Goodbye

I had my tonsils removed and I am feeling wonderfully better than before. I am here to tell you that this blog will be no more... I am stopping this blog because I have a new blog and since I'm graduating soon I won't be a student anymore, well in the traditional sense of the word, so I don't see the point in continuing a blog about being a student when I'm not one.  I will stop in once more to tell you where to find me.

Just a blurb

I will be getting my tonsils out soon, which is both exciting and terrifying news for me. I am excited because I have always hated my tonsils and thought they needed to come out for awhile. It is terrifying me because I am scared of surgery. I know, I'm a wuss and what not, but there are risks involved with surgery, like death and that is not a good thing. I'm not scared of dying, I believe that I'll die when I'm supposed to die and how I'm supposed to die. So if I am supposed to die when getting my tonsils out then so be it, I'll be dead and there is nothing that I'll be able to do about that. Until then I'm just going to keep going to sleep at random hours, like tonight's bed time is about 7 pm, and I'm perfectly happy with that.

I've been a super bad blogger and I'm sorry, please forgive me?

Hi there,
It has been a long time since I've been around and I know that you have missed me, (probably not, but for my ego I'd like to think you have). I have been a petty busy little bee, since September 16, 2012, which was the last post I did, which I don't think even really counts as a post since it was just saying see you eventually.
I guess it would be time to play catch-up then. I am 2/3rds of the way done with my senior year in college. Super stoked about that. Super sad that I don't get to spend my spring break, which starts on the 22nd, on the mountains snowboarding because I have a disease called mono, maybe you have heard of it as the "kissing disease". I was diagnosed with it in early January and was told that I might be able to go snowboarding before the season ended, well I had a major flare up this last weekend. So badly that I had to go into the ER because I was in so much pain from my tonsils and I could not swallow anything. Even as I type this I am still hopped up on pain killers, so I'm sorry if it doesn't make sense. Snowboarding is completely out of the question now, because I might fall down and injure my spleen and die. I believe that we have a curse because the last two years that we have bought a 4-pack of tickets to Loveland, one of us haven't been able to go. Last year my mom got that whole liver thing going on where she can't ski because she is on blood thinners. This year I got mono and the whole spleen issue.
Back in September I was super busy with school and that is why I didn't have time to write on here. I was working on building two different restaurants from the ground up for two different class projects. It was a lot of work and I stressed out about it way too much. I got good grades on them and had a lot of fun with one of them. The one that was a lot of fun we actually got to put it into practice for a day and run a kitchen at school. I was pretending to be the executive chef and it was a new experience because I am baking and had never been in charge of other people before. With that project we actually got to see if we would make a profit or loss, and my group actually made a profit, one of only three groups to do so in the class. Our restaurant theme was the movies, so all of our menu items were puns off of movies such as Conan the vegetarian instead of Conan the Barbarian.
The holidays were a bit of fun, it didn't really feel like the holidays though. Christmas kind of came up and went away quickly. New Years Eve I was boring and stayed home and did nothing exciting.
Not too long after New Years Eve something exciting did happen though. I got a job working at a cupcake shop that I absolutely love. We make cupcakes that have alcohol in them, they are the best cupcakes I think anyone will ever have, I'm not biased though. This cupcake shop is so small that right now I am the only employee, besides the owners. The owners are a husband and wife team who are awesome and really laid back. Between the job and school I have been kept pretty busy, especially since I still try to have a social life besides working on projects with friends for school.
Not to be a Debbie Downer but on February 6, 2013 we had to put my beloved Lexicat down. We found out that she had cancer and her poor little body was struggling to breathe. In a matter of a week she lost 2 lbs, which is a lot for such a tiny cat. It hasn't been that long, but I know that she is gone. I keep expecting to see her around though, like I'll walk past some of her favorite places to be and I catch a glimpse of something in the corner of my eye and think it is her, but she isn't ever there. I miss her greatly.
Things to look forward too though:
Recipes might be delivered, but probably not. The recipes I use for work are confidential.
I will be posting at least one more post, which will be May 18th, the day I walk across the stage for graduation.
Those are the things I can think of for now. 

A little break

If you haven't noticed I have been gone for awhile and that is probably going to continue for a couple weeks at least. I have some pretty major projects going on at school and they are pretty much taking up my free time. Sorry for the absence but I doubt you will miss me. I will fill you in on my projects because they should be quite exciting.

Tiramisu Cake

This week seems to have gone by faster than any other week this summer. I went with my brother's soon-to-be wife to her family's house in Glenwood Springs, the happy couple, pictured below, were finalizing some wedding plans. I being lazy and not currently employed wanted something to do, and I had never met her mom. Those four days felt like two but at the same time felt like a week. It was great fun, just being able to hang out with that family.

I don't remember what I did between Monday and Thursday, but I know it was something that kept me busy. On Thursday. my mom and I went to the reservoir by our house and tried stand up paddleboarding. We had great fun and we thought it would be a lot harder than it looked but it was fairly easy, and I quite enjoyed it. We are planning on going again soon.  
Then one of my cousins decided to turn another year older and we had to celebrate on the weekend as per usual for the family. There is one thing that you can count on with my moms side of the family and that is coffee. When we get together we make a couple pots of coffee for a couple hours of family time. So when I was trying to decide what kind of dessert to make I knew immediately when I came across it that it would be the perfect cake to make for this family. The only hurdle is my cousin is lactose intolerant. For tiramisu its kind of hard to make without using dairy. What I did was instead of using heavy cream I just made a meringue and added that, so that the only dairy element was the mascarponne cheese.

 
These recipes come from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle. 

Génoise Cake

Ingredients

1 cup sifted cake flour

½ tsp salt

6 large eggs

¾ cup granulated sugar

½ tsp finely grated lemon zest

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour the bottom and sides of two 9-inch round cake pans. Sift together the flour and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk to combine, and set aside.

In another bowl whisk together the eggs and sugar by hand. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water and heat the mixture, whisking constantly, until the eggs are warm. Beat with an electric mixer on high until the mixture triples in volume, about 8 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and beat in the zest and extract.

Sift one-third of the flour mixture over the batter and gently fold it in with a rubber spatula. Sift in the remaining flour in two more additions, again folding gently. Transfer the melted butter to a small bowl if necessary and scoop about ¾ cup into the bowl. Stir until blended. Fold this mixture into the remaining batter. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans.

Bake the cake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the tops spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick come out clean. Cool the cake in the pans and remove when cool.

Coffee Syrup

Ingredients

1 cup hot espresso or strong coffee

¼ cup granulated sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, combine the espresso and sugar, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the vanilla extract and set the syrup aside.

Mascarpone Cream

I didn't feel like putting the cocoa powder on it

Ingredients

6 large egg yolks

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 tbsp water

1 lb mascarpone cheese

3 tbsp dark rum

¾ cup heavy cream (or 1 egg white with a tsp sugar made into a medium stiff meringue)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Dutch-processed cocoa powder for dusting

Instructions

In a medium stainless steel bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and water. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water, (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and whisk constantly until the mixture thickens and is hot to the touch about 7 minutes. Immediately scrape the mixture into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until completely cool, about 15 minutes.

In a bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment beat the mascarpone cheese at a medium speed until creamy, about 30 seconds. Gradually beat in the cooled egg yolk mixture and mix until blended. Add in the rum.

In a bowl of an electric mixer, using the whisk attachment beat the heavy cream with vanilla extract at high speed until it forms soft peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture. (Or in my case the meringue, I heated the egg whites until they were hot to the touch because then they were safer to eat.)

Assemble the Cake

Place one of the layers on a plate and brush it generously with ¼ cup of the espresso syrup, saturating it. Invert the layer and center it in the bottom of a spring form pan. Brush the top of the layer with another ¼ cup of espresso syrup. Pour half of the mascarpone cream on top and smooth it into an even layer let the cream seep into the gap between the cake and side of the pan. Brush the remaining cake layer with ¼ cup of the syrup, then invert the layer and place it on top of the mascarpone cream layer. Brush the top of the cake with the remaining syrup. Top with the remaining mascarpone cream, again letting the cream seep into the gap between the cake and the side of the pan and smoothing it into an even layer. Refrigerate the cake for at least 4 hours, until set.

Unmold the cake thirty minutes before serving, dusting the top with a light coating of cocoa powder. Slice with a hot knife, wiping clean between each cut.

Fresh Peach Spoom

Its that time of year, where peaches are in season and super delicious. There is a farmers market every weekend at the shopping area near my house and so we go on Saturdays and get fresh produce like peaches that we can't grow at home.
This last weekend we got a box of peaches, 13lbs of peaches for only $6. They are nice and ripe and super juicy. Since we bought so much Mom was looking for a way to use a bunch of them fairly quickly. I decided to make a spoom (its like a sorbet but better).
Spoom is a sorbet with the addition of a meringue. It turned out pretty awesome.

Ingredients
1 lb fruit puree (it can be fresh or canned or whatever, and any flavor you want it to be
Simple syrup: 2 cups sugar,1 cup water, lemon juice
Italian meringue: 1 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup egg whites (buy the plain egg whites in a container that has already been pasteurized)

To make the simple syrup, pour sugar and water into a heavy bottomed pan and boil until the sugar is dissolved, add a little bit of lemon juice (this is not to flavor the syrup its to make sure that the sugar does not recrystallize.) Let cool, and then refrigerate until ready to use.
In a bowl (I suggest using a kitchen aid or a mixer you can just turn on and let it go). pour in the egg whites and start whipping. once they have started to change to white slowly pour in the sugar. Turn to high speed and allow to whip up. You want medium to stiff peak, to test for that stop the beater and lift it out of the meringue and hold it upright so the meringue is on top. If the peak falls over any then it is below stiff, if it doesn't move then it is stiff.
IN a ice cream maker or whatever you have got to freeze mix the puree and the simple syrup. Allow it to cool down to almost freeze and then add the meringue in and allow it to freeze the rest of the way. If your ice cream maker is anything like mine, it will take a while to make it.

Spiced Apple Cupcakes with Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting

All put together minus carpet

 

 

This last weekend I have done a lot of work to please to my two cats. I built a cat tree from them. I got plans for it from dadand.com and started working on it on Friday night, measuring and planing the cuts to make. They said that it should be able to be completed in about 2 hrs and for about $25. It took a couple hours on Friday, all day Saturday and most of the day on Sunday to complete it. It was $25 for the carpet, and then $24 for the sisal rope, and another $7 for the shelf/ 2'x4'x1/2'' particle board. All in all is a little bit more than $25 that they said, but still less than buying a good quality one from the store.

All put together with carpet, and cats enjoying it

Its no where near what a professional one would look like, but I'm happy with it and the cats seem to love it. There are parts that are not straight or level, but I blame the wood not my workmanship. I am accident prone, and I am surprised that I did not get injured more than I did making this cat tree. I stabbed my self with a screw and bled a little bit because of that. I also was using the scissors too long and got a blister that popped before I realized I even had it. (That is not counting all the little burns I got from the hot glue gun, but they didn't stay for very long so I didn't count them.)

 

 

Apple Cake with Maple Frosting from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2/3 cup buttermilk

2 cups peeled and chopped Granny Smith apples (about 2 apples)

½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease and flour bottom and sides of 9 inch cake pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl beat the butter at medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Gradually add the sugar and beat at medium-high speed until well blended and light, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla extract, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating it with the buttermilk in two additions and mixing just until blended. Stir in the chopped apples and walnuts. Scrape the batter into prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until it is golden and a toothpick inserted into center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake completely in the pan on a wire rack.

 Cream Cheese Spice Frosting

6 ounces cream cheese softened

3 tablespoons butter, softened

½ tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground ginger

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Pinch of salt

1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Instructions

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat together the cream cheese and butter at medium speed until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract, spices and slat. Reduce the speed to low, add the confectioners’ sugar and beat until well blended. Raise the speed to high and beat until light and creamy, about 2 minutes.

Add a 1/8 tsp maple flavoring along with the vanilla extract to make Cream Cheese Maple Frosting

Changes Made

Instead of chopping the apples, I used our food processor which has a shredder blade and shredded the apples. Also I did not add the walnuts in case anyone was allergic to nuts. I doubled the recipe and made 32 cupcakes instead of one large cake. I filled the liners almost to the top. I baked the cupcakes for 13-18 minutes.

For the frosting I added extra butter on accident and I did not add the maple flavoring. Also I added a small amount of cloves instead of the freshly ground nutmeg.