Golf Cake

I believe that sharing all of the tasty confections that we make is an important part of being a good baker. I am always sending sweets to work with Brian. The other day I received an email from one of Brian's co-workers requesting a red velvet cake for her father's birthday. She said that he loved golf, but his birthday was upcoming weekend, but because of the short notice we could make it any time. I responded to her email and told her that we would be able to accommodate her order and make her dad's birthday special. When I graduated from college it was with the goal of having my own bakery. I was lucky to have my mom move here and help me to achieve my goal. She is/has been a big help, have a look:

Going with the golf theme I drew out a sketch and emailed it back to Tara for approval.


It seems as though red velvet is a very popular flavor. I was so tired when I got home from work today I handed my recipe over to my mom and "supervised" as she made it.


We used gum paste to create golf balls with cute little dimples.


After the cake was baked we frosted it with buttercream and had to make a hole for the golf ball.


We used a grass tip to create a beautiful putting green!


My mom picks up on decorating very quickly. I showed her the grass tip and how to use it. She told me that they did not have grass tips when she was younger. She did an excellent job creating a lawn!


I put a vibrant blue border around the top and bottom.


When the grass was ready we were able to place the ball on the cake.


Here is my mom practicing writing, "I LOVE GOLF!!"


She was soon ready to write it on the cake.


My mom had the idea to use a smaller gum paste golf ball in place of the "o" in the word "golf."


Here is the cake with the writing on the side.


And here is the finished cake all decked out with an 18th hole flag!




I hope her father loves the cake and it helps make his birthday special. My mom had a wonderful time making it and I had a wonderful time sharing tips and tricks for decorating and watching her get excited as the cake took form.

Gimme Some, Some, Some of that Cinnabon...

I have no idea why, but I've had a craving for Cinnabon. There are no Cinnabons located anywhere close to our neck of the woods so I did some research online and found a recipe that is pretty close. Next time (and I will not lie about the fact that there will be a next time) I will cook them a little less. I baked them for 20 minutes and they should have been cooked for only about 16-17 minutes. The result was delicious and easy cinnamon rolls with a gooey center. Everyone loved them. Have a look:

I first started by using my stand mixer to knead the dough. I love my stand mixer it makes all of my baking tasks much easier.


Once the dough had been kneaded it had to rise for an hour. After an hour passed I rolled the dough out into a large rectangle.


Butter in the dough, butter in the icing and a slathering of butter inside of the rolls.


Once the rectangle of dough was slathered with butter, I generously sprinkled it with brown sugar and cinnamon.


The rectangle was then rolled into a long roll.


The roll was then cut into 16 1" pieces and then placed into a baking pan to rise again for a second time.


While the rolls were rising I made the icing.


Here are the rolls after they were allowed to rise for a half an hour.


After the cinnamon rolls came out of the oven they were ready to be anointed with gooey icing.


Here are the cinnamon rolls after receiving their first slathering of icing. Make no mistake, of course they were covered with a second coat of sugary goodness.


I recommend trying this recipe, the result is sinfully delicious and gooey cinnamon pleasure.

In a Pickle....

Last weekend my Ma and I went to the Hartville Market. It was such a wonderful experience and some of the deals we were given were just too good to pass up. I taught my mom one of the tips that I learned from shopping at farmers markets, do not buy the first thing that you find. That tip held true because right when we were about to leave we came to a booth with a woman who everyone referred to as "mother." Mother had huge baskets of cucumbers for 3 dollars. When I saw these cucumbers I knew they would be perfect for homemade Amish Garlic Dill Pickles . Mother gave us a bigger deal, she gave us two baskets of cucumbers which weighed about 30 lbs for 5 dollars. When we got them home Ma and I made pickles, have a look:

We have a very big and very deep sink. Here are all of the cucumbers "mother" sold to us.


As I always say, I love the opportunity to teach. My mom had never canned before so I shared with her everything I know about it. I told her the number one rule is to be extremely clean. Here are all of our sterilized jars. Most of these use to be Brian's Mother's jars.


We made a huge pot of flavorful pickling brine.


We made the pickles a bit thicker than in prior years. We used my Pampered chef crinkle cutter until the arthritis set in.


I told my mom that we needed to put enough cucumbers in the jars so there would be enough pickles in the jars after they were done pickling.


Once the jars were filled with brine and cucumbers we used a chopstick my sister Marcie gave me as a gift to poke around in the jars to help all of the air bubbles escape.


Again I stressed to my mom the importance of being clean and sterile. After filling all of the jars we wiped the rims clean.


Here are some of the jars ready to be processed in a water bath.


After about 8-10 minutes the jars needed to be carefully lifted out of the water.


YUMMM PICKLES!


These pickles need to sit for two weeks and after that they will be ready to be devoured and share!

Ronnie's Birthday Fish Cake

Yesterday was Brian's Dad Ronnie's birthday. One of Ronnie's favorite passtimes is fishing. We decided to have all of the family get together (which doesn't happen often enough) and celebrate. I jumped on the opportunity to improve my cakemaking skills and decided to make Ronnie a widemouth bass fish cake. Have a look:

I first started by researching pictures of bass online. After that I sketched out my design.


in a tribute to Steele Magnolias I just knew the inside cake flavor for the fish had to be red velvet. I started by baking a red velvet cake.


I then sculpted the red velvet cake into some form of a fish.


The fish cake was then crumb coated with delicious homemade buttercream.


I needed the top and tail fins to be hard so I made those in advance.


For the base of the cake we chose marble.


My mom was a big help. I love teaching and learning with her. After we decorated the base of the cake we had to get the bass ready to be placed in his new home. We Covered the fish with scales.


I painted the bass with shading and shimmer.


Here is the finished cake. I just love him! He was delicious too!




EXTREME CLOSE-UP!!



I'll blog later about the fish being fileted at the restaurant as he made the ultimate sacrifice for Ronnie's birthday. There was quite a but of interest from everyone in the restaurant. Strangers were coming up to admire and we had sooooooo much cake we shared with the kitchen! They loved it too!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY RONNIE!!

Vacation Part 4: Key West

I can say one thing about Key West. It is hot! It was hot. I would tell Brian, "MY FACE IS MELTING!!!" On one of our excursions out into town we decided to take the trolley around the island. Have a look:

The trolley driver was nice and full of useful information. He provided us with extensive information about almost every inch of the island. They provided us with "air conditioning" which was a paper fan that did not help much.


The different tidbits of information we were given about the island was interesting such as the wild chickens running around the island are protected by law. They were brought to the island to cockfight, once it was outlawed the chickens were released and are now protected. There is a $500.00 fine for causing harm to any of the chickens.

My sister got us tickets to a few different attractions on the island. We all agreed that the Key West Butterfly & Nature Conservatory was our favorite. We got off of the trolley and walked to the conservatory, once inside it was such a beautiful, peaceful and surreal experience.

The staff really work to make the conservator a peaceful sanctuary. The foliage inside was just beautiful. I was in awe of all of the Bird of Paradise plants.


These butterfly benches were beautiful and the faux aged copper patina blended well with the plants.


There were so many kinds of butterflies fluttering around and some of theme were hard to take pictures of because they would not sit still.

I am glad these ones were cooperative.




This one is so beautiful!




The koi pond and fountain added to the peacefulness.



We could not visit Key West without stopping by the original Margaritaville. My favorite part of it was the air conditioning.


We walked around the boat dock for a while looking for manatees, but we did not see a single one! We saw barracudas jumping trying to escape sharks.


We also had tickets to an aquarium so we visited there too.

This is the touch pond. This pond is full of creatures for visitors to gently touch and feel. It turns out I was the only one brave enough to touch any of the creatures.


Okay, so the sea cucumber was a bit gross, but it makes for an interesting picture. I also had to pick up the huge hermit crab to take a picture of his face for my friend Steph. There was also a conch, which I saw Martha eat on her show once.


Here are some various fish.


Anemones..


Now in this tank visitors are not allowed to touch any of the animals. It is full of nurse sharks, stingrays and turtles.


Once outside we were able to see the sharks being fed. There was food available to feed some of the other fish which share the tanks with the sharks. It was a feeding frenzy. Oh yeah and I so wanted to put this staghorn fern in the trunk of our car and bring it home!


After disinfecting and sanitizing this conch shell my mom tried to make melodious music. She sounded like an injured dying porpoise.

Vacation Part 3: Off To Key West

Brian and I both were a bit terrified of driving across the bridges to get to Key West. We left Daytona Beach early in the morning and made it to Miami by lunch time.

Driving into Miami was beautiful. It would have been great to have more time to spend in Miami.


We stopped for lunch in Miami, afterwards were off to the Keys. When we actually started the long drive across the many bridges that connect the Keys we realized it was not bad at all.


Once we were all settled into our hotel rooms we found a beach to put our feet in. The water was sooooo warm and there was a big heron walking on the beach.


We woke up early on our first morning in Key West to watch the sunrise. The water was beautiful, but it was too cloudy to see the sunrise.


We returned to the beach we visited the night before and walked around for a while. The water was not as warm as it was the night before.


This was the highlight of my mom's vacation (mine was the air conditioning!) On the way back to the car a man asked us if we were interested in purchasing fresh coconuts. We bought two coconuts one to drink and one which was riper than the other to eat. I was expecting the inside to taste like fresh Pina Colada, have a look.

Here is the man retrieving two coconuts from the pile that he collected that morning.


The man used a knife to cut through the thick exterior of the coconut.


Okay, so I have to be honest. The inside coconut water did not taste anything like a fresh Pina Colada. It tasted like fermented coconut mixed with 5 week old stale warm beer.


The man had to relocate to the sidewalk to break open the coconut for us to be able to eat.


While waiting for the coconut to be opened I noticed this beautiful flower growing on the beach.


Finally inside the coconut.


We bought a coconut for my mom too. She posed for this picture, but after she tasted the awful coconut water inside she dumped it into the bushes!


Eating the fresh coconut was really good. I loved walking on beach early in the morning and the coconut man was also something I will always remember.