Always Room for Cake

As the winter left, the birthday season came.  Cakes have been flying out our doors like nothing ever before.  For starters. we had our first birthday order of the year for 60 cupcakes and one 6-inch cake.  What we delivered was one of my personal favorites: vanilla almond cake with white chocolate mousse.  To top it off, we made the frosting pink, with all natural dye, and added a Sparkle Berry to each of the lovely cakes.  Does it get any better than that?  After our pink order, we moved on to Key Lime Pies and Carrot Cakes (two of our customer's personal favorites).  This was a nice blast from the past; most of our key lime pies and carrot cakes are custom orders, so it's nice to get the chance to whip them out. If I had to pick my favorite part, I would have to say it's the homemade graham crackers put into the crust.  When they're baked, it's hard to not eat any after you smell the cinnamon and nutmeg aroma.  Simply breathtaking.

After our birthday week, we enjoyed Mother's Day Brunch.  The menu included potato gratin, broccoli and tomato frittata, beet and mandarin salad, fresh bread, and a Vanilla Almond Cake with White Chocolate Mousse topped with Sparkle Berries.  All homemade, of course.

The month continued, surprisingly, with lots of candy making.  Salt water taffy, chocolate taffy, caramels, fudge, and brigadeiros came out hot from the kitchen.  In fact, the chocolate taffy got so hot that I burned my finger; resulting in a second degree burn.  The good thing that came from this was, I learned that I am not, nor ever will be, a candy maker.  All and all, it was a month packed full of cake.

The Lovely 4-Layer Vanilla Almond Cake with White Chocolate Mousse

Vanilla Almond Cake with White Chocolate Mousse topped with Sparkle Berries

The Tangy Key Lime Pie

4-Layer Carrot Cake with Sparkled Walnuts

Mother's Day Brunch

 Broccoli and Tomato Frittata

The Outrageous 5-layer Vanilla Almond Cake with Sparkle Berries

Chocolate Caramel Brigadeiros

It's Spring!

Who ever could have guessed that winter would go by so fast?  It was just yesterday when the driveway was covered with a thick blanket of snow, and now all the little green buds are starting to pop!  I centainly did not see that coming.  Although, I must say I did miss the farmers market.  Good thing it's Spring!

Lots has happened in the Cake Chick household since my last post.  Birthdays, holidays, and new cakes baking up like crazy.  This is a very exciting time.  Our new cakes this year are the Red Velvet and Bam!-nana.  Our Red Velvet is made with a homemade food coloring made from fruits to make it all the more special.  Also, to add to a little signature to the Bam!-nana cake, we are introducing something new to our Sparkle collection.  Now, not only do we have our Sparkle Blueberries and Sparkle Strawberries, but we have Sparkle Walnuts!   I must say, they really are the icing on the Bam!-nana cake (no pun intended).   To get through the cold winter months with some flavor, we were using tons of nuts to fufilled our desire.  Along with the walnuts, we have also been using almonds to step things up a notch.  Do you see where this is going?  Bearclaws! Trays and trays of Bearclaws.  This really made the cold months seem like a breeze.  Let's not forget our favorite ingredient...vanilla bean.  Used in just about every recipe, vanilla bean has really transformed our baking into a real treat.  Although many people don't think ice cream in the middle of April, I do; especially vanilla bean.  Also if you take a close look at the Bearclaws, you will see the delicious addition of vanilla bean.  There's our Spring... Check it out!

 

Double Chocolate Cake with Sparkle Berries

 

The Lovely Red Velvet Cake with Sparkle Berries

 

Bam!-nana Cake with Sparkle Walnuts

 

More Delicous Bam!-nana Cake...

 

Trays and trays of tasty Bearclaws...

 

Extremely Flavorful Crostata de Marmellata

 

Easter Brunch

Embracing the New Year

Welcome to the 2013!  To start off the first post of the new year, I would just like to say: thank you for being patient.  A lot has happened in our kitchen in the past few months, so I have some catching up to do.  Let's rewind.

Back in December, Cake and Pie was definitely covered on the menu; beginning in November, during Thanksgiving and continuing all the way up to now.  Of course, we had our classics: apple pie, pumpkin pie, and chocolate cake.  Then, we decided to step it up.  We created a Peach Blueberry Skillet Pie for Thanksgiving, and a Chocolate Peppermint Ice Cream Cake for Christmas, and much more.  Simply breathtaking.  

A few weeks went by of bliss, what I like to call winter break.  This gave me a chance to think of what I would like to do in the new year.  What I would like to improve, embark upon, and produce.  So, my first idea for the new year was to whip up a luscious Strawberry Shortcake; making a wonderful Saturday morning brunch.  We're just getting started.  There's much more to come!

 Wild Peach Blueberry Skillet Pie

 Chocolate Peppermint Ice Cream Cake

Scrumptious Sugar-and-Spice Biscuit

The Lovely Strawberry Shortcake

Hello Fall!

As another season approaches, the market begins to change.  Although, I feel like I am not quite ready for fall, so I am baking with all the summer that's left.  So, here's what's new!

For the weekend, I decided to go a little crazy at our Saturday market.  I had to stop myself from buying  every little "pie" pumpkin, and go enjoy every last piece of produce that was left from the summer.  This lead me to fill my bag with corn, peppers, roma tomatoes, nectarines, plums, and (my absolute favorite) zucchini.  Now here's what came out of the kitchen.  With the corn and jalapeño peppers, and a touch of green onions, I made fresh off the grill Corn Cakes.  They were FAB-U-LOUS!  To top it off we used a little bit of our local maple syrup to drizzle them with.  Then came the Nectarine and Plum Tarts.  These were out of this world!  Although, they weren't my personal favorite, everyone seemed to love them.  And out of the oven came 6 lovely loaves of Zucchini Bread.  Tops off to summer!

Fresh off the Grill Corn Cakes

Nectarine Tarts

The Lovely Zucchini Bread

11 Markets Later...

Its official.  After 11 Friday's at the farmer's market I decided, I need to blog.  So here I am.

This summer season, lots has happened.   I have been so busy looking into what people eat, and that includes where the food comes from.  Yes, by this I mean farming.  I have explored many farms throughout Michigan, and have brought all of my knowledge back to Saugatuck to share with the community.  Eater's Guild Farm, Lubber's Family Farm, and the Student Run Organic Farm at Michigan State University are the three most recent I have been to.  Given the opportunity to visit these farms really opened my eyes.  If you ever have the chance to come to one of these farms...GO!  I learned so much, that I am still trying to comprehend all of the information.  Since, those experiences I have really been working on my products to share my knowledge with everyone around me.  Also, I went to my very first Farm-to-Table dinner at Grassfields Cheese.

Now, to what's new in the business.  We have started a new line of peanut butter. Including peanut & honey, peanut & caramel, peanut & berries, and peanut & cocoa.  They are DE-LI-COUS!  It all starts with a homemade peanut butter with local honey and then we add combinations.  Such as a homemade caramel, chocolate ganache, and a seasonal jam.  This season we have had raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, and most recently concord grape.  Also, we have really kicked off on the Cakes.  Lemon has been flying out the door like crazy.  This season has really been great!  Although, produce was limited to the drought Michigan has been going through, we have managed to make the best of it and still are.  A special thanks to all of the farmers!

Last but not least, our season at the market has ended but we are still opened from custom orders.  Here are a few photos to see what we have been up to.  Enjoy!

Grassfields Cheese Farm

Grassfields Cheese Farm-to-Table Dinner

Grassfields "Cheese"

The One-of-a-Kind Chocolate Cake

The 1-2-3-4 Lemon Cake

Welcome to Spring

To begin the new spring season, lots of baking has been taking place to get ready for summer.  Including many new breads and cakes.  Brioche is one of the many new items that has entered the kitchen.  When making Brioche there is much you can do with the dough.  You could just make an amazing loaf of brioche if you wish, but there is also many other delicious possibilities.  What I decided to do was make Pain au Chocolat.  This is a lovely French pastry made with brioche dough, pastry cream, and rich dark chocolate.  Simply wonderful.  Another dough that we have been kneading together is for Torta Rolls.  These are the perfect sandwich rolls.  They are smooth, fluffy, and soft.  What a great combination!  Our classic Country White and Golden Raisin Dried Cherry Pecan Bread has also been a huge hit.  Our cakes have been going off the wall to many birthdays this season.  Red Velvet, Chocolate, and Lemon have been coming out of the oven non-stop.   The aroma is spreading like the spring flowers.   Welcome to Spring!

The Lovely Brioche

Pain Au Chocolat

Our Beautiful Torta Rolls

Classic Country White and Golden Raisin Dried Cherry Pecan Bread

Red Velvet and Vanilla Bean Buttercream with Berries

Our Famous Chocolate Cake

Winter Celebration

Welcome to February 2012!  Currently I have been working lots of new recipes that I cannot wait to tell you all about!  As winter brings in the snow, it also brings in loads of new flavors.  Since my last post, my kitchen has been getting to experience the making of bread, and the oh so lovely smells.  Saturday has official became bread making day!  The two breads that are being kneaded up are the Country White and Golden Raisin Pecan Dried Cherry.  De-li-cous!  The process starts on Friday and then continues to go until about 5 o'clock on Saturday.  We make enough to last the whole week, but I must say, it's the best once its right out of the oven!  I have also been stirring up some new caramel recipes.  All you have to do is cut up some Country White Bread and dip it in the hot caramel and you're in heaven.  Also, I have been making homemade peanut butter with local honey, which is a great hit with the breads.  Last but not least, Almond Cherry Dark Chocolate Ice Cream, Vanilla Bean Caramel Ice Cream, and Chocolate Pound Cake to mix it up.  What a great way to celebrate the season!

Country White Bread with Golden Raisin Pecan Dried Cherry Bread

  

 Delicious Chocolate Pound Cake

One of a Kind Carmel Turtles