Monday, November 30, 2009

Turkey Day Truffles

I know. My sister had the same complaint: "It's Thanksgiving, Katie. No pie?? Are you completely crazy? It's not Thanksgiving without pie... It just isn't." Apparently she was not thrilled when I presented her with my menu mock-up for the big family dinner. I thought pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie... so passe. How about something new and fresh? How about a candy bar! I thought I'd make little bite-size confections... chocolate truffles, peanut brittle, caramel apples, lollipops, pate de fruit. It would all be so colorful and fun (and gluten-free for my parents' new diet)! Especially when we have (the most adorable in this world) 5-year-old twin nephews coming to visit for Thanksgiving. Kids don't like pie. They like candy, right? And I happen to know that many adults can be convinced into some good ol' fashioned sugar bingeing from time-to-time. But if you've met my sister, you know her powers. After reading aloud (quite loud) every pie recipe listed on Epicurious.com, I raised my white flag of surrender. In the end, there were pies, and pumpkin pecan cheesecakes at our Thanksgiving table. Apparently, without their presence the holiday would have had to be called "The day formerly known as Thanksgiving." Luckily, I was able to slip one item from my candy bar menu onto the table: 70% dark Valrhona chocolate truffles enrobed in a Callebaut milk chocolate coating and tossed in coconut.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Lollipop Lollipop

Oooh lolli, lollipop! There's something about lollipops that just reminds me of having fun... maybe because I associate them with childhood, or maybe it's the adorable jingle referenced in the title of this blog entry that always makes a smile spread across my lips. People eat all sorts of foods off of sticks... frozen bananas at street festivals, meat in most Middle Eastern countries, cotton candy at the amusement park. It's just fun! And the treats pictured here are pretty sophisticated too: 70% creamy dark chocolate ganache truffles enrobed in a hard chocolate shell and then rolled in a mixture of cacao nibs and crushed, candied pecans. And you don't even get your fingers dirty.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Time to Taste Some Cake

I think it's a confirmed fact that making a wedding cake is hard. But try making just one slice of 5 different wedding cakes! Turns out, making a slice of cake is much more difficult than making the whole darn thing. I had a lovely bride-and-groom-to-be visit the palatial tasting room "Chez Grant Street" a couple weeks ago. I thought: I'll just make a few base cakes, a bunch of delicious fillings, a handful of different frostings and we'll mix and match to see what they like. Mmhmm. Sounds easy breezy.. that is, if you have never met me. I found myself in my kitchen at the eye of the familiar tornedo that surrounds me whenever I take on pastry projects. Passion fruit curd, mango mousse, milk chocolate ganache, dark chocolate ganache, passion fruit moussaline, strawberry buttercream, raspberry buttercream... they just kept flowing out of my head and into pots while I stirred and strained and stored as if in a trance. When the day of the tasting came, I just sat staring at all the sheets of cake, the miscellaneous containers of fillings and goo, and frosting. What was I thinking? But I put on my butcher persona and started hacking away at the cakes. I split them open, filled them up, stacked layers on top of each other and did my best to create the appearance of a slice of tiered wedding cake. I think it worked. The bride and groom wanted to take one of each. Oh no...

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Grey is Just Not Appetizing

I had to break it to her. Of course, I fussed around with a lengthy pre-amble first: "Slate grey and yellow.. wow, such sophisticated wedding colors. So perfect for the invitation. I can just imagine the gorgeous yellow bridesmaid dresses with classy grey sashes around the waist. And the yellow flower bouquets with slate grey ribbon -- super chic." But after all of this, I had to tell my bride the honest truth: "No one, I promise you, will want to eat a slate grey cupcake." She didn't believe me at first. Though it pained me, I made her some muddy, grey frosting... flinching in my kitchen as I tried to decorate her taster-cupcake as elegantly as possible. One look, and she understood. With your eyes closed, it still tasted like rich, delicious vanilla French buttercream. But with eyes open, no one wanted to even approach the dull, grey specimen. Solution: I custom-dyed some fondant slate grey and cut out hearts to put on top of the (much more appetizing) cream-cheese-frosted cupcakes.