese with a small amount of the evaporated milk until smooth.Do not forget to scrape the bottom! Add remaining milk, the lemon juice, and the grated lemon peel; beat until smooth and well blended. Pour egg mixture into the cream cheese mixture; beat just until blended.
4. Pour mixture into the graham cracker crust. Bake at 325° for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

I didn't top this particular experiment with anything but it's such a light and fresh flavor adding fruit would be delightful. Might have to try adding chocolate to this recipe.

The Pixie is still baking and eating

Has it really been over a year since I've posted?


I must say that it has in fact been a very busy year for this pixie. I've been baking up a storm, unfortunately being a professional baker doesn't leave much time writing. Have I mentioned that I'm a professional now? Isn't that a weird thought? Well, not professional in the way that Johnny Iuzzini is a professional but I do get paid to make desserts now.

A year ago I was recently graduated and a new intern for a casino (a somewhat big casino in california). I was so excited when they offered me full time employment in October. There were no openings when I left my internship so I found a job at a wonderful little cupcake shop known as Cupcake Love, the owner is a wonderful woman that is filled with love and creativity.Should you ever find yourself near Solana Beach I highly recommend their Peanut Butter Ecstacy cupcakes. I worked there for a few months but once the casino offered me a full-time position I knew I had to take it. Now I spend my days making creme brulee, cakes, pies, breakfast pastries, and even do molded chocolates.

So I'm still baking, eating and hopefully now I'll be making time to write as well.At this very moment I have a cheesecake pie in the oven, it is the first time I've ever made a cheesecake with evaporated milk instead of sour cream, cannot wait to taste it.