Fall Feast!

It was a requirement for us to create anything for our Restaurant Production Dessert Class that focuses on the given main ingredient to each group. This sampler meaning each dessert should weight 2-3 ounces each and is perfectly made for the Fall season. This is my classmate's creations, I just think it was well-done from the base to the garnish. Clockwise: Pumpkin Bread Pudding, Pumpkin Sorbet with Pumpkin Tuile and and Pumpkin Panna Cota with Creme Chantilly (cream,vanilla and powdered sugar) and pumpkin seeds. I think its Pumpkin' Good:)

Birthday Cake For Angelica

Thank you to my relatives who patronize my cakes. Angelica,my niece celebrated her 7th birthday last September. I made this cake with my mom (thank you), we thought using rose buds to highlight Geca's young age. I used Italian buttercream which is syrup cooked to soft ball stage added in to frothy eggwhites. It is then whipped to medim peak stage, very soft butter is folded at low speed for better flavor and body. This icing works well with any cake, stable and egg-safe since eggwahite coagulates through the hot syrup. I piped out medium size shell borders and Fluer De Lis on all sides of the cake. The cake inside is flavored with coffee and orange. The doll's face in this cake is amazing, perfectly matches with Geca's age. To Geca, thanks for being there for Jiggy and thanks for sharing those special moments with him.

Savory Pie For Special Friends

My mom makes the best Ground Beef Stew. This simply sauteed with onions, bellpeppers and tomato sauce. Well, we had lots of shortening and butter and all purpose flour plus little salt to make a flaky crust. The crust was blind baked since I used a cooked filling. It was baked again at 350 F for 30-35 minutes together with the filling. The recipe was a success because we ate it simply with ketchup paired with hot tea. I made for my friends at the Culinary Institute. To you guys, I will miss you but we know in our hearts that will be out in the industry to become the best leaders and spread the word FOOD to the world. Thanks to mom's meat filling too.

The Beach "An 18th Birthday Cake"

Definition: An icing made out of gelatin, confectioners sugar and water. A very smooth and maleable icing that dries hard. Not for the amateur, this icing isn't put on with a knife, but rather rolled to a uniform thickness and then laid over the cake. It can also be used for detail work such as making intricate flowers. A fondant-covered cake can be spotted by its rounded edges.
Also Known As: rolled fondant

My cousin from Connecticut wanted a simple theme for her birthday. She wanted something that would also depict her personality her very young age.A very subtle yellow background percfectly matches the sea shells andwild plants. The pear pipe outs embossed all over represents purity and class. . I used vanilla sponge cake with apricot filling for three layers and covered with italian buttercream as crumbcoat.I made the cake just this summer and it was quite challenge since fondant is either good or bad on a cold or warm season. It was fun though!

Whoopie Pies

A whoopie pie, sometimes alternatively called a gob, is a baked good traditional to the Pennsylvania Dutch culture as well as New England, made of two small, chocolate, disk-shaped cakes with a sweet, creamy frosting sandwiched between them.

Photo of Whoopie Pies
Small, compact, durable, and convenient to carry about the person, they are popular both as a simple dessert or as a snack food. They can be purchased wrapped in plastic at Amish farmers' markets throughout Pennsylvania and Ohio and are often found in restaurants and gift shops throughout Pennsylvania Dutch Country. As one of the most common delicacies of the cuisine, recipes for whoopie pies are almost always included in Pennsylvania Dutch cookbooks.
It is a mystery as to where the whoopie pie was actually developed. While many claim it first originated among the Pennsylvania Dutch, others speculate that it was first invented in a Bangor, Maine bakery from leftover cake batter. Beyond Pennsylvania, the whoopie pie is also common throughout New England and neighboring parts of Canada, and Nancy Baggett, author of "The All-American Cookie Book," proposes that the confection began as a commercial product in that region. In her book, she claims that the first commercially made whoopie pies were manufactured by the Berwick Cake Company in Dudley Square, Roxbury, Massachusetts, starting around 1927. Some speculate that they were actually introduced to Maine and the rest of New England by migrating Amish sects. Many believe that the name derives from the expression that the taste of the cookie would provoke. The ingredients found in a whoopie pie differ from recipe to recipe. The filling can range from rich, complex buttercreams or whipped creams to common Marshmallow Fluff found in stores. Many recipes call for vegetable shortening to be added, as this allows the finished whoopie pie to be stored and transported without being easily squashed or melted. Some unconventional variations include the use of pumpkin, oatmeal, or banana flavored cakes rather than chocolate and cream cheese or peanut butter instead of cream in the center. Many people familiar with the treat, however, would say that nothing can compare to the simplicity of the original chocolate version.

"Add a Teaspoon of vanilla"

vanilla, a plant of the genus Vanilla of the family Orchidaceae (orchid family). Vines of hot, damp climates, most are indigenous to Central and South America, especially Mexico, but are now cultivated in other tropical regions. The fruits yield vanilla, a flavoring popular since pre-Columbian times, when the Aztecs used it in making chocolate. The commercial vanilla plant is usually V. planifolia or V. fragrans. Since its natural pollinating agents (certain bees and hummingbirds) are uniquely adapted for this function, commercial plants must be pollinated by hand. The source of the flavor is an aromatic essence, vanillin, which crystallizes on the outside of the seed pod after a series of curing and drying processes. Vanilla flavoring is also obtained from the tonka bean, although now it is most commonly manufactured by the cheaper process of artificially synthesizing vanillin, as from coal tar, clove oil, or lignin, a byproduct of paper manufacture. Vanilla is usually marketed as an alcoholic extract for use as food and tobacco flavoring and in perfumery. Vanilla is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Liliopsida, order Orchidales, family Orchidaceae.

Market Forms of Vanilla:
Premium beans, regardless of where they come from, should have a rich, full aroma, be oily to the touch, and sleek in appearance. Beans to avoid are those with very little scent, are smoky, brittle or dry, or are mildewed.
Bourbon beans , Mexican beans and Tahitian beans. ALso avialale in extract, powdered and paste forms. Now you can add a teaspoon of that good and pure vanilla!!!

The Best Pizza I Ever Tasted

Even though I get too exhasuted from baking (in school), I still would find time to experiment on anything. This time with someones close to my heart, my son. Being a single mom is totally different for me! Every single moment I am having with him such a wonderful moment to savor. So, what do you do when you have a pocket size of instant yeast, all purpose flour, salt and semolina-- make Pizza. While I was mixing the dough, he (my son) came and ask if he can touch the sticky thing, he called it, "It's a pizza dough" I uttered. I have seen that happy face when I allowed him to dig into that bowl to touch the whole batch. Personally being a professional in this field(pastry and baking), I already set my mind that I would not push him to be like me (pastry chef) one day, but really to become whatever he likes doing, then I guess I see in this kid that he also has a interest although at an early age(3 yrs. old). I was around 6 or 7 according to my mom when she knew I wanted to be working in the kicthen or professionally at the " back of the house".
This simply with tomato sauce, ham, sliced cheddar cheese and onions and cilantro which I always have in my pantry(just so good to me).We actually munched on this while out in our balcony together with my mom. To you son, I will support you all the way! It was a very simple, the typical pizza but made by me and my only love in life (as of this moment of my life,hehe!)