Interview - A Very Hoppy Birthday Cake

Can you believe this amazing cake?! 

I think this cake is fabulous!

The talented woman behind this extraordinary cake granted me a brief e-mail interview.
So, off we go.

What's your name?
Megan, but everyone calls me Meg.

Please tell us a bit about yourself.
I have been married for 5 years, and I have a 3 1/2 yr. old son. I live in downtown Hagerstown, MD, in the hills of Western Maryland.

Tell us a bit about the inspiration for this cake.
Octoberfest is a seasonal favorite among my husband’s friends. Two of them share a birthday, and this was his idea of a fitting shared birthday tribute to their love of beer.

What is this cake comprised of?
This cake is four batches of cake, yellow and devils food, stacked 8 layers high. It's filled and frosted with American buttercream, and covered in rolled marshmallow fondant. The fondant was then airbrushed, and overpiped in more buttercream.

How long have you been baking?
20 years, I started baking in middle school, cookies and muffins, and later moved into breads and cakes.

How long have you been decorating?
12 years

How did you learn your skill?
I initially took a class at the local craft store, and when I found out I loved it, ended up going to culinary school.

What was your first cake decoration project?
A Father’s Day cake for my dad. It was a tie, and it was so awkwardly sized, I only had room to write "Happy Fat Day".

What was your favorite decoration project?
I made 100 3 tier mini wedding cakes once. The bride wasn't a fan of flowers, and wanted to use peacock feathers as toppers on all of them, with coiled gold wire, and gold beads. It was a wild ride.

Have you had a decorating "disaster?"
LOL Yes, as a matter of fact. I made the cake for a sister of a friend of mine's wedding. She was very interested in cake decorating, and wanted to work with me on making handmade gumpaste flowers for her wedding cake.

The day I delivered the four tier cake covered in these one of a kind flowers, the caterer grabbed the cake out of my Jeep while I was getting my tool kit, and tripped, pitching the cake forward in it's box. The top two tiers were repairable, the middle was completely trashed, and the bottom front half was salvageable. The catering manager had the audacity to ask what "I" planned to do about it. She suggested I rent a dummy cake form a local bake shop, and buy sheet cakes to serve from the kitchen. Which was simply not an option.

In the end, I dropped it down to a 3 tier, and left them with the extra half tier to use for service, and I made another bottom, and was decorating it on site 20 minutes before the start of the wedding. The bride didn't even know what happened!

Are there any decorating "experts" you admire?I have recently become very enamored with Mary and Brenda Maher from Chicago's Cakegirls. I really love their style, and they seem like such nice people.

Do you make your decorated cakes from scratch or do you prefer to use a box cake, e.g. for consistency or other reasons?
It depends. For most of the everyday birthday and sheet cakes, I go boxed. They are reliable, and turn out the same every time. For sculpted cakes, and special occasions I make them from scratch. The box cakes tend to bake up rather fluffy, and when you need to carve them, they become flaky and crumbly. I prefer a pound cake consistency for those.

Is it difficult to balance the look of the outside with the taste of the inside of your cakes?
I personally feel that the taste is job one. The outside being pretty is secondary. When you see cakes being made on TV, you see that often times those cakes are baked a week in advance if not more, and they are able to spend days and days decorating them. My personal goal is to have the cake baked and to your table within 12 hours. That way it's moist and tasty.

What cake would you love to try someday?
My husband is a mechanic, and we keep talking about making a PT Cruiser and him taking it to work, so that's my next project cake. That will depend on me having some free time to make it.

Finally, what is your favorite cake to eat?
I am not a big fan of sweets, but if I have to choose, Devils food with white icing. I particularly like that in a cupcake with the nonpareil sprinkles on them, and I tear off the bottom of the cupcake and make an icing sandwich. That's extra yummy when cold. The sprinkles add a nice crunch dimension!

Oh...do you by chance have any pictures of the assembly of this cake - or, the inside?
I thought we might get some shots of the inside of the cake. But Hubby didn't take pictures after all, he was too caught up in the frenzy for cake! No, I don't have any pictures of the assembly of this cake. But, I do have some pictures of a pirate ship I made for a a sweet girl named Katie. (Pictures are below.)

Some follow-up questions:Which school did you attend?
Baltimore International Culinary College, which dropped the "culinary the year after I started, to gear more towards "hospitality professionals"

Do you work with cakes or pastry as a career?I have, at a commercial bakery, and at several smaller mom and pop places. Currently I've been a SAHM for 4 years, but am returning to a cooking job next week!

If your answer to the above is no - do you sometimes wish you did?I do, and I don't. When I do it everyday, I start to resent it. When I'm not doing it everyday, my imagination can run wild.

Meg - thank you so much for letting us get to know you a bit.And, thanks for sharing 2 of your beautiful cakes with us.Now...for pictures of the Pirate Cake!Arr Mateys!

 

What is the most challenging project you've ever tried? 

 

Michael Ruhlman and Dan Barber Discuss Food

Michael Ruhlman is an trained chef and author I follow closely through his books and blog. (Four of his insightful books are sitting on my Shelfari virtual bookshelf which you can see if you scroll way down and look to the right.)

Ruhlman and chef Dan Barber spoke last August at the Chautauqua Institution. Their comments "What's For Dinner: Food and Politics in the 21st Century" can be viewed above.

Yep, it's an 67 minutes long.
I loved every minute of it.

I highly recommend skipping an hour of McCain-Obama rhetoric and instead viewing the video.

And, be sure to stick till the end.
The Q & A portion is insightful, too.

Market Day - Think "French" not Schooltime

Today was Market Day for Dana.
Luckily, it didn't involve a school gymnasium and prepackaged foods.
(Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Even though I was under the weather, there were a couple of things I had to get today. You see, the butcher closes at 6:30. And, time was wasting.

Going to the market always makes me feel...happy. Content. Connected to the past. And, I usually find that I don't spend any more money on what I buy from independent sellers that I would spend at the Dominick's or Jewel chain grocers.

So, off I went to Knead Market Place. (If they have a website, I sure couldn't find it.) Great bread, sandwiches and deli. Shown in the photo is a chocolate croissant and one of their thin baguettes. Yep, they also offer wide. In the little white box is tomorrow's lunch - a ham and gruyere quiche.

They even offered tips on reheating is for best enjoyment - which cracked me up, since I hadn't asked. The sweet cashier even offered the tip that the chocolate croissant is also best eaten warm. Or, room temp. But, definitely not cold. Duly noted. And, for chocolate, it makes perfect sense. I really like that girl - knowledgeable and thoughtful. I'll be doing a piece on Knead soon.

Next, off to De Vries Grocery and Meat Market. (Again, if they have a website, I sure couldn't find it.) I love this store. Housed in a early 1920's or so building, it's grocery in one store front and the butcher in the next - with a dairy section connecting the two. (And, if they will grant me an interview, I'll be doing a piece on them, too.) Their store is a tight fit and they have pretty much all the necessities.

I asked the smiling butcher for their largest pork butt. It ended up being 8 lbs. Meanwhile I stared at carnivore TV. Gads, look at all the beautiful cuts of meat...and pork. Wow. And, I got some frozen ground lamb. It's delicious.

The pork will be brined tomorrow and cooked in the early Sat morning hours for a party Sat night. Yum. So, there will likely be more pics of the porky goodness.

And, that chocolate croissant?
As the wise owl in the tree from the 1970's commercials would say, "Thrrrrreeeee!"

Halloween Food - "Intestines with Subcutaneous Fat covered in Arterial Plaque and Bile"

(Click photos to embiggentate.)

The bad news.
A few years ago I tried this experiment at a adult and child costume party.
It failed.
I guess it was just too gross.

The good news.
A co-worker tried it and her kids thought she rocked.
So, I'll pass it along.
Just in case you want to try it.

Ingredients:
Ziti or a package of long hollow noodles (details below)
Barilla Pastina or orzo
Red, yellow and green food coloring
A tub of pesto
A tub of Alfredo sauce
Red wine (optional)
Latex gloves to protect your hands from coloring (optional)

Disclaimer:
Obviously, it would be taste better if you make your own sauces. In this case, I knew that there were children present, so I wanted to leave the pesto in it's original container with the ingredient list showing. Nuts + kids with sensitivities = miserable party.

Noodles:
The hollow tube pasta I used can be found in a Greek or Mediterranean market. (And, you can buy them online.) The brand name is Misko and it's noodle "No. 2." Most Greek markets will have No. 2 or 3 for a lasagne called "Pastitsio." Even if they only have No. 5, it's ok. It will be much thinner.

And, of course, you can always just use whatever you have in the pantry. Barilla Thick Spaghetti, Rigatoni, Ziti or Mostaccoli, would be fine. (Yeah, I like Barilla.)

Since I was feeding kids, and to back off from the grossness factor a bit, I decided against boiling the noodles in wine - which makes them REALLY look blood red. Instead I added lots of red food coloring to the boiling water - which made them pink. (I think they look nice and colon-y in a 50's cartoon sort of way.) Then, in a separate pot, I cooked the baby pastina in water with lots of yellow food coloring added. (You can toss in a drop of green to bump it up a bit.)

Next, I added the pink noodles to the yellow pasta and tossed them with a bit of olive oil so they wouldn't stick - even if they sat a while during the costume party.

That's it for the cooking portion of this shin-dig. All that was left was finding a typewriter font - which reminded me of 1950's style sci-fi movies.
Oooh, scary!
At you can see in the photos, I labeled the noodles and pastina "Intestines and Subcutaneous fat." The alfredo sauce became "Arteial Plaque" and the pesto was a tasty "Bile." And, of course, you could simply label some marinara "blood."

Oh, and in tiny font...I let folks who might not be familiar with tubular pasta know that's what it was. Simply pasta.

Enjoy!
Muahahaha

Yummy New Orleans Pantry Giveaway

Nope, it's still not my giveaway.
(One of these days I'll thrown my own.)
But, this one rocks.
And, I don't want you to miss out on the fun.

One of the blogs I read is The Perfect Pantry.
Don't miss this freebie!

"The New Orleans pantry giveaway includes recipes created by Chef John Besh of Restaurant August (remember him from The Next Iron Chef?) as well as all of the products listed below:

Creole Mustard
Creole Seasoning
Hush Puppy Mix
Gumbo Mix with Rice
Concentrated Shrimp Boil (both liquid and dry)
Prepared Horseradish
Blackened Seasoning
Gumbo File
Root Beer Extract
Reduced Sodium Red Beans & Rice
Reduced Sodium Jambalaya
Reduced Sodium Dirty Rice
Chicken Bake & Crisp"

To enter the giveway simply head over to The Perfect Pantry
before 11:00 p.m. Eastern US Time on Friday, October 24 and leave a comment.

Good luck!

If I Had The "Cold Hard Cash..."

If I had a spare $2,500 laying around - or frozen in a block of ice in the freezer - I would certainly get this hunk of heaven from Big Chill Fridge.

It's available in a rainbow of colors!
Just like 50's aluminum siding.
You can even get it in two-tone.
Oh, neat - there are matching dishwashers, too.
And, stoves are right around the corner!
Oh, I just can't look anymore.
I think I'm in love.

Fun New Way to Peel an Egg - Tim Ferriss

Pretty cool video.
I'll be trying this when I get home.
(And, then rinsing off the egg at the end.)

You need:
An egg.
Water.
Ice.
Bit of Baking Soda.
Your own hot air.

I'll label this NSFW.
But, really, he just says, "Pain in the ass."
So, you be the judge.

In case the embed fails, you can head to You Tube and see it HERE

Free Le Creuset Better Odds Than Being Struck by Lightning

Hey there food fans.
Enter fast - contest ends tonight.

Just want to let you know that Ree at The Pioneer Woman Cooks! is holding a contest for a brand spanking new Le Creuset Dutch Oven.

Winner gets to choose the color!

Now, with the Odds of Being Struck By Lightning in a Given Year a whopping 1:40,000...this ain't so bad. Let's consider her Kitchen Aide contest from last month - had 18,715 entrants.

Come on!
That's twice the chance...compared to being struck by lightning.

Okay, I really have to let that analogy go.
*wink*

Off you go to ENTER.
And, while you're there, browse for a while.
She's excellent cook.

And, don't miss her main site The Pioneer Woman which focuses on her ranch, family, and hulky husband - affectionately nick-named "The Marlboro Man." Good readin'.