I wanted to work with a buttercream, or a frosting just with butter, milk and powdered sugar. I baked up a batch of Devils Food cakes from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook, and tweaked a "buttercream" frosting recipe. A good friend of mine, who knows that I LOVE chocolate gave me a bar of Belgian dark chocolate with cassis (black currant). The flavor and aroma is chocolatey and very berry, in a good way.

I filled these with the "SuperFruit" from Trader Joes, that has Morello cherry, blueberry and pomegranate in it plus some chocolate sprinkles for good measure.

Then I made just "plain" ones, no filling and I thought I would frost them by hand. The buttercream was soft though not melting and did not give me the swirly definition I was looking for.

Please bear with me as I get used to blogging and how this formatting works. I have a composition in my head as I try to put this together. I hope I will learn more about this as this will be a journey in something new. Thank you in advance for your patience as I work this all out...it could be really funny as stumble through or really pathetic! C'est la vie, n'est-ce pas?

I don't always remember to take pictures along the way or when the finished items leave the house for the orders. This hit or miss is not helping me compile the menu/brochure that people are asking for.

Here are some of my production pictures of lemon buttermilk cake. This recipe made a alot of cakes, standard, jumbos, minis...



 

and trying to get used to my point and shoot digital camera has been an interesting journey. My husband keeps reminding me that I should "really" read the manual so my pics won't be blurry...so sorry for that :-)

How to keep busy? Keep on baking-

I keep on baking to fill up my days while looking on line and
sending out resumes and cover letters to find yet another "retail" job. The more I bake and create, the more I come to the realization that I don't think I want to do that anymore.

There were dark chocolate cakes with Godiva chocolate mousse topped with creme fraiche dusted with cocoa.

 

AND then I started to work in frangipane tarts, with bleuberries, apples and nectarines 

AND brulee'd the tops.

More baking

More baking and the chance to see a professional pastry kitchen. The facilities have not been used for over 4 years and all the materials are long gone. In its day, all the breads and pastries were made on site. It has large proofing oven, convection stacks, standing Hobart, mid size Hobart and marble working benches. It is all a bit over my head right now, but perhaps one day, I can be working in an environment like it and call it my own.

Since this was a meet and greet, I decided to follow up with a tasting portfolio of the pastries that I make to let them know that I am more than just a hobbyist.

Something NEW

This was the beginning of my summer vacation and one of many "grail quests" as my husband calls them for me. I was determined to master Kouign Amann, a wonderfully, delicious, pastry from Breton. It's this lovely, buttery layer bread with caramelized sugar. These are salty- sweet and great right out of the oven, and are so good! David Leibovitz, even commented on my FB page that "Those look great! Kudos!"