Prosciutto & Cheddar Biscuits

Arriving home much earlier than anticipated, due to the date mix-up at Gramercy, I faced a question I had avoided for the last half year - what's for dinner?

I was feeling pretty worn-out from my cold and a little homesick. So it was time for some serious comfort food. I picked-up the ingredients for chicken noodle soup and biscuits on my way home.

As I opened up the refrigerator, I discovered a bit of cheddar cheese and prosciutto left over from dinners the previous week. Hmmmmm.

I shredded up the remainder of the cheese and chopped the prosciutto, adding them to the biscuits just before adding the milk.

They were a yummy variation on an already solid recipe. Cheesy, salty deliciousness.

Assembling the Wedding Cake

I was very pleased with how my wedding cake turned out for the ICE Pastry graduation reception. When I began thinking about this final project, way back in July, I decided I wanted to create a cake fit for a sophisticated October (my absolute favorite month) wedding.

This time, I remembered to take photos throughout the assembly process, so you could all see how the components came together.

This was a two-tier wedding cake, one 10" tier and one 6" tier. After the cakes were filled with buttercream spackled and, I covered each tier with rolling fondant I had colored to the perfect shade of ivory. Five dowels were placed in the bottom tier, to support the weight of the top tier.

After centering the top tier, I added the a beautiful fall, brown ribbon around the bottom of each tier.

Then it was time to add the piping, which I did in an ivory royal icing.

Finally, to bring the whole piece together, I completed luster dusting my foliage and assembled two bouquets of oak leaves, acorns, mimosas, five-pedal flowers and calla lilies.

For me, the bouquets really took the cake from pretty, but plain to something really special and unique. I was pleased to have achieved the colors I desired on each of the elements.

I very much enjoyed the entire process of this cake, from the initial research and design, to shopping for the perfect elements and finally putting it all together. It really was a rewarding experience to take a vision and see it become something tangible - and tasty!

Pastry School Graduation

After six months of long nights, hard work and lack of sleep, school came to a close last Thursday night. While I still must complete my externship before I receive my diploma, ICE hosted a small reception to celebrate the end of classes.

The biggest draw of the evening was the presentation of our wedding cakes. We each created our own design and assembled our creations over the previous few evenings.

After munching on the hors d'oeuvres and sipping the champagne, we received our chef hats as well as Nick Malgieri's newest book, "The Modern Baker".

I shared the evening with Mike and we enjoyed each other's company while breathing a sigh of relief - the end of this crazy schedule was finally within reach.

The next morning we began a four-day weekend, which we spent relaxing in Virginia.

Final Countdown

The last week of pastry school is here. My calendar is crammed with things not to forget to do in between all the due dates and exams this week offers.

I am excited. Unlike graduating from high school or college, my excitement for what the future holds is not at all bittersweet.

I have been looking forward to beginning my externship at Gramercy Tavern since August. It has the promise of something new and exciting. A tangible piece of evidence that perhaps my somewhat crazy dream to turn a passion for baking into an actual career was not in vain.

I am stressed and my body is trying really hard to fight off being sick. But as I packed up my bag (a daily adventure of packing gym clothes, sneakers, school uniform, makeup bag, lunch, dinner, snacks, coffee and wallet) and looked desperately at the clock telling me I was running late, Mike held up two fingers.

I stopped and smiled. Just two more days of class.

7Express Team Cake

Mike's ultimate frisbee team, 7Express, had their end-of-season party this past Sunday. The original plan for a cookout was nixed thanks to the cold and rainy weather provided by the second Nor'Easter in three days.

Instead, the party was held indoors at one of the teammate's very fantastic apartment. The hors d'oeuvres were plentiful and the huge pots of three types of chili filled the air, and later our tummies, with a spicy, comforting scent.

Sometimes, I not-so-secretly hate the fact that the team snatches Mike away from me on our coveted weekends. Tournaments mean he leaves Friday after work to drive to some far-away place where they have things like trees and green fields. A tired, sore and sometimes cranky, depending on the outcome of the games, Mike returns late Sunday night.

Last year, Mike's season ended in an injury which made me hate frisbee even more. I thought that injury would be the end to Mike's frisbee-playing days, but much to my shock, this made him want to play even more.

But something changed, on my part, this season. I have some ideas of what brought on this radical shift in my disposition towards frsibee, but suddenly I found myself whining a lot less about being left alone on the weekends.

I realized how much Mike enjoyed frisbee; it was his outlet away from the real world, just like running was for me. So, suddenly, I turned from despising frisbee to a behind-the-scenes cheerleader, for no other reason than it was something Mike cared about.

So I wanted to offer something special to the team at this end-of-the-season party. Naturally, dessert came to mind.

I decided a cake would be appropriate and set about designing and sketching a cake inspired by the team's jersey. With Mike's help, I decided on a flavor combination of chocolate cake (think fudgy, brownie-like chocolate deliciousness) with chocolate-hazelnut buttercream.

The party was Sunday and as some elements needed to set overnight, and to preserve my sanity, I began baking the cakes on Friday night. I wanted the cake to be three layers, but the recipe made four and I decided an extra layer wasn't a problem in case disaster struck. So, one-by-one, only able to bake one layer at a time, each layer taking one hour, the beautiful chocolate layers emerged from my little countertop convection oven.

Saturday morning, I made the buttercream, filled and stacked the layers, crumbcoated the cake and let it set in the refrigerator until the evening. (I really did mean to take photos throughout the assembly, but my fingers were sticky from buttercream and cake crumbs)

Saturday evening, I colored the fondant red, rolled it thin and covered and smoothed the cake. Later (11 PM!) I colored more fondant, black this time, rolled it very long and cut-out the NYC skyline with my little XActo knife. Michael Buble kept me company as my Michael was freezing his butt off at the Yankees game. I affixed the skyline and collapsed into bed, glasses still on.

Sunday, before the party, I piped the team logo on top of the cake. Then, Mike and I set off to the party, me keeping a death-grip on the cake box as our taxi driver navigated the rainy city roads.

It was a hit. Well, that, or people were just being really nice. Photos were snapped, questions were asked and no one wanted to cut into the cake. Finally, everyone, already stuffed from the chili and snacks, made a little more room and dove in.

I was happy that Mike's teammates enjoyed the design of the cake. More than that, they actually enjoyed the taste of the cake and buttercream. Sometimes I tend to dwell on the things that I would have liked to have done differently or to have turned out better. So it's nice to have people reign you in and make you remember that the biggest thing that counts is the gesture.