Hopatcong Teacher's Dinner Party
So Frank's Pizza is catering a party for 70 of our teacher's here in Hopatcong and no party would be complete without dessert. I received a call last week from Kevin, the owner of Frank's, asking if I wanted the job of providing the desserts for the party... Kevin didn't have to ask twice. This is a great way to get the word out about me since I don't have a storefront and my only means of advertising right now is word of mouth.
I decided to do cheesecakes, brownies, carrot cakes and lemon bars. For the chocolate lovers brownies with ganache and for the fruit lovers lemon and blueberry cheesecakes with fresh fruit and blueberry toppings. Also don't forget the lovers of lemons.. these lemnon bars are buttery and tangy all at the same time. As for the carrot cake? Well who doesn't like carrot cake?
I always like to do an arrangement of desserts that covers a lot of different flavors and textures that I feel will be able to satisfy everyone's taste in the crowd. There has been so many times where I attended dinner parties or events where one dessert was served and usually at the likes of the host or their partner.
When planning the menu for your next event try and decide on a few extra small desserts like I did that way all of your gueets can get to enjoy along with you.
These are a few pictures of the things I made... I wish I had some leftovers!
Oh well ... back to baking!
I decided to do cheesecakes, brownies, carrot cakes and lemon bars. For the chocolate lovers brownies with ganache and for the fruit lovers lemon and blueberry cheesecakes with fresh fruit and blueberry toppings. Also don't forget the lovers of lemons.. these lemnon bars are buttery and tangy all at the same time. As for the carrot cake? Well who doesn't like carrot cake? I always like to do an arrangement of desserts that covers a lot of different flavors and textures that I feel will be able to satisfy everyone's taste in the crowd. There has been so many times where I attended dinner parties or events where one dessert was served and usually at the likes of the host or their partner.When planning the menu for your next event try and decide on a few extra small desserts like I did that way all of your gueets can get to enjoy along with you.
These are a few pictures of the things I made... I wish I had some leftovers!
Oh well ... back to baking!
posted by -Kim @ 11:57 AM
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My carrot cake is loaded with fresh carrots, walnuts, and spices and iced with my signature cream cheese icing. Since this was a birthday cake I decided to ice the cake completely and give the sides of it a little character by placing pieces of fresh carrot cake all over it. This cake weighed a ton... thank goodness we only had to deliver it across the street.
I made these cupcakes for a baby shower on Saturday at the request of my client. The color scheme for this baby shower was green, orange and yellow. My client mentioned to me that she ordered favors for her guests in the shape of a pea in a pod and thought it would be cool to match the cupcakes to the favors .. and I agreed! I molded the peas in the pod out of fondant and added a baby's head in the center of each one. I wanted them all to be a little different in shape and size to give them character.
Each baby got a little piece of hair which I curled and placed on the top of their heads. Everyone at the shower thought the red hair was great especially since the soon-to-be father has red hair :) ... I had no idea!! That's the truth. Also,I made sure to give the babies some color on their cheeks with pink luster dust.
Making flowers is something I love to do and I could spend hours doing it .. if I had the time. I prefer to make my flowers the old fashioned way ... the way Chef Schonberg taught me in class rather than using cookie cutters or plastic molds. I like the way the flowers take on a life of their own when made the artisan way. 
Since the flowers and butterflies were to be eaten by little children at the party, I opted to make my flowers and butterflies from fondant for better taste. Most of the time I use gumpaste and marzipan to make my flowers only because it dries hard and looks more life like. Because gumpaste isn't edible and I didn't feel the kids would enjoy the taste of almond paste I decided to use my marshmallow-like fondant. To save myself sometime I did use a butterfly cutter to make the butterflies but besides that everything else is handmade. I really enjoyed this cupcake project and I hope I receive a lot more orders like it.
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.
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.
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 
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!
