Mini Cakes

 While searching for my next victi.... I mean new restaurant to experience, I have been doing some projects of my own. The most resent ones are mini cakes. The hubs and I made Key Lime and Orangescicle mini cakes and decorated them with my new icing tips I got for Valentines Day. I have been building up my piping skills in anticipation of the cakes I have been hired to do. I also experimented with two tone icing. I think I did pretty well...here are some pictures. 

In order to do this technique, I applied gel food coloring into the inside of the pastry bag. Then I put the icing in and piped as usual. For three tone icing, apply as the first but put the second color on the other side of the bag. 

 

The "V" word

Happy Valentine's Day to one and all. For some, this day is filled with presents and planned activities while gording on food and candy. For others, its a reminder of how the world, once again, hates them. But this day doesn't have to be about yelling at the television when the movie characters kiss. It can be about someTHING you love instead. Maybe you adore puppies but just can't afford one. Go down to a pet shop or dog shelter and play with the furry fuzz balls to your hearts content. Or maybe you love painting but just can't find the time. Take a few hours to create some happy little trees.

Valentine's day doesn't have to be about sappy human love, but about enjoying what makes you happy.   Even if you subscribe to the belief that it is just an over publicized day full of propaganda to sucker guys into buying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandize to please the one person they are hoping to get into bed later that night. This day can be of contentment and fulfillment, that you finally get to do something you enjoy instead of sitting on the couch or computer chair wondering why you never do anything you ever want to do. 

However, for me this day was spent in 5'' heels and a tea length black dress, roaming about doing stuff the hubs and I love. We watched Warm Bodies (love) and had Chinese buffet for dinner. It was the best Valentines day I have had. He gave me a dozen purple duct tape roses which permeated the room with his Adidas cologne. It was adorable. I also got a ton of presents, all tools for my cake production. (Yes I do event cakes on the side).

Anyway, I hope this is helpful to some of you (even though it is a tidge bit late).

Mini Chef

Mini spiced cake with root beer poached pear, cream cheese icing and chopped orange zest

Ok boys and girls, this is the long awaited project I have been meaning to post about for a while. This is a semi-homemade spiced cake with root beer poached pear, cream cheese icing and chopped orange zest. 

I made the spiced mini cakes in a brownie pan the hubs got me for Christmas. They are about the same size as a cupcake, but square, of course. I got red pears, peeled them, cut them in half and poached them for about 15 minutes. (VERY low heat!) I sliced them as thin as I can. I used A&W root beer but I would rather have found an artisanal kind. Unfortunately I cannot get any unless I go into Columbus. For the cream cheese icing, I used a number 22 star tip ( though you can't quite see the detail from this photo). And for the orange zest, I just used a small pairing knife to cut small pieces of zest. It would be better to use a zester, especially for less experienced bakers. I drizzled a little of the poaching root beer just lightly over the cake to add a little moisture. 

As for the taste, it was delicious. I only like the Duncan Hines spiced cake, all others I have tried taste more artificial than anything else. It held moisture well and wasn't too delicate to wilt under the pears. I do suggest waiting for the cake and pears to cool down before assembling and piping on the icing. The icing just slid off in my impatience to try my little experiment. Another idea would be to add a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar, for a little flare.  

New Year

The New Year brings along all sorts of resolutions that, lets face it, last a few weeks at the most. Lose weight, eat better, get a better job, stop smoking....the list drags on and on of things people wish they could do. Its hard sticking to something that you really don't want to do.

So is there a secret to doing what you set out to do? Not really. Forcing yourself to keep up the work, not giving up, and making an active decision to keep going is the only way to muster enough motivation to make your dreams come true.

This year, I would like to get my blog off the ground. Since I have created it, there hasn't really been much traffic. I am on twitter and facebook; telling my friends about it, posting everywhere and forcing family to subscribe, but no one else really takes an interest. Maybe I am going to have to make it more interesting. Draw in a crowd, be controversial, or something.

Improvements are to come. Subscribe, follow my email, and keep checking the blog to see updates. Comments are always welcome.

End of the World...

Well its December 21, 2012 and so far, no zombies, meteors, random fires, black holes, etc. Just a swarm of frozen H2O flakes falling from the sky. After being attacked by future snowman particles I've settled in to the nice, warm in doors. Christmas is fast approaching and I am sure about half of you have put off all the shopping, hoping the Mayans were right. Now that you are still alive, a scramble like none other before is the order of the day. Just three more days until the children of this country are doused in more toys than they need, blood sugar is raised by the hundreds of chocolate consumed and at least one person gets that ugly sweater from the one family member who just doesn't get it.

The hubs and I are spending Christmas Eve and the beginning of the day with his parents and family, then back up to my family. We have a tradition where we are allowed to open one present Christmas eve night, as a sort of teaser gift. Watching every Christmas movie known to man kind and drinking gallons of hot chocolate is how the few days before the holiday is spent.

Now, what are your traditions? Do you even have a tree? How do you decorate it? What is Christmas dinner like? Do you have to deal with family members who don't know what privacy, volume or deodorant is? Share your holiday stories and traditions below.

Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and may Kwanzaa be a good time of year for you.

Old Fashioned Christmas, London Ohio

After trudging through miles of cold, I am now toasty warm, back inside. The Old Fashioned Christmas was not what I expected it to be. There was a hay/carriage ride, some carolers, and hot chocolate or popcorn for a price or donation. It was very sparse in comparison to the last one I attended. It did leave me disappointed and wishing there had been more activity.

There was delicious hot chocolate, cookies, coffee and Belgian waffles provided by the London Coffee Peddler, or at least Mike, for the Trails of Madison County (I don't know their real name). The hot chocolate had some sort of spice in it which I am thinking is cardamom. It made it pleasantly delicious. The Belgian waffles had a light citrus flavor and made me regret getting the cookie instead.

There wasn't much of anything to look at or participate in. If you wanted to stand around for 45 minutes you could jump in a vessel drawn by horses to the other side of Main Street. But who has that kind of time while freezing your toes off. I did receive a free roll of wrapping paper, which are covering many gifts at the moment. There was pictures with Santa, for $5 and the shops stayed open a little later than usual.

All in all, it was just like a consumer's commercial all night. "Come in here and buy something" is really what it should be named. The last time I attended, there was free hot chocolate and at least 6 groups of carolers, a walking Santa, candy, cookies and all sorts of things. Now its just like a Christmas advertisement.

Rothwell's, London Ohio

After mixed reviews of this place from people around town, I decided to take my mother and try this place tonight. I heard it was rather pricey, especially for the area. Researching the menu online, it was no more expensive than Red Lobster or Ruby Tuesdays.

Upon entering, I was rather confused if the woman by the door was the hostess or a customer waiting on someone. (Seeing as how there was no hostess stand and she was wearing a jacket) The hostess stand is a wall table, by the men's restroom. We walked along a high wall to the main dining area. The bar is mostly closed off, which gives the impression of seclusion from the rest of the dining room. The tables are covered with white linen and....butcher paper. I see the idea for this, not having to spend so much money on the cleaning service, but I don't know if this works for the classy feeling they are trying to project. I had the impression that they are going for five star family restaurant, which is incohesive combined.

The menu had a wide variety of items, a long way from the eight they first started with, said one customer. The server did, what I always believe is the ultimate sin for a sever. While standing there, waiting for us to order, mom was making last minute decisions and she said that she could come back because she has another table she needs to get drinks for. As soon as I heard that, I didn't like her. That is one of the worst things to say to a customer. "Its ok, I have more important people than you to take care of" is always what goes through my head whenever a server mentions they have other people waiting for them.

I was really offended that our less than patient server gave us burnt cornbread. Yes, burnt. The bottoms were almost completely black. Of course this made it completely dry as well. It was extremely yellow and at first I thought it was some kind of lemon cake. I don't care who you are, how lazy you are, or ineptly ridiculous you might be, never, ever, ever serve anything burnt, especially to me.

 We both got the daily special: pulled pork on texas toast with red skin mashed potatoes and onion rings. The pork was unbelievably salty. It tasted like it sat in cooking liquid for hours while it reduced into a salt lick. I had to stop eating it because it was hurting my mouth having that much sodium and the flavorful gravy just made it worse. It made the texas toast extremely soggy. The potatoes were rich and delightful. The small amount of gravy on them gave them a little boost of flavor. The onion rings tasted beer battered and were crispy and light. I am still debating on weather of not they are homemade or frozen. For dessert I got the chocolate lava cake a la mode. Now I don't believe these people know what a lava cake really is. When you cut into it, its supposed to be flowy, gooey, oozy. But instead, there was just melted little pieces of chocolate and it was too moist to hold up the ice cream and started to collapse and get soggy. It needed to be much denser.

The staff acted really odd in general. It was like a bunch of little school kids afraid to come over and just kept pushing each other saying "You go!". They were aloof and stayed in the kitchen as much as possible. I know the place I work, all the servers are always talking to everyone. Each other, customers, even themselves (haha) but these acted robotic.

Overall I give them 3 stars. I wouldn't really want to go back unless maybe someone else was paying for it.