Bertie's Bakery

Paris Cupcakes

2012-08-28T18:37:00.001-04:00

The heat wave has finally passed and it is now acceptable to cook in my kitchen again! If you follow along The Boss’s “Paris Blog”, you will see here (the Notre Dame house) that the kitchen is about the size of my pinky finger. Without A/C in this joint and the temps hanging out around 98 degrees last week, I had been banned from turning on anything that could possibly create more heat in our house.

But alas, I give you, Paris Cupcakes! The toppers are hand piped using royal icing. What do you think?

I can’t tell you how popular cute little dogs are here in Paris! They are so well behaved too. In fact we have noticed that restaurants are a lot more welcoming to customers with little doggies than they are small children!

Sadly, I have not seen a pink French Poodle in person yet… only in sugar!

I especially love having the little Eiffel Towers in the background of these pictures. It’s fitting because I feel like where ever I am in the city, the tower is lurking somewhere behind!

Some of you have emailed and asked how the transition is going. I can tell you that we are in love with it over here, and hopefully you can see that in my cupcakes!

And lastly, I leave you with my Instagram photo of all of the poodles! Are you on Instagram? follow me for sneak peeks of what’s happening in real time in my little kitchen!

So far I have covered the French Poodle and Nutella! Are there any other iconic Paris symbols or flavors you want to see me tackle?

Nutella Banana Cupcakes

2012-08-06T20:30:00.001-04:00

You have read correctly! I have been in Paris for a mere month and I have already been absorbed by one of their most used and abused ingredients! Nutella. If you have ever walked past a crepe shop then you must have seen the number of combinations these guys can pair with this chocolately hazelnut treat.

For anyone who is not completely up to speed on what a crepe is, I’ll give you a little crash course. Basically on every street in Paris you can find signs like this:

Crepes come in both forms of “Sucrees” and “Savory”, otherwise known as dessert or dinner crepes. They are basically very thin, large pancakes that they make right in front of you. Once both sides have hit the heat, they spread the ingredients of choice on top and then fold it together into a triangle shape for easy eating while on the go.

So far my obsession has fallen squarely on the Nutella Banana option, and I don’t see that changing any time soon! But I had to ask myself, if I am going to make a go of it with a cupcake shop here in Paris, could I do justice to converting a Parisian staple into an American cupcake? I think so!

It began in the way that all of my new recipes do. With pencil and paper.

I broke out all of the main characters, and then made adjustments as I went along.

I will note that it is a significantly different experience baking in my new “galley style” kitchen than it was when I could bask in the open space of the kitchen back back in Virginia. Though it’s not a bad thing working in this kitchen, as it forces me to be a lot more organized going in to it and makes me clean up as I go!

After a short bit of time finding all the right tools scattered about our kitchen, the first batch of cupcakes for Bertie’s Bakery in Paris were ready to take the oven!

You will noticed that I ultimately decided against using the Nutella in the cupcake batter itself since I think it would have made the cake quite thick. This is not to say in the future, I would not go for a thicker, solo themed Nutella cupcake, but for now I wanted a lighter cake. So for this reason, I went with a banana cake and focused the Nutella aspect on the buttercream.

This was a good idea!

Believe me, the Nutella supply in Paris might just be in danger of a shortage. This might just be the best buttercream produced in my kitchen! I might have to have a show down between my Mexican Chocolate buttercream and this new Nutella buttercream!

Thanks for everyone’s patience while I have settled in over the summer. It has been a crazy schedule to say the least, but I am finally feeling like I have found my place in my new home. There is soon to be a stream of baked goods back on the Bertie’s Bakery horizon!

And as an FYI to any Paris locals, I am looking for taste testers so if your interested let me know!

Happy 1st Wedding Anniversary!

2012-07-06T12:32:00.000-04:00

Wow, where did the year go? It is very hard to believe that just 12 months ago (and 4 days) The Boss and I were tying the knot!

While this post is a little late, it is not because I forgot. Packing up the house, moving over seas, and trying to settle in all while battling a language barrier has proven more time consuming than one first thought. Great examples of such battles are trying to get the electricity turned on, hot water running, and all of the toilets to flush… in French!

Now I don’t want you to think I am belittling the fact that we are celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary by comparing it’s importance to a toilet flushing or electricity, I just want to make sure you don’t think I’m a bad wife who forgot to mention this important date. During this busy time we have reflected a lot on our first year of marriage, and having to temporarily “camp” in our new home is just one more thing we have learned to laugh about together this year.

I promise to only post a picture montage of our wedding once every 5 years. Technically I didn’t’ do much of a wedding post after the wedding as I was preoccupied enjoying the honeymoon! It will be interesting in the years to come to see home much we have changed! I hope you enjoy my trip down memory lane!

The Preparations:

“The First Look”:

*Due to the our decision to have our beachside wedding in the early evening (mostly to save our guests from the blazing afternoon sun), we had to get our wedding photos done before the ceremony. At first I was very against seeing The Boss before the ceremony, but in the end I think it took the edge off of everyone! So, to make our first “meeting” a little more special for The Boss and I, the wedding coordinator and photographer allotted a little extra time in between preparations and family photos for us to see each other alone.

Then it was time to get going! It was “Formal Wedding Portrait” time!

Okay, so we had a little fun before the “formal pictures”. Below is the wedding party in it’s entirety, sans mustaches, and a good looking bunch I might add!

The Ceremony:

This is it, if The Boss had any second thoughts he’d have to make a break for it now!

Above is my sister and I “Shot Put” high-fiving. It’s a long standing inside joke that we have, and it was just what I needed before she was the last to leave for the aisle with the flower girls!

Mission complete!

So that’s it. Another year come and gone in a flash!

Come back soon as I am hoping to be completely settled in Paris very soon, and I then I can wow you with some French inspired pastries!!

La patisserie de Bertie???

2012-06-26T01:00:00.000-04:00

WOW, it has been a long time since I have been able to put up a post! Truth is, I’ve been a busy lady. But I haven’t been baking. In fact I have not touched my beloved KitchenAid since my last batch of baby shower cookies. So what have I been doing?

I have news that I have been withholding from you.

I have BIG news that I have been withholding!

My husband and I are moving to Paris!! Yep! I can’t believe I just said it out loud, but it’s finally happening!…Tomorrow!

This will soon be my new stomping ground!

Now, what does this mean for Bertie’s Bakery? Quite honestly I have no idea. I have had to turn down cake and catering jobs for every weekend of this summer and the early fall, and I am so bummed. I finally felt like I was planting my feet with the business and I had made some really great connections with people within the Northern Virginia area. Now, I am packing up shop (quite literally) and crossing the pond where nobody knows my name. Nervous would be a good descriptor word for me about now!

At this point I would like to clarify that “me having no idea” what is going to happen to Bertie’s while abroad by no means means that I am giving up on my bakery dreams and aspirations, or on this blog! In fact, where else in the world could a young pastry artist go that could open up more doors of opportunity than Paris?? The art of French pastries is something that I am very eager to master. My biggest challenge will be harnessing all of my Bertie’s Bakery ideas!

Here are a few ideas:

* Beg for an internship at a high class pastry shop

* Spend all of my $$$ on enrolling in a full time pastry school

* Try to make fondant cakes the new “must have” for French parties

* Teach at home workshops to those interested in the “American” style of cake, cupcake, and cookie decorating

* Introduce the “Cupcake Truck” to the Paris population (The Boss and I have researched this and there is a surprisingly low number of food trucks in Paris)

* Start a new “Paris Bakery’s” Blog, whereby I visit a new bakery within the Paris limits everyday and give an “In-Depth Review” on the shop (DCR readers will find that funny).

* Have my own stand and sell Bertie’s Bakery's custom cookies and cupcakes at the local food market.

Above: These were my latest, yet not posted cookies!

That’s just a few that have crossed my mind.

If there is anyone reading this who is in Paris or has connections in Paris to anyone within the pastry/desserts/chocolate world please get in touch. I would love to hear from you!

I would really like to say thanks to all of my North American readers and supporters! I hope that you do not think that I am abandoning you. We will come back someday, and when that happens, I promise to bring with me some seriously good recipes!

Be sure to tune in through out the next few days for updates on the move, and especially for the VIEW from our new home!

Sad time at Bertie’s Bakery

2012-05-25T00:05:00.000-04:00

So there comes a point in every household that you just have to do some gutting. Others would say “house purging” or simply “spring cleaning”. This occurrence has been happening around my house a lot lately. After a while, you run out of space. I could just make a massive pile of things and stack, squeeze, cram, and jam things into every nook and cranny like we are accustom to seeing on the newest reality TV shows about “hoarding”, but I personally believe in the less is more concept. If I were designing a house or cake studio of my own, minimalist would be worked into the style.

So why is this a sad time?

Because it was time for some of Bertie’s Bakery’s first cakes to go:

Don’t scream…

But the Award Winning Triathlon Cake had to go too. You know this cake STILL ranks in the top of all of my page views week after week! Over two years later you guys are still showing the love! Don’t worry, someday I’ll make a new and improved triathlon cake!

There’s more:

To this day, the tuxedo cake is still one of MY favorites! I am surprised there are not more “grooms cake” requests for it. I think it looks really classy on a side table next to a big elegant wedding cake. But that’s just me.

And yes. The triathlon cake went in the garbage sideways. The cake base was too big to fit otherwise. You could definitely say that the swimmers in the bottom left had corner are lucking out with a “down river” swim! Ha! (I know I am not funny).Realistically this isn’t “that” sad. The triathlon cake was ridiculously well documented by The Boss who photographed the bejesus out of it. It will not be forgotten among the the triathlon community nor by me at the bakery. The other cakes as well have all seen their time in the spotlight and are now fading, cracking, or simply collecting dust. It was time.

So again, you might ask, why is this “sad times at the Bakery” if I am so okay with the cleaning up and moving on process? Well, for me, putting the cake in the garbage was one thing. I said my good bye’s (no really, I talked to the cakes for a while… the Boss was both laughing at me and worried), the cakes understood, they new it was time.

But what I couldn’t handle, what really really wrenched my heart was when I came home in the evening after the garbage man had done his rounds and saw this:

It was a massacre. I was horrified. I had hand molded each and everyone of those swimmers. Their little hands, swim caps, and goggles. That was it. That was what made these “sad times”. Seeing my little guys smooshed into the driveway. That’s just no way to go.

I’m just hoping that the long weekend (here in Paris!) will be enough to take my mind off of them!

Au revoir!

Onesies Baby Shower Cookies

2012-05-23T01:13:00.000-04:00

It was a long weekend of piping and flooding cookies, all 52 of them! The cookies were for a good friend who was hosting the party. I tried to keep the onesies as “neutral” as possible since the parents didn’t yet know the gender of the baby.

And now, since I am super tired, I am simply going to save you from having to read any half sleepy ramblings and just post photos of the “bests of”. Enjoy!

These were the glamor shots. Now I have to pack them up and get them ready for transport! I have a super high tech carrying device that keeps the cookies safe.

Who knew Staples would even specialize in supplies for the cookie world!?

Thanks for taking a peek. See you on Friday!

Princess Barbie Birthday Cake

2012-05-21T01:36:00.000-04:00

In the past I have mentioned that I respond to “Call to Actions” with a non-profit organization called Icing Smiles. Icing Smiles is a group that coordinates professional (or skilled hobby) cake decorators with families with a chronically ill child. I explained a bit more about the organization here when I made my last cake for Icing Smiles. Unfortunately with the last cake the young boy had a lot of diet restrictions so the cake I made for him was not able to have fondant or food coloring. Even though the cake tasted great and the family loved it, I still felt bad that the cake wasn’t a super exciting and character-like cake. So this time when I received my call to action I knew I wanted to make it really special!

Princess Barbie, pink, and everything pretty were the words used by the mom to describe the style of cake her daughter would want. So I tried my best to get all kinds of “pretty” on the cake!

Here’s a closer look at the details:

This was my first time using edible paper and edible ink! I was very pleased with the quality from my new cake printer!

This was also my first attempt at making a tiara. Personally, I loved it! Very girly. It wasn’t supposed to super detailed or realistic looking in attempt to keep it looking really playful.

I love ribbon roses!

I like to finish off the back of the cake with buttons. I think it gives it more playfulness.

The cake was a white cake with chocolate buttercream, just as the birthday girl requested! And by now I’m sure the cake is all gone!

If you would like more information on the awesome non-profit organization Icing Smiles, or you would like to find out how you could get involved or give support, you can go directly to their website. I think that their mission is wonderful and would love to help keep it going strong!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Bertie Travels Through Paris!

2012-05-14T00:01:00.000-04:00

I have to say, I am a lucky gal! The Boss had work this past weekend in Paris and I was beyond excited to be able to travel along with him! Having never been to Paris before, I had many “to-do’s” on my list! And since I am still pretty excited about my trip and I tend to talk a lot when excited, I’ll try to keep the post to pictures and quick comments about what was happening in each picture!

There are lots of photos, so enjoy! (Oh, all of my pictures were taken using Instagram)

1) First there was the whole airplane thing! “All Aboard!”

2) We flew through the night and arrived just in time for breakfast!

(Yes, you read correctly… this was breakfast!)

3) The next day we took the “Velib” (an absolutely amazing bike system through out Paris) to explore town! Needless to say, we had a blast!

4) I don’t think it takes a whole lot of creative thinking to figure out the first stop on my list would have been!

5) Soon after the excitement of the Eiffel Tower, we both found ourselves thinking of the other French delicacies. Macaroons were not hard to find!

Chocolates were also a popular accompaniment!

6) It was at this point, our “Tour de Paris” would have to take recess as The Boss had work to do!

7) The next morning started out with some exercise! We knew we had some eating to do, and we figured would should start the day with a calorie deficit!

8) Soon after, we found THE MOST AMAZING crepes I have ever eaten! Breakfast for day 2 was a massive success!

9) With breakfast under our belts it was back on the bikes for further exploration!

10) Look what we found:

Notre Dame

Street Performers

My New Favorite Bike

The best apron I have ever seen!

An impromptu concert on the lawn of the Eiffel Tower

And my new favorite gelato!

Finally it was time to get back on the bikes and find dinner. It was getting cooler out and the sun was finally starting to set. Which by the way, the sun doesn’t set here until 9:00- 9:30! This meant we had been out and about all day and according the Boss’s pedometer thing we had walked over 9 miles!! Who knows how far we biked!

Hopefully you enjoyed my tale of travels through Paris. I have more than enjoyed my stay!

Au revoir!

Triathlon Cookies

2012-05-10T00:05:00.000-04:00

In this household my bakery goes hand in hand with my involvement in triathlon and running. At first that might sound strange, but before you wonder for too long about how in the world does triathlon connect with baked goods, I’ll tell you. For the majority of us triathletes (yes, even us injured ones) we love our food! And rightfully so. After enduring brick workouts, long rides, and tempo runs where athletes have to follow very strict nutrition plans to have successful workouts, we deserve a little reward at the end of the day! It is this “reward” that often comes in the form of sweets! … well for me anyways.

Earlier in my bakery days I created a triathlon cake that showed off my love for designing triathlon themed goods. Now I’m back at it again, only this time you can ship these these triathlon goods!

Can you say “Triathlon Nom”??

These particular cookies were ordered by a super supportive wife who used this gift/ design as a way to say Happy Birthday to her husband while also taking the opportunity to honor all of the hard work and dedication he has shown in his preparations for his first M-dot 70.3! A great idea if I may say so myself!

On that note, good luck to everyone who is reading and has a big race, long run, or training ride this weekend. Remember, there is always cookies at the end, so just keep going!

Airplane Birthday Cake!

2012-05-08T03:05:00.001-04:00

Wow, what a weekend I had! The weekend was actually so busy that by the time I sat down on Sunday night to write my post, I fell asleep on my computer before any of the pictures had a chance to download! So I apologize for the delay, I hope you’ll think it was worth the wait!

The creative inspiration for the cake came solely from the invitation that was sent to the guest. I really wanted the topper on this cake to be the stand out! Here’s what the invitation looked like so you can compare!

This cake was a three tiered vanilla cake with chocolate butter cream. The tier sizes were 6”, 8”, and 10” and should serve just over 50 people! As well the airplane and pilot were totally edible. The Pilot was modeling chocolate while the airplane was Rice Krispy treats coated in modeling chocolate and then covered with fondant.

Definitely one of my favorite cakes to date!

Sorry about the delay on posts recently. I’m baking so much I can’t write! But don’t worry I have a batch of GREAT triathlon cookies coming up next. Stay tuned for their debut!

Homemade Chocolate Truffles

2012-04-30T02:18:00.001-04:00

This weekend Bertie’s Bakery embarked on a whole new journey!

Chocolate truffles!

I love chocolate truffles, and I have always wanted to learn more about the art of tempering chocolate, so with that I took the plunge into a day of chocolate! There were a lot of lessons learned, but I will say that the time spent was well worth it as the end product was a huge success!

I started with about a pound of chocolate. The milk chocolate was for the centers and the dark chocolate was for the outer shell. The biggest tip that I can offer about chocolate truffles is that you MUST be organized! Prepping the chocolate, measuring the weights, having all of your tools ready, etc. is key to being successful. Once you start heating your chocolate, there is no turning back (or time to run around your kitchen looking for you favorite spatula!).

Once the milk chocolate ganache was made I pressed plastic wrap down onto the top layer of the chocolate. This helps protect it from getting a thicker skin on top as it cools.

Then using my mini cookie scoop (1.5mm) I scooped endless amounts of ganache onto a parchment paper lined sheet pan.

Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with plain milk chocolate, but I figured this was going to make a lot of truffles and it might be nice to change it up a little. The pan above has: 1) Plain mild chocolate 2) caramel center, 3) pistachio center, and 4) dark chocolate coffee.

Since these rough scoops of ganache need to be hand rolled into nicer, rounder balls, I pushed the pistachios a little further down and popped them back into the fridge to cool. Once they come out cold and a little firm they are much much easier to handle and shape.

I do apologize that there are no pictures of the actual dipping process, but the Boss was off on his trail run and I only have so many hands to balance the delicate and time sensitive steps! Hopefully you can forgive me and will settle for pictures of the final product???

Going from the top row and working our way down (on the photo below):

The green sprinkles on top are the pistachio.
The coco powder dust is the pure milk chocolate.
The dark chocolate drizzle is the dark chocolate coffee.
The white drizzle is the caramel filled ganache center.

Finally I packaged the chocolates up (what was left of them) and disbursed them to friends! I am excited! The flavors worked out fantastic, and I can’t stop thinking about what to put in the next batch!

I’m thinking a peanut butter ganache center is going to be a must! What about you?

2012 Race Calendar… errr, Lack there of

2012-04-27T02:13:00.000-04:00

Many of you have e-mailed or asked in person “what’s next” on my race calendar? After a very successful 2011 race season, what does 2012 hold for me?

Currently I do not have any triathlon or running race on the schedule. Instead I’m picking up competitive Paddle Boarding.

I’m sure that some of you are scratching your head wondering where the heck that came from? But first, let me explain. As a disclaimer, I am not complaining. Stuff happens, and it’s what you do about it that counts… with that said, “stuff” has hit the fan so far in 2012. For the foreseeable future (errr first half of the race season), I will only be cheering at races.

As you might remember from a few posts over the past few months, I have mentioned that I had several long time injuries that escalated from nagging to screaming. Unfortunately since the New Year these injuries have kept me from training.

First there was the IT band issue.

I finally went to see a physical therapist, who diagnosed me as being gluteus-ly challenged! She said that having zero gluteus muscles contributed to a terrible running form, which in turn caused terrible strain and stress on the IT bands. So for six weeks I really backed off the running to let the inflammation and irritation in both knees cool off and focused on functional core and glute strength training. By the end of the sixth week I was running relatively pain free up to around 10 miles.

Back to running: Check!

While all of the running issues were being worked out, I was also getting a long long looooong time injury checked out. My shoulder. I have no idea what I did to this shoulder, but for about 5 years I haven’t been able to lift my right arm over my head. I know, “WHO NEGLECTS SOMETHING LIKE THAT???”. Well, school teacher insurance wasn’t so hot and I found ways around not using my right arm above shoulder height! Problem solved :)Unfortunately my physical therapist didn’t think this was as cool of an adaptation as I did, so She sent me off to a specialist. Where you see the arrow (above) is where they stick a very unfriendly stent/needle and “distend” your shoulder joint with an entire bag of saline solution and MRI dye. Had I known the MRI was going to go down like that… I would probably still be adapting to new ways to avoid use of my arm!

In the end there was absolutely nothing wrong with the integrity of the joint. Meaning it was my muscles and my brain that were not communicating very well. With almost complete atrophy of some rotator cuff muscles along with over built and stiff other rotator cuff muscles… we had a lot of work to do! However, as of yesterday I am back in the pool!

Back to swimming: Check!

Now you’re thinking, “if all of her injuries are on the mend and almost completely recovered, is she really going to switch to paddle boarding?”

Well my friends. Since this spring has been full of rehab mixed with a little homesickness, my Coach and I decided that I would benefit from a break from his vigorous training schedule. I wasn’t focused, I wasn’t healthy, and I needed time to recover. So, once I was recovered enough to run around and be active again I signed up for the one and only thing that my coach always asked me to stay away from while in competitive training mode! You know how it goes, you were told “not” to do something, so as soon as the opportunity arises you go an do it. That something would be soccer! Yep, that’s right, I was playing in an Arlington women’s leauge. The only problem was that once people saw that “your back” in the soccer world the phone starts ringing for you to come play pick-up, sub for their team, etc. and you end up with more than one game on a given day.

You have to remember that soccer was my LIFE for almost 20 years, that’s something that you can’t just forget about. Mentally I suppose. Your brain can’t forget about your first love, but your muscles sure can.

Even though I’m no longer a fraction of the technical player I used to be, I still play as hard as I did then. And thus with efforts like that… you tear your unprepared muscles. That’s right. I went ahead and played too many games in too short of a time, and ended up partially tearing one of my quad muscles. Nice job!

Back to Running: Fail.

So, I hope that through my tone you can understand that while I am pretty disappointed I’m not walking around with a black cloud over my head. Life is still good, and I am in good spirits finding other things to do with my time.

Mostly those “other things to do” include driving my husband crazy, messing up the kitchen, cleaning up the kitchen, and day dreaming about moving to a tropical island to spend my time paddle boarding around! That would take my mind off of running.

Thanks to everyone who has sent along words of re-hab encouragement and interest in racing life. There will be race reports again some day!

On that note, I’ll leave you to ponder moving to a tropical island.

Enjoy!

zucchini Muffins

2012-04-25T02:22:00.001-04:00

As I wandered through the grocery store the other night I had a hankering for my mom’s Zucchini muffins. I absolutely LOVE my mom’s recipe, it’s so fluffy and moist and packed with flavor! And even better, there’s zucchini in there so it has to be healthy right??? Well… upon closer review of the recipe there’s no wonder why I love this recipe.

Once I got home with my zucchinis I started pondering the recipe. It seems as though my love for these muffins may have been partially due to the sugar content. There was a fair bit of fat in there too. Geeze Ma, I’m starting to wonder if this is a zucchini cake! Sorry, I love you, please forgive me.

So I started playing with the recipe a little. I figure if I up the ingredients that bring natural sugars and flavors to the muffin, maybe we won’t miss the sugar too much?

I decided to up the zucchini to two cups packed grated (don’t worry, recipe is below), and added toasted nuts, along with increasing the amount of raisins, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

The next morning I got up bright and early and gave the newly revised recipe a whirl. I have to say, I certainly enjoyed the end product!

Were the new muffins quite as good as my mom’s recipe? Honestly, no. But that is pretty much the same as comparing eating a cupcake or a rice cake! However, I would declare the new recipe a success. The muffins were really delicious and still held their light fluffy qualities. Now, I can eat these muffins and not worry about just how much extra sugar I have consumed.

What are you waiting for? Go try them!

Business Logo Cookies

2012-04-23T00:07:00.001-04:00

Recently I was contacted by a friend of a friend who was looking for something personalized for her husband’s upcoming birthday.

Her husband had recently started a new business and this was the company’s logo! She questioned if it were possible to have something designed that would resemble just that.

What do you think? Was I close?

I was feeling pretty confident about the design so I went ahead and whipped up a dozen to ship off.

Happy Birthday!

I’m waiting for the day that a guy thinks this one through and orders “Will You Marry Me” Cookies! Let’s be honest, if a girl gets Diamonds AND cookies, she’s bound to say “Yes”!!

Thanks for stopping by!

The end of an Era: Discovery Space Shuttle

2012-04-18T00:49:00.001-04:00

Yesterday morning I woke up bright and early (read 9am) with a mix of both excited and sad butterflies in my stomach. I was heading over to Regan National Airport for a unique morning of plane spotting.

Yup, you saw correctly. That is the Space Shuttle Discovery taking it’s last journey via piggy-back on a Boeing 747, and yes, these are all my own photos. Now, unless you were totally asleep for the last two days, this is old news. It has been all over the news, radio, and internet that this final flight was going to take place, and fly a few “victory laps” around the DC Capital area.

The only difference is, not all of you actually live here. So the idea or ability to get over to bare witness might not have been a thought along your brainwaves this week. However, I DO live here, and I HAVE followed the space program my whole life! Holy crap, I better get a good spot! What if I miss it? Will we be able to see it? How fast and low will a 747 be able to fly with a space shuttle on top? How low will an airplane be allowed to fly around the Capital Buildings?? Ahhhh!

Have no fear. I outsmarted the best of them! While Gravely Point (the park at the end of the runway at Regan National) was completely packed, I ventured into the Airport itself! No one ever said that the airport parking garage was only for people taking a flight! I drove up to the top level and hung out for a while! Okay, there were a few others who showed up as well.

What was interesting was that not only were people showing up on the top deck of the parking garage, but people were popping out of all sorts of roof tops and high up places!

TSA on top of the DCA’s roof top:

Airport Tower workers (as if they didn’t already have prime viewing!)

And the roof tops all along Crystal City were peppered with anxious observers.

As I sat along the ledge of the parking garage awaiting the arrival of the Discovery Shuttle, I thought way back to my first experience with the space program. I was really young and we were on a trip visiting Cape Canaveral.

I’m the one who is second from the end on the right. Next to the girl with her arms crossed and pouting. I guess my sister was not as excited as I was about the space module! I honestly did believe that I was going to be an Astronaut one day. After all, I did have the same name as the famous Canadian female Astronaut, Roberta Bondar!

Then more recently (May, 2010), The Boss and I flew down with friends to Cape Canaveral to see one of the last shuttle launches. It was to say the least, one of the most impactful experiences of my life. I had always watched the launches when they were available on TV, but being there in person, sitting in a crowd of hundreds, feeling the rumble of the launch in your chest from over 11 miles away, and listening to the wild and proud cheers, that was a moment to remember.

(Picture courtesy of DCRainmaker; aka The Boss)

So back to yesterday. Now you might have a better idea of why I was a little sad to go say farewell to Discovery. The crowd cheered loudly as Discovery took those last few “victory laps” and paid tribute to the incredible explorations the shuttle took. But the murmur in the crowd that soon took over after the shuttle was out of sight, was a sure indication of the disappointment in the decision to phase out iconic American Space Program.

This was the first spotting of the entourage from when I was sitting.

We couldn’t believe how low and close the shuttle came! ANNND that the clouds broke for just those few minutes!

The next time the shuttle came back we all noticed it had some company!

I hoped so badly that this photo would have come out better, but it will have to do. The Shuttle Discovery on it’s last voyage, circling the National Monument.

So long Discovery.

Did you catch a glimpse of the shuttle yesterday? Get any good photos? I would love to hear about it!

Lilly Pulitzer Inspired Cookies

2012-04-16T01:54:00.001-04:00

Last week an old friend from college got in touch about surprising a family member with “Happy Wedding Week” cookies. I had never heard of “Wedding Week” presents but I thought that it was a very nice idea, and having experience a stressful wedding week myself, I could appreciate sending a bride to be a little love!

Now you might be wondering how (or in my case who) does Lilly Pulitzer come into all of this? Well our Bride to Be is a huge fan of anything Lilly Pulitzer and loves pink! These were basically my instructions for the cookies. I had full creative privileges outside of these ideas! NICE! Now, I suppose I should figure out who Lilly is!

Turns out Lilly Pulitzer is a designer with an appetite for bright colors and large flowery prints! Here are a few samples of the different patterns I was considering.There were several disaster cookies in the making with these detailed prints, but don’t worry those “bad” cookies didn’t go to waste!

Finally I came to really like this one pattern that is featured on this springs dress line! I knew the Bride was a pink kinda gal so I just inverted and slightly changed the color scheme to satisfy the cookie request while keeping true to the pattern!

What do you think? Was I close? I also created a few green cookies just to break up the sea of pink. I don’t think I’ll get into too much trouble for that!

In the end I was really pleased with how the cookie design turned out! I hope the Bride can take a few moments through out the week and enjoy them too! And incase she’s reading, Happy Wedding week, enjoy every moment of it!

Thanks for reading!

Cookie Fun!

2012-04-11T00:28:00.001-04:00

Do you remember the days back when you were in grade school and the entire back page of your notebook as covered in scribbles, doodles, and sketches? Drifting off to whatever daydream distracts you while your pen has a mind of it’s own? Well the following cookies are pretty much my “adult” version of that. (No, not “Adult” as X-rated, but adult as in I’m no longer living my life by a school bell schedule).

See what I mean?

Guess I was still day dreaming about the beach?!?!

I don’t know what kind of day dream this was because I am not a super fan of facial hair, but all the same I think the mustaches came out kind of cute! These cookies I think will be golden in the Fall when my guy friends all decide to participate in Movember! I’m thinking these will be a seller!

And finally these were the culprit tools that led to my goofing around! Sometimes I just end up with extra cookies and extra icing! I surely can’t let good cookies OR good icing go to waste! So I doodled! And I doodled some more… finally the icing ran out.

This was a fun cookie day! A way more enjoyable afternoon than doing my taxes!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Vacation Hangover!

2012-04-09T12:03:00.000-04:00

Oh wow, this is a vacation hangover at it’s best! And let me state for the record there is no alcohol involved in this one. Just a lot of sunscreen!

My sister and I often take spring breaks together. She and I are both school teachers (although, I haven’t taught in 2 years) and by the time spring break comes the students (and teachers) are so ready and itching for a break from the everyday school life that we skedaddle out of here…. and to the beach! This year was no different; she was beat out, so off to the beach we went!

Now the two of us aren’t particularly hard to please when it comes to the beach. We need the following:

* A beach

* Sunshine

* Clean sleeping conditions

* A refrigerator

* A grocery store within walking distance

Oh, and chocolate! Lot’s of chocolate. Primarily the refrigerator is to keep our chocolate cold, and maybe along with a few beers and deli meats. Mostly the chocolate. Other than that, we don’t need anything too fancy!

We eat our own deli meat sandwiches for a late lunch, (chocolate for breakfast, obviously), and then after spending the day basking in the sun we close up our reading entertainment and head out to find refreshments!

One evening it took a while to get our food, so since I hadn’t been at home in a few days being creative in the kitchen, I had to do something to let out some my skillz! I present to you my dinner placemat! Like I said, we were traveling in high style!

After dinner most nights we took a long walk. Checking out the different beach boutiques. Finally one night we poked into Ron Jon’s Surf Shop. I remember when I was really really young going into this place. Back then Ron Jon’s was pretty much a beach/suffer shack, now the place is the size of a department store! Two stories and full of beach everything! I thought that the wall of never ending surf boards was pretty cool!

When I was telling the Boss about all of the surf boards and how there was a big surfing competition happening while we were down there, he asks “so how’s the water?” I think he was asking if I had actually gotten in the water…. no. I think I have been watching too much of the Discovery Channel’s “River Monsters”. Plus I KNEW these guys (below) would be out and about! I think I went in a few times about ankle deep, that’s about it.

Plus, I didn’t have time to get in the water. I was finishing off the third book of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series and then diving head first into the Hunger Games Trilogy. I’m telling you, if you have not bothered to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, you’re missing out! That whole series was quite a roller coaster. I highly recommend it (as does the rest of the world!) IF you think “those books are too long”, which they are fairly long, then you should not wait any longer! You MUST go out and get the Hunger Games! This is a super fast read. I was finished the first two books in two and a half days, and honestly once I press publish on this post, I’m heading down to Barns and Nobel for the third!! You best start reading!

Since my sister and I only hit up the Florida coast for a short trip, Monday to Friday, the Boss had plans for me when I came home for the weekend. We had our own little Easter celebration in Boston, VA at a B&B followed by dinner at my absolute favorite restaurant, The Inn at Little Washington.

Now that it’s Monday, and everything has gone back to normal (a.k.a I don’t have a beach to go lounge around on) you might understand how I am suffering from what I call my “Vacation Hangover”. It’s very sad. And honestly, the buzzer for the dryer just went off, so now it’s confirmed that I’m really home. Maybe I’ll go curl up in the pile of warm towels for a while and pretend I’m back at the warmth of the beach!!

Thanks for stopping by!

DIY Wedding Out of town Guests bags

2012-04-06T01:47:00.001-04:00

Being at the beach this week has made me reflect on my wedding last July. We were married on the beach, and that was what I always wanted!

Right after the wedding I posted several posts about the wedding, mostly the wedding details. You can find them all here in “The Bird House”. I didn’t post all of the wedding details back in July only because I didn’t want you to burn out from reading wedding posts!

As you may know, I love creating desserts, but I also love taking care of all of the party planning details! One detail that I absolutely wanted (and so did the Boss) were “Out of Town Guest Bags”. These are traditionally left at the hotel for family and friends who may have traveled from out of town to the wedding. The bags contain things of convenience and/or snacks that one might forget to pack.

Since we had a destination wedding, essentially ALL of our guests were out of towners! I made one bag for each hotel room and stuffed it with more beach festive things. The bags in our case were more like “Thanks for making the trip” bags!

First I started off with buying the bags from Creative Packaging (I don’t have any connection with this company, I just have had zero problems with them, they are fast to ship and I have not found anyone cheaper!). Also, I bought a few cute ink stamps from the local craft store, and had left over 2” wide ribbon from another wedding project.

I stamped away and my Mom tied of the bows.

Then we did a run through with one bag to make sure the all of the goodies actually fit in the bag! Maybe I should have thought of this earlier, but it worked out just fine!

We only stuffed one bag because we had to travel with a lot of wedding stuff and it was WAY easier to pack the paper bags while folded up tight and stuff the other contents into boxes were they fit. My sister and I stuffed all of the bags in our hotel room as guests showed up during the week!

By now you must be wondering, “what did they put in the bags?” Well, we were staying at an all inclusive beach resort, and most guests were staying for 5 days or so. What would YOU want in a loot bag on the beach? I thought it was pretty straight forward:

* Reading material

* Snack food (be honest, you can’t get Swedish Fish at a resort in the Dominican on your own)

* SPF Lip Gloss

* Pool toys

* Pain killers (remember it was an all inclusive resort AND wedding week = lots of celebrating)

As our guests arrived, The Boss and I would make every effort we could to find them at check in or soon after and say hi and give them their welcome bag. Our guests LOVED getting a little something upon arrival, and even more so thought it was a great way to be welcomed and start their stay!

So even if your guests aren’t traveling to a destination wedding or even cross country, maybe you should think of having a little surprise for them upon arrival. It doesn’t have to be an entire treat bag, maybe just a snack bag of Swedish Fish with a tag that says “We’re glad you are here”.

So there you have it. “Out of Town Guest Bags” they are so simple yet so meaningful. What do you think? Would you have liked to receive a little something upon arrival to your last wedding?

Have a great weekend everyone! See you Monday.

Nautical Cookies

2012-04-04T00:01:00.000-04:00

Recently a friend of Bertie’s Bakery Blog inquired about a possible cookie arrangement for her sister’s family who were proud new boat owners! Since custom made cookies are definitely a part of my world here at Bertie’s Bakery I was excited to take on the project!

After much deliberation over the cookie design and what nautical symbols to choose, I came up with these. I love the traditional nautical colors, and was really pleased with how the cookies turned out!

Hopefully the new boat owners felt the same way. In the event that they do not like the colors or designs, I imagine they would have been distracted by the great taste and texture of the cookies!

I think I like the lighthouse cookies the best :)

What about you, would you have enjoyed this package showing up on your doorstep?

As always, thanks for stopping by!

“A Day of Modeling Chocolate”

2012-04-02T02:44:00.001-04:00

Last week amongst all of the excitement of the cake competition at the National Capital Area Cake Show, I was also taking several classes for “cake education”. One of the classes that I took was called “A Day of Modeling Chocolate”, taught by Lauren Kitchens and Mike McCary. Both of these cake designers I have followed for quite some time and I am always baffled by the creations that they design. Fortunately for me, I was able to take an all day class co-taught by the both of them and attempt to absorb everything that they had to offer!

The start of the morning began with Mike giving us a sort of modeling chocolate 101. We did everything from learning to make and temper our own modeling chocolate, to finishing a cake with it and air brushing it! There was a lot of demoing on the versatility of what you can do with this type of chocolate! This guy was a piece of work! So knowledgeable and talented, yet his personality was perfect for a chocolate instructor; there was no ego there, just a urgency to make us love the craft as much as he does!

In what seemed like 30 minutes turned out to be 3 hours and it was time for lunch. Upon return Lauren had taken over and Mike became her sous chef- which meant it was sushi time!

As much as I would like to take you through the step by step of how we made these super cool bites of chocolate, I don’t think that that would be right…instead you’ll have to take her class! I highly recommend that you do! In the meantime I will give you the up close of each piece of sushi!

Shrimp Sashimi

Sushi Omelet

Salmon Sashimi

California Roll

Salmon Sashimi

And sure enough, your wasabi and ginger!

This is Lauren. She demoed each piece and then sent us back to our seats to make our own! I loved it and was even happier with how her style of teaching set us up for success!

After we were done making the sushi I thought we were done for the day. I was wrong. After the sushi we created plates of the “Grand Slam Breakfasts” that you would often see at fine dining restaurants such as IHOP!

There your have it folks. Four of the absolute best things on earth! Bacon, eggs, French toast, and chocolate! That’s right, chocolate. Did you forget already that this was a chocolate class? Everything you’ve seen here so far has been made with chocolate! Which means, if you were to pick up that nice thick slice of French toast and bite into it, it would most certainly taste ten times better than fondant. Therefore, I’m fairly confident that from here on out most of my cake decoration details and sculpted objects are going to be modeling chocolate!

As for now, I’m now furiously saving money in an attempt to attend another class taught by these two! The one that I see on the schedule that interests me the most is “Muppetizing” with Lauren! Eeeeek I need to get moving!

What do you think? Did I have you fooled with the first photo? Do you know someone who LOVES sushi and would love to have a sushi cake or an occasion?

As always, thanks for reading!

Novelty- Tiered Entry Takes the cake!

2012-03-30T01:11:00.001-04:00

Last but not least. I had three entries in the National Capital Area Cake Show this past weekend, and this is the final one! If you missed the first two, click HERE for the cookie competition and HERE for my wedding cake entry, and since it’s Friday, if you really want to kill some time click HERE for the album that shows all entries into the show.

This cake was entered in the “Novelty-Tiered” category, and it was my take on a whimsical tea party. I really enjoyed making all of the different elements to this cake, especially the tea cups!

Here’s a closer look at all of the details:

Looking at all the details, I think I liked the pink tea cup on top the best, with the purple polka-dots coming a close second! I’d love to hear your feedback though!

Since it’s Friday, I figured a more photo-full post would be best over lots of wordiness. Most importantly, hopefully I inspired you to go find some cake…and eat it too! Many of you might have a “long run” or “long ride” tomorrow anyways, so go for it… go find something sweet to eat! And even if not, go enjoy some cake!

Have a great weekend!

National Capital Area Cake Show: Wedding Cake Reveal

2012-03-29T01:04:00.001-04:00

I think it is time to show off one of my favorite accomplishments to date!

The first ever Bertie’s Bakery wedding cake! When I signed up for the cake show this year I wanted to force myself to take the opportunity to create a wedding cake. As most of you know, a lot of my cakes are very animated and take on a bit of character. I wanted to also show that I could do something elegant and classic for a bride (in case a bride-to-be ever comes along looking for a cake!).

I was so excited to get going on this cake that I had too many ideas on how the design should look. In the end I reeled myself back and created a very classic lace and pearls design. What girl doesn’t love pink, pearls, and lace? To top it off over two dozen roses!

I was really pleased with how the cake turned out, and I was actually really surprised by how much I really loved making the sugar roses. I had never made sugar roses before, how hard could it be?

Before the cake show I was on the phone with my dad explaining the process of creating the rose. I couldn’t help but explain how every rose is different. The color, number of petals, and the curl of each petal all differed slightly, and that was what I enjoyed the most. There was almost something very “zen” about creating each individual rose.

So finally came the weekend and it was judgment time.

A 1st place blue ribbon! Wow! I was stoked! I did take some criticism on the color of the leafs incorporated within the roses. The judge felt that a deeper leaf green would have been a better choice. I knew going in that would be said. In my mind there is a difference in making “show cakes” and “current cakes”. Personally I don’t always need a perfect real life replica of flowers on my cakes. If the flowers were all ivory or all pink, then yes I would agree a pop of green would be nice. However in this case I wanted the leaves to be supporting, but not stand out. They were there and added another dimension to the roses, but they didn’t take away or distract your eye from the color flow of pink and ivory. Either way, I did make the conscious choice to create that color scheme, so I was ready and willing to receive the feedback.

Very proud of my Blue Ribbon 1st place win, I took my cake home :)

Now…anyone out there getting married?

Cherry Blossom Shortbread Cookies

2012-03-27T00:14:00.001-04:00

While the judges are “still out” on the Intermediate Division Overall Winner title, I am going to hold off on the post for my cakes.

I know, I know. A little frustrating, but it is what it is. Until then let us talk cookies!

So for anyone reading who may not be familiar with some of the big events in Washington, D.C., we are currently in the peak season for the Cherry Blossoms. Thousands upon thousands of people travel from all over to visit the D.C. area to see the Cherry Blossom trees in full bloom. The entire Tidal Basin is engulfed in a baby pink. It’s beautiful.

Below is a picture that The Boss took, it’ll give you the idea if you’re not familiar.

So due to the Cherry Blossom season I felt honored to pay tribute to our beautiful flower!

These Cookies were a bit of a process, so I’ll take you through my thoughts step by step.

I love big canvas panel art works. Even more so when there are several pieces of canvas that line up and the scene carries on across the many pieces. That was my thought here, I just had an internal struggle with how I wanted to cookies to line up. Straight and clean, or jumbled and modern.

Eventually I went with clean lines and a level set of cookies. Then it was time to sketch out how this was all going to come together.

After playing around with the paper, icing, flower style, etc. I decided it was time to get going on the real deal!

I decided to initially pipe the outline of the tree onto the cookie set before airbrushing. I did this because I didn’t want to be guessing how low and high I wanted the sky and grasses. Essentially, this way my tree design drove the decision making while I had the airbrush in hand!

Once I was happy with the heights of the sky and grass, I filled in the tree with my brown royal icing. I loved the way this turned out, and even considered stopping here! The texture of the trunk was well beyond my expectations.

From here I started to spackle on the baby pink royal icing as well as piping in tiny red beads for more dimension.

That was supposed to be it. I was going to stop at the spackling and beads. But as I sat there and hemmed and hawed, I decided that the cookie could actually benefit from a third level of pink dimension. So I punched out the tiniest flowers that I had a cutter for.

While I really liked the extra “pop” of the pink flowers, they were almost too plain, and even took away from the detail of all of the red bead work I piped into the pink. Hmmmm

So I took all of the flowers back off and one by every stinkin’ one, I piped with royal icing and my 00 tip 3 little yellow and two black beads. Wow, my neck still hurts thinking about this.

This was only a fraction of the flowers!

Then I started to build the flowers back onto the tree.

Finally I was finished!

Like I said in yesterday’s post. I really had a soft spot for these cookies, I figured I had the best chance at taking an award with these.

Well, let’s see what the judges had to say about that:

I have several opinions about some of the comments made…but I’m going to keep them to myself. Well except that for the next time I cut out several hundred flowers tinier than the butt of a pencil eraser, shape them into 3D flowers, and pipe five different teeny-tiny royal icing beads into each and every one of those 250+ flowers, I’ll be sure to be more precise and detailed than that and also get out my ball tool and “soften their edges”???

Fear not, my feelings aren’t hurt. I loved these cookies, and I learned a lot from this whole process. Also, whether or not I agree with all of the feedback from the judges, it is always helpful to see my work through other peoples’ eyes.

These are the cookies that won overall best cookies. This was for everyone who entered a cookie set; ages 6 to master sugar artist. These were submitted by a professional (and pretty crazy impressive!).

The cookies that took 1st in my Division are below, the elephants.

And finally mine:

I hope you enjoyed my photo story of how I created these cookies! Did you get a chance to look through the album of Cake Entries that I posted yesterday. Did you have any favorites? Personally “The Flying Arnolds” was my absolute favorite!

Stay tuned for news on the cakes hopefully tomorrow!

2012 National Capital Area Cake Show Round-up

2012-03-26T01:35:00.001-04:00

This weekend came and went in what seemed like a blink of the eye. This year seemed even bigger and better than last year, and I am definitely glad that I decided to participate in multiple cake & cookie entries along with several cake classes.

By now, I am sure you just want to know how I “did”. This is a funny question, and one which I have no answer yet. This year, I was a cake decorator in the “Intermediate Division”. Within my division I had two cakes, one in the wedding cake category and one in the novelty tiered category. Both of which won 1st place in their respective “categories”. Wooohoo! I was stoked!

From here if you were a winner in one of your categories, you progressed on to possibly win your overall division, for me this would be “Intermediate Overall Divisional Winner”, kinda like last year when I won “Beginner Division Overall Winner” . HOWEVER…. there was a mistake somewhere along the way, (granted we are all allowed to make mistakes, this one just makes me bite my nails for the next day!) and for my specific division there was NO overall winner announced on Sunday (due to the mix up) and they will be announcing it today via e-mail! Eeeek! So, for now it is officially “TBD”.

In the meantime, I also entered a “Decorated Cookie” set. I will admit I had a real soft spot for these cookies. I was really really pleased with how they turned out! My Cherry Blossom Trees was awarded 2nd place! More on this cookie later the week!

Well I obviously can’t leave you hanging like that on a Monday without any pictures! So, what I did was take a picture of EVERY SINGLE cake, cookie, cupcake, and showpiece that was entered into this weekend’s show and created an album! It’s not super fancy photography or anything, I simply just went down the line of tables and took pictures.

To help you navigate I will tell you a few items that’ll help make sense of it all:

1) The first 30-35 pictures are from the “Wee Ones” and Teen Divisions. They gradually go up in divisions from there.

2) There are divisional cake categories for Novelty Tiered, Novelty Non-Tiered, Sculpture, Wedding, Special Techniques, AND this year’s theme of “London Calling”.

3) There are entries for Show Piece, Decorated Cookies, and Cupcakes.

4) There was also another competition happening for Wedding Cakes. This was not separated by skill/ division level. If you entered you were playing with the big wigs! This years wedding cakes were to be inspired by a purse!

Now that’s more than enough talking from me. Here are the pictures! Thanks for reading and take a peek back here tomorrow to see if I was lucky enough to take home the big prize of Divisional Winner!

(Important Note: Click ‘View Slide Show’ to see ALL the cakes, the preview below maxes out and doesn’t show even a fraction of them)

National Capital Area Cake Show 2012

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