A 21st Birthday Cake

Pre Decorated Cake

Tiffany's has had its first birthday event.  At my day job (yes, I actually do have one of those, just like the rest of you out there), my incredible employers have a daughter who turned 21 on the 30th of December.  As everyone is away during the Festive Season, I was asked if I would mind supplying the cake for the party.  Naturally, since Husband and I didn't go away this year, I had no problem in doing that as I figured it would be brilliant advertising.  And it was a challenge as it was to be an ombre cake, which I had never had the courage to try.

Canneloni - The Pasta Tube

Welcome to the new year everyone.  I hope we all had a wonderful festive season.  I actually prepped this blog back in October, but November and December completely flew by us, and I never got around to posting it.

Back in 2004 when I began studying as a chef, my first big kitchen tool that I bought myself was a pasta roller.  I've always found homemade pasta very elegant, even though kneading the dough can be difficult.  My pasta roller has probably only been used 5 times or so.  When I bough it, I never considered that the counter in the kitchen would make it impossible to mount.  Ideally one needs a kitchen island to mount it, as counters with doors beneath prevents the roller from being mounted.

This Is Halloween (The Perfect Buttercream)

A Thank You Cake

In South Africa, Halloween is only beginning to become big.  Parties have been held but I doubt it's been as big a scale as in America.  At least, not that I am aware of.  This year we decided to host a Halloween party, and it turned out even better than we dared hope.  We had people from all walks of life and all times of our lives here.  I even reconnected with an old co-belly dancing student.  We haven't seen each other in about 4 years (I think Hubby and my wedding was the last time we saw her), yet somehow she got hold of the invite and decided to come.  Still as gorgeous as ever.

One Slice Please

Obviously with Halloween, there has to be all manner of spooky snacks, and typical of me, why buy when you can bake.  But before I continue with what I made, let us backtrack to Friday night.  We had a bunch of people over to help with decorations and setup, and I decided on cupcakes, so obviously I had to bake those a bit in advance.  And there was batter left.  A lot of batter.  So as a thank you, I made a small cake that we had around midnight.  You read correctly, cake, with a lot of buttercream, at midnight.

On the topic of buttercream, I still find the best recipe to be the Walton's recipe, which is the one I've been using since my mother taught me about cake decorating in primary school:

Halloween Cupcakes

1 cup of Butter (250g)

4 cups of Icing Sugar (500g)

1 tbsp Milk (15ml)

Cream the butter, and slowly add bit by bit of the icing sugar.  Thin a bit with milk if needed.

Back to the cupcakes, I decided to take inspiration from Instagram, and attempt to decorate them to look like a brain with a shard of glass in it.  Tip number 1:  Get the correct piping tip.  I didn't have that, and I think the cupcakes came out looking more like clumps of worms.  Either way, they were a hit, and not one was left at the end of the night.

A Golden 21st

I have never been modest over my brownies.  Honestly, anyone that has tasted them will understand why not.  They are moist, fudgey and oh so chocolatey.  So of course, when it was Husband's cousin's 21st birthday on Saturday, I decided on point 99 that I would like to take something with.  Froggie didn't even think to ask me to bake a cake (but I can forgive her as she only though about it too late and didn't want to inconvenience me by rushing me for one), so I decided to do a platter of brownie fingers with chocolate ganache.

Since it is the middle of the month, and I had a good amount of stock, I decided to take 10 brownies, slice each in three, stack them lavishly and cover them in ganache.  Typical of my style, I couldn't leave it at that, as it was too boring for a 21st, so the gold dust went with.  When Froggie saw the finished platter she nearly swooned, and the first thing she asked was:  "Why so lavish?"  I think I gave her a blank look and asked "What's lavish about it?"  I never do anything plain, at least not when I'm doing food for an event, so what seems lavish to others, seems pretty normal to me.

Unbelievably, I was worried there wouldn't be enough brownies for everyone, yet with all the sugar in the ganache, there were surprisingly a few pieces left.  At least, there were a few left before we went to bed, but I have no idea how many were left by Sunday afternoon when Husband and I drove back home.  This year seems to be on a good note as I still have the 21st up and coming in December.  And with the guests there, I might just be getting more requests for cakes.  One can always dream, and I prefer to dream of cakes.  Now if only my dreams would co-operate at night.

Breakfast Menu Launched

So a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that everyone needs to keep an eye on what we're doing at Tiffany's as things are going to change and become more interesting.  That day has finally arrived.  Tiffany's doesn't only do baked treats to tease and tantalise, but we've now begun a breakfast menu.  My hope is for this to only be the first one of a number of breakfasts in the future that we'll be offering.

Yoghurt & Berry Bowl

My Facebook Sister (the one that gave me the name of Tiffany) came over for breakfast quite a while ago and the topic of hosting breakfasts came up that day.  This was the second time Husband and I had them over for breakfast, and each time I tend to pull out the stops.  Since then I have been playing with the idea, and on the 17th of September, Graphix and Sculpty came over for breakfast to help me decide if I should continue with the menu I compiled.

Baked Oats with Raisins and Cream

Firstly I need to ask, why should breakfast be a one plate affair?  In history we can see the French had a dinner menu of about 16 courses.  Talk about a long meal.  Even today, the typical French dinner can be 5 courses long.  Granted, they do tend to eat a salad as a course on its own, but why not break down a meal in multiple courses and experience a wider variety of food in one sitting?

Spinach Roulade with Sausage Fry

This is what I've attempted in compiling this menu.  Instead of keeping it boring, I've gone the opposite route to give a variety of food.  Smooth yoghurt, crunchy baked oats, flavourful and savoury meat, and sweet muffins.  Does that sound good?  If I look at the faces of our guests, you bet your ass it is.  My main concern was what to charge for the meal.  Even though it can be cheap going for breakfast at a typical chain restaurant, I still put in time and effort, and I do not obtain everything premade.

Chai Latte Muffin with Spiced Cream

Now I'm not saying that all restaurants get everything premade, but with a bigger team it is a lot easier.  Where you would have 3-6 people in a restaurant working together, I have to do everything on my own.  Even so, I think I've pulled together a rather interesting menu for going at it solo.  And yes, this meal is available for the public.

With renovations (hopefully) starting at our house soon, it could get difficult to entertain people at our place, at least for a while.  If bookings are made before then, I could see my way to hosting the breakfast at our place.  I do however offer the option of traveling to the client's home for the breakfast.  If needed I'm willing to bring cutlery and crockery.  Obviously I will charge for traveling, but the meal per person will be R135.  Due to preparation issues, the numbers I would cook for are either 4, 6 or 8.  Should you require a different amount charges will be made round up to the next servings offered.

In time, I hope to develop menus that could be offered to other numbers of clients, but for now, this is the only one in my repertoire.

Let Her Have Cake

A Sample for the Client

Okay, so I didn't actually throw cake at anyone to let her "have it", but I was approached in the first week of launching Tiffany's in CT to prepare a 21st birthday cake.  Of course you can imagine my excitement at that prospect.  Yes, it will be quite a bit of work, but I'm sure I'm up to the challenge.  In preparation for the big event, even though it is only at the end of December, I decided to prepare a sample cake for the client to see if she would be happy with what I would be able to deliver.

The Home Cake and the Sample

Naturally, as I've never used my own recipes for multi tier cakes, I had to test and see what amount of batter I would need for my pans.  The balance of the batter I then proceeded to use for the bigger of the two pans.  It came out a little flatter than I thought, but at least now I know what amount of batter I will need come December.

Even though the big cake didn't come out as high as I hoped it would, the taste was still amazing, and the client was also quite happy with the sample cake I delivered.  My biggest concern when I began this cake was if I'd still be able to ice a cake like I used to seven years ago when I was still working professionally as a chef.  Clearly, I needn't have worried about that.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go take a bite out of my slice of cake.

Remember the Pyramids?

Five Flavours in Five Shapes

Chocolate... I could just swim in it and drink liters of the stuff.  I honestly get the movie Chocolat.  Stuff church and lent and everything that prohibits pleasure.  I'd also be the lead woman of that movie and pedal my chocolate to the village.  Guess that's what I'm currently doing to Cape Town.  The Aztecs knew what they were doing when they began having it.  But back to my kitchen, I found new chocolate moulds in a variety of shapes, so I can finally release my chocolate range.  And here they are.