Baking For Good!
I recently came across this amazing website worth sharing. It’s an online bakery called Baking For Good. Here’s what makes this online bakery so unique… 15% of all proceeds made from each order go to charity, AND you can choose which charitable organization (from a HUGE list on their website) that you would like to support. What an awesome concept!
As for baked goods, you have lots to choose from. Iced cookies, drop cookies, brownies, bars, allergy free treats and even event favors. There’s gift boxes, corporate gifts and gift cards as well. Click here to look at the extensive treat list!
I had the opportunity to speak with the CEO of the Company, Emily Dubner a couple weeks back. Turns out she and I had a surprisingly similar background! We both grew up in Massachusetts baking treats for our classmates all through elementary school. Both went to college in Cambridge, MA and graduate the same year. And, we both have a HUGE passion for baking and doing good deeds! I hope at some point to get involved with the company, just because I so believe in the cause and the efforts Emily has put forward. We’ll have to wait and see if this could be a possibility!
So check out the bakery, tell your friends and place an order!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
My First Fondant Cake!
A midst my packed schedule, I managed to squeeze in my very first class in Fondant last weekend at Gloria’s Cake and Candy Supply in West LA. It was freaking awesome! And, was probably the most relaxing 3 hours ever! Yes, I find cake decorating extremely relaxing- I can get into a zone, forget about everything else on my plate and just enjoy some quiet time. It was exactly what I needed, and I learned so much!
Fondant was easier to work with than I thought and I really loved the medium itself. It’s like working with clay, but without the huge mess and gross dry feeling on your hands. The outcome looks so neat and clean- a look that I generally prefer. I think after one class I learned enough to really start 
experimenting at home- and am actually considering buying a book on it to learn more techniques. But, for those of you that are brave, here are the basics for covering a cake… Give it a try. It’s so worth it!
Step 1: Knead your fondant. This is pretty straight forward- it should be warm and pliable. If it starts sticking to your hand just rub a little Crisco on your hands and keep going.
Step 2: Roll your fondant. Use a french rolling pin, or even a piece of PVC pipe, roll it out till it approx. 1/8 in thick. Use confectioners sugar or corn starch to prevent the fondant from sticking to your mat. 
In addition, you need to do a little math here… if you are covering an round cake, add up the diameter of the cake and 2 times the height. For example, you have an 8 inch round cake that is 4 inches high you’ll want to roll your fondant into a 16 inch circle (8+4+4=16).
Step 3: Cover your cake: Roll your fondant circle onto your rolling pin and the roll it out onto your crumb coated round cake. Use your smoother tool to smooth top and sides. Be careful not to pull the fondant too much, as it is prone to ripping. Trim excess using a pizza cutter around the edge of the cake.
Step 4: Decorate! Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes that can be applied to the cake with just a dab of water. You can color the fondant easily too! Take a ball on fondant and create a small well in the middle it with your finger. Add a couple drops of gel food coloring and twist and knead. Keep going till the color is well distributed. (Tip- unless you want super colorful hands- use latex gloves for this task!) Also, always cover the fondant your not using with plastic wrap to prevent drying.
Step 5: Show off and Eat! You’re friends will be super impressed with your beautifully decorated fondant cake!
No go test this out! I like seriously can’t wait to give this a try again myself! If any of you have given Fondant a try as well, I would love to hear about it!
Happy Baking and Fondant-ing!
-Kristy
An Overwhelming Two Weeks…
The last two weeks have been completely nuts- on top of my 6 day/50 hour work week I’ve had a bunch of cookie and cupcake orders. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am so grateful for all the orders! It was just a touch overwhelming! Alas, I came out of it all alive, with orders successfully completed and my wallet filling a bit fuller- which is always a happy thing!
So I have tons to update you on- as well as lots of sleep to catch up on- so today’s post will be short, but sweet of course! I’ve had this picture of this cupcake order from a while back- Easter actually- and have been excited to show it. The order was from one of the doctors I work with, who pretty much lets me have creative reign over all hers orders- which is really exciting. I was looking forward to topping these cupcakes with a gorgeous spring flower that I was in my new Marta Stewart Cupcake book (more to come on how amazing this book is! It’s a MUST buy!) Of course, in my head- mine would look just as perfect as hers…
OMG was I mistaken! They were way more complicated than I thought, my frosting was way to stiff and the flowers looked terrible! After a full day of work, baking all night- around 1 am I gave up on the flowers, scraped all the cupcakes clean and started over. I dug through my cabinets to find some kind of alternate decoration for these Easter Cupcakes. Sprinkles are always a great last minute resort and I always have them well stocked! I mixed some clear sugar sprinkles with colored on a plate, frosted the cupcakes then rolled them in the sprinkles mixture- super easy and super cute! It was nothing spectacular- bit it did the trick. All the cupcakes looked clean, neat and yummy. And the Doc at work was super happy. Yippee for a late night success!
This late night pattern has been a bit of a pattern for me lately! It’s about 8:30 and I am ready for a hot cup of tea and my pj’s! No baking all-nighter for this lady tonight! Stay tuned for more to come!
Happy Baking and Cupcake Decorating!
-Kristy
It’s Almost Earth Day- Eat Cupcakes!
I receive email updates from Sprinkles Cupcakes, the most famous Original Cupcake Bakery of Beverly Hills (now around the entire US). The update today was on a great promotion centering around Earth Day that I thought was worthy of sharing. From today through the 23rd, Sprinkles will donate 100% of the proceeds of their Vanilla Cupcakes to help plant tree and benefit other local Environmental Care organizations. Fab- Treat yourself to a cupcake and treat the Earth to a tree! And not to worry, if you are not in the Beverly Hills area, just order online! For more info on the the promo, click here!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
Red Wine Poached Chicken Salad
Apparently I’ve been doing alot of cooking with vino- and vino is a good thing… And there’s never too much of a good thing!
Weather here in LA has been warming up finally and warm weather makes me seriously crave salads. I threw this salad together earlier this week and thought it was so beautiful and tasty I just had to share it with you. I obviously eat lots of sweets, which makes it so important for me to pay close attention to what I am eating in every other meal. This was filling and satisfying and super healthy. So here’s my Red Wine Poached Chicken Salad recipe.
Ingredients:
-1 lb. thin cut boneless chicken breasts
-1 cup red wine
-1 cup chicken stock
-1/2 cup water
-2 tablespoons dried sage
-2 cups red leaf lettuce- rinsed, dried and chopped
-1/2 cup grape tomatoes
-1 tablespoon goat cheese
-salt and pepper
-Balsamic Vinaigrette, or your fav. salad dressing.
Directions: Combine wine, chicken stock, water and sage in pan- bring to a boil. Salt and pepper the chicken then add to pan. Cover, reduce heat to simmer and cook chicken 7 minutes on each side. Remove chicken from pan and let rest a couple minutes. Combine lettuce, tomato and goat cheese. Toss in dressing. Slice chicken and top the salad. Salt and pepper to taste! Done!
So easy, so tasty, so healthy! Enjoy!
Happy Baking and Poaching!
-Kristy
Scones and Jam!
This past Thursday night I had another cooking date with my good friend Minh. This time around, I got to do a little baking and teaching. Minh had approached me for some help with creating a gift basket for a friend who was recently engaged. She was including lots of teas, curd and other exciting treats in the basket and wanted to include some jam and scones- a couple things I am well versed in!
We decided to use this recipe for Raspberry Lemon Scones. So there’s a good chance it might have been the 2 bottles of wine we working on, but we made 3 batches- 1 was fab, 2 were alright. The flavor was great in all three batches, but we struggled a bit with the shape and consistency. After thinking about it further yesterday with a non-wine influenced brain, here are a few changes I would make to the recipe: 1. Increase the flour from 2 cups to 2 and a half cups to improve the consistency of the dough– I found it to be a bit too flimsy at times. 2. Add the juice from 1/2 a lemon to increase the lemony flavor. 3. Use fresh, clean and dry raspberries- we used frozen which created far more liquid than we anticipated.
Despite needing a few tweeks, this is a pretty kick-ass scone recipe. My BF and I gobbled up the rest of the busted looking leftovers in just a couple days- which was both a good thing and bad thing! They were, as I said before, super delish and tasty- the combo of the lemon and raspberry was lovely. But having two for breakfast yesterday and today may have been a bit too much! Good thing I did an hour long cardio work out today… and have another scheduled in tomorrow!
Onto the jam- I love jam- my new Cali plates on my car actually say “Jam.” and, I kid you not, I did not request it- it was just a stroke of luck. Anyways, once I started making Jam I realized it was alot easier than I anticipated. I use a recipe that was provided to me by Lisa Baker Morgan, the Chef and owner of Ciao Yummy. Combine 1lb. fruit, 10 oz sugar (I like to use a little less) and 2 tbs lemon juice in a bowl and set in the fridge over night. The next day, add your pectin, and boil down until the jam hold it shape and does not spread on a frozen plate. And Done! So Easy!
We made 3 batches of jam along with the 3 batches of scones- Bruise-Berry Jam (Blackberry and blueberry), Strawberry, and Raspberry-Strawberry. They were beautful! The color of homemade jam is so vibrant and stunning. On top of that, they were obvi super tasty and sooo much better than store bought.
Minh called me this AM to tell me what a huge hit her gift bakset was, which I was super happy to hear. Homemade gift such as these, I think are the most thoughtful and, pardon my nerdiness here, so extra special. I would love to hear about some of the homemade gift some of you readers have given to friends and family- or if you have a fantasticly creative idea, post that as well!
Happing Baking and Jamming!
-Kristy
Pot… opps… type-o… Port Brownies!
Although I should be in the kitchen 
making another 100 cookies- I am having a lazy evening and thought a little blogging would be a good idea.
Back in Feb. my boyfriend and I took a trip to South Lake Tahoe, CA for a relaxing weekend away. My BF hit the slopes while I found the spa and a a few wineries. While doing a tasting a the Picchetti Winery Tasting Room, I fell in love with their dessert Port Wine. The fantastic gentleman behind the counter doing the pouring described how his wife adds the port wine to brownies to make a fab. dessert— OMG she is a genius!
So here’s the scoop, take your fav. brownie recipe (or box brownie) and substitute in the port wine for whatever liquid is required the recipe- bake as directed and you’re done! The flavor definitely changes to a more sophisticated, rich chocolate. Its such a simple, and great way to change up a typical dessert to something a bit more exciting. Give them a try! Let me know how you like them!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
An Evening with Grass Fed Beef
Out of no where, my good friend, fellow Bostonian and fabulous chef Minnie invited me to join her for an impromptu evening of grass fed beef last Thursday night. She explained it to me as “a bunch of chefs cooking up grass fed beef.” My guess was that there would be lots of great food there, and I LOVE a good piece of meat, so I had no hesitation in agreeing to go!
The event was a casual, yet informative and delicious dinner 
hosted by Kevin Coleman, a rep for Estancia Beef. Basically, Coleman invited a bunch of local chef’s to his gorgeous home to test out and cook up some super fab. cuts of grass fed beef.
I felt a little out of place initially, as I am not exactly a professional chef, but with Kevin’s gracious hospitality and all the chef’s being super friendly, I was quickly put at ease. Minnie invited me to help prep her dish 
(lemon grass ginger beef served over a cold noodle salad- AMAZING!) and that at least made me feel useful! After preping, I took the opportunity to pick Kevin’s brain about what made grass fed beef so special. Here’s are few fun facts…
Fact: This beef is considered more “responsible.” The cattle are raised on free range family farms, no corns or grains ever given to the cattle and its meets the highest standards in animal 
welfare.
Fact: GFB is overall healthier than the meat found at your local grocery store: its full of omega 3 fatty acids (similarly to Salmon), has half the fat and cholesterol of corn-fed beef, no added hormones and is super high in vitamins A and E.
Fact: Its cooks faster and has a more intense flavor (which I can totally 
attest too!)
So, pretty much, this is the end all be all of red meat. Awesome. The food prepared was freaking amazing- it began with Steak Tartar, Sirloin Crostinis, Mushroom and Gouda Stuffed Burgers, Minnie’s Amazing Lemongrass Beef Salad, Curried Beef, a Seared Fillet and sides of creamy risotto and crispy onion loaf.
My taste buds were uber happy! All 
the food was fantastic and I could totally taste the difference in quality in the meat. The meat was soo tender and flavor far more robust. Something that I have personally been focusing on lately in the kitchen has been the quality of the foods and ingredients I purchase to cook or bake with. And, GFB definitely fits into this category of far better quality.
I was fortunate enough to go home with a couple pieces of meat to try to 
cook up on my own and made my own version of Minnie’s dish with a slab of Flank Steak. It cooked up super fast (3 minutes east side under the broiler) to a perfect medium rare. And it was Scrumptious!
Definitely keep your eye out for GFB on the menu’s of your fav. restaurants. Its popping up everywhere here in LA. My favorite take out spot Bloom has a fantastic GFB Burger. And, I’ve heard fab 
things about the burgers at Father’s Office in Culver City.
I took tons of photos that night of all the deliciously beautiful food and decided I had to post all of them! so keep scrolling to check them out! and my apologies if it caused your mouth to water!
Happy Scrolling, and Happy Baking!
-Kristy
…
Martha on the Simpsons!
So I’ve been working on another post all night– and I didn’t save it… and lost it all! grr! how annoying– will do my best to recreate it tomorrow. But, in the mean time…
MARTHA STEWART IS GOING TO BE ON THE SIMPSONS! Ha I think this is going to be hysterical! So, I obvi had to share this link with you! enjoy!
http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/04/08/martha-stewart-simpsons/
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
Great Article
Just wanted to pass along a link to short article from Tallahassee.com on one woman’s version of cake therapy! She’s super talented! And, I lived in Tally while in grad. school and so glad to here she is being recognized by the city!
http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20100315/LIVING04/3150326/Cake-baking-is-therapy-for-Monticello-woman
Happy Baking and Reading!
-Kristy
