The Chocolate Leaves!!

So, its another one of my cousins annual parties. That year, I wanted to do something really unique and different; something that I had not tried before. I came up with the idea of doing chocolate leaves?!?!?!? AMBITIOUS right! I know. Well, I got the idea when I was in my garden picking the oranges. I saw the leaves particularly the shape and size of them. I thought to my self, GENIUS. I picked a few leaves and washed them nicely as I was feeding people. So, I first spread a little oil so the chocolate would not stick to the leaves. Then, I melted chocolate and paint brushed on so it one would apply cleanly and two it would give a nice texture to the chocolate. I put them in the freezer for a quick harden and when I peeled the leaves off the chocolate was really nicely textured and looked like a leave but, it was edible!!

For the frosting I believe it was regular homemade butter cream on butter cake all from scratch. YUM!!

       Thanks for reading!

The Yum Plum Tart!!!

So, I made a delicious plum tart for a dinner we had at out house. I had made a plum crisp really similar too this but this one had a crust where as the crisp only has a topping. I went to the farmers market and found the most crisp plums ever and I tell you they were to die for! But anyway... I cut them into slices about 1/2 and inch think and put some sugar to tame the tartness down. I let the plums soak for about 2-3 hours so they got nice and sweet! For the crust, I made a regular tart dough, the flour, cold butter... Since I did not have a tart pan I used a spring- form pan instead and also pre-baked the crust since it was really hot that day and the butter was getting soft in the dough. After about 10 to 15 minutes of pre-baking I put the plum mixture in the pan and put some granola topping for a little crunch and flavor. The recipe stated that use half of the dough for the pan and half for top, but I ended up using all of the dough and ended up adding granola on the top.

 These are the cut up plums soaking in the sugar! yum!!

This is the crust in the spring-form pan ready to get pre-baked 

This is my little Cuisinart machine!! LOL

 This is the final product!! yum squared

 This is a close up image

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), diced
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 pounds firm, ripe Italian prune plums, pitted and quartered lengthwise

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine the flour, walnuts, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the butter and the egg yolk. Mix, either by hand or with an electric mixer, until crumbly.

Press 1 1/2 cups of the crumb mixture in an even layer into the bottom of a 9 1/2-inch springform or tart pan. Arrange the plums in the pan, skin side down, to form a flower pattern; begin at the outside and work your way in.

Sprinkle the rest of the crumb mixture evenly over the plums. Bake the tart for 40 to 50 minutes, or until it's lightly browned and the plum juices are bubbling. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and transfer the tart to a flat plate. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The recipe does not say to pre-bake or put granola but I just added my own touch :)!!

I got this recipe from Food Network and the chef is Ina Garten. 

Thanks, and sorry for not posting so often

Another Successful Cupcake Order!!!!!!

Over the weekend, I made cupcakes for my moms friends 50th birthday. When she came over to try them she called me her "little baker" which I was extremely thrilled about. The color scheme of her party was teal, limey dark green??, fuchsia, brown, and orange. So, the flowers she wanted were the teal, lime green, fuchsia, and orange. She also wanted my signature 3 flavors chocolate, vanilla, and lemon as those were the only 3 flavors I offered her.

Like in the TV cake shows they HAVE to show the process and the drama when they are delivering the cake. The same thing happened to me as I had to go from Palo Alto to Morgan Hill for this event. The car had to be cold like at 60 degrees with the AC on full blast so the icing would't slide off and we had to be extra careful so they wouldn't slide around. My brother was video taping the whole drama from my moms iphone which sadly lasted for 30 seconds.

As last time the vanilla and lemon cupcakes were dry :( I tried a new recipe which came out so much better and will defiantly be a keeper for future orders. 

So, I finally got the pictures off of my brother's computer and here they are. My brother made these lovely name cards for then cupcakes to give them a little pazaaz!

                                                          These are all of the cupcakes!

                                                               These are the lemon ones!

                                                                     The chocolates!

                                         She wanted a 50 made out of the minis so here is the 50

Thanks