Surprise!

   Today we held a surprise party for my parent's 25th anniversary. I couldn't mention any of the planning we've been doing in case they read my posts. I was asked to bake a cake for the party and after thinking about it, I decided to turn it down. But I offered to bake bread instead! I quickly started planning what and when I was going to make the bread and this is what I ended up with: Pugliese, francese with caramelized onions, foccacia with duck fat roasted onions and cheddar cheese, some epi, and a couple petit sourdough miches ( I stenciled their initals and a 25 on each one with ash). It was tricky hiding it from my parents when I brought the loaves home from school. I put them in a suit case and said it was just laundry haha.

   At the place where we held the party, I set up a small table and put all the loaves out in a small display.

  After my parents saw it I took it down, refreshed and sliced the bread for everyone to eat. I even brought some sea salt to be sprinkled on top of buttered slices. I was glad to hear that my bread was a hit! Only 1 loaf was left! I even received some orders! I was surprised when people were pulling me aside and requesting for a couple loaves for them.

   All in all I was proud of the party and glad my parents enjoyed themselves.

The cake is not a lie!

    So I got to take a picture of the cake the hydrangea flowers went on after it was finished.





All but about 30 flowers went on the cake.














    Funny thing is, literally as the cake was finished the customer walked in to pick it up. Talk about last minute! The customer was just really early was all.

   Cake's aren't my thing but they are interesting to do every once and a while. Especially tiered cakes; a lot of planning goes into them.

What's up?

Just made about 200 of these gum paste hydrangea flowers at work! They're decorations that are going on a cake someone ordered. Maybe I'll sneak a pic of the cake if I get the chance.

Sugar Daddy

    I created my first sugar sculpture!

    It was a lot of fun pulling the sugar, but obviously it was really hot. Yes those are supposed to be hearts! I had a little trouble blowing them but I'm still happy with the way they came out. The roses were the most tedious to make. They were assembled petal by petal and I had to pull, shape, and attach each petal before they cooled too much.

The verdict

   Success! Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of
all the products I have made, but I will
share those that I have.
                                                                 SourDough

The Sourdough loaves were consumed as soon as they came out of the oven! Luckily I saved a few because being sourdough, they will taste better over time.




                                                          Frozen Chocolate Soufflé

     Very easy recipe. Poured it into the ramekin and froze it for a few hours to make sure it set up. I only had four, so the rest went into a bowl; which is still fine. I like just like to have things portioned individually if possible.

                                                                  Carrot Cake

     This one was a surprise for my mom. Carrot Cake is one of her favorite desserts. Sloppy job on the icing I know. I ran out of icing! The horror! Guess I misjudged the icing to cake ratio I needed.

So yeah, that's all the pictures I have. Haha I've learned that I am not very good with taking pictures before consuming food. It usually hits me during the eating process. "Darn I should have taken a picture of this!" That's usually how it goes. But I'm happy with the way everything came out nonetheless. I'm looking forward to doing something like this again soon. I'm open to suggestions and willing to try new things.

Weekend of the Baker

     So I decided to go all out on a baking spree for the next two days. My house is the place to be because I’m going to be pumping out baked good after baked good this weekend! So what’s on the menu?

· Sourdough loaves

       o Takes two days so I will be baking it off Sunday

· Challah

       o Baking today for French Toast tomorrow morning

· Cinnamon Rolls

       o  Haven’t decided if I want to make them later today or have them freshly baked for breakfast tomorrow morning.

· Frozen chocolate soufflés

       o Need to make them today, the faster they get into the freezer the faster they will set up.

· Carrot cake cupcakes

       o Because there’s less guilt than eating a slice of carrot cake!

I’m pretty stoked, I’ll have pics up as I finish.

Food network, Yes....but Cartoons?

        I've also fallen victim to watching cartoons almost religiously. As soon as the TV goes on I usually switch it to either the Food Network or Cartoon Network. Of course, being a foodie I love to watch the Food Network. But I find the stupid humor of the cartoons to be quite entertaining. I may be 21, but I'm a kid a heart! Being picky about my cartoons, I only watch a select few. Some of them include: