The Crumby Baker

So I've been up to some pretty fun cake decorating projects in the past few months--all for some pretty cool guys who happen to be friends with an insane girl who loves crazy projects and big messes. It all goes back to the Crawfest Cake and the ridiculous Goonies creation. Once the guys in our group realized I'd be up for just about anything they could throw at me, the project line started...so here's a little update on what I've been working on.

I think Kevin put in his order for his groom's cake before they even had a date set! It seems like ages ago when we first talked about it so I had plenty of time to think about how I was going to pull it all together. I busted out my Nintendo NES and favorite video game of all time--Tetris--to do a bit of research and just have some fun. It was a yellow cake base with chocolate buttercream frosting and 100% cake and I'm always excited I'm able to make it work without using rice krispie treats...I always feel like that's cheating.

All of the labels and writing was hand-painted, which let me tell you took quite a bit of time a patience, but in the end I think they looked really impressive. I used my marshmallow fondant and Wilton's Sugar Sheets Edible Decorating Paper, and for the most part everything went smoothly. One of the early snafus was forgetting to order this Chefsmaster colored spray like I used for the Crawfest silver pot. Of course the shipping time would have taken too long to arrive by the time I remembered to order it, so the helpful folks at Shop Bakers Nook pointed me to this gold glaze instead. It all worked out great thanks to them, but I found I really like Duff Goldman's line much better. The colors really pop, the coverage is excellent, and they even sell it at my neighborhood grocery store now!!

As always, when it comes to projects like this, it's the details that really sell the project. The labels may have took a bit of time, but they looked really great and I spent who knows how long painting the Nintendo logo on the front of the console, but in the end I think that's what made it so awesome. Also, I collect interesting candies whenever I find them and catalog them mentally if I ever have use for them in decorating projects. Haribo licorice wheels came in quite handy for the controller cords because they had the perfect shiny gloss finish that made it look authentic.

A few notes on the Wilton sugar sheets:

• Painting the sheets with gel food coloring diluted with alcohol worked fabulously and I was able to do much of this in the week before the wedding. Being able to do this in advance was critical because it took so much attention to detail that I needed to be able to do it without the pressure of having to do the rest of the baking and building at the same time. 
• Always remember that its easy to paint dark colors over lighter colors but not not so much the other way around. 
• The sheets peel away from the plastic backing fairly easily at room temperature, but if it's hot and humid (hello, New Orleans!) well, its much harder to make them cooperate. Also if you heavily paint them, they can be a bit more fragile and delicate to handle. The easiest quick fix I found was to throw it in the freezer for about 30-60 seconds and it should come off much easier. I also found having an exacto knife near by was very helpful to get the corners started if its being stubborn.

Thanks to Kevin and Blake for being the cool cats they are and letting me make this very awesome Nintendo cake for them...and giving me the honor of making the one of a kind headpiece I whipped up for the bride.  and I couldn't be more excited to have been a part of such a legen---wait for it---dairy night.

Despite my ever expanding waistband, I had one of the best chocolate cupcakes I've had in a while from the Cake Cafe. I also had one of the most disappointing chocolate cupcakes from an un-named cupcake company that recently opened up in Nola. Cake Cafe's is everything you expect in a chocolate cupcake from Grandmaw's house--unassuming and completely delicious with an awesome fudgey icing that just screams homey old school greatness. The later was modernly styled and packaged and pretty to look at but completely and utterly disappointing. Even I couldn't pin point exactly what it was I didn't like about it but it was dry and awkward and made me wonder how this place is in business--and also that I could make a much better cupcake.

This chocolate fudge cake is one of my favorite go-to chocolate cake recipes. It doesn't have the complexity of Ina Garten's Beatty's Chocolate Cake, but it's fudgey, moist and chocolatey with out being too expensive to make. I usually pair it with a swiss chocolate buttercream and they are truly magnificent together. I'd say it's a bit different combo together than Cake Cafe's fudgey frosting, but I like them both equally, which means they're both awesome. :)

It's also a great sturdy cake that I use all the time when I'm doing intricate cake designs and it works great as either a cake or cupcakes. This past weekend, I made it into chocolate cowardly lion cupcakes to bring to the Finn's cook the competition challenge...but unfortunately came in a close second. How can you beat the combination of adorable AND delicious?? ....with pork and bacon apparently. Its all good though because my Saints won and you'll all love this recipe no matter how you decorate it. :)

Okay so maybe I could make these pumpkin cupcakes anytime of the year, but for some reason fall rolls around and the cool weather and falling leaves just makes me want pumpkins and sweet potatoes and turkey...not that we actually have cool weather in New Orleans right now. Yesterday's high was 84. 84!! In mid November! I keep trying to brainwash myself to think fall and it will feel like fall...but the weather gods are just ignoring me.

Anyway...my coworker bought me this pumpkin cupcake pan from Williams-Sonoma as a gift a while back and I instantly fell in love with these cupcakes. I've been waiting all year for fall to come back around to make these again. They have a great soft crumb with a good pumpkin flavor that's not too overpowered with spice. Again, I love the bit of salt in there too, and although the original recipe comes with a frosting, I like them plain. When they're naked I can delude myself into thinking they're appropriate breakfast. 

So the first time I went to Finn McCool's was to catch a world cup game back in '06. The place was hopping and I instantly fell in love with Katie Jean's (then one of the bartenders) infectious energy and the bar's awesome familial camaraderie. It's so much more than just a neighborhood bar with the best owners, coolest bartenders and a pretty awesome collection of patrons: this past weekend that group raised over two grand to help out a patron who had been shot in the head in an attempted carjacking. The list of charitable organizations that have raised money at Finn's is seemingly endless because the owners Pauline and Stephen are just that cool.

Each week for the Saints games, they cook the competition in a pot luck style cookoff and everyone who brings food gets a free drink, gets to the front of the line each week and a chance to win a $20 bar tab for the best dish. I've always liked bringing desserts when I have a chance to make something, because no one else ever brings in sweets and I have such a sweet tooth even after I gorge on all the other deliciousness everyone else makes, I still always want a little sugar too.

Now, this may come as a shock since I have such a sweet tooth, but as much as I love sweets, I'm not usually a fan of sweets that are just too sugary. I think that's why this is one of my favorite cookie recipes of all time. I love the less sweet tea-style cookies (thumbprint and shortbread cookies are my favs too) and cookies with a bit of salt in them (like my new favorite chocolate chunk cookies).

This recipe comes via Cook's Illustrated, and I don't have any suggestions for improvement, because more often than not their test kitchen is right on the money! If you've never had these before, Mexican wedding cookies go by many different names, all with a similar nutty flavor in a cookie that is so soft it just crumbles away in your mouth. This recipe has just a hint of salt, but combined with a powdered sugar coating they have that wonderful salty/sweet flavor that I can't get enough of.

It's a simple recipe and not very finicky, so it doesn't take a baking expert to get these to come out right. I made two batches yesterday to bring to Finn McCool's weekly cook the competition cooking contest during the Saints game and while the second definitely started with a better butter temperature and the texture of the dough was noticeably different, the end result was virtually the same. I'm always whipping up a few batches during the holidays and it wouldn't be Christmas without these and pralines strewn about the kitchen. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Usually when I'm making a cake for someone else, I try not to use recipes I've never tested before because who knows how it will turn out. Then you've got this terrible cake that you would never eat yourself, much less give it to someone else and tell them, "I baked it with love!!" Yikes.

I had no time to test this Italian Cream Cake before I made it for one of my husband's co-workers, but thank goodness it was delicious! He was able to bring a slice home for me to taste and even I was surprised how yummy it was. No wonder they were all still talking about it the next week! I can't wait to make it one week to bring to Finn McCool's for one of the Saints game cookoffs!

I haven't been baking much at all this summer because it's just too dang hot to turn on the oven and the little baking I have been doing is in the weee hours of the night when I can at least turn it on without suffocating in the kitchen, but finding this little gem was totally worth it! I used the organic coconut you get from the bulk foods section and I really liked that this recipe didn't have any coconut on the outside of the cake. The overall  texture was really nice without having too much coconut. My husband hates coconut cakes and even when I had him taste the batter he wasn't too impressed. The final product comes together nicely with the cream cheese frosting and I think this recipe is definitely a keeper!

I had so much fun at the Locavore Market! It was great to meet so many other locavores. Plus, it always warms my heart to see people enjoy something I've made and I sure got plenty of smiles and oohs and ahhhs at the market.

I was actually surprised that my pralines weren't the biggest seller. Top honors went to the pecan macarons, which actually sold out. Another big shocker was everyone's praline preference. I made two different batches: one with butter I made myself from Kleinpeter heavy whipping cream and the other with Kleinpeter salted butter. I was very much opposed to the flavor of the salted ones because they just didn't taste right to me, but my mom convinced me to bring them anyway and let people taste both and decide themselves. Taste testers overwhelmingly liked the salted ones better. Go figure.

Anyway, here is another sweet treat I made for the market that can be locally sourced. It's easy enough to make, but if you don't have any experience making candies the hardest part is making sure you've cooked it long enough. This recipe said about 15 minutes but I found it was closer to 20 before the mixture had boiled down enough to make a nice chewy caramel, otherwise you just get something that would be better as a warm ice cream sundae topping (of which I now have a jar-full of!) rather than stand alone as a candy.