Baby Shower

I spent a long time thinking about what would be appropriate, what people might like and how I would decorate these cakes for my friend's baby shower. I even did single layer cakes a month earlier in each flavor just as practice! The final cakes were triple layer (because I wanted to make triple layer cakes for some reason, though just two would have been plenty). In the end, they turned out just perfect...

Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream frosting on the left.
Classic White Cake with a hint of Almond, accompanied by Vanilla Frosting and sprinkles on the right. Can you guess what she's having?

I also made a decorative garland of pennant flags that I had so much fun doing! Apparently I felt the need to get my craft on.

Pies, tarts and logs

Ginger Pumpkin Tart / Cranberry Orange Tart / Bourbon Pecan Pie

Yule Log

Lemon Squares

Sicilian Orange Tart

 

Wellllll, this was not a huge success either. Partly because I burned the crust (why do I have to make phonecalls during critical times in baking?). But aside from that, the actual tart part just wasn't custardy or tart-like. It was orangey and sweet. Not bad, but not particularly good either. Next time - new recipe!
The one thing I can say is that when I looked at the ingredients that would go into the tart (not the crust part), I was reluctant because it just didn't seem like there were enough ingredients to set up. I doubted, but continued figuring that the recipe-writer knew what they were doing. Well, the final product was exactly what I was afraid it would be - not the right consistency and frankly very one-note in flavor. I am going to consider my red flag feeling about it a win because I was actually able to recognize something of a problem before it happened. I think a lot of failures have to happen when it comes to getting good at something. So -- yay for the fail/mini-victory!

Nutmeg Feather Cake with Penuche Frosting

This is one of my favorite cakes, and somehow, every time I make it, I underestimate how quickly the frosting changes from too hot and liquidy to too chunky and un-spreadable. I finally jotted down a couple notes on the recipe for next time. Namely- the option to add cream in at the end if it's too thick needs to be rewritten as mandatory. Even if you start to spread it and it works just fine, by the time you get half way around, it is not the same consistency. Then you think if I add cream now, the frosting will have two distinct consistencies, I can't do that! So the game day decision is to just go with it as, after all, it is homemade (and it looks it)! Another note should be to double or at least 1.5x the frosting so it is easier to frost at will.
Hoping that I see those notes before jumping in again. The great news is that it always tastes wonderful. The smell and flavor are so nostalgic for me, I just love it!

Spice Bundt Cake

Hooray for Bundt!
I made this cake for the heck of it. With my newfound understanding of just how hot my oven runs, thanks to the sugar test, I thought it would be fun to bake something without the fear of over-baking or having it not rise or whatever. Truth be told, I think I relaxed a little too much and accidentally over-baked it by a hair anyway (darn that pestering judgement call after the first buzzer). Next time I'll take it out a little sooner. But all in all, it was tasty and a breeze.

Chocolate chip, marshmallow and cornflake cookies

Yep, here they are. Good, but I don't know. I didn't LOVE them like I love a straight up chocolate chip cookie. Now the raw dough on the other hand was I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E. I will be making classic CC cookies shortly. But I better have an occasion to go to or something, because it is just plain dangerous to have cookies around.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cake plus Lime Squares

A couple of desserts for a friend's baby shower…

Lime squares

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cake

Where's the milk?

Graduation

Now what am I going to do?

With baking pals Lauren and Kara

Wedding Cake

Gingerbread House

I had never made a gingerbread house before! I kind of became obsessed once I started making this one. I mean, it was fun, but dang! I really needed to give myself a time limit. NEXT YEAR (if indeed there is another gingerbread house in me) I will plan better, and collect fun candies for decoration weeks in advance! I think a modern house would be rad! Or a Flintstone's house, or a backyard pool or skate ramp or something! (see, how I get obsessed?!) Definitely will require a trip to a proper candy store.

Carrot Cake

Gingerbread and Sugar Cookies

wheat rolls

These are super easy and good! The only thing I'm not sure why it happened was after shaping the rolls and letting them sit for a second proof, I then applied an egg wash before baking them. After the wash, the surface started bubbling, as if the egg wash prompted air under the skin. I noticed it twice because I made 2 different batched in a week. Is there something I should know? I'll have to ask at school....

Butterscotch pudding!

This is my Final (plated dessert with all kinds of marks I had to hit: sugar work, custard needed to be involved, at least three textures, at least 2 temperatures, etc.). Here it is: Butterscotch pudding with pine nut rosemary shortbread cookies, caramel sauce and whipped topping.

pie crust

I was so excited to try this design on the crust! It was so easy and looked so cool. It did, however, sort of disappear once cooked. And I forgot to take pictures of the finished pies. Oh well. I'll just have to make more pies.

Bombe

Passionfruit bombes with frozen mousse

November wrap up

Brownies, doughnuts and funnel cake, bagels and pretzels, bread animals -alligator shaped brioche-, poached pear in red wine reduction with crème anglaise, praline chocolate teardrop, chocolate merengue crumble, caramel sauce and spun sugar, dragées, panna cotta with raspberry/pear compote, tiramisu (with genoise cake), lamingtons, passionfruit bombes with frozen mousse, coconut genoise cake and cocoa glaze, raspberry champagne rosewater macaroons, pear cardamom pie with pistachio crumble topping, sweet potato/pecan pie, gingerbread cake, gluten-free gingerbread cake, wheat rolls, carrot cake, pine nut/rosemary shortbread cookies and butterscotch pudding

Plated desserts

We are ramping up for finals week, and have been learning a few new techniques and brushing up on old ones. We have learned so much, "plated desserts" is all about putting all of those techniques to use on one plate. Just insert your artistic eye!

Here are some of the things we have been working on...

Praline teardrop

Dragées

Teardrop with caramel sauce and chocolate merengue crumbs

Panna cotta

cooking and BIG NEWS

Last week in baking class, we had a party where a fellow student and I made pizzas. Although this involved technique and knowledge about dough and baking, it also involved some savory cooking know-how. I realized whilst roasting garlic, making sauce, chopping herbs, sautéing sausage and assembling actual food (not just pastry) that I really missed cooking. Since starting this professional baking program, I haven't been as active in the kitchen cooking food. I am usually too burned out when I actually have time to do so. This realization though seems to have kick started my interest in making food-to-eat again, which is a really good thing.
The other day I made a delicious butternut squash soup that I have been feasting on all week. I decided I was too lazy to go to the store, so used what I had on hand, and therefore had to pull from a couple different recipes. The recipes were essentially the same, just different add-ins. The one thing I purposely improvised on was that I roasted the butternut squash beforehand. I think this made a huge difference in really concentrating that primary flavor. It seems I rarely free-wheel a recipe and have it work out wonderfully, but when I do I find it a particularly satisfying win!
OK, here's the BIG NEWS, and strangely it has not ruined my week or caused me to crumble. The jury is still out, we will know more in a couple weeks, but I may have Celiac Disease. Cruuudddddd. A couple thoughts on that: it's not the worst thing ever, I know people who live full lives with this challenge, and I think I can figure out ways to work around it. I am accepting this possibility as a challenge as opposed to a sentence. Maybe I become a gluten free baker extraordinaire! Maybe it's mild and I just need to be careful. Maybe, it will turn out to not be the case... Other thoughts are - if this is the problem causing my oft upset stomach, then Hallelujah that we have found the problem so that we can work on the solution! It's hard to have a pity party when this discovery only means relief is at hand! For now, I'm going to continue to bake, discontinue eating any wheat, and do a 2-week cleanse. We'll see where I'm at in 2 weeks.
Other fun news - I will be making some desserts for Thanksgiving this year. I'm kind of excited! I really want to make a couple of pies, but considering I may not be able to eat them, I think I will limit it to one pie and try to find another dessert that will be gluten/wheat-free. Now the question is - if I only make one pie, what should it be? The obvious answer is pumpkin, but I just found a recipe for butternut squash pie that apparently rivals traditional pumpkin. It roasts the butternut squash as well, which I am now a big fan of. There is also a pear cardamom pie recipe I have been dying to try. Well, we'll see. Should be an interesting couple of weeks of food and baking.

Doughnuts