In my last blog, I warned you all that last week was going to be busy! I wasn't joking! My first job of the week was for a woman at the College of Mass Comm at MTSU, where I work. She wanted to celebrate our faculty members making it through the year with some yummy treats from moi! What did we come up with? Raspberry-Oatmeal Cookie Bars and my DIVINE Lemon Cream Cupcakes!
For the cupcakes, the batter is pretty standard plus some fresh lemon juice and zest. The Lemon Cream Icing is what really makes this cupcake! It is essentially just milk, sugar, lemon juice, and zest, but it is so creamy and fresh! 'Tis amazing! This is a nice alternative to those heavy and rich traditional cupcakes.
These cupcakes are definitely one of my top 10 favorite things in the world!
The cookie bars were a new recipe that I tried out for this order. She wanted something healthy and light for summer, so I gave her Raspberry-Oatmeal. It is so easy to make and were a huge hit! The recipe will be posted at the end of this blog! The bottom layer of the cookie tastes almost like a big soft graham cracker, then it is topped with raspberry jam and crumbled pieces of the bottom layer. Everyone stopped by my desk and complimented them! :D
Low-fat, High-flavor!
As you can tell from the pictures so far, I am trying a new way to take my pictures. I made this light box using a carboard box, wax paper, printer paper, and my Exacto knife! Now, I just need to make a bigger box for my cakes!
Second order for the week, the groom's cake that is a 3D replica of the Star Wars character Boba Fett's helmet. The cake was about 6 or 7 layers of lemon cake with blueberry cream cheese icing between the layers and a vanilla buttercream on the outside, which was then covered in fondant. Why vanilla buttercream and not my cream cheese icing? Cream cheese icing does funny things to your fondant and will make it sag and deteriorate. Once coated in the vanilla buttercream, I set it in the fridge overnight.
The next afternoon, I began my fondant work. How in the world was this huge purple/blue mound going to become a helmet? I have to tell you, I was a little overwhelmed at first... That soon faded. As soon as I started coloring my fondant, I new this was going to be amazing. For the green color, I marbled juniper green fondant with black fondant to give it that battle-worn look. I covered the top of the dome, then I placed black square on the front for the visor of the helmet.
The next step was to wrap the rest of the cake in my juniper green and black marbled fondant and make the antennae. The antennae was a dowel rod painted white with fondant for the top piece. When wrapping the rest of the cake, I wrapped the entire thing, then used my Exacto knife to make the front visor.
The only thing left to do was the red trim, yellow blocks, ear pieces, helmet scuffs, and assembly. Here is the finished product:
I am quite proud! I modified the background, obviously, lol.
Once decorated, I made some cakes for a wedding cake tasting that I had that weekend, then placed them in the fridge until time to go.
Delivery time! I made the 3.5 hrs trip to Pigeon Forge, TN with my car on full A/C. The venue was on the side of a mountain... That scares me, even without a cake. I always feel like my car is just going to flip over at such steep angles. It seriously like a 80 degree angle up that sucker. I was alone, so my cake was sitting in my floorboard. When my car began going up that mountain, the cake started to lean over... OMG! It sort of messed up the front, but once I got to the venue, I smoothed it back out. No problem! Here it is at the venue:
Rewind back to when I was talking about the layer's of the groom's cake. I had a lot of cake scraps and icing leftover, so I decided to make another batch of cruffles. Oh my goodness... I am in love! These Lemon-Blueberry Cruffles are amazing. I made approximately 50-60 of them, and they were gone as soon as people saw them. The big flavor was lemon, then you get a little blueberry, and the vanilla coating just ties them both together. It was quite delicious and so MOIST. 'Twas delicious!
I ordered these mini chinese takeout boxes a couple of months ago, and I finally found a reason to use them! They hold 3 cruffles perfectly!
Let's take a break from the sweets for a section on our friend, Mr. Savory!
One of my biggest loves, as most college students, is pizza. I seriously make pizza dough at least once a week, lol, sometimes more. I have always just flattened the dough with a rolling pin or by hand. Last week, I decided to mix it up and try PIZZA TOSSING! All you do is take some dough, flatten it into a small disk, stretch some over the fist, and toss. Sounds simple, right? Not so much. You have to watch your fingers, as the dough tears so easily during this process. You also have to make sure you catch it, of course, too! It took a few pieces of dough, but I did it! Here is some of my tossing action:
Almost missed this one:
This weekend, after the delivery of my groom's cake, I went back to Maryville and spent a few days with my friends and family. It was quite amazing and was much needed after a semester full of work! My family, having seen my blog and heard of my mad cooking skills, requested a couple of things cooked for them. My aunt wanted dinner one night and my papaw wanted French baguettes.
For my aunt, I was supposed to use a wok to cook an asian dish, but we put it off until next time. I went over to her house to hang out, then she offered to buy us fast food if I went to get it. After much consideration, we could not come up with a restaurant. Then it came to me, why the heck are buying fast food burgers? I can make better burgers here, and for a lot cheaper, lol. This dinner was kind of spontaneous, so I had to use what she currently had in the kitchen. I raided her pantry and refrigerator for ingredients. I began by preheating olive oil in my skillet and making my patties. I used fresh cracked black pepper, garlic salt, onion powder, and hamburger seasoning on my patties. Once the skillet was hot, I chopped some onions and sauteed them for a couple of minutes before adding my patties. For a little smokey flavor, I added bacon bits on top of patties as they cooked and a little with the onions as they cooked, too. They were then topped with American cheese and sesame seed buns that were steamed with the burgers. The end result was the MOST AMAZING burger I have ever had. It was so tender, juicy, full of flavor, and just perfect. It was so good, that I forgot to take a picture, sorry!
When I went to visit my papaw, he was telling my about his love of French bread and that he wanted me to make some for him some day. Why wait and not make it now? I pulled out my recipe and found all the ingredients it their kitchen. My nana, grandmother, kept checking up on me as I cooked, lol. My recipe is very simple, but requires a lot of kneading... about 10 minutes worth. Once kneaded and proofed, I formed the baguette:
Here it is uncooked.
I placed a pan of hot water in the stove, as well as spraying the oven walls with water to get a crispier crust. At about half-way through the baking, i brushed each with olive oil. This gives the baguette a great drown color, as well as flakier crust and amazing color! Once done, I sampled, then gave my papaw a chunk. He loved it, as did I! I didn't take a picture of the end result, I'm sorry!
Later that night, i had to swing back by to get my phone charger. There was only one baguette left, lol. My nana even loved the bread, and she ain't afraid to speak her mind.
Alright, back to the sweet talk!
Colored sugar(sanding sugar) is quite expensive. You can expect to pay upwards of $5 for a small jar of the stuff. I have wanted to use sanding sugar for a while, but I didn't want to shell out that kind of money. While visiting with my aunt, she showed me some clips from Rachael Ray. One of her tips was on hot to make your own sanding sugar. It involved dunking the sugar in water, vodka, and coloring, then drying. I was going to try this method, but a little research showed me a much easier way!
All you do is water down some food coloring paste, place sugar in a tupperware container, then drizzle coloring on top of sugar, close lid, and shake vigorously!
The starting stages of the process, the sugar clumps, but the shaking will loosen it up and disperse color!
Once done, I placed on plastic wrap for a couple of minutes, then I jarred it up in some spice jars that my nana had given me! I even had enough to make a cool display in my eiffel tower jar!
Here is a really cool picture of jars! I didn't mean to, but I ended up making all the colors of the rainbow, lol!
If you have made it through this blog, snaps for you! My fingers now hate me... lol!
I have a couple of orders in the coming weeks, but I am looking for more! If you are interested in purchasing a cake, cupcakes, or cookies, email me at joshua.alan.burgin@gmail.com!
Alright, that about does it for this edition! Until next time, have a good night and tomorrow!
Recipe of the blog:
Raspberry-Oatmeal Bars
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
2 cups Quick-Cooking Oats
1/4 cup Butter/Margarine
3/4 cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce
1 1/2 cup Raspberry Jam
Directions:
1)Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) Combine all dry ingredients.
3) Add apple sauce and cut in butter using your hands or a pastry cutter until crumbly.
4) Using 3/4 of mixture, press into a 9"x9" pan that has been greased and lined with wax/parchment paper.
5) Spread jam over crust, leaving 1/4" of edge exposed to prevent jam from burning.
6) Crumble leftover crust mixture over jam.
7) Bake for 25 minutes or until done.
8) Cool and enjoy!
Merci de visiter ma cuisine et je te félicite par le tien. Bonne journée.
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