Finally. A Cake.

I sometimes complain about how I never get to bake cakes. Now is one of those times.

I always love the process of baking and decorating cakes, but it gets dangerous to have a gazillion of them laying around the house as you can imagine. And for the record, usually even when I think I'm going to get to bake a cake, it doesn't happen. You know why? Because anytime anyone's birthday rolls around, they don't want cake, they want pie or something stupid. It's a birthday people. Birthday = Cake. Get with the program.

Anyway. I informed Jesse that when it came time for her going away party, I was making cake. The end. She tried in one mere attempt to veer me away to something less cake-y, but I stood my cake-y ground and won. Score Ellie: 1 Pie: 0

In the end I decided to go for a chocolate coconut cake. Now, I've never made this before, but usually when I think something will work in my head, it does, so I decided to go for it.
When I make chocolate cake I pretty much always stick with the same recipe. The one on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa box. It's the shit, people. Just roll with it. Oh - and my chocolate frosting recipe? You guessed it, also on the back of the Hershey's box. De-freaking-licious.

For the filling I decided to take my standard pastry cream recipe and make it coconutty. For me that just meant substituting most of the milk for unsweetened coconut milk. I also toasted up the coconut and added that to the cooled cream. When it was finished I decided it a little too sweet and puddingy for my liking, so I whipped up some cream and folded that in. Much better.

I cut the cake in half, added the filling, and proceeded to frost with that yummy chocolate frosting. I toasted up some more coconut and put that one the sides and top. Then finally, I piped some frosting around the edge to give it a more finished look. I think it looked pretty pretty.

All in all, good times. It tasted super yummy, the coconut wasn't too overpowering and obviously who doesn't like chocolate. No one, that's right.


Anywho ..I love cake! And you should too. Nyam nyam nyam.


-E

p.s. Isn't it beautiful? I'm SO proud. :)

Hawt Shoes.

Jessekins surprised me today with an early birthday present. I am now the proud owner of the hottest shoes in the whole entire universe. I thought I had you beat with that fantastic scarf I gave you for Christmas, but you now hold the title for best present.


LOVE!!!

Talk About Muffins

As per Jesse face's request, I will now explain why I talk so much about muffins. I guess it started a few years ago when Albany people actually carpooled together, so we had a lot of time to kill with stupid conversati- I mean, really good times.

Anyway, when Shannon was still around, her, Jesse and I particularly liked to make fun of Josh. We thought a good nickname was in order, so we decided on "Joshy". I think he secretly loved it.

One day Joshy got the crazy idea that the rest of us should have nicknames too, so at the Philly exchange in.. '06? Josh said he came up with the perfect nickname for me. You guessed it. "Muffin". Because apparently I'm just so "cute and muffiny" according to Josh.

Unfortunately for me, it stuck. At one point we even decided my flavor. Peach spice.

So there you have it. I'm a peach spice muffin.

And because I always like to drag other people into things, Jesse's nickname is Toody! Because of her attitude of course. Bring it back, people! Bwahaha, I'm SUCH a good sister.



<3 Ellie

Schooly school school

"When I am in trouble, eating is the only thing that consoles me... at the present I am eating muffins because I am unhappy. Besides, I am particularly fond of muffins." - Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist and writer.



Have to say, even though I just ended my summer session, I'm really looking forward to the fall semester. I love learning, despite having to clean the labs everyday, despite working with the occasional irritating lab partner, I just love it.
I'm especially excited to get to take both of my baking classes from Paul Krebs, who I've heard is very talented and I expect to learn a lot from.

Just started ordering my books today, I can't wait to flip through both of my fancy new baking books that branch out of the basics into more of the advanced pastry work (sugar work, plated desserts). Fun fun fun. - Anyone know what method cards are?

One of my classes I'm not so excited about though. Classical cuisine. i.e cooking for the school restaurant. Run for the hills, kids, that means I serve the public. It's pretty much exactly what I don't want to do with my life, which is being on a line. Too high stress, big.. flaming things, ticket orders, people yelling.. bleeeeck. I'm not excited.


Although, being out of school does have its perks. Like I get to go to the Wednesday farmer's market instead of the Saturday one. i.e. A lot less crowded and more veggies to choose from. Yay! I could totally do a blog about how much I love veggies... eh, for another time. ;)



-El

Croissant Day

Last year I started a new holiday. Croissant Day.

Croissant Day is exactly what it sounds like, a day dedicated to making croissants.
Backtracking to early 2007, I decided that making these wonderful light pastries would be something good to master. I tried I think, a total of 5 recipes, ranging from 2 hours, to 10 hours.

Having never made croissants before, initially I thought I could beat the system and go for the 2 hour method. I quickly learned that all that lead to was weird rolls, so I kept upping the time on my recipes, but still didn't produce anything close to those fluffy layers of croissant goodness.

So I decided to have a talk with me friend google search, which lead me to the 10 hour recipe. I spent the whole day rolling, refrigerating, turning, more rolling, more refrigerating..etc.. They turned out wonderfully perfect. Just how you would imagine a perfect croissant to be.

Fast forward to now. Croissant day is back, and this time I'm taking the overnight method to somewhat keep my sanity intact.

With a pound of butter and a rolling pin, I say cheers.
-El