Enlightened by Sugar

Whew!  We crossed the threshold of the Mayan calendar this wondrous and epic day of December 22, 2012.  We have now entered into The New Age or Era of enlightenment and consciousness.  Happy New Era everyone!  Since we only get this opportunity once every 5,000 years I hope you chose your resolutions very carefully.

As this new age was approaching I spent more time actively watching nature.  Real nature.  Live nature.  Not on the TV or from books but outside with living breathing creatures.  I have a small orchard of avocado trees, my favorite fruit, and each spring I plant chili peppers.  Every year it is in-spiring to watch the leaves and fruit develop from a seed.  Pure Magic.

Flowers are a great source to observe color, divine geometry and butterfly sightings.  I have to look at them very closely to replicate them with sugar.  When you look at a flower in every stage of growth and study every petal, it's shape and relationship to other petals, you can't help but be amazed.  How does the flower know to be that precise and when to bloom?

Applying these studies to create sugar flowers has been a monumental lesson about the supreme intelligence of nature.  I do not need to give the flower direction on how to grow, yet just by being their true nature they teach me.  Who would've thought sugar art and cake decorating could be such an enlightening experience??

Much love,
Connie

Harvest of Joy

This Thanksgiving I have been finding the joy in the small and simple.  My inspiration comes from friends having small new born babies just days ago to small decadent filets replacing the traditional robust turkey.

These last few weeks my beloved and I have been having fun creating our cozy celebration.  Even though we love turkey we couldn't handle the thought of leftovers lasting for weeks and weeks and found wonderful opportunities for our small celebration.  We replaced the traditional bird with delicious filets and rib eyes thrown on the grill (possible in warm climes) and ditched the stuffing all together.  Knowing we couldn't pack away 3 to 4 of our favorite pies in one day, although I wouldn't mind trying, we've been enjoying pie all month long.  A new flavor each week spreads out the sweetness.  Of course, being a cake baker I couldn't let the day pass without a pumpkin cake to commemorate the harvest of this season.

I'm very thankful for these new traditions and even more grateful to share them with my love.  Sometimes smaller celebrations create a greater focus of recognition...


With Love and Gratitude,
Connie

Lights! Paris! Pastry!

Are you drooling yet?  These bites of bliss were just the beginning of a colorful and flavorful journey through Paris.  Sugar is art in Paris.  Food art at its sweetest!

In the land of amour dessert is enjoyed anytime of the day.  You can imagine my happiness!  Eating chocolate and croissants for breakfast, fruit tarts midway to lunch and then getting serious with tortes, cakes and cream puffs into the evening was pure pleasure in this walking friendly city.  As my beloved and I hiked up Avenue des Champs-Elysees many outdoor cafes lured us in for refreshing lemonade and chocolate eclairs that we couldn't resist.

Pastry shops in Paris bring a whole new meaning to the phrase "window shopping". You spend hours strolling through neighborhoods, peering through every window, checking out each confection, and even taking notes on the ones you simply can't miss tasting.

After a day filled with art, eating and "shopping" my tastebuds needed to lie down and rest.  With midnight snacks stowed away in my backpack we would say goodnight to the City of Lights.

le sucre et l'amour,
Connie

The Royal Treatment

Research is always important.  Discovering new information, technology and design for any line of work is a must.  With that said my work is never done... I hope.  Last week my beloved and I went to the great isle of Britain and then scooted over to Paris to take in the sights but mostly to do "research".

After the mandatory tourist meal of fish and chips we set out to find culinary sugar art that would knock out our sweet-tooth.  And we did.  But first let me share with you the delight of eating lightly fried fish and potatoes along the Thames.  September is a wonderful time of year to visit England.  We were fortunate to be there during days with bright sunlight and cool breezes; just enough for a sweater.  Walking towards the London Eye we passed an outdoor pub overlooking the River Thames.  Ice cold ale with a beautiful British dish was the beginning of our food extravaganza.

Next stop, Buckingham Palace of course!  Thinking there couldn't be a more quintessential experience while in London than fish 'n chips along the Thames we were royally surprised to find ourselves licking our lips over chocolate mousse torts and Bavarian cream puffs on the Queen's patio overlooking Buckingham's regal lawns.  These very same lawns have hosted many garden parties over many centuries catered with exquisite tea and pastries.  Even though we ate with plastic forks and drank from paper cups our visit was sterling silver.

More to come as we cross the English Channel...

With sweet delight,
Consuelo

What a Gift !!

I've often received gifts so beautiful I wanted to eat them rather than unwrap them.  The satin bows, so shimmery, they look like they could melt in your mouth.  Hand crafted cakes are some of my favorite gifts and most appropriate to decorate as wrapped boxes with hidden treasures inside.  In this case chocolate cake with chocolate mousse wrapped up in a vanilla fondant box.  And you can eat the bow!

Roses are pink

Daisies are white

A Cake of Love

Will be sweet day or night!

Sweet dreams,

Consuelo

Chocolate, Blues and Biz

What a great networking event!!  My friend Susan and I collaborated for this event with beautiful synergy.  She needed a birthday cake and I needed some marketing material.  With her thoughtful and inspiring words Sugar Wishes came to life with photos in a unique brochure/article.  My unique journey of baking and sugar art introduced a fun platform to showcase her creative writing.  So as I sliced samples of chocolate cake we also dispersed our article for Sugar Wishes and Susan's Impact Words by Design.

The event landed right on Susan's birthday.  A great way to have 100's of people wish you a great day!!  She requested chocolate on chocolate with spring flowers.  It was delicious fun to bake a chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse and iced with chocolate frosting.  The sugar flowers that sit atop the cake are roses, peonies and sweet peas.

All and all a FABULOUS day!

Happy Birthday Susan!

xo

Connie

Congrats to the Grad!

The Class of 2012...

My stepson graduated high school this year and to celebrate I made him this two-tiered cake commemorating the school he is leaving and the university he will be attending.  I was very excited to use red fondant for the occasion.  Both his high school and the university he will be attending claim red as their color of spirit.  And such an enthusiastic and energizing color it is!!!  It is no wonder as my stepson's character includes both of these traits.

We celebrated his achievement for three straight days and not a crumb of cake was left.  Next to weddings, graduations are right up there for bringing family and friends together.  All healthy eating habits were caste to the wind without a second glance and much laughter and love filled our spirits.

With Love,
Connie

Tiers of Joy and Happiness

You must be asking, "are those flowers real?"  Yes, they are real handcrafted edible sugar flowers.  Each of the Peonies, Carnations and Green Button flowers were made petal by petal.  This wedding cake brought the opportunity to learn how to sculpt the Peony flower and invent the process for creating Green Buttons.

I must confess that this cake almost outlived all of its nine lives but persevered until the knot was tied.  After a few broken flowers, a frosting slip-and-slide, tropical flooding (I would've walked across the Rio Grande with this cake above my head to make it to the wedding finish line) and humidity that you could drink the cake was still standing.

If these four tiers are an omen of strength and perseverance then the newlyweds are truly blessed.  They say rain is a sign of good luck on your wedding day and by the amount of water that fell from the sky early Saturday morning this couple has many lifetimes of good fortune.

Congratulations to the happy couple!

xo

The Master's

I had completed the course work almost a year ago, May 2011, but then got busy getting married, traveling to cake competitions and learning to conquer the "social" world.  Here we are in April several blog posts later, many Facebook postings later, two cake competitions under my belt and a few commissioned wedding cakes to post on my resume and finally I set the date to prove my artistry and craftsmanship.

Three weeks to prepare...

I created a design where one single tiered cake would incorporate every required technical skill.

I might sound cheap but hopefully frugal and conscientious when I tell you that this cake design was engineered to use every last leftover scrap and the least amount of materials possible.  To become a Master you must provide all the fondant, sugar paste and icing needed.  And more is not necessarily more.  Until I am the Cakeboss there is no time or space to waste.

Being frugal, though, has its secret artistic value.  Being frugal can keep things simple. Elegant. Surprisingly clever.  Utilizing what you have is always good practice for improvisation which is the first rule of survival.  (These posts continue to weave in my other hobby and part-time work, preparedness.)  When you are forced to use things on hand the most sensible solutions always arise and true in-spirit-ation comes forth.

One discovery I made during this process was the multiple ways of marbling colors.  Not only do you use small and odd portions of leftover fondant but a theme emerges.  Many different and clashing hues come together that would normally be fashion faux-pas.  Plus, like a kid, you can't wait to see the swirly results of two colors rolled together.  This is very exciting.

Also, without a set color palette you can create a bouquet of flowers that includes the whole light spectrum.

So, with the added layer of conservation I completed every element required to obtain a Master Diploma in Sugar Art.  My embossed certificate hangs proudly in our kitchen.

With Sugar and Kisses...

Chocolate, White Velvet, Caramel, Vanilla Mousse Torte

Recently I've been incorporating some preparedness and sustainability habits into my family's daily life.  These habits include recycling, composting, and canning.  While canning is a wonderful way to prepare food for any emergency it has also brought thoughtfulness about never letting any food go to waste.  Almost every morsel of food that enters my house is eaten, stored, canned or combined to create a complete dish or meal.

Once, I tried to feed my family eggplant parmesan.  It did not go over well.  Even with the mounds of cheese loaded into the dish and the eggplant heavily breaded it was still a bust.  My heart couldn't handle throwing all the leftovers down the drain knowing it would never be eaten as is again.  So I put it in the food processor, mixed it with more marinara sauce and disguised it as pasta sauce covering playful bow-tie noodles.  It was eaten whole-heartedly by the fam, some even going back for seconds, never guessing it was the "healthy, vegetable" dish recreated.  These are the puzzles of no food going to waste that lead me to try things like this layered torte.

My latest creation is a Chocolate, White Velvet, Caramel, Vanilla Mousse Torte.  I had batter from a previous chocolate torte left over and an extra sheet of White Velvet cake stored in the freezer.  All this came together as I was pondering what to do with a batch of experimental vanilla mousse.  The mousse was wonderful by itself but wanted to be part of a larger portrait of confectionary flavors.  You would think that 3 flavors and 3 textures could make a well rounded slice of cake but no....  It needed one more flavor and texture.  With ingredients already supplied in the pantry I decided a creamy caramel was the glue to hold all these flavors together.

The bottom layer is a rich dark chocolate torte followed by white chocolate velvet cake.  A layer of creamy caramel was poured over the top and set in the fridge to stiffen a bit before icing the cake with vanilla mousse.  A springform pan used for baking the chocolate torte on the bottom served well to hold the next two layers of velvet cake and caramel.  Until the caramel shaped up around the cake it needed a container to keep it from oozing everywhere.

Sugar in different forms is usually a safe bet for tastiness but you can never be over confident.  To much sugar can cause the heart aching task of throwing it all down the drain.  According to my taste testers this is a keeper!

Many Sugar Kisses,
Consuelo

Tall and Hearty

Colors of Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day I started celebrating early with a very loving Almond Butter Cake for my Hubby.  Nothing says love like the smoothy-ness of butter.  This cake is so rich that I decided to keep it simple and fresh with alternating layers of raspberry and peach filling.

Layers of Love

Topped with a heart made of royal icing the final height stands at 14 inches.  Multiple layers, multiple flavors...multitudes of sweetness!

Raspberry and Peaches

Can't you just taste it?!

xoxo

mmm....Cake Truffles

Cake Truffle

Ah ha!

For a while now I've been wondering what I could do with left over cake and frosting.  

Cake truffles.  This is not an original idea, but a versatile one that any baker can make their own.  Mix one 8" round cake (already baked) with 1/4 cup of frosting.  You can mix it in a food processor, mixer or with your hands.  A favorite among youngin's.  Roll a tablespoon of the new mixed batter into balls and set aside on parchment.  Melt candied chocolate, white or dark, until it is syrupy.  Dip each ball into the chocolate until completely covered then set aside to cool on parchment.  

The wonderful part of this recipe is that you can mix and match any flavor of cake and frosting, add nuts or coconut to the batter and cover with a variety of chocolates.  

If you're feeling fancy decorate the truffle with nuts or sprinkles while the chocolate is still soft.

Today I mixed white wedding cake with cream cheese frosting and walnuts.  The batter was really sticky so I put it in the refrigerator before rolling little truffle balls.  I recommend putting the balls back into the fridge for 15 minutes again before dipping them into the chocolate.

Chocolate is one of my first loves and will always be the most delicious part of any confection.  This truffle was no exception.  Hidden from the fam, way in the back of the pantry was some French dark chocolate chips with 65% cocoa.  They melted down perfectly and completed this little bite of bliss.  No sprinkles for now.  Just the simple smoothness of creamy chocolate.

Enjoy!

Comforting Cupcakes

This past holiday season I shared a few hundred cupcakes with the Houston Area Women's Center.  Cupcakes always bring smiles no matter where you are or who you celebrate with to find joy during a season of endings and beginnings.  

I started early in the morning choosing flavors.  Vanilla, chocolate and buttercream seem to be  the wisest choices.  As the morning sailed on both mixers were at full speed whipping up batter faster than my oven could bake.  Look at these cute little pillows of cake ready to be topped with vanilla frosting.

Green, red and white frosting with gold sparkles brought these bites of comfort to life. Only a few were lost to my husband's tummy.  But it is always good to have quality assurance, right?!

Happy Holidays!!!  

With Love