Small Plates

Everything Tastes Better with Sriracha

Well, maybe not cake. But read on. The original purpose of this blog was to motivate me to eat healthier and talk about it, and not become a shrine to cake. (Not that that's a bad thing.)

Speaking of, here's my latest effort. A German chocolate cake for my friend Kelly. It was exciting. Recipe courtesy of the amazing David Lebovitz. Everything I make by him gets me hugged.

But now, less cake and more green things. And hopefully more regular postings with me proudly showing off plates full of antioxidants and flavonoids. (Don't worry; there'll always be cake, too. I haven't lost my mind or anything.)

Lessons Learned

I made my second fondant cake this weekend for the Seattle Works dessert auction. I think it came out pretty okay. See:

Because I'm lazy, I'm always trying to find ways to make things easier. And arm wrestling a pound of powdered sugar into melted marshmallows tires me out. I wondered if I could use my stand mixer. And, it turns out, I can.

One of the sites said to put 2lbs of sugar into the mixer and then pour in melted marshmallows---using the dough hook. I tried that and it turned out to be a hot mess. Sugar everywhere, fondant lumpy. Boo. Also, waaaaaaay too much sugar. I should have followed my own instincts, which I did for the second batch.

First, I sifted the powdered sugar. I think this is a really key step. Before, when I've made fondant, I didn't. After adding gel coloring, I noticed these hard little nurdles of powered sugar dispersed throughout the colored fondant. They had to be picked out by hand. Sifting the sugar completely eliminated that problem. (Fondant makers everywhere have probably always known this, but it was new and exciting for me.)

Next, I Pam'd the mixing bowl and paddle, and poured in the melted marshmallows. Slowly, I added about a half a cup of sifted powdered sugar at a time and waited for it to incorporate before adding more. When all the sugar was added (~1lb), I switched briefly to the dough hook (pausing to grease that up, too).

It worked marvelously. And because I was doing a single color, I was able to add my gel coloring to the melted marshmallows and easily mix to the shade I wanted, instead of hand kneading the color in for hours and turning my hands all colors of the rainbow (yes, yes I have gloves but I didn't wear them, okay?).

The fondant came out perfectly satin-y smooth, and the hardest part was sifting the sugar. (Not difficult obviously, just teeeedious.)

Really looking forward to the next big cake, which is for leetle Zoe's birthday. It's going to be a festival of pink. I sketched some designs out today and I really can't wait to get started on it! New techniques to try out and everything!