Okay, call me slow, but while cupcakes and cupcake sites have been popping up on the web and in cities like chickweed in my lawn, the whole trend was a bit lost on me. Sure, I like cupcakes and I see the advantage of the automatic portion control inherent in the cupcake, and the opportunity to try 3 or 4 different types of cakes without having to invest in making (or eating) several whole cakes. I tried to get on the bandwagon when my daughter moved to Shirlington, only a stone's throw from Cakelove, but the magic of the cupcake just eluded me.
I think I dreamed of this place as a child!
But that was before Georgetown Cupcakes. About a month ago, my son who lives in DC and daughter who was visiting made the trek to Georgetown Cupcakes. Now even if you haven't travelled to DC, you may have seen Georgetown Cupcakes on the TLC program, DC Cupcakes now entering its second season, though I have to admit I had not heard of it until my daughter came with a box in a bag.
I didn't appreciate just how popular Georgetown Cupcakes is until I saw the pictures my daughter took of their time waiting. But when I saw what was inside that box, I know I would've waited too.
With flavors like Salted Caramel and Chocolate Coconut and Mocha, and Lava Fudge, and Key Lime, and,,,,, okay, you get the picture, I am not sure how they picked, but the cupcakes I had (Salted Carmel and Chocolate Coconut) made me a Georgetown Cupcake convert. They were delicious, moist, with complexity and richness of flavor beyond their diminutive size.
Well, I know that you are all excited for me that I have finally jumped on the cupcake bandwagon, but it gets better- you can order your own dozen cupcakes either directly from GC or through TLC which airs the DC Cupcake Show. So if you are looking for something amazing and delicious, and worth every calorie, order your own and experience these bits of heaven for yourself!
Remember that awesome mixing bowl set I bought Adam for his birthday?
It becomes a lot less awesome if you're out of parchment paper, flour, and all of the staples that you normally have at your disposal while making cookies.
Adam and I made the Toy Story 3 cookies at the beach condo where my family's spending vacation. I spent Sunday night with them, then my dad drove me back to school the next morning. I forgot how much I love going to the beach with my crazy, chaotic, lovable family.
But I digress! The cookies turned out to be a semi-disaster. Since we didn't have flour, and the cookie dough stuck to everything (including my Sil-Pin. Sigh), I thought, "maybe we'll just bake some round cookies, and then right after we take the cookies out of the oven, then I'll use the cutters on them."
I seriously appreciate Adam putting up with me. He would eat the raw cookie dough, though, because it said not to on the package. Well, more for me.
After I cut out the cookies, and everyone ate all the scraps (and I mean ALL), I gave Adam the little tubes of icing so he could decorate.
Please ignore my awful beach hair in the background... Look! A cute kid holding a tube of icing!
And that's why I love this particular gift, because he had fun squirting icing all over the cookies (except for Slinky, but none of those cookies turned out) and then eating them.
I'm sure if I was in my own home kitchen surrounded by familiar pots and pans, the cookies would've been perfect. But as it was, the memories will still be perfect. ;o)
What makes a food blogger? In the time since I began Play with Food, I have met and spoken to so many bloggers from all over and each one has a different answer. There are those who are writers who love food and use their craft to share their passion with others. Some are talented photographers who capture food as art, and can make your mouth water with their images. There are ethnic cooks who strive to share their culture, and specialty blogs reaching people with special dietary needs. There are humorous food blogs and even food blogs that rant and rave.
And then there is me. I am just an ordinary woman who grew up in Winchester, a small town in the Shenandoah Valley where apples are king. My dad died when I was very young, but my mom met and married a wonderful man who raised us as his own. Both my mom and dad worked, so once I was old enough, I was often the responsible one, watching my younger brothers until our parents were home. And thus began my passion for cooking. Encouraged by my dad who would eat anything I made with great gusto and endless approval, I explored and experimented. Some things, such as the time I made a giant biscuit to go with hamburger Stroganoff because I thought it would be more dramatic (you can guess the center was pretty doughy), or the time I heated milk on top of the stove in a Pyrex dish (I definitely wouldn�t recommend, since the dish shattered- luckily, I wasn�t hurt) were failed experiments. But each time I cooked something new, whether it turned out or not, I gained skills, and confidence. I learned how to plan, prepare, combine, cook, and serve food that would nourish the people I loved. I learned to love that feeling that came when someone asked for seconds, or savored each bite, or asked for a recipe.
Once I was married and had a family of my own, there were different challenges-very tight budgets, feeding children at varying ages and stages, and father-in-law who was a very-non-compliant diabetic. I also went back to college to finish my degree- no easy feat with 4 small children (I have 6 now!). I learned how to make a pound of ground beef spread out over five people, how to cook a flank steak to make it tender and delicious, or make a pot roast that could masquerade as Sunday dinner, Wednesday beef and noodles and Friday�s carnitas. I collected cookbooks by the score, recipes from friends and neighbors, tore pages from cooking magazines, always looking for ideas. That brings me to what makes my blog, Play with Food, special. While food is an important centerpiece of my blog, it is folded into family, friends and fun. One can eat anything to survive. Food and mealtime is a time to get everyone together so I am always looking for a way to make a meal an occasion and to build occasions around food. During football
season, we all gather for �football food�, cheering on our team. We started a tradition- Chinese New Year�s Eve- in order to entice our teenage children to choose to stay home on New Year�s Eve, with chopsticks, homemade eggrolls, and my famous �hot beans� or twice-fried beans. We celebrate the Olympics by having food from a different country each night (we are not above the American hamburger, or Italian pizza to get through the games!). We check out markets and restaurants, and food producers, and wineries everywhere we go, expanding and extending our knowledge about food and ingredients. Every recipe that has become a family favorite has a story behind it (like the pimento cheese recipe my husband got from a nurse while I was in labor!) .
It is those stories that I capture and share that make my blog special because it communicates that every cook, every family has a story to tell, to save to share. I�ve not taken a class at Cordon Bleu, nor have I traveled to Europe nor have I tasted shaved truffles (though I would really love to!). But I have made an amazing Peking duck, drying the skin by hanging it on my cabinet knobs over the sink. I have cooked a venison tenderloin kissed by a sauce of cherries and chocolate and brandy. I have made my own bison jerky, and served ~20 people dinner every night for fourteen nights with no power after Hurricane Isabel. My blog allows me to include others beyond my own family and friends, encouraging them to realize that every time they break bread with others is a special occasion and an opportunity to make a memory. Sharing food is a powerful thing- it can bring enemies together, it can bond us, it can soothe our hurts, it can make us remember, and make us forget. Family, friends, fun, those are the not-so-secret ingredients that take food that is ordinary and makes a memory, and a meal, that is extraordinary!!
The cake I made for my little brother's 7 birthday was definitely a labor of love. I think the amount of time that I put into it more than makes up for the cake I didn't make for him last year.
He wanted a Captain Rex cake, and I've known for years it was only a matter of time before he asked for a Star Wars themed cake. This kid knows more about Star Wars in his 7 years of life than I do in my 19 years, 1 month, and 2 days of living. Thankfully, though, he didn't say anything about the realistic-ness of the gumpaste Lego figure on top. James, however, was not so kind. But hey, I think it looks a lot like this photo, soooo whatevs.
One big problem with the cake was the humidity. The fondant was so sticky and so hard to work with, and the gumpaste never dried properly (as you'll be able to see in the following photos). Plus, I ran out of powdered sugar half way through decorating, I didn't have a turn table or toothpicks (but I definitely bought some of those), and then there was that awful crater in the center of the top tier. You can't see it because I filled it up with another cupcake!
I did the lettering out of a gumpaste/fondant mix. It took an hour to cut them all out, using a pattern I printed off the computer (I downloaded a free Star Wars font, and cut the letters out individually). A word to the wise, don't roll out the letters too thin or they will tear.
Do you see the trouble this cake gave me?! I didn't even notice that the "Birthday" was drooping down the side of the cake. You can't tell in this picture, but the H also cracked and tore a lot. It was a sad moment . :( I thought about re-doing it, but the cake was due in 20 minutes, and I figured no one was going to notice, except self-deprecating lil ol' me. (And now all of y'all because I pointed it out to you.)
And here we have another photo of the headless Rex Lego dude. The little black thing next to the cake is his blaster, which, if properly dried and hardened, would've been in Rex's hand, pointed down like a #7. You won't see the blaster in any other photo because Adam ate it.
But we got a nice sparkly #7 candle at the ghetto Walmart, and the star candles, because they didn't have any birthday candles.
It was my mom's idea to prop Rex up against the cake. She's brilliant. However, she did think the pattern was margarita glasses, and not Rex's helmet, so.... yeah.
This is the other present I got Adam (the cake being the first). It's a Toy Story mixing bowl set with a spatula and cookie cutters. He can't wait to make cookies with me! :)
Despite the many, many problems this cake gave me over the last 24 hours, it was totally worth it to present it to Adam and to be able to see him (and my entire crazy, lovable family) on his birthday!
Yup, it's official, guys. I'm 19. (even though I've totally been telling people I'm 19 for weeks, it's just true now!)
And to celebrate, I made myself a cake. Well, a cake and cupcakes.
But I have this weird quirk that I had to overcome first: I hate starting a cake. Once I get going, I'm fine, but the beginning is rough. Which is probably why I end up decorating cakes at four in the morning the day before they're due. I am a true procrastinator, and it's an awful trait, but at least I have a good answer when job interviewers ask, "What's one of your weaknesses?" (Because "Tayor Lautner" probably isn't a very professional answer.)
Right. So it's 5:00pm Sunday and I still haven't started yet. Instead I'm half-heartedly looking through photos on Flickr trying to figure out how I'm going to tie my black/white/pink/girly/swirly/flower themed cupcakes into the cake topper, instead of making buttercream and covering my cake in delicious Duff fondant.
But fast-forward a few hours, and I have a fondant-covered cake (that smells amazing), and a handful of fondant daisies. And finally around midnight, I've finished the cake.... well, except for the 19 on top. That was done last-minute as party guests started arriving. And instead of the gumpaste 19 I wanted to do, it's made of fondant & cardboard & toothpicks & electrical tape. And it didn't fall apart until after we served the cake!
So this post is getting extremely long. I guess with age comes a verboseness I wasn't expecting. So how 'bout another picture?
It's not a perfect cake. I'm spoiled because at Bliss there's a fondant sheeter and ribbon cutters that I can use. I had to improvise here. :) I also couldn't get the pink buttercream quite the right color, so I did end up at Bliss this afternoon & bought some Fuschia Americolor gel. But really, other than that, the decorating and construction went smoothly. I was going to put a 3D daisy on top (next to the 19) but it didn't look as good as I thought it would, so Sarah ate it. :)
And the two flavors-- cookies and cream (the pink cupcakes & the top cake), and the mint chocolate (white cupcakes; the b/c was mint too!) tasted amazing! I'm so proud of this cake!
Now that the party's over, I'm going to enjoy the rest of my birthday by watching A Very Potter Sequel and recovering from my sugar-induced coma (which is a metaphor and not an actual diabetes-related medical issue, so no worries there!)
People are always surprised when I say that I make my own birthday cakes. My mother gets annoyed, though, because she thinks that, the way I tell it, it sounds like she just quit making my cakes and left me stranded in the kitchen.
When that is sooo not how it happened.
See, I wanted to make my own birthday cakes. I still do. I wanted to pour through Family Fun magazine, and make a Teddy Grahm pool cake, or stick my pink Power Rangers Barbie doll in a tiered cake and cover it in sprinkles and call it a "dress." I think my mom had a pretty hard time getting me out of the kitchen when she was baking. And as the years went on, I pretty much kicked her out.
So when I proudly say that I make my own birthday cakes (and yes, I write "Happy Birthday Kelsie" on them, because why would I write "Happy Birthday Me" anyway?!), it is not because my mom has subpar baking skills or hated making her children's birthday cakes, because neither of those are true. It's because I love to bake. I always have, and I always will!
My first ever Harry Potter cake. (This is the second. And these are the cupcakes.) I've taken it out of the secret vault of Kelsie's Cakes of the Past to share with you all today. But after this, it's going back into the vault. Because this cake was... crumby.
I think it's also my first carved cake too. With canned icing, dyed "Golden Snitch yellow" with...liquid food coloring. I know, I know. But I've said it before (and you're probably really tired of me saying this): I've come a long way.
This box mix chocolate cake did not have the luxury of a crumb coat of decorator's buttercream, and there was no gold luster (lustre?) dust on wings. Heck, I didn't even know such a thing existed when I was 14! But if I were to make this cake today, it would probably be a three-dimensional orb with gumpaste golden wings.
Oh, that's my sister Maggie by the way. I keep talking about her because her birthday was Sunday. But this is the last Maggie-centric post for a while, because MY birthday is next week. Then you get to hear me talk about myself for a few days. Won't that be fun?! :P
Today is my youngest sister's 15th birthday. Last weekend was her birthday party, when I made that Sword in the Stone cake.
Three years ago, I made this little number. Nothing too fancy; it's got three pretty hot pink roses (I. Hate. Roses. But these look so nice! How did I do that? And why can't I do that now??) and a classy basketweave border (an old favorite of mine). I remember when I made it, my dad wanted me to go around to all the bakeries in town and see who wanted to hire me. But considering that I was 15 at the time, I was too timid.
Seriously, though, this is a cute little cake. And you can see underneath it is the ever-present green tray that I use for pretty much everything. We still have it, and I'm pretty sure it's one of those things that we'll have forever. Not that I'm complaining. It's cute AND a good way to transport cupcakes!
I stumbled out of bed at 11:30, bleary-eyed and pajama-clad. Only three hours to go before the party, and the cake was still in pieces in the freezer, and the chocolate buttercream was still unmade.
Gone were my dreams of creating a whimsical YouTube show, complete with costumes and props and instructions on how to carve a cake. The camera wasn't charged, the tripod was still in storage, and I hadn't taken a shower yet.
I think you know what they say about "best laid plans," but is there a saying about thrown-together-then-scrapped-at-the-last-minute plans? My friends and I are still talking about making an instructional and fun webshow about cake decorating, but that will just have to be put off until another day.
On the other hand, the cake itself is really awesome. I'm getting a lot better at carving cakes, thanks to instructions from Shelley at Bliss. I've really gained a lot of confidence in my cake decorating abilities since I started working there.
I'm still far from perfect, though. For example, the sword. It was gumpaste, and I made it the night before, so it didn't have time to dry. I did have the foresight to stick a dowel rod through it, but I didn't put the dowel rod all the way through, so the next day, the top of the sword was sorta cracking. Uh-oh. I patched it up with some cardboard and somehow, miraculously (it was Excalibur after all!) it stayed upright on the cake during the entire party. Oh, and that shiny stuff? Silver Glaze.
Maggie really loved the cake though, even if I did forget the anvil that the Magical Sword was "supposedly" attached to. The chocolate pound cake was "the best chocolate cake I have ever eaten," according to my aunt. So even though I look at my cakes with a more critical eye than someone else, I'm really proud of this cake and I'm glad everyone else liked it!
It may appear from my lack of blogging over the past few weeks that I have not been baking, but that's not true at all. Just two days after the Wizarding Independence Day party, I broke out my cupcake pans in order to celebrate Katie's confirmation. My friends and I made two cake mixes worth of cake balls (and realized that white chocolate candy melts/confectionary coating/bark chocolate is an awful substitute for the milk chocolate stuff. Never again...) and for my brother's kindergarten teacher's birthday, I made some awesome and delicious confetti cupcakes and confirmed my theory on the secret of amazing buttercream. I also ate lunch with Adam at school and personally experienced how adorable kindergarteners really are. But I'm getting off topic; we're talking about baking.
Aside from the informal cake balls and cupcakes, my ventures into the kitchen have been limited since the exciting and exhausting Hogwarts cake. In the meantime though, I have fallen in love..
...With science. I know. I know. Go ahead and say it: I am the world's biggest nerd. But I got a huge stack of books from the library (all baking or decorating related) and two of my favorites are Understanding Baking and BakeWise.
The way the respective authors explain the how's and why's of baking is simply amazing. I could go on and on about the eye-opening and mind-blowing things that I've learned, but I'm afraid I might bore you, despite my huge doses of enthusiasm. However, if you are as nerdy as I am, I highly recommend that you read these books. I never knew how much I wanted to know the information they contained until I started reading them (yes, I am reading them both at the same time) and I can't wait to tweak some of my favorite recipes and-- dare I say it?-- create some of my own.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I should finish reading first, no matter how much I want to jump head first into a bag of flour (cake flour, of course) and become the Bill Nye of the kitchen.
Oh, and my secret to awesome buttercream? Beat it. A lot, and for a long time. The texture is amazing. And use real (unsalted, room temperature) butter. But you already knew that.
As we head toward Memorial Day and summer and are planning for a vacation in a tough economy, I realized I had not shared the fun and food from last year's Dowd Beach Week, and I definitely wanted to do that. But I decided that I wanted to do it in a way that would help readers get the most out of their vacation dollars. So here is my advice for a great vacation:
1)Take you time and find the right place - The Outer Banks of North Carolina are within a 3-hour drive of our home and since everyone in our family loves the beach, it is a logical place for a vacation. If your family is more a mountain climbing, or hiking, or kayaking, that is fine too, just pick a place and then enlist the experts. Our family makes choosing a place a big deal, after all, we really only do one vacation a year and so we want to get the most for our money. For a large group, renting a house is a much better deal than a hotel, it gives you room to spread out and you can prepare many of your meals in, which saves a great deal of money. We request catalogs from several different rental companies, look at houses in the areas and with the features we want in our price range, and narrow the list down. If you are close enough, take a page from our book. We plan a day trip to look at the houses in person since often the photos in the catalog or online may not give you the full picture of the good or bad points of a house. It is also a great time to scout out the nearest supermarket, where a movie rental is or how far it is to the beach.
2) Don't be afraid to bargain - While some people work only with one realty company year after year, we always shop around looking for the best deal for us. We have worked with Resortquest (now part of Brindley), Brindley Beach, Kitty Hawk Rentals and Elan, and the last two years we have worked with Sun Realty, one of the oldest rental companies with properties in the Outer Banks. Choose some homes you like and then establish a relationship with a rental agent to see if the owner might be willing to make a deal. Most owners (and rental companies) would rather rent at a discount than have their homes set empty. Many realty companies, including Sun, have early and late season weeks that they offer at a discount, so that is a good place to start.
3) Make a list and Prepare - We have several "beach nights" to prepare and plan. We start with the list of lists (Food/Menus, Room Assignments and who is arriving when, things to pack, things to be done before we leave, etc), then we fill them out. Planning meals is one of the most fun parts- we discuss what we had the year before,what worked, what people loved and what went begging. I don't try to do real gourmet since it is my vacation too, focusing instead on the fresh produce and simple foods that are light enough for the dog days of summer.
All this led up to an amazing week for us last year in Whalehead, where the houses are set on larger lots, providing privacy. Our home was aptly named A Perfect Escape, and no wonder- decks faced the ocean with nearly unobstructed views, a large pool beckoned, ample parking allowed our family and friends to all gather and the house itself was decorated and outfitted for relaxation and fun. The breezes off the ocean and the sight and sound of the surf were visible from almost everywhere and the beach access was a mere 200 feet away from our door! The house was prepared, the linens were waiting, and we were lucky to be able to check in early so we had time to settle in before extended family and friends began to arrive. The people at Sun were very helpful, the house was well-equipped, and they even checked our pool and hot tub midweek.
As a surprise and to commemorate our family being together for vacation, I wanted to have t-shirts made, but by chance I got a random email from the Queensboro Shirt Company and found that I could, for nearly the same price, have polos embroidered with a design of my choice. They were so easy to work with, and for new customers, the embroidery set-up is free! Everyone was surprised and delighted with the shirts, which were high quality, soft and well-made... and were perfect fora family photo!
My advice for a summer vacation-take one! Even if money is tight, there are ways to cut costs, but still make the wonderful family memories that come with being away from the day-to day responsibilities and a change of scene.
