Pretty In Pink Treasure Chest Cake

Happy Monday Everyone!!

Today I received a wonderful message and a few pictures from a client of mine who ordered a pink treasure chest cake for her daughter's 1st Birthday Party a few weeks ago. When Rachael contacted me about this cake I was thrilled about it and couldn't wait to start planning everything out. Since I am newly opened, I really haven't had the opportunity to show my ability in making specialty cakes because I am still trying to get my name out there. So having Rachael call me and taking the chance by selecting me to make this cake for her daughter was a real treat for me.

I checked out many different style treasure chest cakes on line and Rachael even sent me a picture of a cake that she found and liked to give me a good example of what she was looking for. After researching a lot of the cakes on-line, I found out that a lot of baker's incorporated cake boards as lids to the chest, and most were decorated using a lot of commercial candy. I wanted to do something different, I wanted to go for a pretty cake and a cake that was completely edible.

I decided to go with a lid made out of Rice Krispies Treats for my cake. Rice Krispies are easy to mold, the kids love to eat them, and I find them to be more stable than cake for certain purposes. Instead of using commercial candy to decorate the outside of my cake I decided to leave the candy for the inside, and go for pretty handmade seashells and pearls made from gumpaste and fondant .. the lock on the chest was also made from gumpaste. I used a lot of luster dust to make everything look pretty and I tinted the buttercream a very light pink.

Overall I achieved what I visioned for this cake and I was very pleased with the finished product. I posted a few of the pictures Rachael sent that were taken at the Birthday Party.

Thanks Rachael :)!

Update,

This week I am working on a really great project for a baby shower taking place this weekend... wait until you see what I make to adorn all 50 cupcakes for the shower.

Shhh ... its a surprise!

-Kim

Zucchini Bread

Easter is finally over and I took a few well deserved day's off to relax and catch up with myself. I didn't think I was going to make it through the weeks of Easter rush but some how I managed to do it all. It wasn't easy and I ended up exhausted but I am thankful to all who placed orders with me and appreciate their support!

During Easter week I received a fairly large order from Dave for a dozen of my Italian Zucchini Breads ... they seem to be moving really well at the cafe and Dave wants to order more. I have been working on making these breads since early this morning. I took a few pic's of the breads while I was in the process of baking them so I could show you how I make them. Its really simple to make these breads and they are wonderful to have in the morning with a cup of tea. I use all fresh ingredients ... I even grate the zucchini myself. What makes my zucchini bread different you ask? My secret ingredient of course. I use Extra Virgin Olive Oil in mine instead of butter or a regular vegetable or canola oil you normally would find in most recipes. You may be surprised to learn how many Italian desserts use Extra Virgin Olive Oil in place of butter or other oils.

It will take me a total of 12 to 14 hours to prep, pan, bake, cool and wrap the breads. Also, today I will be preparing to make fondant butterflies and flowers for a cupcake order I received for a girl's 5th birthday party on Sunday.

I am very busy ... but who's complaining? Not I! :) Stay tuned this week and find out my secrets how to create a lovely flower out of fondant.

-Kim

Easter Cookie Project

Well everyone .. I finished my Easter cookie project for Dave's cafe last night. It took me close to 16 hours to prepare, bake and decorate 88 of them but I managed to get it all done. For all of you that are interested I took a few pics while I was working on the cookies to show you some of the different stages and transformations each cookie goes through before you have your finished product.

First you must start by selecting the correct type of cookie recipe. You want to work with a cookie dough that won't spread much when baked. If your cookie spreads too much while baking it will loose its shape. I like using a short dough recipe for my cookies. I feel it just tastes a lot better and the dough holds its shape nicely when the cookies are baked. If you have a cookie recipe you like but your cookies are spreading when baked you may want to research your basic creaming method for cookies. You can stop some spreading in your cookies by not overmixing during the first stage of the creaming method! Overmixing can cause a lot of faults in your finished product.

After my dough is prepared, divided, chilled, rolled and cut out I place each cookie a few inches apart on a half sheet tray lined with parchment paper. Parchment paper is great to use when baking cookies and cakes because it prevents browning on the bottom and sticking. I always chill my cutouts really well before placing them in the oven. By doing this the cookie holds its shape a lot better. I usually bake all of my cookies and cakes at 375 and they usually take between 14 and 16 minutes depending on the size or how many trays are baking at one time.

After the cookies are baked I leave them on their baking tray on a cooling rack and leave them be until they are completely cool. Once your cookies are completely cool you are ready to decorate them. Its always good to have an idea what you want your cookie to look like before starting a project like this. You can use a royal icing like I did with my Easter cookies or you may want to try working with fondant. If you check out the specialty cookie gallery you will see I used fondant to create my snowman cookies.

Try your best to have all of your materials prepared before you start decorating your cookies, this will make decorating cookies or even cakes a lot less stressful on you and remember to have fun with it! Its a lot of work and I think anyone in the business will tell you that, but with the right recipes, techniques, patience and endurance you can become a successful cookie decorator!

I will leave you tonight with a little treat. Here is a recipe for royal icing from the professionals!

Royal Icing

1 lb. 10X sugar
2-3 ounces of pasterized egg white.
1 tsp. lemon juice.
1/8 tsp. cream of tartar for whiteness
Vanilla or Almond extract or any clear drinking alcohol to thin your icing out.

With your KitchenAid mixer combine your sugar, cream of tartar and add your egg whites a little at a time mix together at moderate speed. Once this mixture is thick add your lemon juice and nix until all combined. If you need to thin out your royal icing do so by adding a bit of flavored extract or clear drinking alcohol.

If any of you reading this blog decide to experiment and jump into making decorative cookies ... I would love to see them and maybe I can get them posted here on my blog!

Happy Baking Everyone!

p.s. I have a huge amount of orders the next few weeks that I must take care of so I may not be able to post everyday. However I will try my best to drop a few lines to let all of you know how its going at One Part Sugar!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

All I can say is "Thank you St. Patrick's Day is finally here!" I know your probably asking yourself why an Italian girl is so happy this day has arrived ..let me explain why. Recently, I came in contact with a great man who own's Greene's Beans Cafe in Sparta, NJ. You can visit their website here: Greene's Beans Cafe. Dave, who stumbled across the article about my business in the NJ Herald a few months ago decided to take a chance on me and carry a few of my menu items in his cafe. I had the opportunity a few months ago to attend a tea tasting at Dave's cafe and I provide his guests with freshly baked cranberry scones, rasberry white chocolate muffins and Madeleines baked right out of the oven(a tea time favorite). It appears everyone including Dave was pleased with everything I made and since then Dave has been placing orders with me every week!!!

Yeah!!! This all brings me back to why I am so glad St. Patrick's Day is here. One of the first things I leaned how to bake in culinary school was bread. I was very scared and very intimidated by .. you guessed it YEAST! Yeast is extremely tempermental and when you mix yeast with flour, butter, water,salt and sugar... disaster can happen at anytime. One day at school, I was asked by the Chef to turn to the chapter on bread making in my BIG BOOK of professional baking and pick something that I wanted to make that day. I was in a complete panic ... I knew I wasn't totally comfortable with the science behind baking bread and I knew I had to serve what I was making for breakfast the next day for breakfast... so what's a girl to do? You got it ... I searched that chapter from top to bottom trying to find the easiest bread recipe that did not involve yeast, fermentation, punching, or proofing. With the Chef breathing down my back asking me what I was waiting for and finding myself wanting to walk out the door and throw in my chef's jacket .. I turned to the last page in the chapter and found the recipe for Irish Soda Bread. No yeast, no fermentation, no proofing! I called out "Chef, I am making Irish Soda Bread" the chef replied "Good, get to it little chef". It all worked out that day in school for me. Everyone enjoyed the bread the next day for breakfast and I received a B+ in Pastry Arts I .. The Art of Bread Making.

Now, months later I have made over 100 Irish Soda Breads this season made to order for Greene's Beans Cafe. If you asked me that day in class if I could have ever imagined myself doing what I am doing today ... I would have replied "Yeah, right".. NO way". I am so glad I was wrong!

St. Patrick's Day is over but Easter is just a jump, skip away and Dave placed an order for 100 Easter cookies due by tomorrow! YIKES!!!!! Stay tuned to find out how it all unfolds.

Talk to you soon!!!

One Part Sugar

About Me

Hello and welcome to One Part Sugar!

My name is Kim LaBrunda and I live in Hopatcong, NJ. Born and raised in Jersey City, NJ by an Italian-American family I was in the kitchen a lot with my mom watching and learning how to cook for family and friends.. Italian style! As a little girl being in the kitchen and coming up with creative dishes for my sisters and parents was what I called "fun"!

I am from a big Italian family with a huge appetite for family gatherings that involve talking and eating great food. So when I finally got the opportunity to leave my 9-5 job at the age of 34 and follow my dream to attend culinary school I couldn't have been more happier.

Since I could remember I have always had an obsession for anything European and anything sweet. I grew up with dad waking up early every Sunday morning and going to the bakery to get his girls Sunday buns. I couldn't wait for my dad to come home with that white box tied with baker's string. I knew it was going to be a tough job to get that box open but it would be well worth it. We all would sit around the table, and with the smell of coffee brewing in the background, we would devour the whole box of Sunday pastries.

I knew attending school that baking was my thing.. no question about that. I would bake a lot for family and friends through the years and they would go crazy over all of the things I made, even going so far as to tell me I should start a bakery business. No doubt that the Pastry Chef's at school would agree with them. I was considered in school by others as "the little pastry chef" and it didn't bother me one bit.

After a year long process I was finally able to open One Part Sugar from my home in Nov. 07! YEAH!!! I am so excited to bring a place that's unique to everyone that's near and far and I hope by creating this blog I am able to help many of you aspiring bakers or cooks out there who are looking for great ideas from the Pastry World!

I could go on and on "about me" because I have so much to say but I plan on doing that in my later posts and I hope all of you will join me on my journey into one of the most demanding, creative, self-fulfilling career I could think of... a Pastry Chef!

Welcome to my blog!!