The Macaron Class

The Macaron. Pronounced: mah-kah,rhon, and if you can manage the French nasally sound at the end, more power to you. Not to be confused with a Macaroon, go ahead and say it like an American and really add emphasis the rooooon. The little French Macaron is ever so popular these days. People swoon over these little almond flavored sandwich cookies. Confession: I'm not really one of them. They are cute, but I'm not sure their cuteness can make up for 1) their lack of deliciousness, and 2) the labor intensive process of making them, and 3) they cost about $4 a pop. Wha???

For my birthday Brook took me to a Macaron class hosted by her cooking group. Kathryn Gordon, New York pastry chef and author of the book Les Petits Macarons was there for an instructional demonstration on making macarons. It was totally awesome to see her at work. But I came away from the night even more intimidated about those little French Confections than ever before. Because as a professional pastry chef, who has literally written the book on macarons, even Kathryn Gordan was able to mess them up right in front of us. She was still trying to tweak her recipes enough for high altitude variations. Golly, for only containing 4 ingredients, there is about 4 thousand ways to royally screw up a macaron. And every pastry chef in the world has an opinion on the right and wrong way to make a macaron. The history is pretty fascinating actually.

Still, it was awesome to meet her and get my book signed. Someday I'm going to attempt them at home. Someday! Thanks Brookie Cookie!

Evolution of a Wedding Cake

My first wedding cake, so it were. The fact that it didn't fall apart during transport + tasted pretty good + made the bride smile all contributed to a big moment for this amateur hack baker. When my darling 12 year old niece Maddy saw the cake she said "Brook is going to be so proud of Gina for making that." Love her. During the reception my aunt Polly came up to me with fork in hand, cake in mouth, and pointed at the slice on her plate. "You know what you are? A perfectionist!" I laughed out loud. If only to avoid crying. And now I can't decide if she's right or way way wrong. After all of the self-induced stress and nerves and frosting taste-testing I didn't think I would ever eat cake again. And yet. I woke up the next morning and ate wedding cake for breakfast.

Breaking Her In

Or more appropriately, she's breaking me in. Isn't it funny how inanimate objects can adopt a gender role? My new oven is definitely female. Can't really explain it, but she is, and I'm hoping that we'll become BFF while keeping the drama to a minimum. Nothing worse than your oven going all Mariah Carey in Glitter all over your whoopie pies. I should know. On Sunday I made Rachel Manley's Almond Yogurt Cake as featured on Design Sponge last week. Now, I could fill a dump truck with all the recipes I've printed off the web with every intention of making, but never do. Perhaps this is why I feel obligated to blog this one. That, and because BD took this beautiful shot of the cake right before I stuck out my tongue and licked up that lemon curd. What? Wouldn't you?

I'm guessing my self-rising flour had passed it's prime because the cakes did not self-rise. Sigh. The recipe actually called for blood orange curd, but my first attempt failed big time. I must have had two very bloody blood oranges because my curd never turned to custard. Or is it that my custard never turned to curd? Either way, the recipe doesn't specify the amount of juice. That's a bad dog recipe. No biggie, I defaulted to a trusty Martha Stewart lemon curd recipe that has never failed me and used the Meyer lemons I couldn't pass up from Whole Foods. Whole Foods did not pay me to say that.

Fact: Meyer lemons are a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange. In other words they are lemons with a little less pucker factor. Which makes them perfect.

I made this cake in part for my sister's birthday and I knew she would appreciate that it contained ingredients such as Greek yogurt, sunflower oil, and ground almonds. She's healthy like that. Maybe that's why she looks 22 and has 3 grand kids. Jody did pay me to say that. Happy Birthday sis! Lastly, I got to use some of my favorite kitchen gadgets like a food processor, sieve, and citrus reamer. Sometimes, it just feels soooo good to dirty an apron.

Cake Pops: Alice in Wonderland Style

Oh boy, 'tis the season. I've been flat out at work this past week and the holiday season never fails to keep us busy running around town here and there, grateful to have so many fun things to be attending and so many wonderful people to be celebrating the season with.BD's cousin asked me to make cake pops for her daughter's Alice in Wonderland birthday party. The decorations were so gorgeous and whimsical and the cake pops looked beautiful along side the rest of the tea party decor. I loved it and I love her sense of style! It made me really excited to have a little girl someday.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Let the holiday baking begin! All we need is snow...

Monster Cookies via happy:blissful

Jungle Animal Cupcakes

My friend Jessica asked me to make animal cupcakes for her 3 year old daughter's birthday party. I'm glad I was up for the challenge because I really love how they turned out.

Baking is cathartic. I love measuring out the ingredients, flour, cocoa, sugar, and skimming off the top to be perfectly even. I love things to be perfect. So shoot me. The whole process is very exact, precise. It makes me happy and whole. Pouring the vanilla is my very favorite part. Sometimes I let the vanilla spill out over the teaspoon and pretend I didn't notice. I'm rebellious like that. Oh, and I love pouring the batter into the cups, that's also my favorite part.Baking smells really good too. Question: Is there anything that smells better than chocolate cake right out of the oven? I can't think of anything. Not one. Now that I think about it, eating chocolate cake is my favorite part. Yep, that's definitely my favorite. My sis agreed to come help me take on the Jungle Animal cupcake endeavor. I LOVE being in the kitchen with my sisters, it's one of those joys in life that I hope never grows old, even when we do. Three dozen custom cupcakes is a big job, and I could not have done it without her! As you can see, we take this baking stuff really seriously.Decorating is really fun too. The icing on the cake is the paint on the canvas and allows for any and all creativity to be explored. For example, trying to get that perfect "jungle-y" yellow. I'm happy to say, we got it right.

I hear a stampede coming...
[drum roll please]

What is your favorite one? My favorite are the elephants. And the monkeys. No, the zebras. Well, actually the loins. Yeah, definitely the loins-zebras-monkeys-elephants are my favorites.

Inspiration from fish outa water and sara bakes cakes.