pacific thyme

Project Wedding Cake 2015: The Result!

2015-09-23T15:43:00.001-07:00

The weekend was a success! Yay! I made it through TSA (on the tightest timeline...but that's a different story), carried it on the plane, and was able to frost/assemble with plenty of time before the wedding. I am really happy that it's over, and extremely happy that it turned out so well!! Here are photos of the process:

I packed the cake in a large insulated bag and took it as my carry-on. I was even allowed to take two ice packs in the container.

Layers wrapped and placed in the insulated bag

9 layers, ready to fly!

We got to the airport pretty late, so the Pre-Check line was closed and I had to go through...regular security ugh! ;) The TSA agent did select my bag for extra screening and tested it for explosives. When he opened the bag, he saw all of the layers and asked "What is this? Bread?" I said no, it's a wedding cake, and I'd REALLY like to take it on the airplane. He looked at it and said "I don't know......." (insert my heart beating SO FAST) "......it looks pretty tasty!" I thanked him and snatched the bag and ran to my gate (did I mention we were really late for our flight?). Luckily we made it, and there was space in the overhead bin for the cake to safely sit for the 1 hour flight to Oakland.

Just a normal carry-on?

We stored the cake in my friend Jason's fridge overnight (thank you Jason!!!!) and the next day was frosting/assembly time! The bride and groom were home for the day, and let me assemble the cake in their new house. I got to work in the most beautiful kitchen!! It made the assembly process so enjoyable to have all of that space! And I got to break in their wedding present - a new Tiffany blue KitchenAid mixer :)

Beautiful kitchen to work in!

First up was the bottom layer. They only wanted frosting in between the layers, so I leveled the layers, then lightly brushed them with water mixed with a couple of drops of vanilla. I REALLY wish that I had brushed them with simple syrup, or had a heavier hand with the water mixture. When I tasted the layer as I leveled it, they seemed moist, but at the wedding, I thought the bottom layers were a little dry unless you ate it with a bite of icing. Luckily the icing helped the dryness, but I really wished that I had the simple syrup. I think the several freezer trips + refrigerator trips contributed to drying out the layers (freezing at home, thaw on the plane, freeze overnight, frost, fridge overnight, transfer to venue, fridge until serving...) so I think the syrup would have helped. But like I said, the frosting saved it :)

Bottom layer stacked

I made sure to add dowels to support the weight of the tiers. The cake was HEAVY!!!! Buttercream weighs a lot... I made 2.5 batches of the "wedding cake" size of the Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe... (I made half a batch at a time due to the mixer size, but it worked really well. I also made sure to carefully measure the dowels to the same size, to avoid the leveling mistake from last wedding cake.

Dowels in place

Next up was the middle tier. This was my favorite chocolate cake, and I was planning to just use raspberry jam in the middle. I realized that I needed the height of the buttercream to make the tiers even, so I first spread jam on the layers, then spread buttercream in between each layer. Fortunately the jam made the chocolate layer nice and moist!

Chocolate cake being frosted

I also added dowels to the chocolate layer, then made the top tier just like the bottom tier (vanilla cake with buttercream filling). Then I stacked it all! Here it is with only the crumb coat, and the stacked tiers, not pretty, but it's getting there!

Stacked and ready for final frosting!

I added another layer of frosting on all of the tiers, and also covered the cake boards that the tiers rested on. Then I dragged my spatula and made some texture in the frosting for a "rustic" effect :)

Frosting done!

Ready for the flowers!

At this point, the cake was stored in the fridge until the florist brought flowers to put on the cake. They placed the flowers on top and on each corner of the tiers. We also added a cute pennant cake topper. Here is the final product!!

The finished cake!

The beautiful bride and groom loved the cake, and were so happy to cut it at their wedding.

Cake cutting!

I am so happy with how it turned out! It looked really elegant and tasted (mostly!) great.

True love!

Also, the bride and groom are Polish, and had so many Polish traditions at their wedding, including this amazing sausage wagon. It had tons of sausages, pickles, bread, lard, and vodka. If you were hungry at any point during the reception, you could come slice off a piece of sausage for a snack!

Sausage wagon!

Congratulations Beata and Marcin!! I'm so happy we could celebrate your wedding and that I was able to make your cake, even from long distance! Love you guys!

Project Wedding Cake 2015: Baking!

2015-09-04T10:33:00.001-07:00

I'm happy to report that the cake is baked! I did the whole thing last weekend, and am happy to be over that hurdle. I had forgotten just how much time it takes to bake a 9-layer cake. The problem with not having a commercial kitchen is twofold: (1) I have only one pan of each size, so I have to at least have 3 rounds of baking, (2) a home oven is only so big, so it can only accommodate one large pan, or two smaller pans. If I had two ovens, or more pans, the process would have been faster, but alas.

I made the bottom 14" square and top 6" square tiers a vanilla buttermilk cake, and made the middle 10" square tier a chocolate cake. I actually had to do some math to get the proportions for the 14" square cake, as the recipe only went up to 12" square. Also, because making the batter for 3 layers of 14" square would NEVER have fit in my kitchenaid mixer, I did even more math to scale the recipe to make it one layer at a time. It actually worked really well! Here are some pics:

Cake ingredients and pans ready to go!

The batter for one 14" layer... it filled my entire mixer!

The first layer is baked, and looks great!

All of the cake triple wrapped in plastic, set between cake boards, and stacked in the freezer

I had to do a lot of creative freezer organizing to get everything in there, but it worked out in the end. There's even room for ice cream, because priorities!!

I also did a lot of research on TSA regulations for carrying frozen foods on the plane. Apparently you can take frozen liquid (and ice/gel packs) as long as they are completely frozen at the time of going through security. They can't even melt a little bit. As for other food, if it's not liquid, it's permitted on board. But the caveat is, everything is of course subject to inspection AND the final decision is left at the discretion of the screening agent. So I'm feeling better about my odds of getting the frozen cake on board, but not 100% confident. I may need to take a cupcake or something as a bribe, just in case ;)

I think my true backup plan might be that if they don't allow me on the plane, I'll just go home and drive to Oakland with the cake. While that's not ideal, the 5-6 hours it will take to drive, is actually LESS time than it would take me to re-bake the entire thing, not to mention acquiring supplies and ingredients once I arrive, and the stress on top of it all! Let's hope it doesn't come to that...

Project Wedding Cake 2015: Planning

2015-08-27T22:36:00.000-07:00

I mentioned last post that my next big project is a wedding cake for some good friends in Oakland. Because of the distance between Oakland and LA, I am not making the entire cake at home and driving it to the wedding (like I did last time). That means I have a LOT of pre-planning to do, if I want to make this happen. So here is my plan:

Bake the cakes a few weeks in advance at home, triple wrap in plastic wrap, and store in the freezer. (I always bake big cakes at least a week in advance, and typically 3 weeks out, and freeze the layers, because they are SO much easier to work with when they are frozen!)
Fly to Oakland with the frozen cake layers. I still haven't decided if they will be my carry-on (which I prefer) or if I should put them in a suitcase and check them... I get really nervous when I think about the cakes getting tossed around with the luggage, but I am a little more nervous that TSA won't allow me to carry on frozen cakes... I have carried on baked goods plenty of times, but never a large quantity of cake, and never frozen. I'll need to do a little more TSA research...
Day before the wedding, make the frosting and filling and assemble the cake - I can do this at my friend's apartment where we're staying, or I can do this at the bride and groom's house. I want to be as out of the way as possible, but I also don't want to have to transport the cake after it's assembled. I may take the approach that I did for Heather's wedding, and make all of the tiers separately ready to go, then transport them to the bride and groom's house to stack them and store them in the fridge. I just hope their fridge is big enough!
Day of the wedding, the caterer will transport the cake from the bride and groom's house to the reception venue down the street. No stress for me!!

So aside from the whole flying with frozen cake issue, I think the plan is pretty solid. I will bake the cakes this weekend. The bride and groom requested a three-tiered square cake to feed approximately 120 people. They want the top and bottom layers to be vanilla, and the middle layer to be chocolate. The chocolate layer should have fruit filling, and the vanilla layers should have buttercream filling. The entire cake will be frosted in white buttercream, and decorated with flowers from their florist. I haven't decided what kind of fruit filling I'll make yet, but I'm leaning toward raspberry, as that is usually a crowd pleaser!

I am going to bake the chocolate and vanilla cakes this weekend. Check out the ingredients I'll need for one 14" and one 6" square vanilla cake, and one 10" chocolate cake (each cake will have 3 layers):

17 cups of flour
12.5 cups of sugar
6.5 tbsp baking powder
12.5 sticks butter
7.5 cups buttermilk
29 eggs
8.75 tsp vanilla
2 cups cocoa powder
2 cups coffee
3 tsp salt
4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon

As always, the wedding cake recipe I use comes from the amazing cake book Sky High. I use both the chocolate and vanilla cake recipes for every big cake project that I've done, including the gluten-free wedding cake! They always turn out spectacularly.

I think I will go to Smart and Final to get bulk flour, sugar, buttermilk and eggs!! I'll post again once I've finished the baking, and all cakes are wrapped and in the freezer. Here we go!

2015 Update and New Projects!

2015-08-21T13:13:00.004-07:00

Hi Blog World,
It's halfway through 2015! Where does time go? Over the past two years there have been lots of changes: I moved to LA, I started running and completed 7 half marathons so far, and have tried to live a healthier lifestyle, which means FAR less baking... But I'm still baking for special occasions, or by request :)

Here are some recent baking projects that I've done:

Minion Cake for my nephew's 2nd birthday!

Harry - the newest minion?

Happy 2nd Birthday Harry!

Bridal Shower Cookies and Cupcakes for my dear friend's bridal shower! The theme was 'girly' so I went with pink, white and gold, and used lace as my inspiration.

Lace/doily hearts

More doilies

Strawberry Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Roses

The sweet spread

Zoo Baby Shower Cupcakes for my best friend's baby shower!

Lions and Tigers and Panda Bears, Oh My! (and Zebras!)

Lions!

Pandas!

Tigers!

Zebras!

The whole display!

Pies! My mom and I took a pie making class from the wonderful Kate McDermott (http://artofthepie.com/) and I've been practicing my skills!

Apricot Pie fresh from the oven

Mom and I with our finished pies!

Mom and I with the Amazing Kate!!

Triple Berry pie! (not enough egg wash...but still tasty)

Peach pie ready for the oven!

I have a couple more big projects in the coming month, which I'll be sure to document here. One bachelorette party, and a WEDDING CAKE! The special challenge with the wedding cake is that the wedding is in Oakland...and I live in LA...so there will be lots of travel/logistics involved. Stay tuned!!

Cake Chronicles pt 5

2013-07-17T12:59:00.000-07:00

Hi. I had to take a long break from posting (and baking!) after pulling off the wedding cake. I know you've been anxiously awaiting the finale of the Cake Chronicles series, so here we go :)

As you may recall, I needed to make three cakes for the 300-person wedding: a big tiered chocolate cake, a vanilla sheet cake, and a carrot cake sheet cake. I split the baking into two weekends. Over memorial day weekend, I baked the tiered wedding cake. The following weekend, I baked the two sheet cakes. All in all, I think I spent around 16 hours baking and assembling all three cakes. This is serious business, people! (This shows how much I love you, Heather!!) It's no wonder professional bakers charge so much for their cakes! Now, to be fair, I don't have multiple ovens, or even multiple pans, so each layer had to go into the oven on its own, which means for a 3 tiered cake, that was 3 rounds of 3-pan baking, and then 4 rounds of sheet cake baking. Plus washing and preparing the pans before each round. The baking probably took the most time!

I didn't take any pictures of the chocolate cake baking, but here are some of the carrot cake!

Carrots processing for the batter

For the carrot cake, I used my favorite carrot cake recipe, omitting any nuts and raisins. I used my ~~engineering degree~~ math skills to determine that for a 2-layer sheet cake, I would need 3 batches of the recipe (which normally makes enough batter for two 9-inch round pans). I made 1.5 batches at a time because I only have one sheet pan.

Carrot cake batter!

After baking nine layers of chocolate cake (three 14" squares, three 10" squares, and three 6" squares), and four layers of sheet cake (two carrot, two vanilla), I put everything in the freezer (and...nothing else). I used creative stacking techniques to make sure it all fit! The freezer door piece posed a problem, so I had to raise the big cakes to clear the door shelf that stuck out on the bottom. But everything fit, and it gave me a great excuse to clean out my freezer!! The 14" square tiers are stacked on the right side, the layer cakes on top, and the 10" and 6" tiers on the bottom.

Cake for 300 people in my apartment freezer!

On Thursday night, I flew home from my job in Portland, and started the frosting component for these cakes! Here are the ingredients: buttermilk, cream cheese, strawberries, sugar, maple syrup, and lemon juice. Not pictured: LOTS OF EGGS.

Frosting ingredients!

I made swiss meringue buttercream for the big tiered cake, and colored it VERY light pink. And I made strawberry swiss meringue buttercream for the vanilla sheet cake, and maple cream cheese frosting for the carrot cake. Here is the swiss meringue buttercream starting! Yes, that is 10 sticks of butter you see. I was making a LOT of frosting!!

Egg whites heated over simmering water, and frozen butter thawing.

A pro-tip: if you have frozen butter (or frozen anything) it thaws significantly faster if you place it on a metal surface, like a baking sheet, rather than a counter. The metal conducts heat and thaws the frozen items much faster than a counter-top can. How's that for an engineering degree? :)

Time to assemble! Here is the big 14" layer. First, I leveled the layers, and then I spread a centimeter or so thickness of frosting on the layers (not a technical measurement... it may have been 1/4 inch...but it was enough to be a nice layer between the cake layers!). Also - I always frost frozen cakes. They are so much easier to work with, and as long as you leave plenty of time to defrost (overnight is best) then you're fine!

Frosting the cake

I just used a plain white meringue buttercream for the filling and crumb coat (thin layer on the outside of the cake) because I would be covering the cake in pink icing later. Here is the 10" cake filled and the start of the crumb coat!

Crumb coat

Once I filled and crumb-coated each of the three tiers, they went into the fridge overnight.The next morning (Friday) was the big frosting day! I started by making the pink buttercream for the big tiered cake. I made another batch of swiss meringue buttercream and put a few drops of red food coloring to turn it a light pink. FORTUNATELY, I had plenty of frosting. If I had to make another batch, I have no idea how I would have matched the color. I did count how many drops I used...but color matching is hard! Make more frosting than you need!!

Pink frosting ready for the cake!

When you're making a large tiered cake, you need to use dowels to support the tiers. I ordered these paper dowels to use and cut them to the height of my cake. Here's where I nearly encountered disaster. I DID NOT MEASURE THE DOWELS. I can't believe that I did this, but I was in a big hurry, and I laid the dowels next to each other and cut them to what visually was even. However, later in the day when I was stacking the cake at the venue, it was clear that the dowels were slightly different heights, and the cake was lopsided!! Luckily I had extra frosting and was able to put frosting on the lower side to even it out, but it was NOT something I wanted to have happen, and I really lucked out that I was able to fix it. Please measure your dowels and don't trust that they "look" even. A slight difference can really throw off the tiers :(

Dowels going into the cake

I frosted the cake with pink frosting, and added a strip of burlap and lace to the bottom of each tier. Each tier was on its own cake board, and went into its own cake box and back into the fridge while I made the frosting for the sheet cakes.

For the vanilla sheet cake, I made a strawberry swiss meringue buttercream. This is the exact same buttercream recipe that I used for the chocolate cake, but I pureed strawberries and poured the puree into the finished buttercream and mixed it in. I didn't strain the puree, because I liked the look of the seeds in the frosting. Plus, this was not a cake that would be on display! I also sliced some extra strawberries to go in the middle of the layers :)

Strawberry cake being frosted!

After the strawberry cake was done, I made the maple cream cheese frosting. I was WAY overzealous on the ingredients for the frosting. For whatever reason, I thought I would need 5 batches of frosting for this cake (even though I only made 3 batches of batter!) so if you are in need of cream cheese, I have plenty in my fridge :) I ended up only making 3 batches of frosting, and still had tons left over.

Carrot cake being frosted!

And here is the finished carrot cake!

Finished carrot cake!

I boxed up the two sheet cakes and packed up the car to go down to Clovis. I was planning to take the cakes directly to the venue, where they would be refrigerated overnight and I could assemble the tiered cake in the morning before the wedding. As we were driving to Clovis, I got a phone call from my friend telling me that there was no refrigerator space at the venue! So my mom came to the rescue and had me take the cakes to her office, where they were stored in a big commercial refrigerator. Thanks, Clovis Unified District Office! :)

The day of the wedding was 100*F in Clovis...which means certain death for buttercream frosting. Luckily there was an air conditioned room at the venue. We went out to the venue and I got to stacking the cakes. As I mentioned previously, I had a little scare with the uneven dowels (ugh) but was able to fix it and the cake came out beautifully!!

The cake!

The florist saved some flowers for me to put on top of the cake, and they were really beautiful!

Burlap and Lace

Heather ordered this really cute custom wooden cake topper. I hope she saved it! :)

Heather + Jonathan

Congrats to the beautiful bride and handsome groom!!!

my best friend is married!!!!

I've taken a full month off baking after these three big baking projects, but look forward to more delicious things soon!

Read the rest of the Cake Chronicles Series:

(1) Cake Chronicles
(2) Cake Chronicles pt 2
(3) Cake Chronicles - Intermission
(4) Cake Chronicles pt 3

(5) Cake Chronicles pt 4

(6) Cake Chronicles pt 5 (you're here!)

Cake Chronicles pt 4

2013-05-29T15:32:00.003-07:00

It's time for cake number 2 of the big baby shower weekend! I assembled and decorated this cake on Saturday morning before heading to the shower in Clovis, so this cake would have a full day to defrost in the fridge before the shower on Sunday. This dinosaur cake turned out to be BIG. I made two sheet cake layers, one vanilla and one chocolate, and frosted them with green swiss meringue buttercream frosting. As usual, I started with the first layer straight from the freezer, but I put it directly onto the nice cake board. I always cover the edges with foil so that I can frost the cake, then remove the foil once I'm finished and I don't get any frosting on the cake board!

first layer in the cake box, on the foiled cake board

Once I put a coat of frosting on top of the first layer, I stacked the next frozen layer on top.

Two layers stacked and ready for a full frosting coat

I actually ended up using ALL of the green frosting for the first coat, and had to make a new batch for the grass. I couldn't believe how big this cake was! I decided to make just half a batch of frosting for the grass, sure that it would be enough. To make the grass, I used a grass tip and piped it in rows all over the top of the cake. My friend Viviana helped me pipe half of it because my hand got really tired!!

Piping the grass

About two-thirds of the way through the grass, it was clear that there wasn't going to be enough frosting to finish the whole thing. I tried to make another batch, but colored it WAY too dark green, and got really frustrated. Then my friend suggested that I use some of the leftover fondant to cover a big area - so genius! I rolled out some leftover fondant from the western cake, and made a big dinosaur egg! Then I had just enough frosting to cover the remaining portion of the cake :)

Covered cake!

I also used 4 containers of piroutte cookies to make the "fence" around the cake. It was fun breaking the pieces to different heights and eating the scraps :) Then I put the toy dinosaurs on top, and voila! The cake was finished! Here is the final product!

Dinosaurs roaming

Finished cake!

Everyone loved this cake, too! It was funny to see discarded plates - people definitely had preferences for chocolate or vanilla cake, so I'm glad I made both! We ended up with plenty of leftovers for people to take home, as well. Congrats mama!! Aunty Erin can't wait to meet this little dude!

Happy mama-to-be!

Read the rest of the Cake Chronicles Series:

(1) Cake Chronicles
(2) Cake Chronicles pt 2
(3) Cake Chronicles - Intermission
(4) Cake Chronicles pt 3

(5) Cake Chronicles pt 4 (you're here!)

(6) Cake Chronicles pt 5

Cake Chroncles pt 3

2013-05-29T13:17:00.004-07:00

This past weekend was showtime for two of the three large cake projects. On Friday, I did the assembly of the western cake. I had planned to assemble both the western and the dinosaur cake, but I got a little caked-out and decided it would be ok to push the dinosaur cake assembly to Saturday morning before I left for Clovis. To start the western cake assembly, I made a big batch of swiss meringue buttercream frosting (it really is the best!).

yum frosting!

After the frosting was made, I needed to fill the cake. First I took the cake from the freezer and put it on a cake board, directly into the cake box (since I would be transporting it to Clovis). I find it easiest to work directly in the box, so I don't have to move the cake once it's finished!

ready for a layer of frosting!

Once I frosted the top, I put the other frozen layer on top, and gave the whole thing a quick crumb coat (thin coat of icing). The cake was to be covered in fondant, after all, so I didn't need to use a whole lot of icing, or even make it look nice :)

before frosting the sides

I didn't take a photo of the cake with it's full coat of frosting, but just imagine that cake above with a thin layer of frosting on the sides. Now we're ready for fondant! On the same day that I baked the cakes, I made a big batch of fondant (first time ever!) using Annie's recipe. I colored about 40% of it red, and left 60% of it white. I kept it wrapped up in plastic wrap, placed in a ziplock bag for the two weeks until I needed to use it. I love when things can be made ahead of time! Since I started with the bottom layer, I took the white fondant and rolled it out to about 1/8 inch thickness (totally imprecise, as you can see in the photo below, but it worked....mostly).

fondant rolled and ready for the cake

I rolled the fondant on my rolling pin, and then unrolled it over the cake. As I've said, this was my first time every working with fondant (I've never even used store bought! I really hate the stuff, but this homemade kind actually tasted ok), so I did a couple of things wrong. First, as you can see below, I definitely did not roll it into a perfect circle. or perhaps large enough. Ideally I would have had a lot hanging over the edges so I could trim it and it would fit perfectly on the cake. I had to do a bit of smoothing magic... Also, I read a tutorial on how to smooth the fondant down onto the cake, and seriously, that was NOT easy, and it did not work very well.

pre-smoothing

I'm going to chalk this up to my lack of experience with fondant, but I had to do some folding and cutting of the fondant to make it lay flat on the cake, so I had several seams. LUCKILY, I had a way to cover up those imperfections... cow spots!

post-smoothing (and I photographed the 'good' side)

For the cow spots, I purchased a pre-made fondant set from Michaels. My experience with coloring frosting for sugar cookies led me away from trying to color my own black fondant (making white frosting a true black is HARD!) Also, this pack of fondant had both black and browns, which I'd need for the rope! So it worked out. I rolled the black fondant out and free-cut a bunch of cow spots. Then I placed them strategically over any rips, seams and wrinkles on the cake!

cow print strategically covers flaws :)

The bottom was all finished! Then I had to repeat the process with the top. Unfortunately, I did not have the same kind of opportunity to cover flaws in the fondant with the top, because I wasn't using any spots (or any fondant decor) on the top tier! So I tried REALLY hard to roll the red fondant out in a big nice circle, and made it as flat as I could. There were still several places where I had to rip and cut the fondant to make it lie flat on the side of the cake... I really don't know how to get around that, but I guess it will come with practice (if ever...). But I did strategically pipe the paisley bandana details along cracks to disguise them as best as I could! If people looked really closely at the cake, they could see all of the problems, but most people didn't :)

Cake Chronicles - Intermission

2013-05-14T10:50:00.001-07:00

It's about to be baby shower weekend! I'm gearing up for a fun-filled day on Friday of decorating both baby shower cakes (see descriptions here). But as I am out of town for work, aside from cake planning, I've been prepping for these baby showers in other ways :) First, I picked up some amazing baby Nikes for both of the mamas! I'll post pics after the showers to keep the surprise. Second, I am also in charge of party favors for the second baby shower, and I made them last night :)

I went to Michaels and got dinosaur stickers, ribbon and clear baggies, and filled them with mints, hersheys kisses, and bubbles!

the supplies

It took about an hour to make and fill forty baggies, but it was a fun project to do while watching Netflix in my hotel room. I think they turned out to be very cute!

finished favors!

I still need to figure out what is going to go on top of the cakes. I need to find toy dinosaurs for the sheet cake, and either a toy cowboy hat or toy boots to go on the cowboy cake. Fortunately, I have a couple of days left to search!

Read the rest of the Cake Chronicles Series:
(1) Cake Chronicles
(2) Cake Chronicles pt 2
(3) Cake Chronicles - Intermission (you're here!)
(4) Cake Chronicles pt 3
(5) Cake Chronicles pt 4
(6) Cake Chronicles pt 5

Cake Chronicles pt 2

2013-05-08T23:06:00.001-07:00

Continuing the series on the giant cake project I am attempting, I am proud to announce that (some of) the cakes are baked! Following my cardinal rule of large cake projects, I plan and prepare as far in advance as possible. I like to bake the cakes themselves 2-3 weeks before the "big day" so that when the event day comes, stress levels are minimal, and if anything goes wrong, there is plenty of time to make it right!

Last weekend (two weeks before both baby showers) I baked both baby shower cakes. One cake is a two-tiered, round chocolate cake using my favorite chocolate cake recipe of all time, from the best cake book in the world, Sky High. I made two layers per tier: one tier is 12" round, and the other is 8" round. The Sky High cake book provides recipes for triple layer cakes, 6, 8, and 10" square. I used a single recipe (the 10" square version) and it made the perfect amount of batter for one 12" round and one 8" round, which I baked at the same time. If you're keeping score at home, this means I made two batches of batter, and did two rounds of baking, to get all four layers. According to this sizing guide, this should be enough cake for ~80 people. Although as I type this, I'm kind of worried that I won't have enough cake... we'll see.

The other cake is a sheet cake. I made one layer chocolate, using the same 10" square recipe which was plenty for a sheet cake - yay! I also made one layer of buttermilk vanilla, which comes from the same cookbook, although here's a smaller version of it already on the web. I baked the 12" round recipe which was enough for the sheet cake, but the batter was too much for my 7 qt mixer!! I had to dump it into a giant bowl and mix in 14 eggs by hand.....yeah that's an experience I don't want to repeat.

So to recap, I made three large batches of chocolate cake batter, and one large batch of vanilla cake batter. Four rounds of pans in the oven later, all of the cakes were baked! I wrapped them in triple layers of plastic wrap, put them on cake boards, and put them nicely into the freezer, where they will wait for May 17th!

I didn't take any pictures of the actual cake process (oops), but here are some before/after pictures:

Shopping for cake pans at the restaurant supply store in Oakland

Post-visit to Costco: giant bags of flour, sugar, powdered sugar, eggs, butter, cinnamon, vanilla, buttermilk and cocoa powder

Cakes wrapped and stacked in the freezer

Read the rest of the Cake Chronicles Series:
(1) Cake Chronicles
(2) Cake Chronicles pt 2 (you're here!)
(3) Cake Chronicles - Intermission
(4) Cake Chronicles pt 3
(5) Cake Chronicles pt 4
(6) Cake Chronicles pt 5

Cake Chronicles

2013-05-06T13:20:00.000-07:00

I am about to embark on a few very large cake projects, and I want to document this process so I can look back one day and remember how absolutely crazy I was :) In the span of a month, I have offered to make cakes for three very important events. Here's the rundown:

May 18: baby shower for one of my best friends. There will be 80-100 people at the baby shower (can you tell how loved that baby will be?) and the cake will be chocolate with the possibility of fondant (cowboy theme). I have never made or worked with fondant. Photo inspiration: http://goo.gl/AKMhE
May 19: baby shower for another dear friend. There will be 40-50 people at this shower. It will be a dinosaur cake. I have no idea what that means yet, but I'll have to figure that out within the next two weeks! Also the cake will be a yellow cake, with buttercream frosting. Photo inspiration: http://goo.gl/kq4ht
June 8: my best friend's wedding. There will be 300 people at the wedding. This requires a lot of cake. I plan to make one big "show" cake (three tiers, chocolate cake, pink buttercream frosting), and two sheet cakes to keep in the kitchen (one carrot cake, and one vanilla cake with strawberry lemon buttercream). Photo inspiration: http://goo.gl/p55xZ

The location of each event is also important. The baby shower on the 18th is in Fresno, the baby shower on the 19th is in Oakland, and the wedding on June 8 is in Clovis. Aside from the Oakland shower, the travel time to Fresno/Clovis is 3 hours, which means I'll need to transport the cakes long distance. Here's the game plan:

Bake the baby shower cakes in advance and freeze
On Friday May 17th, decorate both cakes
On Saturday May 18th, drive to Clovis with the big cake, leave the other cake in the fridge in Oakland.
Weekend of June 1, bake the wedding cakes
On Friday June 7, drive all the wedding cakes to Clovis.

Next up - baking the cakes!

Read the rest of the Cake Chronicles Series:
(1) Cake Chronicles (you're here!)
(2) Cake Chronicles pt 2
(3) Cake Chronicles - Intermission
(4) Cake Chronicles pt 3
(5) Cake Chronicles pt 4
(6) Cake Chronicles pt 5

Xocolate Bar!

2012-11-12T22:43:00.000-08:00

Oh hi there. It looks like it's been almost exactly 1 year since my last post... oops? I didn't mean to abandon my little corner of the internet, so let's pretend that I just hibernated for an exceedingly long winter and now I'm back :) I actually didn't come here with a recipe for you (yet), but instead to tell you about an awesome time I had tonight taking a chocolate-making class!

My mom and I got LivingSocial vouchers to go to a chocolate-making class taught by Clive at The Xocolate Bar, in Albany, and oh man it was DELICIOUS! We learned how to temper chocolate, make fillings, use molds, and really work a bench scraper. I really wanted to post about it tonight because otherwise I'll forget all about it, and I don't want to forget about this deliciousness!

Tempering machine... so neat!

Above is the tempering machine. You put a bunch of chocolate in it, and it heats it up to about 120 degrees, and then you add some "seed" chocolate (or just more chocolate pieces) and it lowers the temperature to a controlled 87-90 degrees. Then it's tempered! Home chefs would do this using a double boiler (bain marie) and a candy thermometer, but it requires a lot more effort.

Mmm ganache fillings!

We made several types of fillings: a salted chili (which was surprisingly delicious!!), a coffee cream, and a whiskey filling. The fillings are pictured above, and oooh it was hard not to just eat it straight from the bowl! But patience...we have bonbons to make!

Filling the molds

We first took melted dark chocolate (about 68 percent) and poured it into the poly-carbonate bonbon molds. These molds are serious business... they are like badass ice cube trays (because you can fill them with chocolate and whiskey ) Then we let the molds sit for about 15 minutes until the chocolate hardened around the edges, but was still liquid in the middle. Then you dump out the middle, so that the chocolate is only on the edges, like so:

Chocolate cups - almost ready to be filled!

Once the middle is dumped out, it's time to scrape off the excess from the mold, to have a nice clean surface. To do that, you take a bench scraper and give it a good scrape!

All scraped clean!

Mom shows off her excellent bench scraping skills

Now we're ready to fill the bonbons! Put your filling in a pastry bag, and pipe away! Into the bonbon shells...not your mouth! (I had to remind myself of this)

Piping in some whiskey ganache

While we waited for the ganache to set in the fridge... we made THESE! Well, the caramels were pre-made by our teacher earlier in the day, but we got to dip them in chocolate!

Caramels ready to be dipped!

We just dropped the caramels into the tempered chocolate, shook 'em off, and put them on a foil-lined cookie sheet.

Chocolate coated caramel...mmmmm

After we put them on the cookie sheet, we sprinkled a generous pinch of good sea salt on top. Some of the caramels got fancy and had a cocoa butter transfer put on top. Those are pretty!

Caramels. Salted + Dressed up!

After the chocolate filling had time to set in the fridge, it was time to take the bonbons out of their trays! We gave them a good smack onto some cutting boards, and bam! Delicious bonbons appeared!

Bonbons banged out of their molds!

Here's a close up of the salted chili bonbons. These were GOOD!

Salted Chili bonbons

And here is the smorgasbord of bonbons we made. I will try to name them all (clockwise from top left): Hazelnut (gianduja), milk and honey (these were shaped like boobies!), coffee cream, tamarind (these were shaped like buddha!), Aztec chili, salted chili, whiskey, and orange cream. Not pictured: coconut flake, and bali vanilla. Yes, we made a LOT of bonbons!!

Bonbon smorgasbord!

Here are the coconut bonbons.

Coconut bonbons

At the end, we dusted some of the bonbons with lustre dust, to make them fancy :) Here, the Aztec chili got a bit of shiny pink!

Aztec Chili bonbons

And here, the tamarind buddhas get a dusting of gold!

Tamarind Buddha bonbons

The class was so much fun! My only regret is that Clive (the chocolatier) gave us a very tiny box to fill up with chocolate to take home. So I ate as many as possible while we were there, and filled my box to capacity (luckily I had a rubber band to keep it closed!). Next time, I'm bringing tupperware ;) My favorite chocolates were the salted chili, and the chocolate-covered caramels. I totally recommend the class!

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

2011-11-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

On the day after Halloween, Starbucks started using its signature red holiday cups. It got rid of pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin scones, and introduced peppermint mochas and holiday blend teas. Did I miss something? How can they skip fall and Thanksgiving and go right to Christmas?? It's not time for peppermint yet! It's still pumpkin season! And you should expect several more pumpkin recipes as we approach Thanksgiving :)

This cheesecake was a request from one of my coworkers. He asked for pumpkin cheesecake, but I decided to keep with a traditional cheesecake base, and swirl pumpkin into it. It turned out so well! This cheesecake is seriously yummy, and not overly-pumpkiny (can there even be such a thing as too much pumpkin?) so it's a nice compromise for cheesecake lovers and pumpkin lovers and before you know it, the whole pan is gone!

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake
adapted from Elegant Made Easy and Gingerbread Bagels

Ingredients
Crust

1 1/2 cups crushed graham cracker
3 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
½ cup melted butter

Cheesecake

3 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
3 eggs
8 oz. sour cream
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Pumpkin Swirl

2/3 cup of pumpkin puree
2 Tablespoons of flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions

Add cookies and sugar in a food processor; pulse until ground. Add in butter and pulse.
Press mixture into a 13×9 buttered or parchment lined pan.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
For the cheesecake, cream the sugar, cream cheese, and flour with an electric mixer on medium until light and fluffy.
On medium low, add eggs one at a time, mixing well with each addition.
Add sour cream and vanilla and mix until just combined, then set cheesecake mixture aside.
In a separate bowl, combine the ingredients for the pumpkin swirl (pumpkin puree, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger).
Add 1 cup of the cheesecake mixture to the pumpkin swirl mixture, and stir until combined and smooth.
Pour the plain cheesecake mixture over crust and evenly smooth out.
Add dollops of approximately 1 teaspoon of pumpkin-cheesecake mixture every few inches. Take a wooden skewer and run it gently through the pumpkin mixture and cheesecake mixture to make swirls.
Bake for approximately 35 – 40 minutes or until set.
Let cool and then chill in refrigerator for at least 2 hrs before slicing.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

2011-11-08T14:11:00.000-08:00

I first learned about making your own vanilla extract last summer, and ever since then, I've slowly been accumulating empty jars so I can make it! It is totally easy, and I'm excited about packaging up my homemade vanilla to give at Christmastime.

First: get yourself some cheap liquor. At least 80 proof, and plastic bottles are preferred :) (but seriously...don't waste good alcohol on extract. Save it for cocktails!) I got some "Early Times" bourbon and some "Kavlana" vodka. Never heard of those? Good. You should never actually drink them. They come in big, plastic bottles, and are cheap cheap cheap.

Next: get yourself some empty jars. I saved my pasta jars for the past several months. Anything that seals well will do.

Finally: get yourself some vanilla beans. I ordered these beans from online. You can order as much or little as you want. In retrospect, I should have ordered 1/4 lb (or even less...) because I have a LOT of beans left over... but that's ok because they keep forever! More vanilla extract for all!

To assemble: take a sharp paring knife and slit the vanilla beans all the way down, leaving about 1 inch at the top, to hold the bean together. Then put the split beans into a jar and pour alcohol over them. The rule is: 3 beans per 1 cup (8 oz.) of alcohol. I put 2-3 cups in each jar, so 6-9 beans per jar!

Seal the jars, and place in a cool, dark spot for about 2 months. Shake them periodically to distribute the vanilla, and in 2 months, you will be ready to package up the vanilla to give away, or use in your favorite chocolate chip cookies :)

Recipe Source: Joy the Baker

One-Bowl Pumpkin Bread

2011-10-16T22:16:00.000-07:00

It's fall, which means it's time for pumpkin recipes! I made this ridiculously easy pumpkin bread one night and brought it to work the next day. It truly is one-bowl. You put all of the ingredients into a bowl, mix it all together, then bake it up (either one bundt pan or two loaf pans) and then you'll have some very yummy bread! I think this might be the most popular thing I've ever brought into the office (and I've brought in a LOT of treats!!). I don't think it lasted more than 30 minutes in the kitchen. I'll let the feedback speak for itself:

"Thanks for bringing pumpkin cake for us! It is super delicious. I am mind blown. I didnt even know pumpkin could taste so yummy!"
"Your pumpkin bread made my day! This whole side of the office is in a coma just enjoying."
"holy goodness"

As if you needed any more convincing...make this now!

Pumpkin Bread
Makes 2 loaves or one bundt pan
from A Muse in my Kitchen
Note: there is a green print button at the bottom of this post. You can choose to print this recipe with pictures or without, and you can also choose which text to include in the printed version (i.e. recipe only) Try this link if you want to print the recipe!

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 cups pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling!)
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 cup water

Directions:

Mix all ingredient together.
Pour into 2 loaf pans sprayed with baking spray (or one bundt pan).
Bake one hour at 350 degrees.
Let cool, then remove from pan and dust with powdered sugar, if desired

Easy Butterscotch Cookies

2011-10-10T23:26:00.000-07:00

A very exciting thing happened this weekend: the digital camera that I purchased was delivered!! I was very excited to photograph a new recipe, but I was house-sitting this weekend, which meant that I didn't have my usual supplies (read: no stand mixer...oh no!). I actually welcomed this change - it was a chance to get back to basics in the kitchen...except with the addition of a new camera!

This recipe is very easy, and I'll bet that you have all of the ingredients on hand at this moment. It doesn't require any ingredient that isn't a pantry staple (which is why it was perfect to whip up in another person's home) and just requires a big bowl and a sturdy spoon for mixing. I really loved stirring the cookies together, then rolling them in sugar before baking. They bake up beautifully and are SO yummy! They have an almost caramel flavor, with a very chewy interior with a crunchy sugary exterior. Their aroma is pretty heavenly, too :) Browning the butter is an extra step, but doesn't take any more effort, and makes these cookies oh so good...! Make them soon and share them with friends (or kitties that you are watching for the weekend)!

sneaky kitty!

Butterscotch Cookies
adapted from Simply Recipes
Yield: Makes ~4 dozen

Ingredients

12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups brown sugar (dark, if you have it)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Sugar Dredging

1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons sugar
Kosher salt or sea salt, for sprinkling* (reserve for sprinkling on top...do not mix in with the sugar)

*Do not use fine grain table salt (aka: iodized salt) as the flavor will be way off and unpleasant.

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder and set aside.
Mix together the sugar dredging mixture in another bowl and set aside.
Place butter into a thick-bottomed skillet over medium heat. The butter will foam a bit before subsiding.

the butter is on its way!

Once the butter takes on a tan color and begins to smell nutty take it off of the heat and pour it into a mixing bowl. (See Elise's tutorial on how to brown butter.)

yum browned butter bits!

Once the brown butter is in a mixing bowl , add the brown sugar and salt and mix.

Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and mix together.

Add the flour mixture in three increments, being sure to really scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, but mix just until the flour is incorporated. The dough will be very thick.

Take 1/2 to full tablespoon-sized pieces of dough (you can make them however big you like) and gently roll them into ball shapes.
Dredge them in the sugar dredging mixture until well-coated.
Place on the baking sheet and sprinkle with a little bit of the sprinkling salt (be reserved with the salt as very little goes a long way).

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges have browned a bit. Be careful not to over-bake. (I baked mine for 10 minutes) Allow to cool on the sheet for one minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Hi Hat Cupcakes!

2011-09-29T16:20:00.000-07:00

Just look at these babies. Moist chocolate cupcakes, towering pillars of marshmallow, and a hard, thin chocolate shell. Mmmmm...

Like most impressive treats, these do take some time, but they're actually not at all difficult. And look at them! These are hi hats! These are worth it!

The recipe is posted below, but there's a really great picture tutorial from King Arthur Flour you can look at for step-by-step instructions.

Chocolate Hi Hat Cupcakes
recipe slightly adapted from Martha Stewart and Tracey's Culinary Adventures

Ingredients:
Cupcake Batter (Martha says this makes 12 cupcakes, but I doubled the recipe and got WAY more than 24. I think this recipe makes about 16 cupcakes.)

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream

Marshmallow Frosting

3/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup meringue powder

Chocolate Coating

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate)
3 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil

Cupcake Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.
Put the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and heat in 15-second bursts, stirring in between, until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder together.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or with a regular hand mixer), cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
With the mixer on low, add the melted chocolate and beat to combine.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate each completely before adding the next.
Mix in the vanilla and beat until the batter is creamy and the color has lightened a bit, about 1 minute.
Add the sour cream and mix until the white streaks disappear.
Finally, with the mixer on low speed, alternately add a third of the flour mixture, then half of the water, then another third of the flour mixture, the rest of the water, then the remaining flour mixture, beating just until combined.
Divide the batter evenly among the prepared liners, filling each with about 1/3 cup of batter (the wells will be quite full, and the cupcakes will bake with tops that rise slightly over the edges of the pan).
Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until the cupcakes spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove the muffin pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes before removing the cupcakes from the pan to the rack to cool completely.

Marshmallow Frosting Directions

(you can also make marshmallow frosting with egg whites. Martha has a recipe for that)

Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Once boiling, remove the pan from the heat and add the sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar completely. Let cool to room temperature. (I put it in the refrigerator to speed up the process)
Add the meringue powder to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or use your hand mixer!), and add the cooled sugar water and beat the mixture on medium to medium-high speed until stiff peaks form, about 10-15 minutes.

Cut the end off of a piping bag or ziploc bag, and fill with marshmallow. I put the bag into a drinking glass, then fold the bag over the mouth of the glass. It makes it easier!

Pipe the marshmallow onto the cooled cupcakes in a tall, swirl pattern. First I piped one circular layer, then another smaller one on top, then another, etc. You want the frosting to look almost like a soft serve cone of ice cream would. If it takes a few tries to get it right, don't worry - you can scrape the frosting off the cupcake easily and try again.

Once all the cupcakes have been frosted, put them in the freezer for a few hours.

Chocolate Coating Directions

Combine the chocolate chips and vegetable oil in a microwave safe bowl.
Heat in 15-second bursts, stirring in between, until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth.
Let the chocolate cool slightly before you start dipping the cupcakes.
Transfer the chocolate to a tall cup with an opening wide enough for the cupcakes. I used a margarita glass - I found that it was the perfect shape and depth!

Holding each cupcake by its bottom, turn it upside down and dip it into the chocolate - you want to cover all of the marshmallow frosting but not the cupcake itself.

Lift the cupcake out of the chocolate, but continue to hold it upside down over the cup of chocolate to allow the excess to drip off.

Turn right side up and transfer to a platter.

Use a toothpick to touch up any spots at the base of the cupcake that may not have been covered.

Once all of the cupcakes have been dipped, move them to the refrigerator to allow the chocolate to fully set.

Store the cupcakes in the refrigerator, but let them sit out at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Making a Wedding Cake

2011-09-28T21:28:00.001-07:00

It is such a treat to be asked to make a wedding cake for my friends. I love sharing in their special day, and making a beautiful, yet tasty cake. (And of course, sparing the couple the expense of a $500+ cake!) Having only made two wedding cakes, I'm no professional, but I have learned some very helpful tips and tricks along the way. So with that, let's make a wedding cake!

First: plan, plan, plan! Almost every part of a wedding cake can be done ahead of time, so you don't need to have one day of stress - spread out the tasks to make it easy on yourself! You can bake the cakes up to three weeks in advance, just triple wrap the layers in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer. Also, freezing cakes makes it very easy to work them later: frosting a frozen cake means fewer crumbs to deal with. Fillings can be made several days ahead, as well as frosting. Just keep in the refrigerator, and bring the frosting to room temperature before using. Now that you've planned, let's bake the layers!

This particular cake was intended to serve 30 people. I wanted a two-tier cake, with the bottom tier an 8" square, and the top tier a 6" square. Each tier was 3 layers, making a nice, dramatic height. I've used the same recipe for both wedding cakes that I've made, and it is GOOD. It comes from the best cake book of all time, and it is chocolate! Everyone loves chocolate! And the best thing yet: the recipe adapts perfectly for a gluten-free cake! I just substituted the cake flour that the recipe called for, with a gluten-free all-purpose flour mix that I made. It worked so well! The texture was lovely, the cake was moist, and it was oh-so-chocolatey. I will post the recipe in a separate post later. Once the cake is made, triple wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer.

Next, make the filling. The couple requested a cherry filling, so I got dark canned cherries, and added brandy, lemon juice and corn starch to thicken the filling. I heated the ingredients on the stove until the filling simmered down into a delicious syrup-y sauce studded with sweet cherries. Then I let the filling cool as I leveled the cakes.

To level the cakes, there are a couple of approaches, that I like to call the Easy Way and the Hard Way. The Easy Way: purchase a fancy cake leveler, then use it to create nice, even layers. The Hard Way: measure the height at various places and place a toothpick at the desired height, then cut using the toothpicks as your guide. Can you guess which way I chose? Yep. The Hard Way. But it was kind of fun :) Here are some photos:

Now that the cake is leveled, wrap them in single layers of plastic wrap and place back in the freezer as you make your frosting. The frosting that I like to use for wedding cakes is Swiss Meringue Buttercream. My kitchen is a No-Fondant Zone (the stuff has no taste! give me frosting!) so I turn to buttercream to get a nice smooth finish, that is actually delicious to eat! Swiss Meringue Buttercream may seem scary, but I think it's fairly easy to make. Deb has a really great post detailing how to make the buttercream. Join with me - Say NO to Fondant!!

Once your frosting is made, it's time to assemble the cake! Take your layers from the freezer and lay it on whatever surface will be easiest. I am terrified of moving the cake once it's frosted, so I filled and frosted it directly in the cake box that I was going to use to transport the cake. Put the first layer down, then spread on the filling, leaving about a half inch space before the edge. Repeat with all layers. Now the cake is ready to frost!

Let's start with the crumb coat. This is a thin layer of frosting designed to seal in all of the crumbs. This is especially important for a dark cake and white icing, because you don't want dark flecks of cake showing through in the frosting! Spread the frosting so that the cake is neatly covered, then add a second coat! Now you have a finished tier. Repeat with the remaining tiers, then place in the fridge until the wedding day! This can be done up to three days in advance. I frosted this cake the night before, but a few days in the fridge is fine.

You've made it to the wedding day! It's time to transport the cake to the reception location. I had a 50-mile drive...and I was terrified! I put the cakes on a towel in the back seat of my car so that they would be as level as possible during the ride. I also drove the entire route in the slow lane...which is a feat for me ;) I nervously avoided all instances of speed bumps, slamming on my breaks, or sharp turns. Thankfully, the cakes all survived the drive without any issues! I also packed a cake "doctor's bag" to take to the reception location. I packed: two containers full of extra frosting, pastry bags, tips, an off-set spatula, a plastic spatula, a roll of paper towels, a wet rag in a plastic baggy, aluminum foil, and a bag for trash. I also packed raspberries to decorate the cake, and extra filling to serve with the cake.

Now it is time to assemble the cake! First, cover your stand or plate with little strips of foil or parchment paper to keep the edge clean. Carefully remove the bottom tier from the cake box and place in the center of your stand. Now add more frosting! Clean up any imperfections from your original frosting coat by running the spatula along the sides and top of the cake with a thin layer of frosting. It's important to put more frosting on the top so that the next tier will have something to hold onto. I didn't use any dowels in this cake because it was small, but if it were a large cake, I'd have used dowels to hold the tier together. The tiers each sat on a cake board, though, to make it easy to separate the tiers later when slicing and serving.

Next, carefully add the top tier. Repeat the smoothing and additional frosting. Again, put more frosting on the top so that the decorations have something to hold onto. Now you are ready to decorate! The raspberries are ready.

I covered the top of the cake and the top of the second tier in raspberries, keeping it very simple. I also piped a little row of pearls along the bottom of the cake to hide the cake board, and because I think it looks pretty :)

Ta-da! The wedding cake is done!! Here is a picture of me with the finished product:

But more importantly, here are photos of the bride and groom with their cake! (Photos from Hagop's Photography)

Lastly, I baked one extra top tier so that they could freeze it and eat it on their first anniversary. Here's a pic:

Congrats Jay and Jenn!

Shaved Asparagus Salad

2011-05-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

This salad is my new obsession. The recipe couldn't have come at a better time - the markets are bursting with the first bunches of asparagus, and that means summer is almost here! This salad is incredibly light, crisp, bright and refreshing. It is a perfect side-dish that takes next to no time to prepare - yay! It can be customized in any number of ways, but the recipe I'm posting below is my favorite flavor combination so far. I honestly had never considered eating raw asparagus before...but now I'm not sure if I'm going to roast it ever again ;)

Shaved Asparagus Salad
from Smitten Kitchen

First, there are no exact measurements in this recipe - everything is to taste, so taste as you go along to make sure you’re getting all the parmesan, nutty, and lemony flavors you want (or however else you want to customize the salad)

1 pound asparagus, rinsed
1 lemon, halved
1/4 cup pine nuts or sliced almonds, toasted and cooled
Olive oil
Coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 ounces shredded or grated parmesan cheese

No need to snap off the tough ends of your asparagus, just lay a stalk of asparagus on a cutting board. Holding onto the tough end, use a vegetable peeler to shave off thin asparagus ribbons from stalk to tip, peeling away from the tough end in your hand. Discard the tough ends once you’re done peeling. (I was left with some asparagus parts that wouldn't shave, but I found that I had plenty of ribbons for a very satisfying salad). Gently pile your ribbons on a medium-sized serving platter or in a medium bowl. Squeeze some lemon juice over the asparagus, drizzle it with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle it with parmesan cheese and salt and pepper. Toss gently. Sprinkle with some toasted nuts and serve immediately!

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

2011-02-08T19:20:00.000-08:00

I used to think that sugar cookies were only for Christmastime. I used to make them with my mom on Christmas Eve, along with a gingerbread house. We'd frost them and pour sprinkles on them, and put them out for Santa. But since reading Annie's tutorial on how to decorate with royal icing, I've discovered that sugar cookies can be for any occasion!

I had some girlfriends over for a Valentine's cookie decorating party - it was so much fun! We made lots of icing colors and had sprinkles and just went to town decorating a ton of cookies and watching The Bachelor :)

I've tried several types of sugar cookies over the past year, but this recipe is my new favorite. It is my Aunt Kathy's recipe, and everyone who has tried these cookies loves them! I took a big batch into work today, and even people who said they don't normally like sugar cookies loved these! So there you go - these cookies convert people. You should whip up a batch!

Aunt Kathy's Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
[yield approx. 5 dozen cookies, depending on how big you cut them and how thick you roll them out. I rolled them to 1/8 inch]

Ingredients:

3/4 c. butter
3/4 c. shortening
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 c. sour cream
3 egg yolks
1/2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
6 c. flour

Directions:

Cream butter, shortening, sugar in large bowl. Set aside.
Add baking soda to egg yolks in a medium bowl.
Combine sour cream, yolks and vanilla; mix well.
In another bowl, sift salt, flour, and baking powder.
Add flour mixture to creamed mixture, alternating with the sour cream mixture. (Aunt Kathy's note - this dough can get pretty crumbly at this stage, so don't be afraid to use your hands to mix it together!)
Roll out dough and use cookie cutters. (There is no need to chill the dough before rolling it out. In fact, it makes it much harder to do so. I chilled my dough and ended up needing it to be warmer in order to roll it out. Just use a well-floured counter, and you'll be good to go!)
Bake at 350 about 10 minutes depending on thickness.
Decorate with royal icing.

Starbucks' Pumpkin Scones

2011-01-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

One of my girlfriends loves Starbucks. She is in law school and frequently studies at the Starbucks near her house. She loves to get a chai latte and a pumpkin scone, and is upset if she arrives too late in the day and the pumpkin scones are all gone! She asked me once if I could make these scones for her, so I found a recipe that I wanted to try. She came to visit this past weekend, along with our other two best friends for our annual girls' trip, and we made these scones together. They were heaven.

They weren't at all hard to make, and they were DELICIOUS! Pumpkin scones from that coffee shop will never be the same. H - I hope you make these again and pack them with you when you go studying!

Starbucks' Pumpkin Scones
from Recipe Girl

Ingredients:
-Scones -

2 cups all-purpose flour
7 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground ginger
½ cup canned pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
3 Tbsp half and half (or whole milk)
1 large egg
6 Tbsp cold butter, cut into cubes

-Plain Glaze-

1 cup plus 1 Tbsp powdered sugar
2 Tbsp whole milk

-Spiced Icing-

1 cup plus 3 Tbsp powdered sugar
2 Tbsp whole milk
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
pinch of ground ginger
pinch of ground cloves

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray or line with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients (through ginger).
In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half and egg.
Use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut butter into the dry ingredients. Continue cutting until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. (You may also use a food processor for this step. Pulse until the mixture resembles fine crumbs).
Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, then form the dough into a ball. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick circle that is about 9-inches in diameter.
Use a large knife or a pizza wheel to slice the dough into 6 equal portions (think slicing like a pizza into 6 pieces with 3 cuts through the circle)

Bake 14 to 16 minutes on prepared baking sheet. Scones should begin to turn light brown.
While scones are cooling, prepare plain glaze by combining ingredients in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed. Mix until smooth.
When scones are cool, use a brush to paint a coating of the glaze over the top of each scone.
As the white glaze firms up, prepare spiced icing by combining ingredients in another medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed. Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone and allow the icing to dry before serving (at least 1 hour). A squirt bottle works great for this, or you can drizzle with a whisk.

Yield: 6 scones

Martha Washington's Great Cake

2010-11-29T06:35:00.000-08:00

Hello, there! I'm Amanda, Erin's old ADX roomie. I would like to share with you a lovely recipe for Martha Washington's Great Cake.

I currently live in Arlington, Virginia, which is only 10 miles away from Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. I recently went on a candlelit tour of Mount Vernon, and received a copy of Martha Washington's recipe for her Great Cake, which she traditionally served on Twelfth Night (January 6th, the last day of Christmas, or Epiphany). Twelfth Night was also the Washingtons' wedding anniversary; they were married on January 6, 1759. I was excited to try out an authentic 18th-century recipe, and I hope you will, too!

Martha's original recipe is a bit daunting, as copied down by Martha Parke Custis, the second of Mrs. Washington's four grandchildren:

Take 40 eggs divide the whites from the yolks & beat them to a froth then work 4 pounds of butter to a cream & put the whites of eggs to it a Spoon full at a time till it is well work'd then put 4 pounds of sugar finely powdered to it in the same manner then put in the Youlks [sic] of eggs & 5 pounds of flower [sic] and 5 pounds of fruit. 2 hours will bake it add to it half an ounce of mace and nutmeg half a pint of wine and some frensh [sic] brandy.

Needless to say, I possess neither pan nor oven (nor social callers) sufficient to bake a cake that calls for 40 eggs. Thankfully, Mount Vernon provided a recipe adapted for the 21st century.

Martha Washington's Great Cake
adapted from Mount Vernon

Ingredients:

10 eggs
1 lb butter
1 lb sugar
1 1/4 lbs flour (20 ounces)
1 1/4 lbs assorted fruit & nuts
2 1/2 tsp ground mace
2 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 oz wine (I used cooking sherry)
2 oz French brandy (I used E&J VSOP)

The recipe recommends certain fruits and nuts based on what would have been available to Mrs. Washington. I largely followed the recommendations, with the exception that I substituted dried cranberries for the suggested raisins, because I loathe raisins.

Fruit and nuts:

5 oz of pear (peeled, cored, and diced) (I used two Cortland apples)
9 1/2 oz of apple (peeled, cored, and diced) (I used one Bosc pear)
3 1/2 oz of dried cranberries
2 oz of sliced almonds

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Separate egg whites from yolks and set yolks aside.

2. Beat the egg whites to a "soft peak."

3. Cream the butter.

4. Slowly add the beaten egg whites, one spoonful at a time, to the butter. (Note: Pretty much every step of this recipe should be done "slowly," as suggested. I disobeyed the "spoonful at a time" instruction, and it was very difficult to coax the egg whites and the butter to interact.)

5. Slowly add the sugar, one spoonful at a time, to the egg whites and butter.

6. Add egg yolks.

7. Add flour, slowly. (Note: I added a 1/4 cup at a time.)

8. Add fruit.

9. Add ground mace and nutmeg, wine, and brandy.

10. Lightly grease and flour a 10-inch spring-form cake pan. (Note: I only had a 9-inch spring-form cake pan, so I set aside enough batter for six cupcakes, which worked out nicely.)

11. Pour batter into pan and bake about 75 minutes.

I had a bit of a complication at this point: my new spring-form pan leaked! Imagine my dismay when I smelled burning, only three minutes into baking. To remedy the leak, I wrapped the bottom of the pan in tin foil, and placed it on a baking sheet, which solved the problem.

12. Allow cake to cool after baking. (Note: the cake was golden brown after 75 minutes, but seemed rather moist. Don't worry--it will solidify as it cools.)

I baked the "Great Cupcakes" for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. To get them out of the pan, I ran a sharp knife around the edge, and then used a fork to pry them out. Don't forget to grease and flour this pan, too!

18th-Century Icing
adapted from Mount Vernon

Ingredients:

3 egg whites
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon peel, grated
2 tbsp orange-flower water (I used 1 tbsp orange extract)

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Beat three egg whites and 2 tbsp powdered sugar. Repeat additions of sugar until you have used 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar.

2. Add 1 tsp grated lemon peel and 1 tbsp orange extract.

3. Beat until the icing is stiff enough to stay parted when a knife cuts through it. (Note: I don't think I ever reached this point, even after switching to the electric hand mixer. Don't despair--it'll still work out if it's a bit soupy!)

4. Smooth it onto the cake. (Note: my method for icing the side of the cake was to put a dollop of icing on the top edge, and then allow gravity to help me along as it slid down the side.)

5. Let it dry and harden in 200-degree oven for one hour. (Note: icing will be brittle when cut with a knife.)

All told, this cake required a very lengthy process. It is a good recipe for a Saturday afternoon at home. I was intrigued by how the cake came out; my taste testers and I agreed that it was more like a delicious fruit cake than anything else.

My favorite part of this recipe was the frosting, which functions much like a meringue. I want to try it on other baked goods!

-Amanda

Caramel Corn

2010-10-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

If not for Halloween, when would we eat things that are sweet and sticky and bound to rot our teeth?
When you make this caramel corn...the answer might just change to every day.

I hope this recipe finds you in time. It's Saturday evening, and you're probably preparing the final touches on your costume and getting ready to go to a fun Halloween party, or host one of your own. But it's still not technically Halloween, so you have one more day to make this AMAZING caramel corn...and make everyone around you very, very happy.

Luckily, you probably have all of the ingredients for this on hand already. It takes almost no effort to prepare, and is an instant hit. The unique thing about this recipe is that once you dump the caramel sauce all over your popcorn, you bake it in the oven for an hour. Orangette says "In the oven, the caramel, which had started to harden as you stirred it into the popcorn, gets a chance to soften again. You can now stir it into the popcorn more easily and evenly. The whole, gooey mess will crisp spectacularly as it cools, and the kitchen will smell outrageous."

She wasn't kidding. I couldn't even bring myself to let it bake for the full hour. I made it to 20 minutes, did the first stir, and let it sit in the oven another 10 minutes before I couldn't bear how amazing my kitchen smelled, and how I had to have that caramel corn now. (I ate it right then and there...without allowing it to cool as recommended...and it was still INCREDIBLE).

Caramel Corn
adapted from Orangette

Orangette's recipe notes:

Be sure to have a whisk and a rubber spatula close at hand. You’ll need them both on short notice.
Before you begin cooking the caramel, measure out the baking soda and the vanilla, and set aside in small bowls. You won’t have time to do it later.
Do not try to make this recipe without a candy thermometer.

Ingredients

1 (3½-ounce) package plain (unbuttered natural flavor) microwave popcorn, or about 10 cups fresh popcorn popped by any method, lightly salted
1 cup packed light brown sugar
¼ cup light corn syrup
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 250°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
If using microwave popcorn, pop the popcorn according to the package instructions. Coat a large mixing bowl with nonstick cooking spray, and dump the popcorn into the bowl, taking care to pick out and discard any unpopped kernels.
In a medium saucepan, whisk together the brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, salt, and 2 tablespoons of water. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.
Continue to simmer, whisking often, until the mixture reads 250°F on a candy thermometer, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Immediately remove the pan from the heat, and whisk in the baking soda and vanilla.
Quickly pour the hot caramel over the popcorn. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold the caramel into the popcorn, taking care to distribute it as evenly as you can.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour, stirring and turning the popcorn with a spatula every 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, and place on a cooling rack for 20 minutes. Gently break up the popcorn, and serve.

Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days (or thereabouts).

Halloween Sugar Cookies

2010-10-19T00:18:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year! Time for pumpkin recipes, fall soups and chilis, and of course, decorated sugar cookies! This was my first time using this royal icing technique. I've seen it everywhere: beautiful cookies with a beautiful matte sheen layer of icing, decorated in every possible color. I was lazy and only wanted to use one color (ok, two if you count the normal white). I followed Annie's tutorial on how to flood a cookie with royal icing, but basically, you take normal royal icing, pipe it along the edge of your cookie, then let it sit for about 30 minutes. Then take some of the icing, add a little bit of water to it, until it is thinner and runs off your spoon, and then "flood" the interior of the cookie, using a toothpick to help bring the icing to the edge.

I made these cookies pretty late at night, so I didn't take any pictures of the process :( But it's really easy to make a cool spiderweb design: before flooding the cookie, take some of the thinner icing and put it into another container. Color it with black food coloring, and then proceed to flood the cookies with the white icing. After flooding, while the icing is still wet, put some of the black icing into a pastry bag with a tip attached, and pipe a "target" onto the cookies (as shown in my horrible MS Paint drawing below).

Then take a toothpick and drag lines from the center of the cookie, outwards, pulling the black circles into a spider web! Let the icing harden overnight, and you will have beautiful spiderweb cookies!

Sugar Cookies
adapted from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
2 ½ cups flour

Directions:
Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to ¼” thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yields ~24 cookies.

Royal Icing
from Alton Brown

Ingredients

3 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

In large bowl, mix the egg whites and vanilla with an electric mixer until frothy. Add confectioners' sugar gradually and mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated and mixture is shiny. Turn speed up to high and beat until mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks. This should take approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Color if desired, and transfer to piping bags for use.

-Erin

Orangette's Wedding Cake

2010-10-16T08:26:00.000-07:00

On Orangette/Molly Wizenberg: I've been a huge fan due to my old roommate and reading her book just made me a even bigger fan!! Another friend of mine saw her at Gregoire's and emailed her... too bad they didn't become friends, since I would have loved to meet her! I so want to go to DELANCY in seattle!!!

So, after reading A Homemade Life by Orangette's Molly Wizenberg, the first thing I wanted to make was her chocolate cake. Granted it was also her wedding cake and a cake she calls "the winning hearts and minds cake," I had great expectations. The recipe calls for 5 eggs and 1 tablespoon of AP flour something I have never run across with cakes. (I'm a not big cake fan, pie any day over cake, but I was intrigued as I usually am with reading new and different recipes!)

I decided to make this cake for a friend's belated birthday, she had strep and the flu over her birthday weekend and I thought I should add guinea pig to Eunice's attempt at Orangette's cake recipe.

You are only supposed to use one 8" round cake pan but I was afraid it would puff up too much but then again I wasn't thinking about the ingredients so I put 1/5 of the batter into another cake pan so my sister who kept putting her finger in the batter could try some. BUT remember there wasn't any leavening agents! NOTE: all the pictures are of the cake from extra cake pan (1/5th of the normal size).

The Winning Hearts and Minds Cake
from A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg

Ingredients

7 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 C + 2 T granulated sugar
5 eggs
1 T unbleached AP flour

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375F

2. Butter a 8" round cake pan, line the bottom with a round of parchment paper and butter the paper (this is important in order to have better ease at removing the cake at the end)

3. Put chocolate and butter in a microwavable bowl, microwave on high for 30 sec at a time, stirring until smooth (OR use a double broiler to do the same)

4. When mixture is smooth, add sugar and incorporate well

5. Set batter aside to cool for 5 min

6. Add the eggs one by one, stirring well after each

7. Add flour and stir to mix well (batter should be dark and silky)

8. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for about 25 minutes (set the timer to 20 min and check cake every 2 min). The top is lightly crackled and edges are puffed and the center only jiggles VERY slightly.

9. Remove the cake and cool for 15 minutes in the pan

10. Carefully turn it out of the pan then flip onto a serving plate so the crackly side faces up

11. Cool completely

END product: a very THIN, but very moist, dense CHOCOLATY cake like a flourless chocolate cake but with a subtle lightness. Molly says to serve some lightly sweetened with whipped cream.

** All the pictures where taken of the cake made from 1/5th the batter so the cake should not be as thin as pictured above **

- Eunice

Moussaka

2010-10-10T18:30:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, my boyfriend introduced me "Greektown" in Chicago and took me to this fabulous restaurant called Pegasus. I couldn't pronounce one thing on the menu! Greek food to me was kebabs, falafel, and gyros. Luckily, he knew what he was doing and ordered for us.

When the food finally arrived, I was blown away by one dish in particular: the moussaka. Moussaka is a dish based on ground meat and eggplant layered with a bechamel sauce. It...was...unbelievable. So unexpected, so unassuming, and oh so wonderful. I had never had such flavors present in a meat dish before. It reminded me of Christmas. From then on, I have ordered moussaka at every Greek restaurant I go to, but nothing compares to the one at Pegasus....

...until now. I have been experimenting with different dishes over the summer, but this one seemed the most daunting. I ended up using two different recipes for reference, which can be found here and here. It came out great! It did not look as pretty as Pegasus' dish, but the familiar flavors were all there. It's just so good. :)

Moussaka
(adapted from the Gastronomer's Guide to Moussaka)

Ingredients

For the eggplant layers:

3 long globe eggplants
coarse sea salt (I used Kosher)
olive oil (~1/3 - 1/2 cup)

For the meat filling:

2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped (I used around 5-6 cloves because I love garlic)
1 pound ground turkey (It's traditional to use beef or lamb, but I had turkey on hand)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 15-ounce can crushed tomatoes (I used fresh crushed grape tomatoes)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon parsley
coarse sea salt
freshly ground pepper

For the béchamel sauce:

4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
2 cups fat-free milk
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
coarse sea salt
freshly ground pepper
6 ounces pecorino Romano, grated

Directions

To make the eggplant layers, cut off ends and cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch thick slices. Liberally salt both sides and let stand in a colander set over the sink for at least 30 minutes. Cover them with an inverted plate that is weighted down by a heavy can or jar. Place the colander in the sink so that excess moisture can be drawn out. Rinse with water and pat dry.

Heat oil in a large heavy-bottomed sauté pan on medium-high. Fry eggplant slices for 3 to 5 minutes per side until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the meat filling, heat the butter and oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the turkey and cook until brown, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the wine, tomatoes, tomato paste and cinnamon. Simmer until liquid has reduced, about 15-20 minutes. Add the parsley and season with salt and pepper.

To make the béchamel, melt butter over low heat. Using a whisk, add flour to melted butter whisking continuously to make a smooth paste. Allow the flour to cook for a minute but do not allow it to brown.
Add warmed milk to mixture in a steady stream, whisking continuously.
Simmer over low heat until it thickens a bit but does not boil.
Add half the grated cheese and continue to whisk until melted. Add the nutmeg and season with salt and white pepper.
To assemble, layer the bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch greased baking dish with the eggplant slices, making sure to overlap edges. Spread with half the meat mixture. Add another layer of eggplant slices and spread with the remaining meat mixture. Cover with remaining eggplant slices. Spread with half the béchamel and sprinkle with remaining grated cheese. Bake from 30 to 40 minutes until bubbling around the edges of the pan. Remove and let cool for 30 minutes. Serve squares with remaining béchamel sauce and either homemade or store-bought marinara sauce on the side. Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Before the oven.

And after.

-Traci