Tuxedo Cake

     Over the weekend I was privileged to make a special order birthday cake for my       

friend Jean's dad.  Together we came up with the idea of doing a tuxedo cake, a very 

elegant choice for his special day.  I had been wanting to try my hand at making

this cake for a while now, so I was excited to have this chance.  The cake has

 has three components:  three layers of very moist  chocolate cake, whipped

 cream frosting and a chocolate ganache finish.

The three-tiered cake with it's smooth layer of whipped

cream.  Of course there is whipped cream between

each cake layer as well!

The chocolate ganache is drizzled over the chilled cake

so it sets up quickly with lovely drips.

I love the look of the finished cake with the contrast of the

white whipped cream and the chocolate ganache.   A

cake fit for a king, or a special dad.

Cop Cookies-The Genesis of a New Cookie

A while ago I had an idea to create a pair of cookies

called cops and robbers.  While looking for inspiration for the

cop cookie, of course the first thing that came to mind is 

coffee and doughnuts

So, in between batches of caramel and biscotti,  I

played around with some cookie doughs,adding

coffee  and mixing in  chocolate covered cheerios

that looked like little donuts.

Cute little buggers.

After adding a few sprinkles to reinforce the donut theme,

I ended up with prototype #1, pictured above.

Prototype #1 looked a little strange, but more importantly,

didn't have much to offer other than being sweet.

Back to the drawing board.

I started thinking of other things associated with the police 

like this old black and white  police car.

It also came to mind that policemen are

often called "men in blue"

By the way, Do you know how the blue police uniform

came about?  Apparently it all started in London.  In 1829

they instituted the first modern police force and chose

dark blue uniforms to differentiate them from their military

which wore red and white uniforms at the time. New

York City was the first to copy this idea in 1853, with 

many other US police forces following suite.

NOW, back to the cookies...

I decided to take my original idea of a coffee

laced cookie and incorporate the black, white

and blue elements.  So, I nixed the little donuts and

added chocolate chips and white chocolate chips 

to represent the black and white police car and

dried blueberries for the 'men in blue'.

This was Prototype#2 and....it tasted good

but was flatter than a pancake.

After tweaking the flour and sugar ratios this week, I

came up with Prototype#3, which looks good 

and I think has a very nice and interesting flavor,

but I will let my customers decide whether the 'copper' is 

a 'keeper'.  I will have this cookie and many others available

at my stand this week.  And now for those robber cookies......

Crazy About Vanilla

     I am absolutely crazy about vanilla extract.  So crazy, I have a whole closet full of the
 delightful elixir.  You see, I don't want to run out of it-ever.  And since almost all of my
pastries contain generous amounts of vanilla, the danger is real.  Not only do I need large
quantities of vanilla, I need it be really high quality, so-- I make it myself.

I use only Madagascar vanilla beans and vodka for my vanilla extract,

no sweeteners or other add-ins.  

I buy nice, plump vanilla beans in bulk

Then I cut up the beans, put them in glass jars and fill 'em up with vodka.

After steeping for several months I have a supply of wonderful

vanilla extract to use in my creations.

Soon, I hope to be able to offer my vanilla extract for sale at

my stand so others who are crazy about vanilla can enjoy it too!