Repreive from the Heat

We have been having some rain and a reprieve from the heat.  It hasn't been much help to the garden, though.  Tomatoes have stopped ripening and just hang on the vine.  At least the ones that escape the birds, voles and rabbits.  I guess water has been hard to come by for everything.

Last week I weeded the strawberries, crabgrass was taking over.  They rewarded me by setting blossoms and fruit.  Looks like we may get a dozen more berries.  The green beans are coming out today and the bed will be prepped for a new crop.  Maybe turnips.

The okra, which had been thriving in the dry heat is now slowing up and spending more time setting blossoms.  More to look forward to.

I have been baking - made an anniversary cake for my neighbor and a practice cake for my nephews wedding in October.

My neighbor and his wife grow roses and daylilies around their house.  This was their 56th anniversary.

This will become a multi-tier birch sweetheart tree with autumn leaves accenting it.  Not perfect but at least in the right direction.  These are both 6" cakes, which is a perfect size considering how dense and rich they are.  the garden cake was a devils food pound cake with a filling of chocolate fudge, iced in vanilla buttercream lightly scented with orange.  The birch log is vanilla bean sour cream pound cake with a sour cherry filling, vanilla buttercream.  Each cake will make 12 generous slices.

Very little thanks to my Garden

Tonight I made Ratatouille.  But I roasted it in the oven.  And I liked it even more than traditionally cooked.

        2 squash - zucchini and yellow is what I used, large dice
        1 Red Pepper, large dice
        1 Eggplant, large dice
        6 small Tomatoes, cored and quartered
        1 Onion, peeled, halved and sliced into quarters
        lots of olive oil
        All the garlic I had
        1 tsp salt
        grinds of pepper

        Preheat the oven to 350 F.
        I started with two stoneware pans.  In each I drizzled a good amount of olive oil.  First pan, squash, eggplant and red pepper, each in its own area.  Second pan, tomatoes and onions.  Smash lightly (crack?) but don't chop the garlic and distribute it between.  Drizzle more olive oil.  Sprinkle generously with salt.  Grind pepper liberally over the top.  Put in the oven.


       If you have a convection oven, use it.  We are going to remove moisture and get some color on everything.  How long?  Until it smells good then a little longer.
       Take the trays out, set them aside to cool.
       Remove the tomato skins if you want.  Scrape everything into a bowl.  Stir and eat.  I like a little Parmesan cheese and some fresh basil.  Someone else likes a sprinkling of red wine vinegar.  Really good on pasta, the penne, not spaghetti.

Tomatoes, tabasco peppers and cake

The drought continues and the birds, rabbits, voles and chipmunks have been using my tomatoes as a water source.  We have resorted to picking them as soon as they show the slightest sign of color and bringing them to the porch to ripen.

The critters are a little pickier with the peppers.  Green bell pepper-fair game, Cajun belle-second choice, jalapeño-hit and miss, tabasco-nary a bite.  Okra stands above the fray and is untouched by all but me.  Pickled two pints for immediate consumption.

Cakes.  I have been having a lot of fun making cakes.  I love to decorate cakes!

The one above is a banana cake with rum buttercream.

 And here we have White almond sour cream cake with strawberry filling and vanilla buttercream.

together they look so cute!

Kitchen experiments

Edible glitter!  Who doesn't want to add some sparkle to your life.  Cake Central featured a small article about it
http://cakecentral.com/recipe/edible-glitter#comment-23991

So I decided to try it.

Not everything you read on the internet is true.
 

So much has happened

1. Pipe burst
2. House flooded
3. Had to move to temporary housing
4. Pinched nerve cleaning and packing and moving
5. Return engagement with Orthopedic professional
6. New floors, drapes
7. Unpacking
8. Cleaning

Through it all I have tried to find time to practice my cake craft.  That is because the garden is craft (or a word similar).  Tomatoes are doing well but the entire world population of rabbits has been eating them as soon as they ripen, this after we finally discouraged the birds from eating them. The green beans have been all bush and no bean.  Lettuce - bitter.  No squash or cucumbers.  Even the okra, my mainstay, has been producing at a much slower rate.  The only prolific plant is the Tabasco pepper plant.

I did make blueberry jam from the 5 lbs of Michigan blueberries the store always sells in June.  They were not sweet enough to freeze whole but the jam is very nice, pectin free.

So here are the cakes.

 For my granddaughter's first brownie meeting.

Vanilla cake, vanilla frosting, copyright infringement.

For my Birthday - 4" wee tiny cake.  White almond cake, fresh strawberry and Italian buttercream filling, buttercream then fondant ombre ruffles.

Cardomom spice cake beehive, buttercream caramel frosting.

Dark dark dark chocolate 4" wee tiny cake.  Dark chocolate frosting in a petal design.  Milk chocolate dipped strawberries with a white chocolate drizzle.

Paid commission!! Half sheet, chocolate, peanut free, sports theme.  It has been pointed out to me that the football, though textured nicely to resemble leather has too many stitches.

For my niece.  6" white cake with apricot or raspberry filling.  Fondant overlays.

My Anniversary.  4" wee tiny cake with quilted fondant.

My sister's birthday.  3 layer 6" chocolate fudge cake, dark chocolate and milk chocolate frosting.  White chocolate molded roses, dark chocolate piped roses, dark chocolate beaded scrollwork on the sides.  This one also required structural stabilization because the height exceeded the width.

My grandson's Birthday.  A sour cherry Black Forest Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream sides and edges. 

Italian Meringue Buttercream is the closest thing to whipped cream I have ever tasted.  It was flavored with vanilla bean so was flecked with the tiny little seeds of goodness.


that brings me up to date.

The Last Cake Decorating Class

It's over.  I got the certificate of completion and the $400 worth of tools.  And I will miss it.

Making gumpaste flowers is, for me, a very zen experience.  From coloring the paste, to rolling, cutting, forming, wrapping and tinting, everything is relaxing and satisfying.

Here are the results:

My first large flower with some little blossoms

Starting to put together a collection

My first Lilly

The cake for the final class

By this time I have assembled 36 ivy leaves, 24 sweet peas, 3 briar roses, 3 hibiscus, 26 little pink blossoms, 9 hydrangea flowers, 13 stephanopolis flowers and 13 stephanopolis buds, and 2 stargazer lilies.  Dogwoods and 1 yellow lily are for a different project

The spray on the cake

Top view

This was my second application of fondant. I used an 8" layer and a 6" layer, lining them up along the back.  This would create a ledge for the flowers.  Luckily the flowers hid a lot of fondant flaws.

The cake is a lemon/orange sour cream cake, based on the WASC recipe.  I filled it with the same buttercream I used under the fondant, which was made with 50% butter and also flavored with the same lemon/orange combination.  Fondant is vanilla marshmallow fondant slightly tinted with leaf green gel color.

It took two hours to assemble the final spray using every one of my taped and tinted blossoms.  This time also included assembling the stargazer lilies.  One lily is shown in the photos, but I added the second on the top looking towards the back of the cake.

Now I am looking for an excuse to do it again.

More Cakiness

I signed up for another cake decorating class, this one would teach me the basics of fondant and gumpaste.  Unfortunately, I was the only one to sign up for this class and was asked if I would like to move to the advanced gumpaste floral design class.  I agreed then spent the next 24 hours learning as much as I could about basics from the internet.  There is a wealth of information and tutorials available for anyone interested in "cake arts".  My two favorite sources were Cake Central and Edna De la Cruz.  Using what I learned on these sites I prepared a White Almond Sour Cream cake (WASC cake), crumb coated it with buttercream, covered it with home-made marshmallow fondant then decorated it with calla lilies.

This is the cake before the final sparkle sugar

 Step one - prepare the marshmallow fondant.  Knead, wrap and let cool.

Step two - wash the kitchen-aid.

Step three - prepare the cake.  Bake and let cool.

Step four - wash the kitchen-aid.

Step five - prepare the buttercream and set aside.

Step six - wash the kitchen-aid.

Step seven - Color gumpaste and make the pistol for the lilies,  brush with gumpaste glue and roll in sugar.  Set aside.

close up of the lilies. 

Step eight - Roll and cut gumpaste for the lily body.  Form over a cone.  Set aside to dry.

Step nine - insert pistol into the lily body, using a little gumpaste glue at the base.

Step ten - tint, roll and cut gumpaste for the sepal, attaching to the flower with a touch of gumpaste glue.

Step eleven - accent brush the flowers with green shimmer dust.

Step twelve - trim and fill the cake layers.

Step thirteen - crumb coat with buttercream and smooth, smooth, smooth.

Step fourteen - roll out the fondant to 1/16" thickness, transfer to the cake.

Step fifteen - ease the fondant down and around the cake, avoiding creating any creases or puckers at the base.  Trim excess.

Step sixteen - pipe some buttercream for a border and add some leaves on top for the lilies to set in.

Step seventeen - arrange the dried lilies on the top.

Step eighteen - add some more sparkle sugar for punch.

What I learned:
I found that trimming the sides of the cake is very important for a smooth look.  Next time I'm going to use the electric knife.  I did not achieve the sheer verticallity I wanted for the sides.  I also think the fondant drew up as it dried, so I will trim less off the bottom in the future.  Calla Lilies are a great flower to start with, they made me feel almost competent.  Everything is better with sparkle sugar.

Oh, I filled the cake with raspberry fruit spread.