When in Napa, do grapes!
This week's cake might not be the prettiest but it was deemed the tastiest by my loyal customers! :-)
We actually did not learn anything new this week. It was more of a review of all we did on level 1 and we worked more independently, which is part of being an "advanced" student, I guess, hahaha. So the teacher showed us a picture of the design she wanted us to work on, told us what tips to use and off we went with little supervision. Not bad...
So because we are in the Wine Country after all, the motif was grapes and grapes vines, and because it is cake decorating, we had to throw in some roses too! :-) Gotta love our roses.
I had fun playing with the actual cake before class. I saw a cupcake recipe on this month's edition of Bon Appetit that used coconut milk both in the batter and icing. So I decided to improvise and use coconut milk in my box cake mixture (white cake) and in the icing (instead of regular milk) and it came out nice. I added mini semi-sweet chocolate chips to the cake batter and the filling was chocolate pudding. So all in all, it was not a bad cake at all.
I tried to do the crumble coating with apricot glaze instead of icing and that was a BIG failure. So I ended up having to redo the crumb coat with icing. Glaze only works if you are going to layer the cake with marzipan or fondant. However, it added moisture to the cake and I think it is a great contributor to its success.
So, without further ado, here are the pictures of the Coconut Grape Vine!!!!! :-)
We are not making a cake next week (awhhh :-( ) because we will be practicing molding flowers out of Royal Icing. I am looking forward to it, I know it will be fun. Royal Icing has eggs whites in it and it gets really hard once it dries out. So it is great for 3-D decorations.
On another front, I am putting together a Brazilian Food class for a local private cooking school in the Bay Area. We already have one student registered and we are working at advertising it so that we have many more, hopefully. I am very excited about it, because it is the realization of a long standing dream of mine, which is to teach about cooking. So, all of you out there, spread the word and SIGN UP!!!! http://www.pauldingandco.com/calendar/event.php?709
We actually did not learn anything new this week. It was more of a review of all we did on level 1 and we worked more independently, which is part of being an "advanced" student, I guess, hahaha. So the teacher showed us a picture of the design she wanted us to work on, told us what tips to use and off we went with little supervision. Not bad...
So because we are in the Wine Country after all, the motif was grapes and grapes vines, and because it is cake decorating, we had to throw in some roses too! :-) Gotta love our roses.
I had fun playing with the actual cake before class. I saw a cupcake recipe on this month's edition of Bon Appetit that used coconut milk both in the batter and icing. So I decided to improvise and use coconut milk in my box cake mixture (white cake) and in the icing (instead of regular milk) and it came out nice. I added mini semi-sweet chocolate chips to the cake batter and the filling was chocolate pudding. So all in all, it was not a bad cake at all.
I tried to do the crumble coating with apricot glaze instead of icing and that was a BIG failure. So I ended up having to redo the crumb coat with icing. Glaze only works if you are going to layer the cake with marzipan or fondant. However, it added moisture to the cake and I think it is a great contributor to its success.
So, without further ado, here are the pictures of the Coconut Grape Vine!!!!! :-)
We are not making a cake next week (awhhh :-( ) because we will be practicing molding flowers out of Royal Icing. I am looking forward to it, I know it will be fun. Royal Icing has eggs whites in it and it gets really hard once it dries out. So it is great for 3-D decorations.
On another front, I am putting together a Brazilian Food class for a local private cooking school in the Bay Area. We already have one student registered and we are working at advertising it so that we have many more, hopefully. I am very excited about it, because it is the realization of a long standing dream of mine, which is to teach about cooking. So, all of you out there, spread the word and SIGN UP!!!! http://www.pauldingandco.com/calendar/event.php?709
You're becoming a real artist at this, Alexandra; keep it up !
ReplyDeleteBut does this mean that I'll have to eat cake every day if I ever come to visit you again ? Not that I would mind really, it's just nice to know beforehand, so that I can plan a diet afterwards. :-)
Sorry that I won't sign up for the Brazilian food class, it's a bit far away. But I definitely would have been your worst student ever, so no loss there.
Dirk.
Probably just one, like a "welcome, we're happy to see you" cake, hehehe. Then you have to let me know you favorite flavor. As long as it is not the Belgian rice cake, because I tried that once and it was a disaster! :-)
ReplyDeleteI doubt you would be my worst student ever. But you could do like Jos and come along and just help with the dishes :-)
My favourite ? Mmmm, anything involving lots of chocolate and whipped cream, really. A Wiener Sachertorte would do nicely, thank you ! :-)
ReplyDeleteVery nice indeed dear sister!
ReplyDeleteAbout the cooking class, just send the airplane ticket and sign me in! :-)
And here's a funny (but very true!) quote, when you feel like changing the current one:
"I like rice. Rice is great if you're hungry and want 2000 of something."
Mitch Hedberg (1968 - 2005)
Love you!
Bye!
Hi Dirk,
ReplyDeleteI researched Wiener Sachertorte on the Internet and there seems to be a little mistery around the orinigal recipe. So my curiosity is now piqued. Maybe I will have to go to Vienna to taste the real deal :-). I will work on it so that I can make one for you when you come.
Alexandra
Hi Sis,
ReplyDeleteComment noted and posted, thank you for the suggestion.
Ale
I have a recipe from an old cookbook (1972!) that I will send you in an e-mail. Actually, the sachertorte is originally not with whipped cream, but in Belgium it is sometimes added. Just depends on how many calories you want to take in, I guess ;-).
ReplyDeleteDirk.