Heat Wave-Treat Wave

So, hottest summer ever. Hundred degree heat at all times, for the most part. Yikes!

Between a trip to visit family in Mass. (where I learned a lot about the history of women cooking/baking in my jewish side of my family), and working and baking and trying NOT to die of overheating, I've been pretty busy.

The day before I left, Billie had a potluck and I decided to make Chocolate Peanut butter fudge. I also put a layer of toasted coconut in the middle and decorated each piece with a toasted pecan! It was SOOOO sweet, but very delicious. Billie's boyfriend Ryan loved it. I'm pretty sure men in general LOVE chocolate and peanut butter together. I'm not sure exactly why...but judging from experience, it's a true story.

Here's a mouthwateringly sweet picture for you!

And an order from a couple of weeks ago. Chocolate Mint Cupcakes, which I thought were particularly cute, and delicious.



I have a lovely new roomie(Hannah) now, so I will now go try and help organize our chaotic house. I hope everyone is having a delicious summer and is staying cooler than we are down in the Tejas sauna.

cheers.
meghan

Matt & Amy get hitched...

After much anticipation and lots of nervousness, I pulled the wedding cake off without a hitch. The Bride and Groom, Matt & Amy Noska were lovely and very very happy with the way their cakes looked and tasted! PHEW!

They didn't want the cakes to be vegan, so I agreed to make them traditional. Their wedding colors were a burgundy and a royal blue, and Amy liked the idea of having butterflies on the wedding cake. SO...that's what they would have! The wedding & groom's cake were my gift to them, and would also be a great way to get my wedding cake portfolio started.

First, the Groom's Cake. Before I moved to Texas, I had never heard of this tradition. We don't have that tradition in New York. In the southern U.S., however, it is customary to have a second cake, and often it depicts the groom's favorite activities or something fun like that. The tradition goes that this cake was sliced up and given as party favors for the guests to take home. I also read that unmarried women were then supposed to take the slice home and sleep with it under their pillows so that they might dream of their own prince charming...or something like that. ANYWAY, these days most people just eat it at the wedding, along side the wedding cake. I'm pretty glad, because sleeping with cake under my pillow does NOT appeal to me! (can you imagine the bugs??)


Here is the Groom's cake, which is Matt's favorite kind...German Chocolate. Also NOT vegan, this buttermilk chocolate cake with custard pecan coconut filling and topping & fudgey frosting turned out one of the most amazing cakes ever.

Now for the wedding cake.

As I said, I was very nervous to build and decorate this cake. I mean...it's someone's WEDDING cake. Amy wanted traditional white cake with buttercream frosting. It was definitely interesting to work with a NON vegan cake, because the texture is totally different. I think its easier than the light and fluffy cake I usually make. I also had wanted to make Italian Buttercream for it, but decided against it since Italian Buttercream is made up MOSTLY of butter. This wouldn't have mattered except that we had to transport it 45 minutes, from Austin to Bastrop, in the Texas heat. Even with the AC blasting, I figured a more stable frosting would be a better choice. We made it there, and once I had set the cake on its rightful table, I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief, as my job was now over and the cakes were perfectly in tact!!

Here it is, in all its glory. Not bad for my first one, right?



I can't wait for my next order!

The butterflies were hand sculpted out of gum paste, and then painted by hand, before hardening. The embellishments on the cake were made of fondant that I tinted to match the wedding colors.

Knee deep in frosting, as usual!

The latest, although I don't have time to write much...I'm waiting for my crumb coat to set so I can decorate my FIRST ever wedding cake. Today Matt & Amy are getting married, so congrats to them in advance!

Let's see....

The middle cupcakes have banana flavored frosting, at the request of a customer. I thought it would be kind of weird, but the frosting was actually pretty good!

and some more naughty cupcakes, that actually kind of make me nauseous while making them at some points. haha, kidding (at least half kidding anyway!)....but I DO like the way the booty with the ruffly panties turned out!






in other news, my friend brian came to town and he and britt and i got "bro-tats" to rep ithaca, the 607. HA! mostly we just thought it was funny to keep saying BRO TATS!


And although it's not a nice occurance, this is a bird I accidentally hit with Britt's car on our way outside of town. I was so sad. We gave it a nice funeral near some water in Austin. I researched it, and found out that this is a male Painted Bunting. Must be one of the prettiest birds I've ever seen. RIP, little guy. I'm sorry!



And a sneak preview of wedding cake stuffs....

Bar explosion, ATX

Well, Austin is exploding with new bars. It's actually pretty crazy. I, of course, love it when new things come to SOUTH Austin...because the more things come, the less I have to go north. HA...that MIGHT make me a south snob...but anyone who lives here knows how lame traffic can be, especially when crossing the river too much. And south has almost everything I need.

ANYWAY, one of the newest contenders in the south (and pretty far south, at that) bar biz is The Red Shed Tavern. The owners Andy & Kelly (and a partner who i don't know) are awesome awesome awesome! They are the nicest people ever, which is just the first reason to support their establishment. The second is that...well...its RAD! It is really cool inside and has an amazing patio, and cool little stage in a RED SHED out back. I love it. GO!

Why exactly am I going on about The Red Shed Tavern on a baking blog,you might ask? WELL...last Saturday was their grand opening. SO...they asked me to make them a cake. Decked out with their logo, this cake was Almond flavor cake with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream. It was topped with a hand painted fondant logo. I also made a whole bunch of mini cupcakes to supplement the cake. They loved it and said it was a huge hit! I am so glad. I had to work and couldn't stay longer than to drop off the goods, which was kind of sad.

Here's the cake:

Turned out ok, right? Always a challenge, but fun to do!

It's definitely summer!

Texas is HOT. Have I mentioned this before? Summer is here, for sure. Soon I might even convince myself to go swimming.

As always, lots of baking happening around here.

Two more blog-worthy things this week:

The first...
Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes with buttercream frosting and chocolate cookie "dirt", with plastic bugs on top! For someone who is an environmental engineer, apparently.

I thought they were super cute. I made an extra cupcaked and my roommate ate it. It looked MESSY as all get out, with the jam oozing out. peanut butter cupcakes are one of my favorites though.

In other News, my friend Adam (who is going to marry the lovely and talented rebeca, who i work with) had a birthday the other day. Beca told me she wanted me to make him a cake. When asked what kind he wanted he just kept saying VANILLA, and beca thought that was too boring. SO...one night, late at night as she and i were counting tips at the bar and discussing what kind of cake he might like...i texted him. The text went something like this "What kind of frosting goes with vanilla cake?". To which he texted back "TWIX". As though that really had any meaning. BUT...i took it literally and decided that that is what he would get.



They are not vegan, and neither is twix...so i figured I would put caramel in there for good measure. SO...

This cake is vanilla cake (which in itself is vegan, coincidentally), with buttercream frosting (which again, was vegan before adding the twix), topped with Twix Mini candy bars. It is four layers and in the middle layer the buttercream has crushed up Twix in it, which gave it a crunchy texture. Then the top was drizzled with caramel syrup (which i didn't make myself, since i didnt want to buy and mess around with a bunch of milk)...and decorated with more candy.



They thought this was the best cake ever. AND told me that when they eventually open their own coffee shop, they want to have the Twix Cake all the time!

Anyway, that's last week for me. This week brings a bunch of donuts and a special cake for some friends.

More on that later...i'm starving and in desperate need of coffee myself!
Cheers!
Meghan

PS: Beca and Adam named their new kitten after me, which is bizarre. SO...here is a picture of "Little Kitty Meghan Krasnoff" (aka: little meghan) waking up from the flash of my camera, whilst sleeping in my lap. Sorry little kitty, I didnt mean for the flash to be in your eyes!



CUTE!

May the Fourth Be with You. (even though it's the 7th now)

Well...Haven't I just been baking up a storm. It's been super busy. Except that Britt is sitting next to me and is sad, because there are officially no treats baked in my house at the moment.

Anyway...Biz has been just that...BIZZY! ha. Two things I've baked in the last couple weeks are worth posting...here you go.

My friend Mariana ordered these for her friend Jake, who is apparently moving to Japan sometime soon. These might have been the most fun cupcakes I've made in some time. Who knew that you could roll Fondant JUST like you would roll sushi? Except that it's actually a little bit easier.

AND...Ed and Lynette ( I hope I spelled that correctly) got hitched this last weekend here in Austin, Tejas. They needed a groom's cake to go with the Tree wedding cake they had ordered. They wanted the second cake to be vegan, and mocha with raspberry....so this is what I made:



Britt helped me make the leaves and the wee yellow pearls around the edges, as well as super cute (and subtle) acorns. She is the best...and if I could ever afford to pay her, I gladly would. SOMEDAY!

Stay tuned because I have a TON of projects coming up...
xo.

PS: Here is a picture of (the mighty) Quinn Lee Spaw, my bosses' amazingly cute little guy. He is 3 weeks old. CUTE! Love him...

Easter for some...

Here is a picture of a very bright pink Easter Egg cake.
I thought the cake would be bigger, but because it was so small, I made some easter bunny cupcakes as well. They actually turned out to be kind of cute, I think...

I spent my Easter day biking around a small lake in a very pretty park in Bastrop, Texas. There was one family there, with a whole bunch of kids. They were fishing and overall just enjoying the beautiful day we had last sunday. When I saw them, I started thinking that going to a park on a holiday is one of the best ways I can think of to celebrate. SO...when (ahem...IF) I ever have a family, I think that will be something I weasel into our traditions.

I always wonder what families do on holidays....anyone have any good/unusual/fun things they did on holidays that they want to share? FILL ME IN!!

xo.
Megh