Taste of Atlanta 2011

Have you been to the Taste of Atlanta?  If not, you need to go next year! 

The Taste of Atlanta is our favorite fall food festival.  It's a weekend full of fantastic food -- more than you can even think about eating in a  single afternoon.  This year was the tenth anniversary, and over 80 restaurants were featured.  With your general admission ticket, you receive 10 "taste tickets" which you can redeem at the different booths for samples of their yum yum yummies.  To get the most of our taste tickets, the Artist and I always go in with a plan:

1.  Scope out the entire festival.  Who's got the good stuff, and how many tickets is it? 
This step is crucial, it's way to easy to use up all of your tickets before you even get through the first block!  I mean, really!  Sublime Doughnuts and Jim 'n Nick's BBQ met us at the entrance gate!

2.  Have a tasting strategy.
We usually share things that are more than a bite or two.  That way, we don't both fork over 3 or 4 tickets for the same thing.  Also, it's hard to do, but don't load up on desserts first.  I speak this one from experience.  Last year, I was stuffed...uncomfortably so, and way before I was ready to go home!

3.  Plan to buy more taste tickets!
Because really, 10 tickets is not going to be enough

Seafood Bisque



Cheesesteak



Orange Dream Doughnut

Soft Pretzel w/Beer Cheese Dip

Lamb Slider

Banh Mi

Mississippi Delta Tamale

Caramel Apple Bread Pudding

Orange Kissed Frozen Yogurt



Lemon Pepper Wings and Fries



Even going in with a plan, there's always something you want to taste but don't.  Ri Ra's line for fish and chips stayed a block long for the entire afternoon!  I wanted to try the arroncini, but 1 tiny rice ball wasn't really worth 2 tickets, was it?

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!

It's that time of year....it's still hot as Hades, but I still am optimistically believing that I can "feel" fall in the air.  It seems this year that Labor Day was literally the switch for fall, it's been in the low 70s all week since, while just two days before Labor Day, it was 95!

As the final hurrah to summer, I made ice cream.  Sort of.  As much as ice cream can be made without an ice cream maker.  And as much as ice cream can be made in a plastic freezer bag.  I've seen this several times before, most often in family oriented magazines under "Things to Keep the Kids Busy".  No kids here, just a science nerd and foodie who is still fascinated by the butter we made in a jar in the 2nd grade.  I followed this recipe from 2 little hooligans.

It turned out to be a runny soft-servish consistency.  At this point, ice cream maker ice cream would also be soft and you'd put it in the freezer to finish up.  I put this in the freezer and it got too hard and lost any creaminess it started out with.  Not bad in a pinch, but the stuff from the store works for me.

The same day, to usher in fall, I made white chocolate pumpkin scones.  I'm usually not a scone girl.  For me, I classify them as snacks/dessert, and my baked snacks/dessert should be sweet.  All of the scones I've had have been of the Starbucks/Panera variety, which means dry triangular biscuits with something either in them or on them.  These however, were AWESOME.  Rich, buttery, flaky.  I also was finally able to understand what the descriptor "tender" means in relation to baked goods.

I doubled the recipe from Small Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers, and skipped the glaze.   I only skipped the glaze because I only had a handful of white chips, and they went inside the scones.

Changing gears, today is the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.  Do you remember where you were?  How has your life changed? 

Take-out Fake-out: Red Thai Curry

Here's a first at the Great Cakescapade: A RECIPE! And not only a recipe, but a take-out favorite, Thai Curry. I like red curry, but would never in a million years have thought it would be so easy to make at home. A few weeks ago, I was visiting my mom, and snatched a couple of magazines to read on the plane back home. Fine Cooking had a spread on DIY Thai curry, including a matrix to mix and match your own custom curry that can be found here.
This recipe is totally easy and doable, with very little in the way of 'odd' ingredients. I think I spent more time chopping than cooking.

Red Chicken Curry (adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine)
*Curry Base
14 oz can coconut milk
1/4 cup red curry paste
1 cup chicken broth
*Aromatics
3 slices of ginger
1 stalk lemongrass, cut into 4-inch pieces and bruised (I hit it with a meat mallet a couple times)
*Protein
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, thinly sliced
*Other stuff
2 TBS brown sugar
1 tsp fish sauce (I realized at the last minute we didn't have any. I left it out completely and couldn't tell you it was missing)
*Veggies
3 cups chopped vegetables : I used carrots, onions, bell peppers, and sugar snap peas


To make the curry base, simmer 1/2 a cup of the coconut milk until it is thickened and reduced by half. Whisk in the curry paste, cook 1 minute, then whisk in the remaining coconut milk and chicken broth.

Add the ginger, lemongrass, and brown sugar. Stir to dissolve the brown sugar, then start adding the remaining ingredients according to cooking time. The chicken went in first, then the carrots, peppers, and onion. Snap peas went in last, as they don't take too long. Let the whole wok simmer until everything is done! Serve over rice, and supper is ready.

The Fine Cooking Magazine matrix is easy to follow and really lets you realize how customizable the recipe is. The Artist, who had never before had Thai curry, really enjoyed it, and so did I.

Opa! Daring Baker Challenge - June 2011

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

Homemade phyllo? Now, that's a challenge. Challenge number one was when the recipe said to knead by hand for 20 minutes (the alternative when you don't own a stand mixer). I was resourceful and had my bread machine do the kneading. The dough was a bit sticky, but was wonderfully smooth and silky -- much nicer than it looks when I make actual bread!

After letting the dough rest for a couple of hours, I was ready to rock and roll. I thought getting the phyllo sheets paper thin would be no big deal -- I roll fondant and gumpaste that thin for flowers. This just was not the same. It seemed at some points that, while the dough didn't seem thin enough, the rolling pin wasn't doing anything, and I had to put my weight into it. As you can see in the picture below, I need to invest in a cute, frilly apron.

Eventually, I was tired of rolling phyllo dough. But finally, I had about 12 thin enough sheets of phyllo, which I was able to cut down to 18 sheets the size of my small baking dish. After the dough rolling, assembling the baklava was simple: layers of phyllo brushed with melted butter, alternating with layers of finely chopped nuts and cinnamon.

I knew going into the challenge that I was not a big baklava fan. I think if I made it again, I would go with my usual store bought whole wheat phyllo, and use something other than honey in the soaking syrup.

Thanks for the challenge (and upper body workout), Erica! Stay tuned for July's challenge.

Not your regular graduation cake

My baby sister's all grown up! This past weekend, L graduated from high school. I was 13 when she was born, and still remember life before she was around. I hadn't had the opportunity to share the perks of my cake baking hobby with my mom and sister, and decided to whip up something for the occasion.

Harder than it sounds because L is a notoriously picky eater.

Me:What kind of cake do you want?

Crickets...It took her forever to decide.

L:White cake with vanilla frosting.

Seriously? White on white?

L: Well, you can color the frosting.

Me: Alrighty, then. What kind of design do you want?

L is a budding artist, and of course, had to come up with something extreme. This is the description she sent via Facebook:

"Can you just make me a BAD-ASS manticore cake with vicious teeth in a creepy smile, yellow cat-like eyes with black pupils, a dirty blond main thats really messy and flops around, human-like paws, blueish purple hind-quarters with digit grade back legs, deep blus scorpion tail dripping poison, and lightning bolt stripes of electric blue. Oh, and can you make him a hipster?"

Me: WTF???

So...yeah....what I decided to do was merge our respective hobbies in the middle. We split a box of fondant and each created a manticore (which, BTW, is a chimera like creature). Best manticore would go on the cake. And MINE WENT ON THE CAKE!

And quite the tasty cake, too. An ice cream cake! Chocolate cake (I talked her into living a little), cookies and creme ice cream, and white frosting. I need to plan the ice cream cake process a little better; it started to melt and wouldn't firm up without an overnight freeze. But, I think it turned out pretty good, despite the drips and bulges, considering I frosted it with a plastic knife! The plastic knife was because I wasn't sure if my cake spatulas would make it past the TSA screeners.

Congratulations, little sister!

Small Batch Baking

Sometimes, baking is not just to quench the craving of my sweet tooth. (Often, it is, but not always!). Truth be told, I just really enjoy the act of baking. Feeling the mixer buzz in my hand, or turning the bowl as I mix ingredients, is strangely soothing.

And, when it's not the sugar high that I seek, a cookie recipe that yields 4 dozen is just way to much! So, when I saw Debbie Maugan's two cookbooks centered around baking for two -- say, 6 cupcakes or a dozen cookies, I was game.

This weekend, I tried out two recipe from Debbie's Small Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers: Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, and Chocolate Chip Cookies.

The chocolate sandwich cookies were, of course, supposed to compete with those famously addictive Oreo cookies. This recipe will not replace the Oreos in my shopping cart, but the Artist and I both thought they were quite tasty. I tweaked the recipe to use chocolate that I had on hand, and used milk chocolate instead of the semi-sweet specified. I think the darker chocolate would calm the overly sweet taste of the filling. Will have to try these again...



Who doesn't love chocolate chip cookies? This recipe was great. They made a dozen little cookies full of chocolate and nuts that would give the $20/pound cookies from a local gourmet shop a run for their money! A plus was that using my cookie scoop, I got exactly one dozen cookies rather than the 8 predicted by the recipe. Too many chips? Chewy, crispy, chocolaty, nutty, with the addition of creme bouquet flavoring rather than regular old vanilla extract, these cookies were great!

This book and I will be getting to know each other very well. Debbie features cakes, pies, brownies, and more (even a chocolate cocktail or two). I'll probably eventually try them all!More to come....

Daring Baker Challenge - April 2011

What an interesting challenge this month! Maple mousse in an edible container.

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com/!

Hint, hint...vote for me!

Some of the suggestions for edible containers included weaving bacon strips together and baking into little cups, or nut tartlet shells. Obviously, I wanted to take it in my own direction. But what?

I was inspired one day as I passed by my mega shelf of cake supplies: CANDY BARS! I thought they would fit the bill: handheld, bite sized, and definitely contained. Trying to think of what kind of candy bar, I sort of combined the idea of a Snickers bar, and Maple Nut Goodies.

My candy bars were the maple mousse, toasted pecans, and caramel, all covered in white chocolate. I must say, while the mousse was not something I could eat by itself, the flavors in the candy bars went together quite nicely! I was pleased, as was The Artist.

Daring Baker Challenge - March 2011

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake. When I found out the challenge, I was curious and intrigued. Ria and Jamie challenged us to fill the coffee cake with meringue and whatever filling of choice. I'd never made meringue before, as I never really have cared for it. And what to pair it with? I thought about a lemon curd, as a twist on lemon meringue. Then, I found an old Cooking Light recipe for triple berry curd, and decided to go with that. Another idea I considered was Nutella and orange zest, which I well try on another day. My first try at meringue was a success; it whipped up with no problem. But, when spreading it on my dough, I overfilled it, and couldn't roll it up. I wound up sort of shaping it into a circle and scooped it into a round cake pan. It was pretty and swirly when done, but not the vision I had originally. But, isn't that the story of my kitchen adventures? In short, I would make the yeasted coffee cake again, minus the meringue. Other Daring Bakers described it as baking to a nougaty finish, but mine didn't do that. It just took away from the berry curd which was absolutely awesome on its own.

Daring Bakers' Challenge - December 2010

The 2010 December Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie's Baking. She chose to challenge the Daring Bakers to make Stollen. She adapted a friend's family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinharts book....and Martha Stewart's demonstration.

I was especially excited for this month's DB challenge, being December and all. Many in the group, including myself, were afraid it would be fruit cake. Though stollen, a German Christmas bread, contains fruit and nuts, it's bread, not that nasty rum soaked door stop of a cake.

Having never made stollen before, I stuck pretty close to the original recipe, using raisins, orange scented dried cranberries, candied citrus peel, and almonds. Be warned: this makes quite a hunk of dough. As you can see, my regular wooden rolling pin was no match, and I had to break out my 20" pin I use for fondant. When all was said and done, the dough, when rolled out completely, was larger than the 20" pin! Part of the challenge was to shape the dough like a wreath. This was a lovely touch for the holiday season. To top it all off, the bread is traditionally coated in alternating layers of melted butter and powdered sugar -- 3 layers each. I figured one fairly generous layer of butter and sugar would be more than enough, and it most certainly was.

This recipe is definitely a keeper, but only for company, 'cause this thing was huge (I baked it on a 16" pizza pan)!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Daring Bakers' Challenge - Nvember 2010

The 2010 November Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers' to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi's Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

Though I make many things from scratch, I had never made any type of pie crust. I'd heard enough horror stories, and decided it wasn't worth the fuss. Especially since I'm not really a pie kind of girl. For this month's challenge, we were to make pasta frolla, as sweet pie/tart dough, and shape it into a crostata, an Italian tart. The filling was up to the baker, and I immediately knew I wanted to use Dorie Greenspan's recipe for almond cream. Just before receiving the challenge, I'd been reading DG's Baking, and it sounded amazing. I paired the almond cream with cherry preserves. Not a bad filling, but entirely too sweet! Yes, too sweet, even for me! The Artist thought is was good and ate nearly the whole thing.

Daring Bakers' Challenge - October 2010

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

I was very excited about this challenge, looking to kick it up a notch from the National Doughnut Day adventure. At The Artist's request, I got things rolling with chocolate doughnuts.

They looked pretty good, but the dough was pretty gooey, so when I went to fry them, they formed a battered crust on the outside. They also got a bit burned, so the outsides were very crispy. I don't fry all that often, and it showed with this challenge.

SOOOOO...to redeem myself, I went out to Sur La Table and bought a mini doughnut pan. This pan baked up the cutest little pumpkin doughnuts! Much tastier, and much easier. The doughnuts bake up in only five minutes. You're never far from doughnuts with this pan.

I quickly dusted the pumpkin doughnuts with cinnamon sugar. Soft and yummy, it's way too easy to eat a whole dozen; especially when they're only about an inch wide =).

No Knead to Exagerrate

Hmmm...Remember in the spring, wen I was quite intrigued by the books Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes s Day? Well, not so much, anymore. At the time, I was willing to accept the books' premise: You could make perfectly good bread by stirring a few things together, and wait for it to rise WITH NO KNEADING.

Not anymore. I was making pumpkin pie brioche from Healthy Bread, and after nearly 2 hours, all I had was a dry-ish scraggly looling lump of dough that had not risen at all. Something told me to knead it, though the authors adamantly tell you in their books not to do so. What could it hurt? Kneading it would either improve it, or leave me with the same scraggly lump of dough. Still mindful of the authors' warning, I lightly kneaded for a minute or two, then covered it with plastic wrap. I swear I could see it start to rise immediately. I left it there for about half an hour, poked it. Rolled it out , spread with brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter...shaped it into cinnamon rolls....let them proof....popped them into the over for 20 minutes. These were awesome!

I have to admit, while I absolutely love cooking and baking, bread baking had never been my forte, so...these books seemed to cut out the middleman (kneading). The resulting flavor was OK, but kind of hard and dry if any more than 20 minutes out of the oven. And not much to look at, either. My loaves were higher than a cracker, but not as lofty as a full loaf of bread. As a result, I haven't made much more than pizza dough since spring.

After my kneading experiment, I had full, pillowy rolls that were still a nice, soft texture. I'm now a believer in kneading!

BUT -- to the artisans of the Bread in 5 Series....no 'knead' to exaggerate your techniques to sell a book.

Fall is in the Air

Ahhh, fall. There's something about fall and 'fall' foods, like pumpkin. I've never picked a pumpkin, been to a pumpkin patch, or carved a jack o' lantern, but I love pumpkin baked goods -- muffins, bread, cake, donuts, etc. I had the better part of a can of pure pumpkin in the fridge (leftover from the DB doughnut challenge), and was trying to figure out how to use it. So, my eyes were peeled for any pumpkin goodies that sounded interesting. After seeing a few similar posts, I decided that pumpkin cinnamon rolls were in order.

To go the easy route, I chose the recipe for Pumpkin Pie Brioche from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. (This recipe was the lynchpin in my Healthy Bread in 5 rant from a few posts back.)

For the filling, I threw together some brown sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkled it on to the dough after smearing it with a smidge of butter -- sorry, no measurements!

Let the sliced rolls rise, bake, and voila!

Daring Baker Challenge - Sept 2010

The September 2010 Daring Baker's Challenge was hosted by Mandy of "What the Fruitcake?!" Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and the Joy of Baking.







While sugar cookies are not a new challenge for me, the theme of the cookies was "September". Hmmmm, what does 'September' mean? I thought of bushel baskets of leaves, acorns, and apples. Red ones, and green ones, and caramel covered ones!

I wanted to add to the September/apple theme, I wanted to make an apple-y flavored cookie -- something like cinnamon sugar cookies with apple filling. Sounded good, but I made sandwich cookies with a fall spice buttercream instead.

My first DAring Baker challenge was a lot of fun, and if I do say so myself, was a success! CAn't wait for the October challenge.

Bagel BLTs

Continuing on my bread baking journey, I decided to try my hand at bagels!

Modifying a recipe from Cooking Light, I made whole wheat 'everything' bagels. And what to do with them once they were done? Well, bacon makes everything better. So,....Bagel BLTs!

Homemade hot sauce

We are hot sauce junkies at our house. We keep a couple of types on hand at all times, because you never know what you might want to put it on. But, i the grand scheme of things, hot sauce is kind of expensive. So, jackpot bingo when I saw this post in the New York Times! I made immediate plans to make it after a trip to the DeKalb Farmer's Market. I was ready to throw every pepper they had into the pot!

For the first try, I held back and tried to stick to the recipe. They only had 3 red habaneros peppers (all the rest were green -- I figured they wouldn't be hot), so I subbed in 2 serrano peppers. Three red and three green habaneros plus 2 serrano peppers cost me all of 26 cents! Can't beat that with a stick.

Right now, I'm on day 2 of the 3 day setting process. I am SOOOOOOOOOO ready to taste the final product. Of course, I did sneak a taste when it came off the stove. It definitely had some zip. I don't know if the wait period is going to increase the flavor, mellow it out, or what. Tomorrow's going to be taco night --- a perfect time to crack this baby open!

My First Cake Order

Yeah! I just completed my first ever cake order! 200 red velvet wedding cupcakes!

How do you bake 17 dozen cupcakes in a regular home kitchen without losing your mind?

HAVE A GAMEPLAN.

1. Set a schedule. Each day before the wedding, I accomplished a different task. For example, two weeks ahead of time, I did a test run with the giant cupcake (Remember "Chris and the Giant Cupcake"?). One week before, I molded the giant cupcake wrapper out of fondant and left it to dry. On Thursday, I made 15 or so pounds of cream cheese frosting. On Friday, I did all the baking. And on Saturday, I decorated and delivered the cupcakes.

2. Be flexible. My original plan was to use an idea from Hello, Cupcake! to use a large freezer bag to portion out the batter evenly. Well, it worked great for the first two batches. When I went to pick up the bag to fill the next batch, the bag had a gazillion holes in it. (NOTE: Red velvet cake contains vinegar. Not much, but enough to completely eat through a freezer bag in 15 minutes.)

I also planned to speed things along by baking 2 trays at a time. My oven is much colder on the bottom than the top. The cupcakes didn't bake evenly, so I resorted to one pan at a time.

3. Be organized. The weekend before the wedding, I portioned out all of my dry ingredients into my own little cake mixes. On baking day, I laid out everything in sets. Unfortunately, this didn't prevent me from forgetting the vanilla extract in the first 3 dozen cupcakes. OOPS!

All in all, I think the cupcakes turned out great, and the bride was pleased. I look forward to the future when I have a professional grade kitchen and a truck or van -- squeezing 200 cupcakes into the back of a Nissan worked, but it took some doing.

The finished product:

And the happy couple, perched upon their giant cupcake:

Chris and the Giant Cupcake

Now, who doesn't love a cupcake? And even if you could pass on a cute little bite size cupcake, could you really pass up a GIANT cupcake? I surely can't. Neither could The Artist. He appears to be spellbound.....

It's Doughnut Day!

Today is National Doughnut Day! At least two of your local doughnut shops are giving away free doughnuts today, and I had every intention of getting one. But, life gets in the way...

I was THIS close to making a 30 min trip to get one measly free doughnut when I remembered my latest bookstore bargain table find: Snack Cakes for Dummies. I'm no dummy, but it's a nifty little book, especially for $3.99. And just as I was headed out the door to snag my freebie, I remembered that this book had an entire chapter on doughnuts.

A totally impromptu experiment. I wanted to make Devil's Food Doughnuts, but....no cocoa powder (No idea how that happened. I always have cocoa powder on the shelf). So I turned the page, and there were buttermilk doughnuts. Luckily, they required the same amount of flour (I only had half of the amount needed of that. Note to self: go grocery shopping) that I had already measured out, and proceeded to make half a batch of buttermilk doughnut holes. Actually, sour cream doughnut holes, because I didn't have any buttermilk, and the 2% was expired.

Whipped up a batch of doughnut ...dough? batter? stuff? and fried it up (BTW, used up the last of the canola oil, too).

Some got tossed in powdered sugar, and for the rest, I whipped up an impromptu lemon glaze. I may not have flour or milk, but do actually have 6 lbs. of confectioner's sugar, and that is no exaggeration!


At first bite, I didn't feel too impressed. They definitely weren't Krispy Kreme, but they weren't the frosted bread of Dunkin' Donuts, either. Not too bad, as you can see by the nearly empty plate below:

Enjoy the doughnuts. I'm off to the grocery store.

Playing Catch Up

Sorry for not posting more regularly. The spring semester was busy, to say the least. Because we obviously had to eat, I made things, but somehow never got around to posting.

So, here's a quick "Semester in Review" of things I've made lately.

Birthday cake for a neighbor:



Barbecue chicken braid:

Homemade buttercream fondant on a cookie:

Deep dish pizza:

Trying out a new cake recipe as cupcakes:

Happy caking!

DANG, GINA!

Do you remember one of Martin Lawrence's catchphrases: "DANG, GINA!"? Well, after trying this Memphis Mud Pie reipe, that's all I could say. Especially since it came from Gina Neely of Down Hone with the Neely's. I'm so glad the semester is over...I haven't gotten to watch them in forever.

This pie has it all: Oreo crust, chocolate brownie like filling, nuts, whipped cream, and a scoop of ice cream made it even better! Enjoy!!!