Mazal tov l'Eden

This was a cake-filled weekend - three on Thursday! The first was for a bat mitzvah girl in Modi'in. Her mom gave me a list of things that she likes, and I ran with it.

That was the top - now let's do a tour of the sidesOkay, now for some detail shots of the props on the top:

This was a tremendously fun cake to make - I mean, honestly, how could anyone who enjoyed playing with Play-Doh as a kid (and yes, as an adult, too! if I am going to be thoroughly honest here...) not love doing this?! And then you can eat it, and it tastes delicious, not all salty and grainy like Play-Doh. The cake itself was chocolate with fudge filling, topped with vanilla buttercream - pink her favorite color - and all the props were edible. I hope Eden and her friends and family enjoyed it as much as I did!

The other cakes will follow in another post...

Shavua tov!

Dvora

Naaleh! Naaleh!

First and foremost, a little more parental pride. This month was the infamous Chodesh Irgun, with the B'nei Akiva insanity that makes it something you can not describe to those who have not experienced it. I have waxed poetic about it before, so I will not do so here, but I will share with you the video of Ayelet and her shevet - newly christened "Naaleh" - doing their daglanut. They did an awesome job. It is hard to describe in words, and probably sounds funny, but the emotions that the kids dancing with the flag stirs up are very powerful. Call me an old-fashioned American, but seeing someone wear a flag upsets me to no end. It feels disrespectful. But see a bunch of kids twirling and waving the same flag to rousing music, now that's patriotism! I can't point Ayelet out to you, but she is there in the thick of things. Enjoy! (BTW, if you don't get the full picture in the embedded version, click on it to head straight to youtube for a better view.)

Dani's shevet also did a great job on their dance, and had a fun BA Shabbat. Of course he was chosen to bring a dessert for his arucha shivtit, so we made a giant (11" diameter) chocolate chip cookie drizzled with chocolate. Which we failed to photograph, so I guess things are just about back to normal. And now back to our regularly scheduled life.

Some new mini-desserts made their debuts recently - banana cream pie tartlets - bananas in pastry cream, topped with whipped cream, all in a cutie pie little crust,

mini chocolate cream tarts - a larger crust, chocolate ganache, pastry cream and whipped cream,and lemon raspberry parfaits, lemon mousse layered with white cake and raspberry sauce. So yummy!!

Boston cream cupcakes also made a reappearance, accompanied by some acceptable photography. They look rather unassuming,

but everyone knows you can't judge a book by its cover; you have to open it up and see what's inside.

Then there was the birthday of Josh S., who is possibly the world's biggest whoopie pie fan. Arica ordered him a tray of his faves, topped by a sugar cookie.

Finally, there were cookies. In between all the craziness, painting, rehearsing, no one home for dinner, late classes, early classes, chugim, we still had to make the cookies!

Robin is a friend and a great customer. She is also a woman with a discriminating palate. When she orders cookies, she wants what she loves and she knows what that is - first and foremost Linzer cookies, then she has a few additional favorites. So this week, she had Linzers and alfajores, to make both her and her husband happy.

The regular assortment was delicious too!Chocolate espresso cream wafers, hermit sticks, linzer cookies, double decker brownies, and triple chocolate cookies.

In other news, my baking life has taken a small turn for the better - Dani has been retested for allergies, and CAN eat peanuts. Probably. And I can age five years every time he does, even though nothing happens and he is fine. So go ahead, order peanut butter bites without any guilt or worries! I didn't worry anyway, but I do not want my customers to fret... That news makes sending him off to bar mitzvahs slightly less scary. Which is good, since he has one tomorrow night!

And that's all the fun here. I have several cakes to work on, so my hands will likely be too messy for the keyboard for a few days. Will post a sneak peak IF I have a chance...

Have a great week!

Dvora

Proud Mama

We are very fortunate to have children who makes us proud on a regular basis (also, they make us tear our hair out on a regular basis, but some things are best left unblogged). Right now, we are enoying the fact that all four have thrown themselves into academics and are working hard - and succeeding beautifully. And sometimes, just sometimes, they even act like resonable human beings.

But this brag is non-academic and non-behavioral. This brag is "where did she get the creativity and the talent?" Shana recently returned from a trip to Poland with her class. She saw and experienced a lot, and it seems to have made an impact. But, again, that is not this brag. What I am so proud of is the design for the girls' sweatshirts and t-shirts that Shana came up with and drew.

I truly believe (in addition to all the other reasons I blogged about months ago) that it is absolutely necessary to visit the places where the atrocities of the Shoah occurred so that they are maintained and not turned into parks or mere symbols. When Shana drew this, the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign, the barbed wire, they were just ideas to her. Now she has seen them for herself and can answer to anyone who claims it was not real. And when she returned, the flag of the State was more than a symbol - it was a reality she is grateful to be living. So it's a t-shirt, yes, but it represents so much more. And we couldn't be prouder.

Dvora

Is it wrong to have this much fun at work?

I know that it is a good thing to enjoy what you do - in fact, it is a blessing. But the amount of fun I had making this next cake should be illegal. And at the risk of getting myself in trouble with my eldest, I made it all by myself!! I guess her abilities are rubbing off on me, at least a little bit. And with all the school and work she has these day, it's probably a good thing I stand on my own two (less creative and talented than her) feet.

This cake was for a birthday for a client's step-mother, who was celebrating her 62nd birthday with a big shebang. She is a phamacist, so the that was the theme for the cake, along with various shades of pink. I spent a lot of time making little fondant pills of various sizes and colors (as a mom, I have probably violated one of the cardinal rules of parenting in making candy that looks just like medicine, thus confusing the two, but we must sacrifice for our art, non?). Then I formed various pharmacy related shapes, and only then began the baking and assembling. I am telling you, it was more fun than play-doh, which BTW does not taste so good, if I recall correctly from my youth. Fondant is far tastier.

So let's take a look!

This is a top view of the finished cake, and here is a side view, so you can appreciate all the time I spent on the pills!

The client for this cake was a pleasue to work with - she sent me a number of inspiration pictures and a general color scheme, which gave me great direction, but also creative freedom. Did I mention I enjoyed making this cake?

One of the most traditional tools associated with a pharmacist is the mortar and pestle. It took a couple of tries to get it right, but I was really pleased with how it worked out.

The top view is even more fun - I crushed up white jimmies and "glued" them inside (which is the mortar and which is the pestle; I can never remember). I like the realistic look it gave. I also "glued" the two pieces together to protect it in transit. Not to worry, it really is all edible.

I included a bottle of liquid medicine and a spoonful of the stuff, along with a little spill out of the bottle. I used a new technique to make the "liquid" in the spoon shiny - I am really pleased with how it came out.

The pill bottle was also a great challenge. I really worked a number of techniques that I had not really used before, and even made up some of my own. It is filled with some capsules that expanded the color pallette a bit, though I held back on using a couple that I felt were way too out of range.

Here is a view from the other side:

Finally, a prescription with a suitably illegible doctor's signature.

By the way, there really is cake in there! Chocolate chip layer cake (tastes so much like a chocolate chip cookie that it's a little weird!), fudge filling, and vanilla buttercream. The fondant is just the icing on the cake - wait, that make no sense...

Hope you enjoyed, and I hope the birthday girl and her family did too! Mazal tov - Ad meah v'esrim!

Dvora

On last week's episode...

I think this may be flavor #90 - not entirely certain if that number is 100% accurate, but it's pretty darn close. Chai shortbread sandwiches - tender spiced cookies, sandwiched with chai cream (so good, hard to resist eating straight up from a spoon), sprinkled with lightly sweetened cocoa. They were tasty - and here's how they looked posing with some friends:

After the chai sandwiches, we have Mexican brownies, chocolate thumbprints, whoopie pies, honey pecan squares, and glazed lemon cookies.

Also fun for dessert (we are not all cookies all the time) - mini chocolate trifles, AKA Death by Chocolate.

Kahlua drizzled chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, and whipped cream, topped with chocoalte sprinkles. How pretty on a dessert table, or YOUR table!

Think you can eat just one?

Finally, Happy Birthday to Dani's friend Amit. Amit's mom treated him to his favortie whoopie pies, which were topped off by a birthday cake sugar cookie.

And a close-up for the cookie:Hope it was a very happy birthday!

Dvora

Cakes, for a change

I am still playing a little bit of catch-up. Wanted to share a couple of cakes that I made somewhat recently.

This was David's birthday cake - and let's just be very candid: David is not into birthdays. Not one little bit. So this cake was mostly for the kids, in its concept anyway. No one here complains about cake, especially if you can cut off a chunk and pop it into the freezer, to enjoy later. This was a chocolate cake covered in multi-colored buttercream. Super-psychedelic, right?!This cake was for a customer who was celebrating a big birthday in a big way. The party included a musician who sang songs in a number of languages, complementing the stories that were told of the many lands Bernard lived in. His three main homes wee acknowledged on the cake, with French, Israeli, and American flags. The cake itself was chocolate "buttermilk" cake, filled with chocolate mousse, and covered in dark chocolate buttercream. Ad meah v'esrim!

Finally, a less decorative cake: Bubby and Zeidy's honey chiffon cake.

It is a humble tube cake, but full of nostalgia - and yummy flavor. Note the traditional serving platter; this cake would not be complete without a paper plate supporting it. If only there were plain white PAPER paper plates here, like in the old country, 100 plates for 99 cents. That would be truly authentic.

Wishing you a sweet week!

Dvora

A few of his favorite things

This week I made a cake for a surprise birthday party. The wife of the birthday boy wanted to include some of his favorite things on top. The cake itself was a white cake with lemony undertones, filled with apricot preserves and buttercream, and frosted in more buttercream.

He lives in Crocs, and on his cell phone and computer. The only other favorite that we decided not to include was cholent, as we didn't know how aesthetically pleasing that might be... And now for a few close-ups!

The ubiquitous cell phone:

The uber-important computer (note the awesome silver coloring!):And the footwear, front and back viewPlease take time to notice the word "crocs" carved into the fondant. And yes, did I mention - all edible! This cake was a lot of fun to make; this was really the first time I did a lot of freehand molding of fondant/gumpaste, with the aid, of course, of my trusty in-house artist, Shana. The crocs were me, and the phone and computer mostly her, with a little input from me. It was a fun collaboration. I hope the birthday boy enjoyed it too!

Dvora