Elegant Red Christmas Cake

This year, I spent my first Christmas away from home and with my long-haired, long-term boyfriend and his family. I decided to impress my potential in-laws with Christmas Cake, because the best way to a potential in-law's heart is through their stomach! The following is a photo-essay (taken by the long-haired, long-term boyfriend) which documents the multiple day labor-of-love it is to make a fancy fondant cake.

I began by making frosting, baking the cake, and then leveling the top. I set up shop at the kitchen table and smile silly-like at my at my documentarian.


I fill the layers with yummy-licous frosting (cream cheese frosting in this case). I've discovered the flavor of the frosting is key to a great tasting cake. Other fun flavors I've tried include peanut butter, and mint. Any future suggestions?


I crushed up some peppermint candy canes and put them between the layers of red velvet and white cake to add a tasty bit of holiday cheer. After wards I covered the two tiers of cake entirely in frosting.


Next comes the fondant (not fondue, as the potential parent-in-law kept calling it). Fondant is a smooth flawless icing used for wedding and specialty cakes. It's made of sugar and water and has a gum-like texture. It's play-dough for bakers! I purchase my fondant pre-made, and it comes in white, so my first task was to color it. Red and black are the hardest colors to create as they require a lot of food coloring and even more kneading and mixing. Guess what color this cake is?

Look at that sexy neon salmon orange - it has Christmas written all over it? Uh...well...it looks like a little more gel-color and a healthy wrist workout is in order.


After the desired color is achieved, (which took practically an entire jar of gel-color) I rolled out the fondant until it was about 1/4 to 1/8 of an inch thick.


Using the rolling pin, I rolled the fondant out over the cake, and smoothed it out with my hands and a fondant smoother to make my cake flawless. It's like botox for cake!


Once the cake is covered and the wrinkles are wiped away, I cut away the excess fondant. Then lather, rinse, repeat -- I mean -- roll, smooth, and repeat for tier number two.


I use dowels to support the second tier.


Slowly, with agile fingers and the grace of a bull, I lower the second tier, down through a central dowel. (Side note: Bull's are actually very graceful, Mythbusters did an experiment to see what a Bull would actually do in a China shop and here-be-told not a dish was displaced!)

Prior to making the cake I cut out small white flowers from gum paste and let them dry. Next I painted them with pearl dust (you know, to make the cake fancy) and I glue in the center sprinkles using almond extract.


The finished flowers wait to dry as the sun sets. Sparkly!



Later I attach the tiny flowers all over the cake - again using almond extract as a glue. Any extract will work, the almond is simply what I had on hand.



You have to hold each flower down for a moment or two in order to seal the bond. Yes, decorating does include a lot of small work, but I find it very zen-like to enjoy each small step one by one by one by one by one.


And Voila - a beautiful fantastic Christmas cake! Easy as....cake! (Well, three days easy).



Magnifico!


How Merry!


Of course after you've admired the cake, you must eat it! Who's got a gigantic knife?!



Time for some slicing and dicing!


Who wants the first piece?



Gobble. Gobble. Munch. Munch. Slurp. Burp.



Even the nieces approve! Merry Christmas Everyone!

All the photos for this post were taken and provided by Russell Gearhart Photography.

Martha Stewart is My Edward Cullen

The question is which side are you on? Are you Team Edward? Or are you Team Jacob?

With the recent release of “New Moon,” I find teenage vampaholics have gone ga-ga, fangs extended, to prove their beloved Edward is the name whispered from my lips when asked this oh-so-life-changing question. Their eyes bulge waiting to find out my true colors. And so, to this chorus of prepubescent shrieks, I dare to say: neither. I’m 100% third party.

That’s right, I’m for team Martha!

Team Martha Stewart, that is. No, Martha hasn’t turned into a vampire, or traded in her blond locks for a full body hair-wolf-athon. No, she’s still the mistress of home-crafting and baking bedazzlement, and dare I say she could give Edward a run for his money. Let’s compare:

Edward Cullen
1) Brooding and Dangerous
2) Soul-less Vampire
3) Immortal
4) Sparkles in the Sunlight
5) Thinks Bella Smells So Good He Wants to Eat Her
6) Achingly Beautiful (according to the screenplay)
7) Brings Teenage Girls to Their Knees with Incomparable Obsession and Loyalty
8) Is 100% fictional

Martha Stewart
1) Happy and Dangerous
2) Soul-less Advertiser
3) Immortal
4) Makes all Baked Goods and Crafts Sparkle Day or Night
5) Makes all Baked Goods Smell So Good You’d Sell Your Soul to Eat Them
6) Makes Cakes that are Butter-Cream-Beautiful
7) Speaks to the Almost-Thirty Homemaker that I Didn’t Even Know Lived Under This California Girl Veneer
8) Is 100% Flesh and Blood

Honestly, I just want something I can sink my teeth into.

The key here is obsession. Young girls are obsessed with Twilight, and I’m obsessed with 2009 winter issue of Martha Stewart’s Holiday Sweets, which is really what this whole blog post is about.

I bought this magazine on a whim. Yes, some achingly beautiful picture on the cover catches my eye, a few flips through its sunlight sparkling pages, and I fell hard and fast. My brooding vampire is a caramel-pear terrine. I found myself drooling over pictures of Eggnog cups, and carrot spice tartlets, lemon mousse, and pumpkin flan. Not to mention the special section on how to build your very own gingerbread mansion (or subdivision for that matter)! I read this magazine cover to cover, and then I read it again. I wanted to rip out the pictures and paste them on the wall so I could stare starry-eyed into the sweet marshmallow gaze of caramel pots de crème! Edward, you’ve got nothin’ when Martha’s got Raspberry Pistachio Dacquoise!

But I digress…

Perhaps all these sweets, like Edward, are just a fantasy. They look immaculate and unattainable in the glossy photos. Martha casts her spell, and for a minute I think maybe I too can make something just as marvelous, something just as exquisite and rare. Am I really special enough, talented enough, and obsessed enough?

I don’t believe in Vampires. But cake. Cake I can work with. Team Martha all the way!

Dear Sweet New Year's Pie!

Right now…
The kitchen smells of butter. The air is glazed with the warm scent of flaky bread rising. In the oven the pie simmers with cranberries and pears making love under a bed of brown sugar. I’ll let the love brew for another hour or so, before painting the crust with an apricot reduction. My taste buds are ready to rock out, bringing in the New Year with coconut confetti and Pear-Cranberry Pie: home-made style baby!

The Taste Tester…
I baked my New Year’s pie as a surprise treat for a good friend of mine, let’s call him The Pie Expert. The pie expert has rightfully earned his title, for in my circle of friends no one is as knowledgeable, experienced in eating, or loves pie more than he. Case and point, when the pie expert got married there was no wedding cake, oh no, there was wedding pie. So who better to judge my maiden pie voyage?

His comments were few, (perhaps because his mouth was stuffed with delicious pie . Or perhaps he was considering how he could spit it out and not insult me. It was new years, after all, he also could have been drunk.) The Pie Expert’s verdict:

“It’s good” – Vague, but positive. However, one must consider the friend factor. It is well known that friends will often lie to be polite.

“It’s not too sweet.” - Upon further inquiry I learn this is a good thing. Pie expert explained that the pie had a nice balance between sweet (the pear) and tart (the cranberries).

“The crust is nice and firm.” – It turns out this is a particularly important element of pie construction. One must make a substantial crust that can support the weight of the fruit without wimping out and becoming mystery mush. Good to know. I often hear that the crust is the hardest part about making pie, so with the hardest part in the clear I'm going to call this match: One point for team Ingrid.

So Let’s talk Shop…
Baking pie wasn’t the intimidating feat I imagined it to be. No mountains of butter were scaled, no pie bridges burned, or tsunamis of cranberries splashed upon the floor. Just follow the directions - chop, toss, press, cover with crust and bake. Easy as pie.

Literally.

I decided to get a little creative with the decoration of this pie. The original recipe (which came from the creative crafting queen Ms. Martha Stewart) showed you how to create a lattice work by using small square cookie cutters. Instead of weaving a lattice you cut out the holes in the flattened dough, and then use the cut-out squares as a crust. My thought is – good effort Martha – but if you’re going to use cookie cutters why not use something fancy? Why be square when you can be a flower shaped?! I got my craft on with a flower cookie cutter, originally used to crate fondant flowers. You can get these at Michael’s Arts n’ Crafts. If cake can be pretty, then pie can be pretty too! So I double dog dare everyone to get out their cookie cutters and fancy up some pie!


Fun Photos…
Because I haven’t invented the scratch and sniff icons yet, you’ll have to drool over some photos. (Taken by Russell Gearhart Photography).































































The Recipe:
(Comes from “Martha Stewart's Holiday Sweets Magazine” Winter 2009 Issue, Pages: 8, 9, 16, 17)

Pear-Cranberry Pie Recipe
All purpose flour, for dusting
1 recipe Pate Brisee for crust (See Below)
4 ripe Bartlett pears
4 1/3 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon coarse salt
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream
½ cup apricot preserves

1. Roll out one disk of dough to 1/8 inch thick. Fit into 9 inch pie plate and trim edges. Chill 1 hour or up to overnight.
2. Roll out second disk of dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut out pattern with cookie cutters. Use square for lattice effect. Cut around edges so that you have a round pie top.
3. Use leftover dough to cut out additional squares, flowers, (your choice of shape), for the crust of the pie. Chill pie top and cut out shapes in fridge for 1 hour or up to overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
5. Peel and core pears. Very thinly slice 2 pears lengthwise; cut remaining 2 pears into 8 wedges each.
6. Toss pears, cranberries, brown sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Pour into pie shell; gently press to make level. Dot with butter.
7. Whisk egg yolk and cream to create egg wash.
8. Place pie top design/crust over the top of the pie. Gently press edges of crust togther to seal; trim edges if necessary.
9. Lightly brush egg wash on pie top.
10. Arrange shapes along the edge of the pie to create crust. Lightly glaze each piece as you go. You can make shapes overlap or butt them up next to one another. This depends on the design you wish to create.
11. Put pie in the oven on middle rack. Bake until golden brown and juices bubble – aprox. 1 ½ hours. Pull out and cool when done.
12. Meanwhile, heat preserves in a sauce pan over medium heat till warm. Puree in a food processor till smooth. Press through fine sieve into a bowl. Brush warm pie with generous amounts of apricot glaze. Let cool.


Pate Brisee Recipe (Pie Crust Dough)
(Also from above mentioned Magazine)
Makes one 9-10 inch double crust pie.
3 Cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup and 2 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)
¼ to ½ cup ice water

1. Pulse flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor to combine. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (Read previous blog post on evil food processors for exciting adventures in pulsing!)
2. Evenly drizzle ¼ cup ice water over mixture. Pulse until mixture just begins to hold together (it should not be wet or sticky in texture). If too dry, add more water one tablespoon at a time.
3. Divide dough in half. Wrap each half in plastic and shape into a disk.
4. Refrigerate for 1 hour, or up to overnight. Freeze up to 1 month (thaw before using).

Baking Pie Prelude: The Evil Voodoo Food Processor

I must begin this post with a confession. Prior to today I did not know, understand, or comprehend what a food processor did….other than, well….process food, (whatever that means). After all according to the collective media barometer processing your food equals “my hamburger is made out of corn chips and rabbit droppings.” So, sure it makes sense that I grew up in a house without a food processor (or if my house did have one then I grew up blind or my mother is a master magician.) The point being, I didn’t know why I would ever need one or what it would do.

Enter baking challenge number one: Pie Crust

The directions say to pulse ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, and water) in a food processor. Excuse me? Pulse them? Don’t get me wrong, but aren’t things with a pulse supposed to be alive? How am I supposed to pulse these ingredients with my fingers? (Well, you’re not. You’re supposed to use a Food Processor, Dummy.) I debated long and hard, contemplating if this process could be completed without a food processor (of which I do not own). Pie crust must have been made in days long before food processors. Cave woman must have had her own tricks for serving up some sweet pie for her cave-hunny after a long day of buffalo hunting. Marie Antoinette’s servants must have found a way to keep their heads away from the guillotine, and their hands pinching pie crust. It has to be possible.

My options are:
1. Invent my own creative way to pulse the ingredients, at my own risk.
2. Find out more information via bookstore or inter-webs.
3. Buy a food processor.

Since I didn’t have internet (per the period of the pulsing predicament) I opted to follow the directions and purchased my very own plastic and shiny food processor. I pulled the contraption from the box, and placed it on the counter. Yes, now I too would learn the mysterious behavior of processing food. *Do do do do do do do do * *Insert Twilight Zone Theme Song Here.*

So a food processor is a plastic bucket with a big double sided death blade in the middle - you know the type of medieval torture device that thirteen-year-olds love to wield in video games. Pulsing is obviously very dangerous. Okay, but before I actually get to the pulsing and the processing, we have a problem. My thirty-five-dollar hunk of torture device doesn’t work. I press the “ON” button and nothing happens. Now I’m a semi-smart lady. I have a master’s degree, a doctor for a father, and an uncanny ability to assemble IKEA furniture like it’s nobody’s business. I follow directions, and I follow them well. But when I plug in the cord and press the pretty little pulse button –Nada! Nothing! Benito! I disassemble and reassemble. I trouble shoot, re-read directions, and try multiple outlets. But the plain and simple fact is my food processor processes nothing.

Enter my ruggedly handsome, long-haired, long-term boyfriend who’s pretty much been watching me struggle with this hunk of plastic for about a half an hour. I’m packing the thing up. I am ready to condemn this food-bot to the Island of misfit toys and never look back.

“Wait. Let me try it.” He says. He carefully takes the processor apart, follows the directions, sliding each piece into place, exactly – I must add – in the same way I did. He plugs it in, presses pulse and it becomes apparent that I have been possessed by some evil voodoo food processor ju-ju. The machine roars to life and the knife spins like the ninja I imagine only Jackie Chan can be. It works. My first test of baking, and I fail miserably. One touch from the mystical man who makes all electronics bow at his will, and yes it spins to attention like an eager pup.

Well…at least I don’t have to return it.

It turns out a food processor is a pretty cool gizmatron. It made pie dough in a New York minute (having never lived in New York I have no idea if that witticism even makes sense). Let’s just say fast. Faster than my little fingers could ever pulse. And pulsing isn’t that fancy either. It’s just a button on the machine that causes the blade to churn as long as you wish to hold down the button. While the “ON” button stays on until you turn it off. They kind of do the same thing really, but I’m no expert. The good news is I still have all my fingers, all my toes, and pie dough. Sweet and savory pie dough, bad voodoo ju-ju and all.

Internet Detox Results in Potential Kitchen Explosion!

I'm addicted to the internet. If you're reading this, inevitably so are you. I download my free time for tweets, social interaction, and the joy of knowing I can stream kittens all day long if I want to. (And I do want to). But right now, I don't have the internet. I don't even have television. *GASP* *An internet kitten dies with the horror.* I know we're talking serious scary stuff here. On top of that, it's vacation. New Year's Eve is tomorrow, the Christmas craze has ended and I am in that sweet spot before one has to go back to work. I have all the free time in the world...and no internet. So what exactly am I supposed to do?

Bake.

If you haven't noticed this is my cake decorating blog. Last year I decided to learn how to decorate cakes, and trust me that's not going to stop. But in making cake look good, I've also become interested in making cake (and all other things bake-able) TASTE good too. So my New Year's resolution is to be a little more active in this blog thingy and record my adventures in not only cake decorating but in the inevitable explosion of my kitchen! Are you up for the ride?

According to TV food personality Alton Brown (or at least the cover of the book I saw at Barnes and Noble) Food + Mixing + Heat = Baking, and according to unknown amateur decorator and baker Ingrid Sundberg, lack of internet + fear of having no response when asked my New Year's resolution + recent viewing of Julie and Julia = Ridiculous Baking Extravaganza (detailed with full disclosure on my favorite addition - the internets!)

Small Voice: Wait! If you have no internet, how can you post your adventures?
*The all knowing Ingrid laughs*
All Knowing Ingrid: Silly Rabbit, internets are for kids!
(That's code for the cable guy is coming tomorrow).

As with all cooking it is best to start with a recipe, so let's pick out some ingredients for this ridiculous baking bonanza!

Ingredients:
1. Bake and/or decorate something once a week. Be as diligent as possible!
2. Provide pictures so people can see the prettiness (and the messiness).
3. Provide scratch and sniff icons so people can smell the aroma! Mmmmmm!
4. Invent technology so ingredient #3 may be provided.
5. Record failures with as much detail as successes. Full disclosure!
6. Try and keep things related to cake, dessert, and confectionery delights.
7. Have fun. Because all baking should be done with love, and it reminds you that the mountain of dishes you must wash was worth it.

Directions:
Mix, add heat, and blog about it.

Seems simple enough. Hopefully this is one recipe I can actually follow!

Halloween Cupcakes

I forgot to post these a couple weeks ago:

Halloween Cake

This was a delicious chocolate and vanilla layer cake with Reese's peanut butter cups and peanut butter buttercream icing! Yum! Yum!