A Cake Is Born

You might remember from my tasting exploits in Chicago at Cream Cake Company and Bittersweet that I am quite enamored with cake.  Enough to lie about where and when I was getting married just to get free cake.  Yeah, I feel kind of bad, but not bad enough to regret it.

You might also recall that once Daniel and I decided to get married in NorCal, the question of where we would get our cake was answered for us.  There was no way we were going to give up getting our cake at Katrina Rozelle.

So when we were last in the Bay Area, we stopped by Katrina Rozelle for our cake tasting.  I dearly wish I had not felt like I was going to die while we were there.  I might actually have gotten some pictures if I hadn't been so delirious.  But even though my ability to smell was essentially nonexistent at the time, it was still some of the best cake I have ever tasted.

It was both very easy and very difficult for us to choose a flavor.  All of the cakes were so freaking amazing that it was hard to turn them down.  It felt...wrong to deny any of them.  Nonetheless, there were two that immediately stood out to both of us, and one that dominated even those two.  Imagine luscious devil's food cake (chocolate for those of you who are not as obsessed as I am) with a filling that perfectly blends chocolate and caramel, topped with rich chocolate ganache-like frosting.  Good as god, sweet as sin.  The perfect balance.  Especially for us, since Daniel is as great a lover of caramel as I am of chocolate.  From the first taste, we knew this was the cake for us.  The perfect blend of the things we love.  And so our cake will be the Erica Torte.

Choosing the inside was easy, but the outside required more time.  We've been looking at cake styles for a while, and we had an idea of what we wanted.  Though our tastes do not entirely coincide, we both like fresh flowers, particularly orchids.  Daniel doesn't like roses for the cake, and I didn't really mind our cake's flowers differing from the other arrangements, so we decided to go with these flowers:

Martha Stewart may be a bit crazy, but she sure does have taste.

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They work with our colors while still standing out, and these flowers are just different.  We like them.

As for the arrangement, I originally was really set on something like this:

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Ignore the different sized layers.  I like flowers on top and then small groups of flowers on alternating sides of the lower layers.  However, that just didn't feel right with orchids.  As we looked through pictures, we were both pretty taken with cascades of orchids, especially on smaller cakes (and with our $3.50/slice cake-cutting fee, we're going to have to have a small cake) like this:

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We both want a round cake and hate those little beady things around the edges, but other than that, we liked this one a lot.  In the end, we decided to format our cake like this:

 

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Imagine this as a two-tiered, much smaller cake with our orchids and a thin blue ribbon of marzipan instead of the dreaded beads, and that's our cake.  I rather like it.  It would have been nice to have a bigger cake, at least a three-tiered one, but I guess with all of the other food we're going to have, it's not really necessary anyway.  It'll be cute, and it will taste amazing, so we're happy.

But I must leave you with the image that we couldn't afford and that looks totally different from all of the other cakes I like, but that I completely and utterly fell in love with anyway:

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Imagine it all round, three-tiered with the vines covering the whole thing.  Le sigh.  It is so beautiful.

Anyway, do you love cake as much as I do, or did you decide to go a different route with dessert?  I'd love to see pictures of your cake or ones that you found particularly appealing.

Nom Nom Nom

In spite of my illness during our NorCal planning trip, we did manage to get some things done.  The most enjoyable and successful was completely, utterly, and without a doubt our tasting at Guayma's.

We already knew we loved their food.  That was why we looked into Guayma's in the first place.  Still, free food is always appreciated (as Daniel pointed out, this wasn't in the strictest sense "free" since technically speaking this will be the most expensive meal of our lives, but the way I see it, if I'm not paying for it now, and we were going to have to pay the same exorbitant amount with or without this particular meal, I'm going to take advantage of that extra special taste of excellence that comes with food being free).

We start with the appetizers and margaritas.

I was actually really glad we got to try the margaritas.  I've had one at Guayma's before, but I'm cheap, and it was nice to be able to taste some of their signature ones, even though we decided not to go with the margarita pitchers.  We knew the chips and salsa were excellent, but the guacamole was new to us, and even though it was not the world's most exciting guacamole, it was made from some of the freshest avocados I've ever had.  I definitely appreciated that.

I'm so mad at myself for not getting a picture of the empanadas as I intend them to be my main course at the wedding.  I was a little too intent on wolfing them down to remember my camera.  But they are one of the best Mexican dishes I have ever eaten.  Flaky crusts encompass gobs fantastic cheese mixed with a touch of potato and mushrooms or zucchini.  Nothing overpowers the taste of the cheese, but the other ingredients keep the large amounts of cheese from being sickening.  They are perfectly balanced and by far my favorite part of any Guayma's meal.

I also failed to get pictures of the cactus and plantain tamales we ordered, but we decided not to include them anyway.  We were thinking about having them as one of the main dishes since we have some vegetarians coming and wanted them to feel included, but even though they were delicious, they just didn't feel like a main dish.  In the end, there will be enough vegetarian food that I highly doubt the few people with restrictions who are coming will feel cheated (hint to vegetarian guests:  if this does bother you, let me know please, we are definitely willing to accommodate you, it's just that it will cost us extra).

After all that (can you believe we're still on appetizers?), we tasted the salad.

This was definitely the least whelming part of the meal, but it was still really good for salad.  They pretty much sold me just on the goat cheese and (oh so) fresh avocado.

Then, after eating way, way too much of our delicious appetizers, we moved on to the main courses.

The steak and chicken skewers were so succulent and flavorful that I forgot all about the vegetarian tamales, and for me, the pseudo-vegetarian who orders tamales at every Mexican restaurant, that's saying something.  I didn't try the shrimp because I don't eat seafood, but Daniel was definitely in love with it, and I did poke my finger in the sauce which was excellent:  spicy but not overpowering, just flavorful.  So good.  And it all came with beans, rice, and tortillas which frankly was overkill for our poor stomachs, but that's another thing the vegetarians can eat, so I'm glad we'll have them.  Plus, it'll be good to have something for people who don't like spicy food (how can you live with spicy?!) cuz there's not going to be much else for them.

And then, with overflowing stomachs, we entered my favorite part of the meal:  dessert!

*All Personal Photos

My poor digestive system was so unprepared for more food at this point, but I'm still disappointed that we were unable to finish all three desserts because they were. so. good.  No one would ever have to sell me on chocolate mousse pie, but with its firm yet creamy and chocolately texture, this dessert certainly did not disappoint.  We had had the coconut flan before and were astounded by its perfect texture and caramelly coconut flavor, but this time they added fresh berry sauce which made it all the more attractive.  But strange as it may sound, nothing could compare to the churros.  Daniel has been very put off since that first heavenly bite because he says he will never be able to eat churros again.  Nothing will be as good.  No theme park churro will be worth it.  Not even Disneyland's.  Nothing could compare to the perfect churro crust stuffed with caramel.  Add ice cream for dipping, and these are the perfect churros.  No exceptions, no competition.

I am so screwed.  I don't want to be as unpleasantly bursting at my wedding as I was after this tasting, but I want to eat everything because it was SO GOOD!  Dessert's going to be the hardest because we'll have our cake too, and I HAVE to have ALL OF IT!  Daniel's just going to have to share everything with me.  Oh man.  The one and only thing I wish Guayma's had done different is they gave us full servings of everything which was soooo unnecessary.  But they wouldn't let us bring anyone with us, so it would have been nice to either have reasonable portions or at least people to share with because OMG SO MUCH FOOOOOD.

Yeah, but in conclusion, such good food, such amazingly good food.  Seriously, if you ever visit the Bay Area, go to Guayma's.  It's so worth it, and it's so unique which makes it even better.

Was food a priority for you?

How Not to Make Your Own Wedding Cake

Long ago, in a strange faraway land called Berkeley, there was a Nicole who had to walk by Barnes & Noble on her way home everyday.  Now in this bizarre land, strange and magical things could happen.  Impossible ideas became reality.  Tiny, independent used book stores like Pegasus put big, fat chains like Barnes & Noble out of business.

And when Nicole saw that her Barnes & Noble was having a "going out of business" sale, well, what could she do but go in and help them dispose of their unwanted books at ridiculously low prices?  And so she did...everyday for about a month...and several times after that.

And that is how I ended up with a book on how to make wedding cakes.  Now, Daniel and I definitely were not engaged at this point, but we were living together, and I could see a distant future in which marriage was a very realistic possibility.  I have always enjoyed baking, and I figured learning how to make fancy awesome cakes would be a lot of fun.  Hell, maybe I would even get good enough to be able to make my own wedding cake!

Yeah, not so much.  The first and only cake I made using that book was actually pretty decent for a first try, but the fondant was a pain in the ass, and I was just not up for the intense amount of work it would take to learn to make a cake that looked professional.  I set the book aside.

Fast forward to a few months ago.  As I've said before, one of my coworkers recently got married, loves to talk about weddings, and made her own wedding cake.  Naturally, we've discussed wedding cakes (extensively), and I figured I'd try making a fondant-covered cake again.  I had found the traditional fondant recipe difficult to work with, so I thought I'd try her marshmallow fondant recipe, supposedly much easier.

Let's just say I got some interesting results.

The following is what I have learned by trying to work with fondant (and if you are thinking of making your own wedding cake, and you are not a professional cake-maker, you WILL be using fondant).  My coworker's suggestion for making your own cake is to buy fondant and any decorations you want, but if you insist on doing it yourself, this should help you get started.

I won't tell you what cake or frosting to make because if you're going to tackle this, I assume you have enough experience with baking to know what you want.  However, I will advise you to keep your layers small to support structural integrity and that it will taste better if you coat the cake in a layer of frosting before covering it in fondant.

Also, I really ought to have cut off the top and sides of my cake to create a less lumpy shape.  I was in a hurry and figured the fondant would cover up most of the imperfections.  That did not so much happen.  The fondant really forms itself to the shape of the cake, so just be aware of that.


Here is my coworker's fondant recipe:

Ingredients:
1 bag marshmallows (good ones)
1 bag powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla
2 T. water
A smidge of butter flavor (recommended)

Procedure:
Melt marshmallows by microwaving in 30 second intervals and stirring after each interval.  Stop when marshmallows are just melted.

Combine marshmallows, vanilla, water, (butter flavor), and 7/8 bag powdered sugar in a large bowl.  Mix thoroughly.  Kneed the fondant for several minutes.  Wrap tightly and leave out for at least 2 hours.  DO NOT refrigerate.

Cover your hands, a rolling pin, and a large, flat surface with remaining powdered sugar.  Roll out fondant until it is about 1/4 in. thick.

Supporting the fondant with both of your arms (and you may want someone else's arms as well), place the fondant over the largest layer of the cake.  Cut the excess away using a sharp knife.  Repeat with remaining cake layers.


Sounds easy enough, right?  Well, here's what happened when I tried it....

Now, in my defense, I was screwed from the beginning because I thought I was supposed to use a BOX of powered sugar instead of a BAG of powdered sugar.  That would have made a really big difference.  It also would have saved me from this:

Can you say sticky?  I sure could.  In fact, I couldn't quite figure out how to get the paste (for paste it was at this point) out of the bowl, so I had to resort to this:

Yeah, so I was pretty concerned at this point, but it's supposed to congeal a bit while it sets, so I had some hope.  It did help, but not enough.

So rolling that out was an interesting experience.  I basically ended up kneeding the rest of the box and another quarter box of powdered sugar into the fondant which made it possible to work with if still a little runny.  However, when I ran out of powdered sugar, I was at a loss as to how to roll it out.

At this point, I was getting pretty desperate.  This had taken a lot longer than I was counting on, and I was supposed to go to my first Cubs game in about five minutes.  After frantically opening and closing all of the cabinets in my kitchen, I came up with an alternative destickifying agent.

Butter!  Haha, and this made up for the butter flavoring I did not include in the recipe in the first place.  It actually worked exceedingly well though God knows how many calories I added to the fondant by covering my hands, my cutting board, and my rolling pin with the stuff...multiple times.

So in the end, I succeeded in rolling out the fondant and getting it onto the cake with a little help from Daniel.  At this point, I really needed to go, but the fondant was looking a bit... melty, so I did the thing you should never do with fondant:  stuck it in the refrigerator.

Turns out, refrigerating it was fine, and I'm glad I did because it seriously would have inched its way off the cake otherwise.  Nonetheless, the combination of not smoothing out the cake in the first place and less-than-sturdy fondant required me to do a little decorating before I was comfortable showing this cake to my coworkers.

I cheated and decorated with store-bought icing, but it looked a lot better once I covered up the edges, and everyone really liked the fondant roses I made.

In the end, it could have been worse, but I definitely have a renewed and unflinching respect for cake makers.  I would not want to make my own wedding cake.  There are just too many things that can go wrong.  And that was my coworkers advice to you all as well even though she has been making awesome cakes for years.

However, if you decide to DIY, just remember to use a whole bag of sugar ;).

What DIY projects have you abandoned?  What made you decide it was too much?

Ode to Buttercream

Never have I know the true taste of buttercream until now.

If you live in Chicago and have not been to Molly's Cupcakes, stop what you're doing, turn off your computer, and go now.  Seriously.  It's that good.

My first taste of Molly's was a tiny bit of buttercream frosting that had rubbed off on the side of the box, just a small smidgen if you will, hardly even a taste for normal frosting.  But the second that baby taste of frosting hit my tongue, my mouth exploded with flavor.  I could actually taste the butter and the cream, separate entities yet inextricably entwined to create the greatest flavor of frosting I have ever had.  Not joking, not exaggerating, best buttercream I have ever tasted, and I have eaten A LOT of buttercream in my life.

Next to that explosive taste experience, the otherwise delectable cake seemed like a little bit of a letdown...until I realized it was filled with berry jelly.  The mixture of incredible buttercream, moist but strong cake worthy of holding sweet filling, and fresh berries on top, adding a tang to the sweetness, made for the best cupcake I have ever eaten.

This is no light matter.  I have been thoroughly taken in by the cupcake craze.  In every city I have lived since discovering that not all cupcakes taste like lard, I have made an effort to find the best cupcakes available.  And even though I have slacked off in Chicago due to lack of funds and overwhelming options, I am confident in saying that it is very unlikely that you will find better cupcakes than Molly's.

If you are getting married in Chicagoland, especially if you are having cupcakes at your wedding, I WILL hunt you down if you do not at least try Molly's Cupcakes.

Now someone please tell me where I can find cupcakes like this in Southern California!

A Fountain....of CHOCOLATE

Ok, so I know I probably shouldn't even be thinking about this now since I have no date or venue or anything set in stone except that I'm getting married, BUT I found this and got really excited about it.  You see, I am kind of a little bit ok maybe more than a little bit obsessed with chocolate.  I loves it.  I loves anything with sugar in it, but chocolate is just better than most sugary items, and I've known from the beginning that I wanted a chocolate fountain at my wedding.  However, I wrote it off as a pipe dream and basically stopped thinking about it.  I figured renting a chocolate fountain would press on our budget too much to bother looking into much.

Oh how wrong I was.  Well, sort of.  RENTING a chocolate fountain would probably cost us over $100 which doesn't suck but with our other dessert plans would be a wait and see kind of deal.  However, BUYING a chocolate fountain wholesale is something else entirely.

I found this baby for a mere $59.99.  It's not huge, but neither is our wedding, so I'm cool with it.  We'd still have to buy chocolate and things to dip in it, but with our other dessert options, we should still be able to get away with spending around $100 total (with tax and shipping), and I am so fine with that if I get to keep the fountain!  That's one wedding decoration that I know I'll use again.

So we're doing this.  For sure.  I haven't even talked to Daniel about it yet, but we're doing it anyway.

Mmmmmm, choooooocolate.