Seeing as I just finished Ethan’s 5th birthday cake, I figured it was time to post his 4th birthday cake!  So I’m a year late – no big deal…right?

The biggest challenge to this cake was the fish bowl teetering on the edge of the cat’s hat.  I knew the key to the cake was going to be good support – especially since the cake had to make two 20 minute car trips.  I started by constructing a custom base for the cake.  And of course, that led me to Home Depot.  (One of my chefs at the CIA once said that home improvement stores were a great place to find chef supplies – this has proven to be true over the years.)  I bought a piece of particle board, PVC piping and some do-hicky that would attach the two together.  Then I borrowed a friend’s jiq-saw, donned some sun-glasses (didn’t have any safety-goggles) and prayed that I could cut a semi-decent circle.  Once the base was successfully put together (and I still had all my fingers and toes) it was time to assemble the cake.

The cake itself was made from 4 8″ round cakes, each split once and filled, for a total of 8 layers of cake.  The fishbowl was constructed out of rice krispey treats, then covered in white fondant.  I molded the fish out of gum paste and threaded him onto a wire to dry.  I purposely kept the cake black & white with just a few splashes of muted color.  If you look closely at the book, the illustrations are done in a similar manner.  To add extra support for the fish bowl, which did end up heavier than I anticipated, I cut a small hole in the central PVC pipe that ran up the center of the cake.  Once the cake was fully assembled and iced, I threaded a medium wooden dowel through the cake, into the hole in the PVC pipe, leaving 4-5″ of the dowel exposed at the top of the cake.  This was what I intended to hold up the fish bowl – especially because I wanted the bowl to “defy” gravity and wobble on the edge of the hat.  So far – so good.  I was impressed with myself that I had designed this support system in my head and then managed to construct it as well!  So holding my breath, I carefully placed the fishbowl on top and smiled.  It was perfect – just like I had envisioned.  I added the fish, and took some pictures, and I was done. (more…)

Easter Basket Cupcakes

These edible Easter Baskets are a great treat for kids and adult alike. They look adorable, but the best part is – they’re relatively easy to make.  A simple cupcake acts as the “basket” base (I chose coconut cupcakes), green-colored coconut is strikingly realistic Easter grass, tuck in a cookie handle, and mini chocolate eggs finish off the look.  Just a couple of do-ahead steps, and you’ll be ready to assemble your own baskets!

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Basketball Cake

It’s March Madness time again, and that can only mean one thing – my annual basketball cake extraordinaire.  My husband, Scott, works for ESPN and along with a myriad of perks, one of the best days of the year is the first day of the NCAA tournament.  His group (.com) gets together and organizes a food drive so that their two-day event of watching b-ball games all day (they claim they do some work here and there) can be fueled properly with the likes of 13 different kinds of chips, various cookies, baked goods, wings, pizza, and all other culinary delights that would make any chef’s stomach turn!  My annual “showing” at this event started Scott’s first year working for ESPN when he called me at 4 pm on Wednesday afternoon and (an advance apology  to all the men reading this blog) very typically asked “I need to bring in something for work tomorrow, can you go pick up some cookies or something?”  I then patiently explained to Scott that I am a pastry chef, everyone knows this, and that I look like an idiot if I send him in with store-bought cookies!  So off to the grocery store I went (at this point as a dutiful girlfriend, not even a ring on my finger!) to bake something for the ESPN.com group.  The first year were basketball cupcakes (very do-able with short notice.)  The second year – a sheet cake decorated as a basketball court.  Each year I felt the pressure to one-up myself, so the third year I made the basketball hoop cake that many of you have seen already on the blog.  The next year (last year) we had literally just moved the week or two before the tournament, so I, in trying to grow as a person, said that I was bowing out for the year – usually I can’t say “no” and take on much more than I can handle (to the joy of my family and friends around me!)  Some of Scott’s colleagues, however, recently reminded us that I managed to send in basketball cookies (we sell them at the store) with a little personal message “GO ‘Cuse.” Yes, I am an Syracuse grad.  So, this year, I needed to come back in a big way.  So ta-da!  This is it – I have decided this is my basketball cake swan song – I am not sure there is much more I can do with cake, fondant,a ball and a hoop.  (Well…that’s not true…I have one more idea up my sleeve, but I am not promising anything…) (more…)

Hello to all my long lost fellow cyber chefs.  I apologize for the very long absence from the blog, but unfortunately my struggle with my migraine headaches took much longer (a full two years fighting) than I had anticipated.  Luckily, thanks to what my husband and I refer to as my “miracle drug,” I am just now starting to put my life back together, and part of that includes picking the blog up again.  So thank you to my loyal readers who have stuck with me, and welcome to those of you who have signed on during my silence.  Hopefully you will all enjoy the new posts to come.

And I hope you especially enjoy this particular dish – I think I have chosen a good one to start with.  This recipe comes from the most recent issue of Bon Appetit – from their “Fast, Easy, Fresh” section.  For those of you not familiar with the magazine, every month they designate a couple of pages to “every day” recipes that you can prepare quickly that are relatively healthy.  This section is what I consider to be the unsung hero of the magazine.  The flashy cover stories, the big photo spreads and the recipes featuring exotic ingredients are fun, but some of my best go-to meals have come from “Fast, Easy, Fresh.”  So if you are a BA reader, don’t skip over this section next time (as I admit, I used to do).  Instead, give the recipes a close read and see that several of them are very enticing, especially when they are offering exactly what the category promises – meals that are “Fast, Easy, Fresh.” (more…)

Hello All! I apologize for the long hiatus, but unfortunately I have been struggling with a bad bout of migraine headaches (I’ve had migraines all my life). I worked hard these last couple of months to get better control of them, and while they are improving, I am still not 100%. So please hang in there with me, as I know I have horribly neglected the blog. I do, however, vow to be more faithful to my fellow cyberchefs and keep posting!

So now on to the fun stuff.  Here are the new Winter cookies at the store  (The Crown Market.)  While I would love to take full credit, I simply cannot. I created these cookies last year, however, since then, our intern, now-turned assistant pastry chef, Samantha Persaud, has improved upon them and made them her own.  Sam insisted that something in our bakery repertoire be pink, so she introduced a pink mitten alongside my original blue, and added the addition of colored sugar, which I think makes the cookie entirely.  Not only does it add extra color to the cookies, but it gives the great illusion of a fuzzy yarn.  These cute mitten cookies are perfect for the season and are as fun to look at as they are to eat! Glazed in blue or pink icing and decorated with royal icing and accented with blue and purple sanding sugar, they are the perfect winter treat!

Each cookie retails for $1.69.

Plan B Burger

As a loyal patron of Plan B and a lover of their gourmet burgers, I was very leery when I heard the Max Restaurant group’s plans to expand into the world of burgers.  Although the new addition has been open for over 6 months, my husband and I hesitated.  We  just couldn’t pull ourselves away from Plan B (we felt like we would be cheating if we gave the competition a try).  But we finally caved and went to Max Burger for lunch the other day.

The atmospheres of the two restaurants are drastically different.  Plan B is very edgy – think urban loft, with leather booths, mirrors, industrial lighting, and tight quarters (you get to know your fellow diners well).  You are always guaranteed a wait on a weekend night, but the bar is lively and the beer flows freely.  Max is certainly more refined, and you know you are eating in the center of West Hartford, as opposed to Park Rd (where Plan B is located).  Max’s is much more spacious, again lots of black leather, but here it is paired with birch-like wood, and metal accents – very upscale Montana hunting lodge.

So now on to the beer, which is almost as important as the burgers (my husband may argue it’s more so…).   Plan B is all about micro breweries and craft beer.  With about 15 draft beers that are changing constantly, many of which are small craft beers, along with over 50 bottled beers, Plan B has plenty of variety.  Plan B does have a full bar, however don’t expect very experienced bar tenders – they don’t love to mix drinks and can get confused easily with names of drinks.  For instance, I found its better to tell them grapefruit juice and vodka, rather than to ask for a greyhound.  This stays with their M.O. – no frills – just really good burgers and really good beer.   Max plays it safer on the beer front.  With only a couple of drafts, showcasing a more generic variety and only 15 or so bottle options, beer is certainly not as strong a focus in the restaurant.  They do, however, offer cocktails, mixed drinks, milkshakes and a wonderful selections of “adult milkshakes” (milkshakes made with a varieties of liquors).   Again, this is not surprising and stays with Max’s theme.  They are clearly catering to a different crowd and therefore catering to a different drinkers’ pallets. (more…)

Chocolate flood work is a technique used most commonly in cake decoration.  A one dimensional transfer is created by tracing an image with dark chocolate, then “flooding” in between the traced lines with colored white chocolate.  The result is a fully edible, nearly perfect image that can be applied to cakes or cupcakes.

You will need the following supplies to create flood work:

Dark chocolate semper (chocolate that does not need to be tempered, available at cake & craft supply stores)
White chocolate semper
Candy color (oil based food coloring, available at cake supply & craft stores),
Cardboard cake board
Acetate (clear plastic sheets found in art supply stores)

Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a flood work piece:

Choose an image.  Flood work tends to work best on simple designs.  The more complex, the more muddled the chocolate and therefore image can become.  For a first project, stay with a simple design.

Flip the image horizontally. In other words, create a mirror image.  Because you will be tracing the image, when the chocolate is removed, it will be a mirror of the copied image.  This is not incredibly important when making characters, however if you are creating a logo with letters or writing, you will need to make sure you have flipped your image before you begin.  This can be done with most graphic design programs, and is also available as a print option in the newer versions of Word.

Prepare the image. Cut out the image and tape it securely to a piece of cardboard (cake boards work well).  Cut out a piece of acetate slightly larger than your image and tape that down.

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