Luminaria in Historic Bethlehem

We have a lot to learn about the Historic Bethlehem District, but something we discovered right away was Luminaria during the holiday season. Each home is given candles, paper bags, and sand and you put all the bags outside to line the area just outside your door.

Sorry for the poor pictures - my night-time photography skills still need polishing :)

Street after street, you could see glowing candles in every direction. It was quite a spectacular sight. Pretty, isn't it?

The only unfortunate thing was that our moving truck was supposed to arrive that morning at 8am, and instead it arrived twelve hours late, right in the middle of this peaceful, beautiful Luminaria event. Nothing like pissing off the new neighbours like throwing a loud orange 18 wheeler in the middle of a quaint event like Luminaria. Luckily, though, we received no complaints.

Below is an example of a very typical Christmas light display. Practically every other house has either glowing reindeer, snowmen, sleighs or something equally festive in a balloon version.

Still Moving...

We are now in Bethlehem, but still waiting for our boxes...the movers are now about 12 hours late. Waiting around stinks, and the moving company will hear about this on Monday. At least we are connected to the internet again.

Gatsby in the empty apartment.

Moving Week

It's moving week!

Tomorrow the moving crew comes to pack our apartment, and Wednesday they load the truck and drive away with our things. We will be heading out soon after that, on Thursday, with cat in tow. Poor Gatsby has been sleeping under our bed all week; he knows something strange is about to happen.

It's a very weird feeling to move again so soon - we just started feeling settled and off we go again. Our friends Jay and Sonja hosted a lovely going away party for us on Saturday, and a great time was had by all - especially delicious and sweet was the Pennsylvania map cake made by Devon. Thanks guys! We'll be saying goodbye one more time before we go.

The blog will be a little on the slow side for the next couple weeks, but I promise there will be lots to update you on once we get settled.

Happy Christmas!

Fruit Tartlets with Pastry Cream

Here's what you do when you've made too many tart shells and then find yourself with some leftover pastry cream!

Tart shell recipe: Pate sablee from the Tartine cookbook

Pastry cream recipe: How to Bake by Nick Malgieri.

I swear this hasn't turned into just a baking blog...I've got a new beret to show you, and the finished fair isle mittens. Tomorrow is photo day!

Hope you're all having a great week.

Blue & White Wedding Cake

I'm here to show you my newest cake project:

I spent this past weekend making a miniature wedding cake as a practice project for my portfolio (that's right, I am making a PORTFOLIO. First ever!). I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, except for a few minor things that probably aren't noticeable to anyone besides the decorator. If you're interested in my critique, scroll on toward the bottom - I'll add my notes there.)

This would have been done and eaten sooner, except that the weather was absolutely horrid yesterday which prevented me from taking any decent photographs with my little point-and-shoot camera. So, today was the big photo day. I even put up some wrapping paper behind the cake to hide messy background (talk about going pro).

My goals for this project were to practice several decorating techniques for my portfolio: hand-molded roses, scroll piping, stripes and dots, applique and detailed cut-outs, borders, doweling and working with multiple tiers. The roses were made with fondant, which I find easier to work with than gumpaste. The fondant doesn't dry as quickly and has this kind of pretty soft glow to them (that is, when they're still semi-damp. I don't know how they'll look in two days...)

I made the doily cut-outs using a scallop-edged cookie cutter, a small round tip and a petal tip; the whole thing is glued on with a bit of water.

Why, yes! That is real cake inside! That's a lemon blueberry cake (I think this my latest favourite combo) on top, and chocolate on the bottom.

The middle tier's real, too...

Yummy.
The cakes have been divided up and sent to good homes around Columbus.

Here are a few pictures of the process...I traced the stencil design onto parchment using food colouring, and then pressed the parchment onto the fondant, kind of like one of those temporary tattoos.

Making a lovely mess in the kitchen, much to D's dismay.

Minor problems with the cake:

1) Top square layer is too big for the circular base. I was thinking the sizing would work out just right at 8", 6" and 4", but I forgot that a circle is a lot smaller than a square...always measure is the lesson.

2) Top tier is slightly uneven at the top and some sides, which I tried to hide in the photos. This is a result of becoming tired and impatient during the most important part of the process...the layering and crumb coating. I guess I could have fixed it by applying another layer of buttercream to even it out, but I got lazy. Oh well.

3) The blue food colouring I used for stenciling isn't fully covered by the royal icing. I've never piped over-top of a design before, so it took a bit of getting used to.

4) The lines on the second tier aren't all straight or lined up along the centre of the cake. I free-handed it, when I should have marked it off first with a ruler.

5) I forgot to cover the bottom edge of the cake with a ribbon or piping to cover the board. Doh.

6) The fondant started cracking at the corners and edges, probably from being overworked during tinting. There you have it, my critique. Next time, I think I'm just going to cover a styrofoam form so that I don't have to worry about the cake going stale if I'm delayed by the weather.

My last day at the bakery is this coming Saturday, which seems crazy since it feels like I just started working there. But, it will be good to have a few days off before our move. I've been busy with some other things too...working on a new resume and putting together my portfolio. I've just sent off my internship application to a popular bakery in NYC, so I've got my fingers crossed about that.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lemon Meringue Tarts

Like I said, there has been lots of baking going on this past week, but finding time to blog about it is a different story! Do you like these little tarty guys? Yes, that is some culinary torch-action you see going on. D and I were going to the CAC 30th anniversary event and I wanted to bring some desserts for the spread. The components are borrowed from the Tartine cookbook (pate sablee for the shell, and Italian meringue for the top) and How to Bake (lemon curd), two books that you will probably see me reference quite a lot from now on.

This is a really good make-ahead recipe. You can make the shells ahead of time, even freeze the dough or the baked shells, and the lemon curd you can do a couple days beforehand. When you're ready for them, the only thing you have to do is the meringue, which assembles very quickly.

Use a large star-tip to pipe the swirls. I love the cute little curl it makes at the peak.

D contributed to the project by operating the little torch and toasting all the little meringue tops. We bought this butane-powered one from the Cookware Sorcerer. I'm guessing there will be creme brulees and more meringues in our future!

Too bad they're all gone! I've got a ton of meringue leftover, so you'll probably be seeing another meringue type dessert coming up soon.

An almost no-knead Bread!

Or, 'Best and Easiest Home-baked Bread' by Nick Malgieri in How to Bake. This is the most successful bread recipe I have made so far, which we enjoyed in the form of some yummy sandwiches last week. Doesn't it look good?! It was crusty, dense and really flavourful...so good! You know, it was better than some of the bread I have bought around here, if I do say so myself (tootoot!)

This bread involved a starter, a sponge, and then the making of the dough. Now, I don't really understand the difference between a starter and a sponge (I thought they were sort of the same thing) but you put one in the other, and then make the dough. This recipe requires some planning since there's lots of waiting, but very little labor overall. No tired arms!

In a nutshell, here's the basic recipe. If you want the full details, then I encourage you to buy the book or at least borrow it from the library. To make the starter, you mix warm water, 1/4 tsp yeast and 1 cup flour. Let all that sit overnight. Then you take a cup of that, put it in a new bowl with 3/4 cup water, 1/2 tsp yeast, and 2 cups of flour to form the sponge. Let it sit overnight again. Finally, you put all the sponge in your mixer along with 2 tsp salt and 1 1/2 cups of flour and set the dough hook on for 5 minutes. Let it rise once, deflate, shape it into a round loaf, place on a pan sprinkled with cornmeal, and allow a second rise. Slash the top. Bake for 45 minutes at 450 F. That's all there is to it!