Hello All! I apologize for the long hiatus, but unfortunately I have been struggling with a bad bout of migraine headaches (I’ve had migraines all my life). I worked hard these last couple of months to get better control of them, and while they are improving, I am still not 100%. So please hang in there with me, as I know I have horribly neglected the blog. I do, however, vow to be more faithful to my fellow cyberchefs and keep posting!

So now on to the fun stuff.  Here are the new Winter cookies at the store  (The Crown Market.)  While I would love to take full credit, I simply cannot. I created these cookies last year, however, since then, our intern, now-turned assistant pastry chef, Samantha Persaud, has improved upon them and made them her own.  Sam insisted that something in our bakery repertoire be pink, so she introduced a pink mitten alongside my original blue, and added the addition of colored sugar, which I think makes the cookie entirely.  Not only does it add extra color to the cookies, but it gives the great illusion of a fuzzy yarn.  These cute mitten cookies are perfect for the season and are as fun to look at as they are to eat! Glazed in blue or pink icing and decorated with royal icing and accented with blue and purple sanding sugar, they are the perfect winter treat!

Each cookie retails for $1.69.

Plan B Burger

As a loyal patron of Plan B and a lover of their gourmet burgers, I was very leery when I heard the Max Restaurant group’s plans to expand into the world of burgers.  Although the new addition has been open for over 6 months, my husband and I hesitated.  We  just couldn’t pull ourselves away from Plan B (we felt like we would be cheating if we gave the competition a try).  But we finally caved and went to Max Burger for lunch the other day.

The atmospheres of the two restaurants are drastically different.  Plan B is very edgy – think urban loft, with leather booths, mirrors, industrial lighting, and tight quarters (you get to know your fellow diners well).  You are always guaranteed a wait on a weekend night, but the bar is lively and the beer flows freely.  Max is certainly more refined, and you know you are eating in the center of West Hartford, as opposed to Park Rd (where Plan B is located).  Max’s is much more spacious, again lots of black leather, but here it is paired with birch-like wood, and metal accents – very upscale Montana hunting lodge.

So now on to the beer, which is almost as important as the burgers (my husband may argue it’s more so…).   Plan B is all about micro breweries and craft beer.  With about 15 draft beers that are changing constantly, many of which are small craft beers, along with over 50 bottled beers, Plan B has plenty of variety.  Plan B does have a full bar, however don’t expect very experienced bar tenders – they don’t love to mix drinks and can get confused easily with names of drinks.  For instance, I found its better to tell them grapefruit juice and vodka, rather than to ask for a greyhound.  This stays with their M.O. – no frills – just really good burgers and really good beer.   Max plays it safer on the beer front.  With only a couple of drafts, showcasing a more generic variety and only 15 or so bottle options, beer is certainly not as strong a focus in the restaurant.  They do, however, offer cocktails, mixed drinks, milkshakes and a wonderful selections of “adult milkshakes” (milkshakes made with a varieties of liquors).   Again, this is not surprising and stays with Max’s theme.  They are clearly catering to a different crowd and therefore catering to a different drinkers’ pallets. (more…)

Chocolate flood work is a technique used most commonly in cake decoration.  A one dimensional transfer is created by tracing an image with dark chocolate, then “flooding” in between the traced lines with colored white chocolate.  The result is a fully edible, nearly perfect image that can be applied to cakes or cupcakes.

You will need the following supplies to create flood work:

Dark chocolate semper (chocolate that does not need to be tempered, available at cake & craft supply stores)
White chocolate semper
Candy color (oil based food coloring, available at cake supply & craft stores),
Cardboard cake board
Acetate (clear plastic sheets found in art supply stores)

Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a flood work piece:

Choose an image.  Flood work tends to work best on simple designs.  The more complex, the more muddled the chocolate and therefore image can become.  For a first project, stay with a simple design.

Flip the image horizontally. In other words, create a mirror image.  Because you will be tracing the image, when the chocolate is removed, it will be a mirror of the copied image.  This is not incredibly important when making characters, however if you are creating a logo with letters or writing, you will need to make sure you have flipped your image before you begin.  This can be done with most graphic design programs, and is also available as a print option in the newer versions of Word.

Prepare the image. Cut out the image and tape it securely to a piece of cardboard (cake boards work well).  Cut out a piece of acetate slightly larger than your image and tape that down.

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Here’s a fun hexagon cake that I made over the weekend.  Mickey and Daisy are both made of out white chocolate, using a technique called flood work.  Flood work allows you to trace images with chocolate and, when they harden, transfer them to the cake.  (How-to post to follow).  I tried to continue the whimsy of the characters with a fun multi-colored bubble border.  And yes, Kristin, (my Disney obcessed cousin) I thought of you the whole time I was making it – and no, this can’t be the basis for your wedding cake one day. 

As we gear up for comfort food, let’s not forget what truly makes us warm and fuzzy inside: cocktails! (And we all know I enjoy a good cocktail.)  And of course, Fall being my favorite season, you would expect I have a few fantastic autumnal cocktails up my sleeve.  I promise you won’t be disappointed with this easy pear martini.  Using good quality pear nectar, coupled with Absolut Pear Vodka, this martini tastes as if you have bitten into a perfect, sweet pear… only with an added kick.  The key to this simple drink is to use good quality ingredients.   Pear nectar (fancy word for juice) is available at most grocery stores these days (usually located in the juice aisle).  There are a couple of companies who offer fruit nectar, but I prefer the brand, Hero, for its true flavor and texture.  Along with being thick and silky, the nectar is actually slightly gritty; it mimics that wonderfully sugary, sandy texture of a pear.  It is the closest you can get without poaching and pureeing your own pears.

So while I enjoy this martini at the end of a long work day, it would be a fantastic starter for a dinner party or a great addition to any cocktail gathering.  Without a laundry list of ingredients, it whips up quick and goes down even faster.

Recipe: Pear Martini

These are our (The Crown Market’s) fall kids cupcakes…although I continue to say they are appropriate for the kid in all of us.  The pumpkin cupcakes are piped using a large round tip and accented with a pretzel stem, buttercream leaf and vine.  Unfortunately, we can’t take all the credit for the scarecrows; the heads are plastic picks that we place on the cupcake.  We add the straw detail by piping yellow frosting with a grass tip.  However, all together, they look so cute!  What could say fall more than scarecrows sitting in a pumpkin patch?  (Hint hint, a large order of these cupcakes displayed together would make a really impressive spread!) These cupcakes will be available all fall (or at least until Thanksgiving when the Turkey cupcakes arrive).  Each cupcake retails for $1.69.

Here is a fun cake I made last week at work.  A mom came in and requested a Big Bird cake for her daughter.  I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do when I took the order, but I was surprised how easy Big Bird is to draw when you have a leaf tip that pipes perfect yellow feathers!  It came together in surprisely little time.  Most importantly, I had fun making the cake.  I will continue to say it: children’s cakes are my favorite to make.