My Personal House of Pies Part I

I took a much needed break after the endless parties through August and September - I am just so popular it is exhausting -from baking. There was so much build-up, craziness, and anxiety surrounding those events that I decided I should step away from the Kitchen Aid for a while. My own personal intervention if you will. It helped that I had a gig and some classes to keep me busy, out of town, and away from the oven. It took two weeks for the urge to bake to return and when it did, it was full on Stephen Segal style - with a vengeance.

All of a sudden I had the need to make delicious fall delights. You know, apple pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, apple cake... The list could go on and on and on. I think what sent me into a frenzy about baking was the idea of going apple picking and what fun I could have with all of those apples I picked. The possibilities were endless. The sad fact was since all of these events and the gig ate up most of my fall I had one weekend to get it all in: apple picking, apple pie baking, and pumpkin carving. Man oh man. Kate suggested we go apple picking - since it was the only thing I had been talking about for 2 months. We made the early and convoluted plans that would get me to the apple promise land and then it happened: RAIN. Yep. That Saturday was a total wash - according to Chris Cimino. No apples for me.

Well Kate, undaunted, suggested we do "apple picking" at her house and invited me to come over to bake and eat and play games. I said sure why not and so it began. Before I left my house I decided I wanted to try a new pumpkin custard recipe that I saw a couple days earlier. It is Gluten free and sugar free and sounded absolutely delightful. I read the directions and although it said not to use canned pumpkin and use roasted pumpkin I said rules be damned and raged against gluten guru Elena's recipe. I thought that if I cooked the pumpkin for a little prior to putting the mixture in the food processor it would dry it out. NOT THE CASE. It got more gooey and watery. Oops. I was running late - shocker - to meet Kate so I through it all in; the agar, agar, the agave nectar, the cashews, the water, the watery pumpkin and I crossed my fingers. The plan for this custard was to be in the center of some gluten-free, sugar-free choux I wanted to make.

Kate and I met up and we bought 3 pumpkins, a whole host of ingredients, and set off to the apple sale at Manhattan Plaza. Kate and I were just supposed to get a half a peck of macouns - my favs - but then Kate went crazy. She got apple cider, she got apple cider donuts (Boston style spelling) she was so excited to see a little bit of fall in the city I think she would have taking the whole stand, but we had too much to carry as it was.

When we got to Kate's, I immediately started on the pie crust a la Better Homes and Gardens cook book. It really is the best crust recipe I have tried. Since Kate's kitchen is not fully equipped with all the baking accoutrements I was making pie crust Carolyn Ingalls style. I felt like I was living in a prairie house. Look at me the early settler...

When I was done mixing my pie crust with my hands I placed it in the fridge and I moved onto the choux. As I was making it I was like how in the hell is this going to rise to be puff pastry if there is no leavener (is that even a word) in it? This isn't a glue like consistency like the recipe says! Hmmm, VERY suspect. There was so much butter in this recipe I thought my arteries were clogging while I was stirring it. No joke. I piped the batter onto the cookie sheets and sheepishly placed them in the oven. I check on the custard that was not setting up - drat that canned pumpkin - and place it in the freezer. Now I am known in these parts for being a superior baker. It would have been very embarrassing to have not one, but two recipes fall flat.

A little dejected I turned to the apples to lead me out of this failed day of baking in a foreign kitchen and new recipes. Apples, sugar, butter, lemon juice, and salt. Does it get any easier? Mixy, mixy and done. Delightful. When I took the pie crust out of the refrigerator and floured the surface I was ready to roll - literally and figuratively- but then I realized that Kate doesn't have a rolling pin. I thought, what would Caroline Ingalls do? I rummaged a little and found a beer stein and rolled out the dough. The pie looked delightful. I mean absolutely wonderful. The last apple pie I made looked and smelled delicious, but tasted like absolute dirt. Could be the same? Could pie be my biggest baking shortfall?

Pre-bake Apple Pie. Sometimes looks can be deceiving. Let's hope this time that is not true.

While we anxiously awaited the final pie product we carved pumpkins. I was really intense in my pumpkin carving - or so I am told - and made a Frankenstein pumpkin creatively named Frankie. After about an hour the pumpkin was done and so was my pie. It smelled delightful, but the true test was the taste test.

Frankie my Jack 0' lantern. He is pretty righteous.

We waited a 20 minutes and then cut into that sucker. It was a little watery, but lawd was it good. The crust was flaky and rich, the apples were sweet, but not too sweet and a little tart - just the way I like them. It was a true pie TRIUMPH. I mean I think the House of Pies in LA would carry this pie that is how good it was.

Delightful, delightful pie! I have conquered my pie demons! WooHoo!

I am going to DC to visit Liza in a couple of weeks and think in her apple pie I will add some vanilla bean. I think that will impart a kind of richness I can get behind. Yay! I made a delicious pie!

Cocktails Anyone?

Assorted mini cupcakes for the engagement party

My sister got engaged a while back - yay for her and the Spaniard - and her friends decided that they wanted to throw her a little soiree to celebrate now that everyone's schedule had died down. Since I am the maid of honor I immediately offered to help in anyway that I could. Her friends promptly asked me to make the desserts.

Vegan Lemon cupcakes with vegan vanilla buttercream (left). White Vegan cupcakes with vegan strawberry frosting and Chocolate vegan cupcakes with vegan mocha buttercream frosting (right).

Hmmm... what to make for my sister's engagement party that is delicious and festive that she can also eat being that she is an vegan and all. CUPCAKES! I was no joke on these suckers. I made white, lemon, and chocolate cupcakes and vanilla, strawberry, and mocha vegan buttercream. They were spectacular and everyone really enjoyed them. Here are some great pics of them. Enjoy and congratulations again!

Little bites of heaven.

Cecily's Birthday Extravaganza

Cecily and her birthday extravaganza cake - White cake with Strawberry frosting

Cecily has been planning her birthday party since May. No seriously May. My one task regarding the birthday was to make the cake. Now she specifically said cake. When I asked if I could do cupcakes she said she really wanted a cake. She also told me that she wasn't a fan of chocolate. So in May the wheels got turning. Cecily always does things in a big way so I wanted her cake to reflect that. At the time, I thought it was going to be a small group of people - 15 at most - and I would make a fab layer cake. The vision: white cake, white frosting with fondant polka dots in pale pastels.

As the months passed she ordered invitations and I wanted to make the cake look like the cake on invitation, but she said that was too busy. So I started to think something more understated. Perhaps white cake, white frosting with swiss dots and a beaded border? Then she said that she wanted strawberry in the cake. If there is one thing I HATE more than anything in a cake is fruit in the middle of the layers of cake, UNLESS it is in the layers of a delightful Dominican cake. So then I felt like my vision for the cake was screwed.

I decided to make the cake layers early in the week and freeze them for two reasons: 1. I wanted to get the baking out of the way and 2. The cake is more moist when you freeze it right after baking. I used this new recipe that I also used for my birthday lemon cake. This recipe calls for reverse creaming where you mix all of the dry ingredients in with the butter until is it pebbly then you add all of the wet ingredients. It makes for a very fluffy almost - dare I say - box consistency. I made one ten inch, one eight inch, and one six inch cake. I meant business. The cakes came out perfectly and I had just the right amount of cake flour for the project. I felt really confident about my time line for the cake decorating process and I was excited to finish the cake.

The day before the party I started nosing around for a strawberry icing recipe because I was not going to put fruit in the layers PERIOD. I came across a Sprinkles Bakery recipe and as you recall I thoroughly enjoyed their buttercream when I was in LA. I decided that was the buttercream I was going to make. Saturday rolled around, I removed the cakes from the freezer - I learn from my mistakes - and I started to have an anxiety attack about the cake. Suddenly it seemed like it was not going to be enough, after all she was expecting 50 people. SHIZA!

So, because I am a TOTAL freak attack I end up running to my super chi chi grocery store without aisles to get more cake flour and a couple other last minute items. Of course my exclusive and majorly over priced local grocer does not have plain old cake flour, they have self rising flour. I search and search and then read the back of the self-rising flour box and it says that you can interchange the two. But how is that possible really? Desperate I grab it and head home to make even more cake. While the new cakes were baking in the oven, I moved onto the buttercream. I made 2 full batches of straight up vanilla - for the layers - and two of the strawberry. Which incidentally only required 3 tablespoons of strawberry juice - from frozen strawberries - and really infused it with a lot of flavor.

The cakes smell ready so I open the oven to door to find...CATASTROPHE! WHAT!?!?!? The cakes fell. The center of them were sunken in. Never in my life... Well this would not do. How the hell can I add those to the most amazing cake I have ever made in my life? Not going to happen. So all this time wasted not decorating and assembling the cake waiting for these damned sunken cakes to sink. Shoot. I literally wanted to scream.

At that moment Ron arrived to a very harried towel wearing freak attack and I promptly told him, "talk me off the ledge." My vision was thwarted and this cake was going to be small and lame-o. Ugh. I was running around like a mad woman - which seemed to be a theme around these various birthday parties - putting in earrings, throwing on a dress, frosting a cake, putting on some make-up, throwing on another layer of cake rushing to the finish line almost in tears that this cake was going to be a DISASTER. I went into my stash of royal icing flowers and grabbed some daisies, threw them on and threw the swiss dots idea out the window. I had to run.

My stash of royal icing flowers. Yep, I made them all with my own two hands.

In 3 inch gold stilettos, a black cocktail dress, and a 3 tier cake in hand Ron and I set off for the bar.

Thankfully, it was dark in that bar because the cake was a little lopsided and the frosting was not perfect by any stretch. When the candles were on it it looked really pretty, but I was still not thrilled with the presentation. Then the rumblings started... people were saying it was the best cake they have ever had in their lives. That is was moist and dense and fluffy all at the same time and the frosting was amazing and I suddenly felt at ease. Cecily was thrilled and her mother - who is very hard to please - was gushing. So after a stressful day it ended up being quite a success - who knew?

The birthday cake and the birthday girl in all of their glory

Next... a cocktail party. Wowza. Does it ever end?

Birthdays Galore

Kate and her birthday cake

Kate is one of my besties and her birthday was coming up. After my surprise party that I found out she was planning for literally MONTHS I felt like she really deserved a fun birthday too. She wasn't feeling it this year, but I felt like we had to do something to commemorate the day of her birth - DAMMIT! So after a little but of coercion Kate decided to have a dinner party with just her nearest and dearest.

That is when her friend Carey and I took over: a surprise potluck. Funny right? Carey is obsessed with themes. I am more of a fly by the seat of my pants kind of gal so I left the theme thinking to her. She came up with some really great ideas like a casserole dinner party as an ode to Kate's mid western roots. That one got a big OMG she can't be serious - although I did find it pretty amusing. But casserole? The theme I could handle was an Argentinean feast. Kate and her bf are heading to Argentina this winter - can you say jealous? - so we thought it would be a perfect theme to get them even more excited about their trip. I decided I would make the cake -duh- and some tostones to go on the side with the empanadas and rice and beans - delish.

Here is where my conundrum came in: Kate's favorite cake of all time is carrot cake with walnuts and raisins and cream cheese frosting. Now that cake is OFF THE CHAIN and it is award winning, but Kate expected it and she recently fell in love with my coconut cake. In fact, at one point she said she didn't know which one she preferred for her birthday. I wanted to make two little cakes. Cakelettes if you will, and hell I will. HA! But the coconut cake is very time consuming and I thought you know? Why not shake things up bit?

I hit the ground running with the coconut cake and let me tell you that cake was GORGEOUS! I put it in the freezer after it came out of the oven - one of my tricks to keep the cake super moist - but I decided to leave the bottom of the springform pan on the cake. At the time it seemed brilliant. I mean I figured I would take the cake out of the freezer the day of and it would thaw and I would be good to go. I then moved on to the coconut filling that is so delicious. I mean think the coconut filling for the best damn black forest cake you have EVER had - yep that good.

Fast forward to the day of Kate's party. I had the day planned within an inch of its life. I started on the cake around 5 knowing I had to be at the party at 7. The meringue frosting takes a little bit of time and tlc, but 2 Hours is MORE than enough time, except when you forget to take the cakes out of the freezer and the cake is frozen to the bottom of the pan. YIKES. I realize this AS I am in the shower so I jump out towel in hair, no make-up, and 45 minutes before I have to leave freaking out about how I am going to pull this off.

Post thaw. Phew...

The question was how in hell was I going to get those cakes thawed out in time for frosting and getting to the party? EUREKA! Turn on the oven, place the cakes on the back burners and thaw it that way. While I was anxiously awaiting the cakes I slapped on some make-up, did the hair and turned my attention to the cake. Thank goodness I am BRILLIANT because otherwise there would have been no birthday cake. The cakes were defrosted and I cut into them with a vengeance, then placed layer upon layer with coconut filling and then it came time for the meringue frosting. When I was a kid I was OBSESSED with fluff and this is basically fluff so it is all I can do to not shove my face in it and start eating it like it is my job. I put some coconut on the sides tossed it in a box and headed out the door.

Dinner was amazing and kudos must go to everyone who pitched in. Kate got a light pink candle candelabra for her birthday so we put that on the cake and it looked AMAZING. The cake was good, but it wasn't great. Why you ask? Isn't it one of your specialties? Um, why yes it is. The coconut I used on the outside of the cake for aesthetics was B-A-D. It was like candied. Ick, It was messed with the texture and the flavor of the rest of the cake.

The Cake that almost wasn't

Next I have a 3 tiered birthday cake for Cecily's crazy birthday party. There are going to be 50 people there! No joke. Wish me luck...

Surprise! Surprise!

My Birthday Protrait

Let me just start by saying that I have the best friends EVER! It is true. I truly have been blessed with amazing friends. How in the world did I get so damn lucky? Where is this coming from? Well let me start from the beginning - as Maria says, it is a very good place to start.

After I returned from my weekend on the Cape, my two girlfriends announced they were taking me out for my birthday that next weekend. Cecily decided she was going to pick out my outfit: an AMAZING black Marc Jacobs dress. We were going to pre-party at Kate's ridic new apartment, and then they were going to kidnap me for the night. All they told me was be prepared to have fun and bring stripper ones - no joke.

Leading up to this mystery evening I was excited and a little nervous. I mean stripper ones!?!?!?! Kate said she was going to make me whatever kind of cake/cupcake I wanted and since it was the end of summer -sigh - I opted for yummy lemon. So many things were going through my mind: When will we partake in cake? What if the dress Cec chose for me was over the top? I mean she would wear a prom dress to get milk at the deli on the corner so was I sure she was the best judge? What shoes should I wear? Were we going dancing or to dinner.

The day of my secret evening out was also the same night as a hurricane - Woo hoo! My sister and I had some wedding errands to run. Ahem, the gun at Williams Sonoma - BACK off it is mine lady! So I was a little water logged when I got home and already running late for the evening's festivities. The plan was to get in a cab, get Cecily and go to Kate's. I was, per usual, late and when I got to Cecily's house she was like "YOUR LATE, I mean happy birthday" and handed me a corsage. Yes, I said CORSAGE! It was quite lovely and I can't remember the last time I had one. She said it was my night and I should look like a princess.... I mean who can argue with that?

We roll up to Kate's abode and we get wind blasted - ah hurricanes so good for hot dresses, hair, and a night out on the town... Now what happened next should have tipped me off. Cecily asked if her hair looked okay as we were entering the elevator and it was just us going to pre-party at Kate's sho could fix it when we got there. We got off the elevator and I walked into an AMBUSH! Yep. All of my closest friends in one room screaming surprise, SURPRISE!

Tricky, tricky friends.

It was an amazing night. I had my first birthday circle, all of my favorite food - thank you Ron - a pinata, and my very own tower of cupcakes. They put ten million candles on the tower o' cupcakes - including my age (thanks Cec) - and thanks to my enourmo lung capacity I was able to blow out everyone and make my wish. * I hope it comes true.

Kate ended up making lemon cupcakes with a cream cheese filling and confectioner's sugar topping and black bottom cupcakes - which I believe are her specialty. Since I am allergic to chocolate and my actual birthday had passed, I passed on the black bottom, but I thoroughly enjoyed the lemon cupcakes. In fact, I had 2 - amazing. They had a light lemon flavor and the was a cream cheese center which added a nice touch of sweetness. I hoped someone got pictures of me blowing out the candles, but it seems we missed that. I am totally bummed that I can't show you Kate's baking triumph.

I was so overwhelmed and excited by the generosity and love that went into planning this party. Ron, Kate, and Cecily I can not thank you enough for making my birthday truly memorable and for making me feel so loved and special. And to all of my friends who were there or wanted be there, but were called to work or in Australia thank you for celebrating with me. YOU ROCK! Did I mention this was the best birthday EVER!?!?!?!