Anchors Aweigh..

My husband recently said goodbye to the ship he had been serving on for the past four years. It is a big change for us all, but we will definitely not miss the constant deployments. I made cupcakes for him to take on his last day. The anchors and emblems were molded chocolates, luster dusted and placed on top of Italian meringue buttercream.

“What most people need to learn in life is how to love people and use things instead of using people and loving things.”

-Unknown

So Fresh and So Clean..

The newest creation. Stacked four-tier round with fresh roses and matching ribbon. Covered in fondant.

“Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.”

-Unknown

The Way the Cookie Crumbles..

I absolutely love the book, Cookie Craft! I have been using it for years but always used a different cookie dough recipe than the one that came in the book. I finally decided to give it a try and wow! I was pleasantly surprised by the way the cookies held their shape while baking and had not dried out after 3 days, which is how long it took to finish them. I made the regular sugar cookies as well as the chocolate cookies. I will never try another recipe again for these types of cookies. I wanted to practice different shapes so I did a large variety and then did simple decorations.

“God put me on Earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I'm so far behind I will never die!”

-Unknown

When the Devils Food Went Down to Georgia...

I have been trying to get my recipes together for when it comes time to file with the Virginia Department of Agriculture to get my health inspection for business. And since there are several recipes that I either haven't used in a while or haven't used at all, I am trying them out, painstakingly one by one in order to make sure I use the right ones. I needed to try the devil's food cake and cookies n cream filling recipes this week, which also allowed me to try out a cream cheese frosting recipe I had tucked away for a rainy day. I made two cakes this time, Cookies N Cream and Black Forest. The Black Forest cake had a cherry soak and cherries in each layer of filling. This made it more difficult to cut cleanly, but still yummy!

“Life is like a piano ... what you get out of it depends on how you play it.”

-Unknown

His Emperor - Napoleon!

Here is a quick tutorial on how to make napoleons. I didn't include recipes with this because it's a lot to type right now. I used pre-made puff pastry, but I did make the diplomat cream and glazes from scratch. I made two half-sheet pans of pastry which gave me two napoleon logs.

Start with one sheet of puff pastry, thawed and unfolded. Use flour or parchment paper to roll out to the size of the sheet pan. I cut a piece of parchment the size of the pan and used it as a guide to roll out the pastry. Silpats can be used instead. Dock the pastry generously.

Cover pastry with another piece of parchment, then put another sheet pan that is the same size over top of the pastry. This will prevent the pastry from rising too high in the oven and promote even baking.
Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees, then take pan and parchment off the top and return to oven for 7-10 minutes to allow the pastry to brown. It should look dry and flaky. Yum!
Trim the edges of each pastry and cut into three even rectangles.
Place one rectangle on a piece of cardboard. Avoid using a plate if it has any curve to the edges as the pastry is very fragile and will break off if not placed carefully on a very flat surface.
Pipe a dam of diplomat cream around the edges of the first layer of pastry. I piped it twice to make sure it would be tall enough to hold all of the delicious cream.
Fill in the dam with diplomat cream and smooth.
Repeat with second layer of pastry and place last on top. The cream will more like ooze out around the edges even with use of a dam.
Use a spatula or flat knife to scrape the sides. Try to get the extra cream off without breaking the edges of the pastry.
Wrap both logs tightly in plastic wrap and freeze overnight. I put the logs in the freezer unwrapped for about 10 minutes to get it to firm up so that I could wrap it without making a mess. You can use a spatula to transport it to the plastic wrap.
After freezing overnight, take logs out to thaw for about a half hour. You shouldn't try to glaze them if they are too cold because it will cause the glaze to harden too quickly and make it difficult to get a smooth top. I used scissors to cut away the plastic wrap to prevent damage to the logs.
Get your glaze ready. I used the same glaze for this as I do my cream puffs so I didn't show how to make this. Just refer to my cream puff tutorial. I put the white glaze in a piping bag and cut a small tip.
Use a spatula to spread the chocolate glaze over the napoleon. Try to get it as smooth as you can. My napoleons were still a little too cold and made this hard for me. Then pipe lines with the white glaze and use a paring knife or toothpick to drag through the lines, alternating directions, to get a nice design.
Here is what it should look similar to. You could always pipe the lines smaller and closer to get a finer tuned design.
Place the napoleon back into the fridge or freezer to firm it up, then cut into slices.

“If you feel you have no faults, that makes another one.”

-Unknown

Cake Cruise 2009

My mother and I just returned from Cake Cruise 2009, Mexican Riviera cruise with Holland America. We saw presentations from Colette Peters, Susan Carberry, Norman Davis and Zane Beg. I took classes with each of them. We visited Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It was great to get together with other cake decorators and talk about cake!

The cruise ship above and my mother and me in Mazatlan below.

Me with Colette Peters.

Me with Norman Davis and Zane Beg.

Me with Susan Carberry.

“Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.”

-Unknown

Whipped Cream & Chocolate Glaze

I know I said in the Cream Puff Tutorial that I would post the whipped cream and chocolate glaze instructions, too, so here they are:

Chocolate Glaze:

First melt about 1 cup of chocolate chips. I used semi-sweet mini chocolate chips.

Next whisk together:

2 Cups Powdered Sugar

5 tbsp butter (I used salted)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

4 tbsp water (add more if you need it)

You should get a nice glaze

Next pour glaze into melted chocolate and whisk.

Depending on how cold your chocolate has gotten, it might have clumps, which is okay, because you will be putting it over a double boiler and it will remelt.

Place bowl over double boiler (pot of simmering water) to keep warm while dipping.

Whipped Cream

Before hand, put bowl and whisk in fridge or freezer to get cold. Make sure the bowl and whisk are spotless and grease-free.

Pour heavy cream (or manufacturer's cream) into mixer, start mixing on low and gradually turn up to high to prevent splattering.

Whip cream until stiff peaks. We use stiff peaks because we want the cream to hold it's shape inside the cream puffs.

Add 1 tsp vanilla and granulated sugar to taste (I used 1/2 Cup because I like it sweet.)When it's finished, cover with plastic wrap or foil and place in fridge until you need to use it. When you're ready to use it, you can pipe it out of a piping bag with pastry tip or use a handy little contraption like the Wilton Dessert Decorator Pro, shown here.

Note: Unless you use a stabilizer in your whipped cream, which I didn't, anything with the cream in it will have to be refrigerated until ready to eat.

“A deaf husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple.”

-Unknown

Here Cookie Cookie..

So in light of my future Flash class assignment, I had to make a variety of decorated cookies. I made a baby bottle, wedding cake, princess crown and snowflake. I also baked a birthday cake shaped cookie but haven't decorated it yet because it won't be used on the assignment so it can wait. I did very simple decorations because these cookies are being used in a tutorial assignment and I wanted them to be easy. I did do a little piping work on the wedding cake cookie but I couldn't help myself. Well, here they are..

“When you find a job you love, you'll never have to work a day in your life.”

-Unknown