The Ballet Bash

The Sugar Plum Fairy made an appearance. 100 little girls in tutus tip-toed around the floor. An entire corner of the room was dedicated to making foam tiaras. It may have been the most entertaining party I have been to this year. Tutu School celebrated its Grand Opening of the Marin studio this past weekend in style. And, since one should always take advantage of having an in-house pastry chef/ballet teacher, I was the lucky caterer selected for the event. The director of the ballet studio, my boss, scanned my "holiday bite-sized dessert menu" and selected some truly tutu-terrific items for the pink polka-dotted dessert display. We re-created The Nutcracker's Land of Sweets pretty seamlessly... Even young Clara would have to agree.

The Menu
Mini Cupcakes with Pink Buttercream
Sparkle Caramel Lollipops
Button-sized Cookies
Snow White Meringue Kisses
White Chocolate-Peppermint Tartlettes

Taking on Trifle

Trifle: A traditional English dessert created to use up stale left-over cake. That's right -- when a cake has been sitting around for many days, has lost all of its moisture, and has basically become inedible, that's when trifle gets made. To mask the unfortunate state of the cake, you soak it in Sherry, pile berries on top, and cover everything up with a thick layer of custard. Packed with booze, fruit, and creamy pudding, what doesn't taste good? Since it has always been the dessert equivalent of the dreaded "kitchen sink casserole" in my mind, I was caught a little off guard when a client ordered four large bowls of trifle for her glamorous holiday party this year. I eagerly agreed to cater the party, but then had a moment of hesitation: Am I really going to make old cake? I decided that sometimes it's best to make a small break from tradition. These trifles were made from freshly-baked genoise cake, strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries from Berkeley's best produce market, the better part of a bottle of Cream Sherry, and a homemade vanilla moussaline. Sorry, Brits.