More apartment drama. More work drama. More baking!
I am moving out of my current apartment. Despite living here for a year and doing tons of improvements like new wood floors and tiled kitchen backsplash, and I still hate this apartment and now, my landlord as well. Since my lease ended in July, and with a ridiculous rent increase looming on the renewal, I've decided to say goodbye to this shoebox with mice. I'll probably have to demo out all the work I've done and replace the pink vinyl floors held down with packaging tape and the wrinkled wallpaper backsplash. I'll get some before-and-after shots up here soon. You'll be seriously amazed.
I mentioned in my last post that I've been tapped to do a wedding cake in Provincetown, MA in a few weeks. I was hired last week to make a cake for a friend's birthday and decided to use it as a practice run for the wedding cake. My friend Scott at Sosebee Design said his friend wanted something "chocolate and fruity and rich and sweet." Perfect. The wedding cake I was thinking of was going to be chocolate cake, raspberry filling, and white chocolate frosting (probably with a blueberry mirror glaze on top, but I'm still working on that).
Loretta again helped me out with this one.
Just kidding.
Here's the warm raspberry jam on top of the first layer of chocolate cake.
Then I made a giant batch of white chocolate frosting. Ten warm egg whites a some sugar:
And yes, that's EIGHT sticks of butter coming to room temperature for the frosting.
The frosting came together very well. It wasn't too sweet and it was firm, yet very spreadable and workable. And here's my raspberry OCD decorating idea:
The feedback I got on this cake was very, very good. One helpful criticism is that the cake could have been more chocolatey, so I'm definitely going to work that in the next time I make this one.
As an aside, I saw Julie and Julia, that Julia Child blogging movie. It was really awful and hokey ("Julia, you saved me. How do you do it all?"), but I have to admit, it got me thinking about blogging more often. So for that, I guess it was ok, but seriously, don't see it. Go see District 9 instead. Like Julie & Julia, District 9 is icky, stomach-wrenching, and largely about eating things that maybe you shouldn't.
That's all for now.
5 comments:
yay for more blogging! i like that very much.
that cake looks pretty amazing. i'm always amazed when people come up with truly good frosting. i'd lick that batter. that is NOT an innuendo. geez.
Yes... all the Julie parts were unbearable. Your cake, however, looks uh-mazing! I just started reading this blog and I am enjoying it heartily. I think I ate one of your cakes at Nowhere once with some mystery berries from McCarren Park. It was delicious...
Hey Man-
Just came across your blog...and love it!...i love cooking, baking, eating and drinking...and me and my boyfriend's expanding wasteline must be evident of it.
IN anycase, reading your blog makes me want to bake more cakes. I'm pretty creative as an (unemployeed) architect, so i should put my creativeness to use (and by use, i mean something i can eat)..
anywho, just awanted to say hi..and i'll be following ya.
take care man
John
This cake looks so freaking fantastic. Do you have the recipe for the cake and filling? I would love to make something like this for the holidays.
I love how most bakers really abhor Julie. She was an incredibly unlikeable character in the book (and that shit was REAL) and an incredibly unlikeable character in the movie.
I started a blog where I baked once a week for a year, and people were always saying, "Oh, it's like 'Julie & Julia'!"
Ummmmmm, no.
:)
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