Thursday, February 28, 2013

Cherry Pie or Not Cherry Pie?

Cherry Pie... or is it?

Cherry Pie... :)

Okay... so I got this cherry pie recipe from a friend who swears it is THE best cherry pie... EVER!  Here's my dilemma... I don't really care for cherry pie that much... So I thought, what the heck... maybe I don't care for it because I've never had a really good cherry pie?  He made this pie sound so perfect and delicious that I just had to try it.... so off to the grocery I go...

While shopping for the ingredients I was not able to get the right kind of cherries per the recipe, so I improvised.  Instead of "tart pitted cherries in water"... I could only get "dark cherries in heavy syrup"... I thought, okay... it's still cherries, but in heavy syrup.  I'll just reduce the sugar, which I did.  With a plan in mind, I baked this cherry pie...

Oh man, I thought this pie was the "bees knees"... practically licked my plate I did!  It was absolutely the most I had ever enjoyed a slice of cherry pie in my life!

So fast forward to my friend Emily coming over to try the pie.... She LOVES cherry pie, so her opinion was pretty relevant.  Now... she too practically licked her plate clean, but her comment?  "It's not really like a cherry pie... anyone expecting cherry pie is going to miss that tartness of the cherries."  So apparently, I made a really good pie, but not a really good "cherry" pie?  Go figure...

On the upside... while talking with her on the phone... before coming to my house for pie.... she was at the grocery store... she checked her store and they did, indeed, have the correct cherries for the cherry pie filling.  She got two cans for me....

So.... now for chapter two of Cherry Pie....


TO BE CONTINUED....






Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Making Authentic Strudel - Including Step by Step Photos

I have heard of strudel... but to be honest, I have never really been sure exactly what it was?  I imagined some kind of pastry.. in my mind it was a German or Dutch thing... not really certain of any more details beyond that.  Even having gone to pastry school.... it wasn't something we learned about so I still had no idea what it was and never thought much about it.

While visiting with my friends David and Hanna recently, the topic of strudel came up (as I'm sure it does often for you, right?).  It is something David grew up with.  His dad used to make it all the time and, in turn, he learned to make it.  I was so intrigued by it. When he described what it was... and, oh my, how you make it... I found it all so fascinating.   

Upon discovering that friends of mine often made authentic strudel, I managed to persuade them to come on over to my house and show me how it's done..  

Ingredients for the dough per David... as you can see, it's not terribly "exact".... 
  1. "a big bowl full" of good hard wheat white flour (bread or all purpose) - this works out to be about six cups that are just scooped out of the flour bin, no sifting or other fancy stuff
  2. "a tiny bit of salt" - something between 1/4 and 1/2 of a teaspoon of NaCl
  3. "a tiny bit of oil" - I tend to use about 1 tablespoon full, although dad assures me that 1 teaspoon should do
  4. almost to hot to touch water
:


Ingredients for the Dough... Flower, egg, salt, water & oil

Knead water and flour together to make a stiff dough.



Add salt after about 10 minutes of kneading.



Add oil after another 10 minutes of kneading
Keep kneading for another 10 minutes - you should have a nice stiff lump of dough about the size of a small cantaloupe or a large grapefruit.  Wrap in plastic wrap and let sit on your counter for a couple of hours or over night



THE FILLING....

APPLES!  LOTS AND LOTS OF APPLES!



Oh, and some other ingredients for the filling as well... :)

brown sugar, walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, butter (salted), dried cranberries and dried apricots


A LOT of apples were peeled for this event... and cut into tiny, tiny, tiny pieces
You need a very large work surface (at least 3' x 5') to work on. Cover the surface with a clean sheet and lightly dust with flour.  This gets VERY interesting later on...

And now you begin working the dough... you have to gently stretch the dough very thin... so thin you could just about read through it!  This is David... beginning to stretch the dough.


More stretching...

And more stretching...

And now stretching to the point of needing two people!

It is important to work slowly and gently with the dough so it stretches very thin but doesn't break. A skill David has obviously mastered...

And now the yummy goodness of the filling... Apparently, you can fill a strudel with all kinds of filling... they can even be savory (mushrooms, cheese, etc.)... We went the apples, fruit and nuts route... very traditional and really, really tasty

See how tiny the apples are chopped?


Here the strudel is with all the filling in place and ready to roll. After adding the fruit and nuts, we sprinkled some brown sugar (we didn't measure but were fairly conservative with the sugar... much less than you would include in a cinnamon roll)... and then several pats of butter throughout.  Other strudel recipes call for brushing the dough with melted butter... David's family uses the pats of butter and they melt into the filling just like a rustic apple pie:)
Close up of the filling....

And now he begins to roll the strudel.. first, he gently tucks the edge of the dough
over the filling and begins the roll...

After securing the beginning of the roll, David picks up the sheet and gently allows the strudel to roll itself!  I really wish I had gotten video of this part... it was truly fascinating.. and very quick!

More rolling...

And more rolling...

Until you get to this point...

Pull the end up and pinch,tuck securely to the strudel. Cut down the middle to separate the two strudels and secure all of the ends.  Some people trim the excess dough off of the ends before pinching it closed, but David and his family rather prefer the doughy end as it's own unique snack once it's baked.. I must agree, those baked doughy ends were tasty...

This part was kind of amazing as well.. It's hard to tell just how large these rolls were, but there were pretty big... and filled to capacity with the yummy filling.  so how to get them on the pan???  Place the baking sheets behind/under the edges of the rolls (note that the baking sheets are covered with parchment paper)... pick up the sheet on the other end and.....

Flip those puppies onto the baking sheets!  Simple, right?  (I never would have
thought of that on my own...


A very dramatic moment as the strudel gets flipped onto the baking sheets.

Aren't they gloriously grand?  I was told that trimming the excess dough from the ends is traditional, but David prefers to leave  them on and "gnaw" on them after baking as an added treat... to me, it was a bonus worth waiting for :)
So here is strudel number one fresh out of the oven...
smells amazing!

The second one had a bit of a mis-hap, but was still super tasty none-the-less...
I kind of liked that is was imperfect in such an amazing way...

The inside of the freshly cut strudel..
doesn't that look amazing?


Plated and served with vanilla ice cream... it was A M A Z I N G!

A Big THANKS to David and Hanna for sharing this experience with me... it was so much fun and the end result was definitely worth the effort!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Random Things From My Dad - #10

Okay... I am woefully behind on blogging... and there are several "Random Things From My Dad" posts yet to be written... but the latest random thing from my dad is pretty interesting...

I have a lot of issues with joint pain and chronic fatigue... my dad is always on the prowl for homeopathic remedies for all kinds of ailments and his latest contribution to my arsenal was this... The "BioEnergiser D-Tox Spa".



                 BioEnergiser

You line the tub with a plastic liner, put these special salt tablets in the water, immerse the ionic "whatever" thingy into the water, turn it on and soak your feet for about 30 minutes.  The water turns this remarkably disgusting orange/brown color.  It is supposedly removing toxins from your body and providing you relief from all kinds of ailments from migraines to chronic fatigue.

It is really this gross looking!


It would be awesome if this actually works... I am using it under the assumption that it will at least do no harm...  Gave myself my first treatment this evening... we shall see how this particularly odd "random gift" from my dad plays out...

Stay Tuned!



What is Reasonable?

As a cake decorator, there is a never-ending question being asked at all times... "what do I charge for my cakes?"  Any class you go to... any website discussion group.... this question has been posed a million times over and there is never a clear cut answer....

Nobody wants to charge too much, but we also want to be compensated for our time and artistry.  If you've ordered a custom birthday cake from someone who specializes in creating custom cakes.... most likely, everything for your cake was done specifically for "you".... The cake was baked for your order and not pulled from a stock of frozen cakes.... hopefully, it was made from scratch.... any tinted frosting or fondant was probably tinted specifically for your cake....

And what about the tools required to make these fabulous cakes?   You can only begin to image the amount of $$$ your decorator has spent on materials, classes, books, etc.... If we are doing this for a living (or trying to)... it's a passion... and we only want to be the very best we can.  Whether you went to culinary school or not, most cake artists have spent a LOT of time and money fine tuning, improving and perfecting their craft.

So, again... the million dollar question is always "what do I charge for my cakes?"  So while we, the cake decorator/baker/artist, continually asks "what should I charge".... perhaps we should be asking, "what would you pay?".  What is reasonable?  What are your expectations?   Before you answer, have you thought about the time and skill involved in creating your cake?

Let's look at this cake, for example.






All in all, it's a pretty straight forward design and not terribly complex... which was my initial reaction when asked to make the cake.   I'm not going to tell you what I charged for this cake, but... as it all too often happens... it was not enough.  Please don't get me wrong!  I don't feel taken advantage of or cheated in any way.  I was asked for a price to make this cake and I gave it... there was no "haggling" and my client was very pleased with the cake.  She's a repeat customer, a fantastic person, and someone I always want to please.

So let's talk about this cake... I baked the cake in 9X13 inch pans.  I had two pans of cake to work with.  I had to figure out exactly how to cut and assemble the cake to utilize as much of the cake as possible, create the desired shape, and minimize waste...  Okay... that part wasn't too bad.

Cost of the ingredients for the cake, filling, fondant, etc... I usually factor that in fairly accurately.  But... let's not forget that those things are a part of the expense of the cake.

And what about the board this cake sits on?  It's a foam board that I cut specifically to a size that worked for this cake.  Foam board costs money... then there's the covering of the foam board... also an expense... and what about the ribbon around the board?  Not a lot of money, but these little things can start to add up.

When you have a cake like this and the client is picking it up... they usually want their cake in a box... a typical, inexpensive cake box won't do.... for this cake, you need a corrugated box... another expense... and significantly higher than the typical cake box.

So now I would direct your attention to the wheels on this truck... they are cake... so if you break it down... they are four TINY little cakes... they have to be iced and covered in fondant.  Ask any decorator... covering tiny cakes is a PAIN... and it takes time...

Let's look at the structure of this cake... it sits on a foam board cut to the size of the cake... which sits on two pieces of styrofoam cut to size and wrapped in black... this is what the wheels attach to and create the illusion of the truck actually being on wheels.  This is actually a very cost effective and structurally sound way to create the illusion that the cake/truck is actually supported by the wheels.

There is another board mid-way up the front of the truck to add additional support.

Now... the fondant... fondant can be made or purchased... purchased fondant is pricy!!! But... the quality is consistent... homemade fondant (usually tastes better) is significantly cheaper, but you have to take the time to make it.  Time = Money.

Tinting the fondant... on this particular cake, I have yellow, red, black and grey fondant.  Red and black fondant I ALWAYS purchase because the amount of food coloring required typically alters the texture of homemade fondant...  Getting the perfect "dump truck" yellow was tricky and required I think 3 different shades of yellow/gold/orange to create that color.

So... moving on to putting this cake together.

First, large foam board cut and covered to go with the theme of the cake;
Tint yellow fondant (black and red were purchased);
Next,  the cake had to be cut into pieces that could be assembled into a truck like shape;
Tires/circles are cut for the wheels
Tires are iced, covered and scored to look like tread;
Small foam boards cut to hold the cake and provide additional internal structure;
cake for the body of the truck is assembled, carved, filled and iced smooth;
cover the main body of the cake in fondant;
create sides for the dump/bed of the dump truck (these must be made out of gum paste and allowed to dry/harden before they can be attached to the cake.)
Wrap the styrofoam supports for the body of the truck; hot glue to foam board;
place the covered body of the truck onto the styrofoam supports;
attach tires to the supports on the side of the truck;
roll out and cut details - windshield, windows, bumpers, grill, headlights, tail lights, "happy birthday" message;
Attach details to the truck;
add detail of luster dust to windshield and windows to create more of a "window/glass" effect;
Attach pieces to the back of the truck to create the standing sides to the bed of the dump truck... you'll have to get creative to find various things to place in and around the cake to hold these items in place while the "glue" (edible) dries making a sturdy and sound structure.

Whew!  I think that just about does it.  So... I would ask you... what is a reasonable price to charge for this cake?  What would you consider reasonable to pay?    Just asking... we, in the cake decorating community, are always discussing this among ourselves.. I was curious as to what your thoughts, the consumer, were on this matter?

Regardless... this is what I LOVE doing... I am passionate about it, and the joy of a well received cake is pretty darn rewarding....




Monday, February 18, 2013

What a Week!

Wow... the week of Valentines Day proved to be one of my biggest challenges to date... For the first time ever, I actually promoted specific cakes/cookies for a holiday... namely "Valentines Day".... Super busy and successful promotion!   I offered three different "sweet heart" cake flavors and orders were pretty evenly distributed between the three flavors.... feeling like I made good choices and feedback was great!

Here were the scrumptious offerings for this Valentines Day:

Chocolate decadence with caramel, pecans, and caramel swiss buttercream (my favorite)

Vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream and white chocolate dipped strawberries.  




Chocolate cake with raspberry filling and covered with chocolate ganache... 

And... the cookie!  Heart shaped for your sweet heart...

What I hadn't planned for was this... On top of the Valentine orders, I ended up with additional orders of three pies and six.. yes SIX birthday cakes.  Two of the cakes were simple round cakes with borders and "happy birthday" written on them... easy peasy... the other four... not so much. I felt like I was up to the challenge so I carefully scheduled my time and planned accordingly...

Here are the results...

3-D Fire Hydrant Cake... complete with
Dalmatian and fire hose!
Minecraft... so many squares... so little time...



Personal Favorite since the technique was an experiment...
 tie- dye effect with buttercream.... 

I think the "groovy" dancing silhouettes were the perfect touch for this Disco/70's themed cake!

One of the "simple" cakes.... lemon cake with raspberry filling and lemon buttercream (yum!)... took advantage of the opportunity to practice some scroll work on the side of the cake...
Rose covered cake for a precious 15 year old girl.... love the elegance and simplicity of this design...

Whew!  I am beat... but it was a good week.  Now... on to the next cake.... or "cakes" rather... and cookies... oh my!