Disappearing Rose Bread

Every October, some dear friends of mine host a cider pressing party.  They rent a wooden press (or two), raid everyone's backyard for windfalls, and ask in return that guests bring containers for cider, a willingness to work, and a treat to share.

Even though the event starts at lunchtime, the treat table is usually overrun with sweets.  Because the event happens so close to Halloween, there are bowls of candy, cupcakes topped with gravestones, and pumpkin-flavored breads and cookies.  When washing, tossing, and cranking apples into fresh sweet cider, it's good to have more than a sugar rush to keep you moving.  Every year I am determined to bring something savory and filling.

I had been eyeing this beauty for awhile:  Russian Rose Bread (adapted from this recipe).  Filled with pesto, gloriously arranged, this bread seemed to me an impossible goal.  Thankfully, the recipe has step-by-step picture instructions to make it approachable.  After four hours of mixing, kneading, rising, and assembling, I had this to show for my efforts:

Russian Rose Bread filled with Pesto

I held my creation on my lap for the car ride to the party.  When I brought the bread out of its foil covering, I was both proud to show it off and immediately protective of it.  How could I dare cut into it?  How could I let anyone else cut into it?  Thankfully, my desire to taste it won out.

Ten minutes after the first slice was made, I was left with this:

I now call it Disappearing Rose Bread.  And it is delicious.

A Garden of Cupcakes

Eugene thinks of itself as a gastronomical destination.  We have eateries, food carts, restaurant supply stores, and no end of places to purchase avocado slicers, egg separators, and quinoa cookers.  When I decided to take a cake decorating class, though, the town ran dry.  None of the fancy kitchen shops had any leads, and the community college required a long list of prerequisites for attending their culinary classes.

So I hopped across the freeway to the next town over, in search of a DIY book on beginning cake decoration.  I hit up the big chain craft store, and oh my goodness, they had a class starting the very next week -- and I could attend 4 weeks of classes for only $10 plus cost of supplies.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes and a Bouquet of Buttercreams

In the back room of the big box store, I joined our instructor (the same gal who taught my beginning knitting course the previous spring) and three other novices, and we got down to business.  We learned how to fill pastry bags and squeeze piped leaves and flowers of various design.

How Many Bundts in the Oven?

There was a trend this year in the food blogging world, a trend of "healthier" baked donuts.  I don't want my donuts to be healthy.  I want them to be fried in oil and glazed with sugar and I want them to be spelled "doughnuts."  I also want them to be readily available in my kitchen without the purchase of a specialty "baked donut" pan.  Give me a bottle of canola oil, a pint glass and a shot glass (because I still don't have a doughnut cutter), and a roll of paper towels, and I'm ready to go.

But these baked donut recipes were just so pretty!  They looked so fluffy and light and dainty!  I wanted to bake them and drizzle them with pink icing and plate them on delicate china next to a paisley turquoise napkin.

I came across a mini-bundt pan in a thrift store close to where I work.  I don't even have a regular-sized bundt pan, but I picked up this $2.49 beauty for one reason only - mini-bundt pans look an awful lot like baked donut pans.

Mini Bundt Cake on Grandma's Saucer

These fluffy treats, more cake than doughnut, are perfect as a single serving or a shared treat.  The recipe was inspired by Tracy at www.shutterbean.com.  These cakes were so good, I made them twice in one weekend.

The Vegan Butterfly

My second special order birthday cake was also my first vegan birthday cake.  I've had success with Joy the Baker's vegan chocolate avocado cupcakes before, but the soft creamy texture of vegan buttercream frosting doesn't lend itself to the polish necessary for a birthday cake.

I was able to adapt another chocolate buttercream recipe using a vegan margarine, and our birthday girl requested peanut butter filling.  The cake, filling, and frosting was completely egg- and dairy-free.  It was a wonderful experience making a special cake happen for a gal who usually has to abstain from the birthday sweets.

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake for Hannah's Birthday

Hannah recently got a butterfly tattoo on her arm, so I added the chocolate bark and butterfly to personalize the cake.  

Jello Not Included

I worked with Michele for 5 years.  Michele has long red hair, glowing skin, and a penchant for sparkly shoes and floral accents.  She also likes strawberries and cream.

Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

When Michele announced she was ending her tenure with our company and moving on to her next adventure, I wanted to give her a fancy send-off.  I had never made a strawberry cake before, and all of the recipes on the Great Wide Internet and in Mom's Recipe Box included strawberry jello.  In these recipes, the jello is the only added strawberry flavor, and imparts an alarmingly bright pink shade to the batter.  

No, thank you.

A Humble Beginning, or, a Study in Chocolate

I am a lucky girl.

I love my job, I love my neighborhood, and I'm fortunate to live with and work with people who inspire and support my creativity.  At the end of last summer, my employer came to me with a proposal:

Make the cakes.

I work for a locally-owned company that treats its employees like family.  And when an employee works on her or his birthday, well, we get cake.  My boss asked if I would be interested in baking these cakes for a few months, to see how it would work out.  I said yes immediately.

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Cake for Jenn's Birthday