The latest birthday cake

My girlfriend just recently celebrated her birthday.  I will spare her the public announcement of how many years. Although, she is the first to announce her age to anyone, anywhere, much to MY public embarrassment. And I quickly shy away lest people figure out that I am just a few years behind her!

This is the cake I made her last year...

Those flowers were store bought.  This year I wanted to do something a little different and more handmade. I had some free time the day before her party so I decided to make my own decorations.  I looked through some of the cake books I have at home including "pretty party cakes" to get some ideas. This cake caught my eye and ended up inspiring the flowers I made.

I knew I wanted to make the flowers really stand out so I planned to ganache the cake. I thought pale pink flowers would look great with a dark, chocolate brown background.  I made up some royal icing, tinted it with a tiny bit of pink, picked a piping tip and got started.

Working on flowers like these really are a labor of love as they are made one at a time.  My icing was just a little thin so as I piped each flower I had to put the piping bag down, pick up a bamboo stick and make slight corrections to each flower.  Or perhaps I didn't "have" to do that, but I wanted every flower to be perfect. They would eventually look like this on the cake...

I just love how they look on the chocolate.  The cake inside is my chocolate, gluten free cake that my friend just happens to love. Recipe is posted here.

And one more glamour shot...

I had so much royal icing left that I continued to make flowers until I ran out. I can always use them for future projects as they keep really well.  These ones are white and a little smaller.  So cute.

The Royal Icing recipe I used is out of the book "The Icing on the Cake".

2 egg whites
3 cups powdered sugar

1.  Whip egg whites with an electric mixer
2. As they start to frost and turn white, add powdered sugar
3. Whip for 5 to 10 minutes, until stiff peaks form.

I found that my icing never formed really "stiff" peaks and I eventually just went ahead and started using it.  My flowers were a little harder to make as their shape continued to move and relax as I piped them.  I am still really happy with the result, but next time I will try out a different recipe.

This Week's CSA Box

I have been getting a weekly CSA box for almost 2 months now and I am seriously addicted.  I love having the opportunity to get fruit from close by and it helps me stay in touch with what is really in season here in California.  The fruit I get each week is far superior than anything I have bought at the grocery store.  A great benefit to getting the box is that I find myself eating fruit way more often than I ever did before.  And even better, whenever I cut up a pear, my fiance' finds his way over and snags a few pieces too, (that guy never eats fruit).

I pick up my box at a house a few miles from my home which is super convenient.  There are usually at least 8 other boxes there with mine, I would love to see it grow to more.

As soon as I get my box home I open it up to see what I have.  This box included 2 kinds of pears, Warren and Hosui, and Fuji apples.  The Warren Pears are sweet and slightly crunchy and not at all mealy which is how I used to think pears were. The smaller Hosui pears have more crunch, almost like an apple, and are less sweet.

This might be too much of one kind of fruit for some people.  I haven't had a problem with anything going bad yet and these pears are just THAT good.  Back when I was getting boxes full of peaches, I sliced many of them up and put them in the freezer to use in smoothies.  I can do the same thing with the apples and pears and use them later for muffins.  I got a great pointer from Jeff at the farm about how to know when a pear is ripe.  The skin right around the stem will get slightly wrinkly.  So even if the rest of the pear is nice and firm, those wrinkles mean it is ready to eat.

The best way I used my pears this week was to make a fruity red Sangria.  My favorite Sangria is made with red wine, although you can make it with white or a rose'.  This is not the time to use an expensive wine.  You are just going to add sugar and fruit and we are not looking for the best vintage. The $4.99 bottles at Trader Joe's are perfect. Here is my recipe.

2 bottles dry, red wine
1/2 cup sugar, or slightly more if you like it a little sweeter
1 small apple, chopped small
1 nectarine, chopped small
1 large pear, chopped small
1 orange
1/2 cup sugar, or slightly more if you like a sweeter wine
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup triple sec, grand marnier or a fruit brandy

Pour wine into large pitcher. Add 1/2 cup sugar and stir until dissolved.  Add chopped apple, nectarine and pear.  Cut 4 thin slices from the orange, and add to pitcher. Take the remaining orange and squeeze juice into the pitcher. Discard.  Add cinnamon stick and triple sec.  Stir again.

Place pitcher in refrigerator overnight so all the flavors can fully develop.  Your sangria is going to taste much better the next day after the fruit has had time to soak.  If you want to add more sugar or anything else at this point go ahead.

Pour into glasses with some ice and enjoy!

The Cake Maker

Creating birthday cakes for friends and family is becoming a trend for me. I was just looking through pictures on my laptop and realized just how many I have done over the last few years.  When I was younger, my Mom and I always made cakes from scratch for birthdays and special occasions. They weren't always the prettiest cakes, but they were made with love. I can remember a certain Roland Electric Piano my Mom made for my 12th birthday.  Maybe the cake gene has been laying dormant all these years.

The first elaborate cake I was asked to do was the "Race Car" cake for my friend's five year old son. I blogged about it here.  I am not a big fan of fondant and have never used it even though you can create the most amazing cakes with it.  I prefer to stick to simpler ingredients.  I discovered I could make a "fun" cake pretty easily as long as I had some time to set aside and lots of online inspiration to get me started. The following summer that little boy's sister asked for a "Castle Cake" which led me to create this:

And then this year that same little girl asked for a "castle" cake again, but this time it had to be The Little Mermaid's castle.  I was stumped for a long time as to how to pull this off, and again went to the Internet to look for pictures of what other people have done just so I could find a starting point.  I ended up with this as my final creation...

I haven't blogged this cake yet as honestly, I am not entirely satisfied with how it came out. I love the details, and there were a lot of details, like these molded chocolate starfish, and the green seaweed that had to be made the day ahead...

I think it is the overall color that I just don't like. The blue is way too fake blue.  If I had to do it over, I would definitely work on that.

Both of those cakes were not my usual style, as I tend to stick to simple colors, straight lines. The cake below was my first cake after culinary school and the first time I played around with ganache.  I found an amazing peanut butter chocolate cake by Smitten Kitchen, whose blog I still regularly check out.  I continue to LOVE using ganache as a way to finish a cake.

And while we are on firsts, I made this cake for my fiance's parents' anniversary party.  These were some of the first cake flowers I ever made and I really needed a lot more practice.  They look more like an older, fading rose than the tight buds you would find at the store.  I still like them.

Next up, the cake I just made for one of my best girlfriend's birthday.

To Do Lists

I am a list maker.  You can fit people into so many categories and List Makers vs Non is one of them.  I don't know very many people who write them like I do, and I wonder how they keep everything together.  Perhaps I love keeping lists because my memory isn't as good as it used to be. Or maybe I just have so many great ideas and plans and I don't want to chance forgetting them. (I think is has more to do with my failing memory).

I have used a series of mini notebooks for years now and just rotate them out as they get full. You could almost look at the old ones as a diary of sorts. Notes I made a year ago giving me a glimpse back into what was important to me at the time.

Top of my list right now is recipe testing and blogging.  Two things that could go hand in hand.  Ideally I would recipe test, take pictures along the way and then blog my creation.  Easy, right? The first part has been going GREAT.  Working on many recipes right now and enjoying lots of new foods.  The blogging part, not so much.  Still working on fitting writing into my schedule.

Some projects I have been working on lately include Sangria.....

Grilled cheese sandwiches with pears... this one is with brie...

And this one has bacon and white cheddar.  Still working on getting the best picture.

Food may dominate most of my life, but I also have a huge "to do" list for my upcoming wedding.  Good thing I actually like event planning, but still, this is overwhelming.  I recently made progress in the area of flowers. I spent time with a florist browsing through over 10 albums full of other weddings she has done. I think this bouquet is pretty fabulous.....

And we have our location, a peaceful garden tucked into a quiet neighborhood close by.  More on that another time.  Now back to getting things done, like making today's grocery list.

What to do with all these peaches

I recently joined a CSA and started receiving a box of fruit every week from a local farm. Last week my box included the peaches and nectarines above. This is so much better than getting fruit at my local grocery store as the fruit is so much fresher and seasonal.  How the CSA works is that I sign up with a farm like Frog Hollow and then pick a local site near me where I want to pick up my shipment each week.   I go there every Wednesday and a beautiful box is waiting for me. 

There is an average of 14 pieces of fruit in each box.  There are only 2 of us in my household which means 2 pieces of fruit each per day.  That's pretty good.  But if we dont keep up with it I could end up with too much really ripe fruit at once and then I need to do something with all of it so it doesnt go to waste.

I cut up some of the fruit and froze it for smoothies which we have been enjoying almost every morning.   Then I got to work testing out some gluten free recipes I have been meaning to try.  Since I had so many peaches I thought a pie and a cobbler would be perfect.  The peaches were so beautiful once peeled and sliced. I am in awe of their bright orange color and red accents.

Baking with gluten free flours can be tricky and hard to adapt from a regular wheat recipe. I have many GF cookbooks at home and looked through them to see if any recipes popped out.  There is a Traditional Pie Crust recipe in Annalise's book "Gluten-Free Baking Classics" that looked good.  I didnt follow her recipe exactly but the main parts stayed the same.  I did substitute earth balance instead of butter as I have a dairy allergy.

Once the crust was made and parbaked for 10 minutes, it looked like any other pie crust.  I prepped the peaches with some arrowroot, a little orange juice and just a sprinkle of brown sugar as the peaches were already so sweet.  Then I lined them in the pie crust as neatly as possible and put it in the oven.

The pie looked great although next time I want to get that glossy look instead of the muted color I got from the arrowroot.  And the crust was good, but not as good as I think it could be. So I will try again. If you want the recipe I used just check out Annalise's book.  I will post my final recipe once I do a little more testing.  I just hope I have enough peaches!

Peaches & Tango..... a Dinner in the Orchard

Peaches & Tango was an event created by the amazing folks at Frog Hollow Farm. This dinner was designed so that guests could dine surrounded by fruit trees while raising money for The Edible Schoolyard.

I was lucky enough to become friends with the farm before this event came to fruition and I happily jumped on board to help.  My role for this farm to table event was to help source ingredients, be one of the Chefs for the evening as well as get the kitchen ready for the guest Chef, Richard Blais.  I snapped this picture earlier in the day while Farmer Al was tasting the pork belly that would be part of the night's dinner. He was extremely pleased.

Here is how the field looked earlier in the day.

The white tent below would turn into an outdoor kitchen set up near the tables so guests could watch the chefs create each dish as the evening went on. And see those large silver tanks off to the left?

Yeah, those are liquid nitrogen.

Late in the afternoon I snuck out to the orchard again to see how the set up was going and was amazed at the transformation.

We did a lot of prep during the day and part of that included creating horseradish pearls that would go on top of the oysters. This meant dropping a horseradish cream into a bucket of liquid nitrogen, which instantly froze it into drops.

We had never worked with liquid nitrogen before but Amy jumped right in and got it going.

As the sun began to set, the guests started to arrive and really brought the dinner to life.  The evening started with passed hors d'oeuvres of Hog Island Oysters, Pimento Cheese Sandwiches and Beet tar tare. 

Then the guests sat down, the Tango started to play and we moved into the heart of the menu.

Here are the courses that were served:

Course One - Chilled Hiramasa with fried chicken skin, smoked aioli and pickled radishes

(image by Carolyn Jung/Food Gal)

Course Two - Cutlet of Petrale with cherry tomato and raisin butter

(image by Carolyn Jung/Food Gal)

Course Three - Grilled Pork Belly with cauliflower and peaches

(image by Carolyn Jung/Food Gal)

And then for dessert, we made a Frog Hollow plum ice cream scooped into cones by Ici in Berkeley.

I heard from so many people about how great the dinner was and how much they enjoyed being at the farm by candlelight. 

And everyone enjoyed meeting Chef Richard Blais.  He was truly gracious with every request for a picture and questions about his time on Top Chef. He was a pleasure to work with. And even at the end of a very long day when we all were so tired, he stopped for a picture with me as well.

I am really looking forward to the next event, who knows, it could be Pears & Salsa or Olives & Mambo. Whatever it is, I want to be there.

A Drive Out to the Farm

My friend Michelle belongs to a couple CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture) and occasionally shares her weekly bounty with me. Through her I was introduced to the folks at Frog Hollow Farm which is a certified organic 133-acre farm in Brentwood, California.  She receives a box from them every week full of fruit that was just recently picked. By eating this fresh and seasonal fruit I have really come to understand just how superior it is to eating fruit purchased at the grocery store that may have been picked weeks ago, while it was unripe.

Michelle and I took a drive out to the farm to see it in person and hang out with Jeff Bordes, the Director of Sales and Marketing.  During our visit we got a tour through the orchard by Farmer Al where we learned about their over 20 varieties of peaches, cherries, nectarines, apricots, pluots and pears.  I was so impressed by Farmer Al's passion for his trees which he planted himself over 30 years ago, that I now appreciate their fruit even more.

We also heard about their plans for the "Dinner in the Orchard" which Jeff was very excited about and we visited the spot where it would be.  He described their vision to transform part of the orchard into an area to welcome guests and create an event where they could dine amongst the fruit trees.

This open field above is used to sun-dry fruit which gets packaged and sold.  The fresh fruit is spread out wood planks and left out in the sun to naturally dry locking in all the flavor.  Jeff knew this would make a perfect spot for the event.  Farmer Al always imagined having live tango music at the farm and thus "Peaches & Tango" was created.

I was on board to help out with this event from the first time I was asked, and then I found out they were asking Top Chef winner, Richard Blais to head up the menu. Imagine my excitement to work with such a talented and well-known Chef. Blais was my pick to win when I first saw him in Season 4. I was so happy to see him come back in Season 8 and win the All-Stars! And now I was about to work with him to bring this Farm to Table event into creation.

The menu was designed "around Frog Hollow Farm’s legendary peaches along with seasonal offerings from our other favorite local farms and ranches. This unique dining experience highlights the talents of Chef Richard Blais while fostering a connection to organic, sustainable foods."  Chef Blais created a menu using local ingredients like oysters from Hog Island, chicken from Soul Food Farms and Peaches from Frog Hollow. 

And what would the dinner be without a little flashy liquid nitrogen, which Blais frequently used on Top Chef.  Imagine the surprise to everyone on the farm when these huge tanks arrived.

I will show you highlights from the event in my next post including the amazing menu.