Let them eat cake!

I know, I know. The title is so very original. Sue me.

I've done my fair share of baking and have some experience in somewhat elaborate cake decorating, mainly from culinary school. Admittedly, it's been a while since I've made much more than a simple 2 layer cake. But when a friend and co-worker of my dad's asked if I'd be willing to make her daughter's birthday cakes (yes, cakes; plural), I jumped at the opportunity! Can you tell I miss kitchen work?

I wanted to make sure that Dari was very specific in what she wanted. That wasn't hard for an 11 year old girl to do. She knew exactly the looks she was going for. And since she's apparently an avid Cake Boss watcher, I knew I had my work cut out for me. After a few days of planning, collecting equipment and ingredients, testing, baking, and finally decorating, I was able to put together 2 cakes that I was very pleased with. And Dari's initial reaction each time was enough to know I had done well.

The first cake was, as she described it, a "Cotton Candy" cake. It was later known as the "Bow Cake". She wanted a 2-tiered cake; one tier hot pink, the other sky blue. She asked that there be lots of decorations and adornments with sky blue bows on the bottom and "Happy 11th Birthday Dari!" written on top. I took a little bit of artistic license on this one to keep it all balanced. And unfortunately, my ability to write on a cake is still dreadful so I ended up just piping on a big number 11. She was still very excited about the look of it. Here's the final product:

 

As you can see, I added handmade fondant bows to both layers. I also used  Sixlet "pearls" around the top border along with some piping. This is a basic vanilla cake with vanilla Swiss Buttercream frosting. 

  

The second cake she requested was easier and not as elaborate as the "Bow Cake". It was to be iced in her soccer club's colors of "Clemson orange" (a bright orange) with white piping around the borders. She requested edible soccer balls and megaphones. While not my first choice, I piped a simple megaphone on the cake instead of spending extra money on new materials to fashion one. I bought some royal icing buttons and drew on them to make them look like soccer balls. Dari requested a different frosting for this cake as she wanted to try something very light and whipped. So I made whipped cream a bit more stable for room temperatures by using cream cheese as a base. I was please with the texture and flavor of the new frosting. Plus, it piped like a dream. It piped so well, that I took a chance on actually writing on this one. As you can see I still need a good bit of practice, but it wasn't completely horrible. Here is her "Soccer Cake":

This is a basic vanilla cake (single layer; 9x13) with a "stable" whipped cream frosting. The soccer balls are made of edible royal icing buttons that have been drawn on with a food coloring pen. Admittedly, they were inspired by a similar looking pre-made product. But I really wanted to experiment with the food coloring pen.

The moral of my story? I now remember why I chose to stay on the cooking side of the line in the culinary world. I love to bake; don't get me wrong. But having to do this for a living would have likely broken me. It can be difficult, even as a professional, to live up to your client's expectations. I really enjoyed making these and I learned a lot in the process, though. I would definitely enjoy taking on a few more commissions in the future, but I am glad that I don't create these kind of things on a day to day basis. I think the hardest thing to overcome was living up to Dari's expectations. It's a lot of pressure knowing that if you create something terrible or not at all what was requested, you could ruin an 11 year old's birthday party...twice!

Thank goodness I pulled it all off with my normal gracefulness. And by gracefulness I mean a sleepless weekend and having to make an extra batch of frosting because of my failure to plan appropriately. Oh, and presenting the cakes to them while still in my pajamas. Live and learn.

Elle

The delicious and grand world of sandwiches!

It is now what I consider to be the "dog days" of summer here in good ole South Kakalaki. Well, okay. Let's face it. It's been the "dog days" of summer since about June 1st. It's hot, muggy, sticky, buggy, and just all around unpleasant until about 11 o'clock at night. Who wants to heat up the oven and do serious cooking in that kind of weather? I know I don't. That's a sure-fire way to heat up the house and send your electric bill skyrocketing. I tend to use the stove as little as possible during the day. The grill is most definitely my friend in the summer. Sure it's hot outside, but I'll have a nice cool house to walk into when my steaks are done, provided I haven't used the oven. I also tend to make a lot of salads. Nice for a couple of reasons- I don't have to heat up the house and I use the fresh produce from my container garden. As much as I love to grill and as versatile as salads can be, there is still one thing meal that is my "go to" meal in the summer. A sandwich (which can be made using something grilled or can be paired with a yummy salad). To me, the sky is the limit when it comes to sandwiches. There are so many different categories and varieties and they are extremely customizable. You've got burgers, tortas, pitas, subs, panini, deli sandwiches, po' boys, breakfast sandwiches/biscuits, banh mi (a Vietnamese sandwich)...so many wonderful options.

One of those options happens to be Charlie's favorite. He loves burgers. I compare him to Wimpy from the Popeye cartoon and comics for his love of hamburgers. "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." So for my dear boyfriend's birthday, he wanted burgers; and lots of them. I got a bit creative and decided to make him a sampler of sliders. The sliders turned out a little bigger than planned, but I can assure you that Charlie didn't mind. I made 2 of the burgers with fresh, lean bison. I made the other 4 with 80/20 ground chuck. That's right. 6 burgers in all! They each had a different kind of cheese and a strip of bacon on them. I used Maytag bleu, Ementalar, Provolone, Kerrigold white cheddar, gruyere, and regular cheddar cheeses. Between that and some sweet potato oven fries, he had a very happy birthday dinner!

I, personally, have been on a panini kick. I love the melty goodness of Provolone cheese over warm, sliced ham and turkey. Finish it with some crispy bacon and fresh, juicy tomato (from my garden). All of that gets piled between two crusty, buttery slices of toasted bread. I'll give you a minute to clean the drool off your keyboard. (Okay, ready now?) It's wonderful! Now, I don't have a fancy panini press. Who needs it! I'm sure it's a nice gadget to have if you have the counter space...just like that George Foreman grill that is now gathering dust and grease in kitchens across the country. Uh huh. There's no point in hiding it now. I'm talking to you! But honestly? I find that a cast-iron grill pan and another plain cast-iron pan do the trick very nicely. Cast-iron isn't necessary. Neither is a grill pan for that matter, though I do enjoy the lovely brown grill marks the sandwich gets. Basically you need two heavy duty pans. Build the sandwich, heat one pan to medium-high, add a touch of butter or cooking spray to the pan, place the sandwich in the pan, put the other pan (bottom side down) on top of the sandwich to weigh it down. Press gently or set a few cans of beans/fruit/tomatoes in the pan if necessary to add more weight. Your goal is to make a thinner, crispier version of the sandwich you initially built. If you like grilled cheese sandwiches, I highly recommend the panini method for those as well.




Burgers and panini are not the end-all-be-all of sandwiches. As I said, the sky truly is the limit. So if you're looking for something different to make for supper without heating up your kitchen, don't forget about sandwiches! They aren't just for lunch anymore.

Delicious adventures in cheesecake!

Momma's birthday was on the 5th of May. And mother's day is coming up this weekend. I wanted to make her a cake of some sort. But apparently so did everyone else. One of her co-workers is making her a tasty birthday cake of some sort. Honestly, I can't remember what kind of cake it's supposed to be, but Momma seemed to be very excited about it. Regardless, I'm the cook/baker around here that hasn't been doing much baking as of late. This was a great excuse to change that. I suggested a few kinds of cakes that I could make, including her favorite carrot cake, but when I said, "ricotta cheesecake" I had her attention.

I've made something similar in the past with my own tweaks, of course. They were mini cheesecakes made in muffin tins. They were delicious, but I needed to find a recipe that would fit my needs a bit better. I've seen a few Food Network personalities make a ricotta cheesecake, so that was the first place on the Internet I searched. I found a recipe by Giada DeLaurentiis that interested me. I figured out how I was going to change it and add my own twist to it, then set off for the grocery store.

I returned with an armful of goodies for the cheesecake including some very beautiful strawberries! {/tangent} It's that time of year! It's nearing summer and here in the south, the berry season is starting. We just got a notice from our local Berry Farm that strawberries are in and ready to be picked! This is the best time of year for produce. My garden is starting to look wonderful, the farmer's markets will be in full-swing soon, and we get notices from the berry farms that things are ready to be picked! {tangent} I got everything to the kitchen and put in it's proper placed. Then I gathered my ingredients and made the following recipe:

2, 8 oz. packages of cream cheese (at room temperature)
1, 12 oz. container of ricotta cheese
1/4 C of clover or orange blossom honey
3/4 C granulated sugar
2 tsp orange, lime, or lemon zest
4 eggs
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
8 oz. Biscotti cookies

9 inch spring-form pan
9 inch parchment circle (optional)
Aluminum foil
Large roasting pan
Boiling water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a food processor*, finely grind the biscotti cookies. Add the melted butter to the cookie crumbs and mix thoroughly. The mixture should be slightly moist. Place the crumb and butter mixture into the bottom of a lined spring-form pan and press down to even out the crust. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Allow to cool completely.

Meanwhile, with a hand or stand mixer**, blend the ricotta until smooth and creamy. It will still have the normal texture of ricotta, but needs to be smoothed a bit for better blending. Add the 2 blocks of room temperature cream cheese and blend completely. Be sure to stop the mixer occasionally and scrape down the sides of the bowl so all ingredients mix properly. Next, add the sugar and citrus zest. When those ingredients are incorporated, add the honey. Lastly, add the eggs and mix until just combined.

Wrap the outside of the spring-form pan with foil. This will keep water from seeping into the cheesecake. Pour the cheesecake mixture into the pan with the cooled crust. Place the spring-form pan into the larger roasting pan and place it on a middle oven rack. Pour the boiling water into the ROASTING PAN until it is about an inch and a half deep creating a water bath. This helps ensure more even baking and will hopefully give you a beautiful cheesecake with no cracks in the top. (Unfortunately, mine had a few small cracks. It'll still taste good!) Bake in the 350 degree oven for about an hour and five minutes. The cheesecake should have a very light golden hue and should jiggle slightly in the middle. Take the cheesecake out of the hot water bath and place it on a cooling rack for about an hour. After that, refrigerate for about 6 hours or over night. After the cheesecake is set and chilled completely, slice it and enjoy! Serving this with fresh fruit or a little bit of a fruit preserves would be delicious.

The great thing about using ricotta is that this isn't a super sweet cheesecake. It can also be adapted for a low fat diet. You could use part skim ricotta and reduced fat (or fat free) cream cheese. Using Splenda instead of sugar would also help cut some calories and fat.

See? I can share.

*If you don't have a food processor or a way to mechanically grind these, you can simply place them in a plastic baggy and beat the hell out of them with a mallet, rolling pin, or (if you have serious rage) your hand.
**You can also do this by hand if you're insane and want your shoulder to hurt the following day. If you have neither a hand mixer or a stand mixer, might I also suggest using the food processor again.

Elle