Let's Not Forget ----

I was so busy with the summer and really doing nothing but enjoying the warmest summer on record for Long Island. With that said, I didn't get around to posting some of the cakes I did. The first one was for a 10 year old birthday party on the Fourth of July and the others were for my niece and nephew. I had anticipated spending a lot of time for the family cakes but as my other blog entries indicated --- I just didn't have the time for anything. I have to at least post it on my blog since I won't be posting it on my website. There was quite a few flaws but as with all my cakes - they tasted delicious. My first chocolate fudge cake with a peanut butter filling took me back to my childhood and a fun snack I used to eat - a Drakes cake Funny Bone. If you've ever had one you know what I'm talking about. For those who haven't, best get to the nearest 7-11 and pick one up. You won't regret it.

The Daring Bakers - August

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and

Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and

Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa

chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alasa or in Ice

Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s

“The Perfect Scoop”.

Once again - where did the time go? Actually, the question should be - where did the summer go? I completed my challenge for August in a rush but it was delicious. The petite four consisted of a brown butter cake with butterscotch ice cream and a dark chocolate glaze. It tasted like an ice cream sandwich and on the hot day of August with 11 kids running around my yard it was a perfect treat to be served. Would love to chat to right now but I'm in the middle of making Toy Story figures for an upcoming cake order. Check back soon for photos on that. Happy Labor Day!!

The Daring Bakers July 2010

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home. To see the details visit: http://thedaringkitchen.com/.

I'm not usually a fan of this type of dessert but it definitely turned out to be a hit as the weather here on Long Island has been hot. My inspiration for the flavor profiles of this dessert stems from my all time favorite pastry - the cannoli. It probably be one of those foods that when asked what one food item I could take with me to a deserted island to live off of. Anyway, I made a chiffon cake and infused it with vanilla cinnamon sugar. The filling was my home-made cannoli cream; something I've been trying to perfect for quite some time. I have come to realize that the only way to achieve that Italian pastry shop consistency (which my mother believes comes from artificial ingredients) is to make my own ricotta cheese. It is so easy to make and really quite delicious that I just had to make it for this challenge. See my last post for the details. My two ice cream flavors were (home-made of course) pistachio and amaretto. For a filling in-between I used a chocolate ganache. Did it come out tasting like the dessert that makes me grin from ear-to-ear? Well, not really but it was very good and everyone here at home loved it.

I can't seem to get the photos right so I'm going to do next months challenge early and put a little more effort into. Looking forward to another challenge. Check back at the end of August for the details.

It's All About The Cheese

The dog daze of summer are here. The kids actually want a break from the pool so I have decided to make cheese. I'm preparing for my next Daring Baker's challenge for July which I will incorporate this cheese. Homemade ricotta! Yum!! Besides it being part of my challenge recipe it is also for my challenged eating baby who is 15 months. He just doesn't enjoy eating much but I know he loves ricotta cheese. So, what better way to spend my day than by hearing the older kids actually getting along with each other as they watch TV, not hearing the baby as he takes his afternoon nap and me making some cheese.

Look for my updated photos with my challenge for July.......

More Busy Days from May & June

On my last post I added a few photos of cakes I had done for a few communions and a graduation. Here are some more photos of a variety of events going on - from soccer, to lacrosse, to a hockey birthday and a couple cookie orders.

Busy June

June was a busy month - I had a bunch of catering jobs and cakes as well. Because it was the end of the school year I was extremely busy with the kids. I didn't have a chance to post my cakes so I'll put them all here. Some of the photo's are down-right bad. Between being rushed to a party and not having a camera available, sometimes a cell phone camera had to do. We also had a very warm June which made cakes look a little droopy by the time I got around to taking a picture.

The Daring Bakers

I joined this online cooking club called The Daring Bakers. This is a way for me to keep cooking creatively in a way I used to when I worked at the restaurant. Each month a new challenge is given where you have to use the recipes provided, bake the challenge recipe and then post your results. I'm a bit late with posting for June since life just gets crazy with the end of the school year for the kids. In addition to keeping up on the cooking this will be a way for me to experiment with food photography. Unfortunately I will not be buying some fancy camera anytime soon but I will make an attempt to learn how to utilize my digital camera in a way I never have before. Finally, I have started up my own website for my cake decorating business. Please go to http://www.sweetsatlast.com and check it out. I will be working on it this summer and hope to have it finalized soon.

The June 2010 Daring Bakers' Challenge was the following: Chocolate Pavlovas with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. It was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. The challenge was based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

Baseball Fever

Baseball season is in full swing. I had two orders for a baseball themed cake. Since one was for a personal friend of mine extra attention went into the details. The first cake was a stadium cake (delicious yellow cake) with a cannoli filling, iced with buttercream and then covered with meticulously measured stripes of alternating shades of green. The stands are composed of the same cake, frosted and then coated with sprinkles to make the "crowd". I don't have any pictures of the back side but there was an archway into the stadium, some windows and stars for decorations. The second cake was an ice cream cake. It was a Devil's Food cake with vanilla ice cream (home made of course) iced with buttercream (including the stripes). Both were very cute. I absolutely love doing cakes for children!

The Force Was With Me

I just got done delivering a 3-D cake. The theme was from Star Wars The Clone Wars. I made chocolate butter cakes (quite a few of them) and some milk chocolate pastry cream along with chocolate butter cream. The bottom layer was quite easy although I was not achieving the colors I had wanted (dark blue and black swirled together). Eventually I settled on the blue/green and when swirled with the black I thought it looked pretty neat.

The top of the cake was modeled after Captain Rex. Anyone who has a young son should be familiar with the Captain Rex voice changing helmet that was almost hard to come by this past Christmas. With that as my guide (almost made me nervous as if it was watching me) I carved away the six layers of cake, put on a crumb coat and called it a night. Normally I like to finish a cake the night before delivery and then just put some finishing touches on them right before. However --- you live and you learn.......I decided to fill my cakes with pastry cream. So good and delicious and SO WRONG for a cake that needs to be covered in fondant. Fortunately I did my home work on the subject matter and waited until two hours before delivery time to cover the cake. It certainly didn't help that it was 80 degrees today - so not a typical day for us here on Long Island in May but never-the-less work had to get done.

To go along with the cake I made some fondant/gum paste figures: Yoda, R2D2 and some droid. I'll have to ask Jack, the happy birthday boy, to see what exactly the name of that droid was. I'm a big star wars fan but not so much into the clone wars.

As always, I had fun doing this cake. Staying up late (since I have to wait for all the kids to be asleep before I can even begin working on anything) and squeezing in fondant fun while the baby naps certainly does make to a complete day.

I hope you enjoy - and contact me if you're interested in a cake ---- or anything sweet for that matter: vicki@gergely.com.

Alexis's 9th Birthday Cake

Here is my first attempt at using fondant. I learned a lot during this decorating time. The cakes are strawberry and filled with chocolate ganache. I got the idea for the striping pattern off of the birthday plates I ordered. My daughter wanted a butterfly theme and pink (I believe that all her thoughts in her head are PINK).

The duck that is sitting on the top is a creation based off of her "duckie" that she has been hanging onto since she was 10 months old. I just had to include it. And it wouldn't be complete without the fondant and pearl butterflies and a pink gum paste ribbon to top it off.

First Decorated Cake

My son's first birthday cake - Yo Gabba Gabba theme.

This was my very first attempt at decorating a cake of this nature. The bottom layer is a chocolate cake with cannoli cream filling and frosted with white chocolate buttercream. The top dome is a white sprinkle cake with chocolate pastry cream filling and frosted with the white chocolate buttercream. The figures on the top were all hand made out of gum paste and the multi-colored balls around the edge were made of marshmallow fondant. It was delicious!

Let's Get Started

I love to cook. Even when I'm helping the kids with homework, the baby is pulling on my pants and the dogs are crying to go out - I love to cook. I manage to get it done during all these crazy times - even when I have to drop off my daughter for one one her six dance classes, or take my son to lacrosse practice (or hockey practice or soccer practice - can hardly keep track of his days), or get ready to go and teach a cooking class. Somehow, when you love what you do you get the job done.

I'm so excited that I'm starting up a cake business. I went to culinary school (ICE in Manhattan) and worked as a Pastry Chef in a fancy french restaurant. Since the addition to the family (the baby of course not the puppy) I have left the restaurant and have been busy by teaching cooking classes, catering private parties and making custom designed cakes.

Life is good, family is great and today is my 13th Wedding Anniversary. Happy Anniversary Mark - I couldn't have done any of this without you.