I’m breaking up with breakfast

The idea of breakfast is like a romance. There are strawberries, chocolate, waffles, capucchinos, muffins, and lazy mornings, but are there really? With all of the snow days that I have been having, yes, lazy mornings and waffles have been a reality for me. But in my day-to-day life, breakfast is just a fantasy.

When I was little I ate two Eggo waffles with Log Cabin syrup every day. Then I switched to Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Then I had Cocoa Krispies. Then Pop-Tarts. More recently, a ham and cheese breakfast sandwich or honey and cheese on toast. So I feel like I’ve been sold short; where are my chocolate chip pancakes and sunshine every day? Still in bed; I can only have them if I get up extra early. Let’s be honest, sleep definitely trumps a fancy breakfast.

So this is it. Breakfast, we’ve had some great times. Some wonderful brunches, beautiful crispy waffles, butter and jam on toast, and espresso, but I’m sick of your empty promises. I’ve been seeing something else: my pillow. My pillow doesn’t make me work hard to be happy; my pillow understands me. I hope we can still be friends, and see each other a weekend or two. But I want you to know that you’ll always be part of my life and I’ll always love you. Goodbye for now.

I put doughnut frosting on a cake and this is what happened

Why hello there! Long time, no talk! This blizzard-ing in the north east has really hit me hard; first with a cold, then a mother broken and displaced arm in need of surgery. So even though I have been dying to bake up a storm in this blizzard, it hasn’t really been a reality. Cut to last week, when it was a friend’s birthday…. *twinkly futuristic transition sound*

A friend of mine does not really like dessert, but was having a birthday. You’re probably wondering why I have a friend who doesn’t like dessert, well so am I. After much contemplation, I decided to make her a strawberry shortcake because you can’t go wrong with some whipped cream and berries. I found a good recipe in my handy-dandy Illustrated Cookbook, and pre-baked the cake. This was Sunday night.

Then Monday came with the blizzard Juno, and of course the party was canceled. So then I was sitting in my house for three days with a cake that was un-frosted that I wasn’t supposed to eat. Can you guess what happens next? Yup. I frosted the cake for me and my sister to eat, because why not? The party was indefinitely canceled because of sickness and stuff.

So I went back to my handy-dandy cookbook in search of a chocolate frosting recipe (I ditched the “healthy” strawberry shortcake notion”). I found a “Fudge-y Chocolate Frosting” recipe that seemed super easy, so I whipped it up (and of course burned a finger). It came out great and delicious, so I leveled my cake and started slathering it on. The frosting went on fine in the middle for the filling, and I put the second layer on. Then something weird happened.

The frosting would not spread on my cake! Like just would pull up the crumbs of the cake in this weird peeling maneuver. So I piled on more frosting to combat it, which worked, but then it would not stick to the sides! So here I am trying to make a pretty cake for myself, and it ends up looking like a poop cake. Literally though the pieces on the sides looked suspiciously #2-ish.

After I started eating a piece of it anyway, I realized what this frosting reminded me of. Doughnut frosting! There’s an amazing doughnut place near my house that makes the best doughnuts from scratch, and they have a chocolate-frosted doughnut. And that’s what I made, the chocolate frosting that should go on a doughnut. I don’t recommend putting doughnut frosting on a cake, it’s very dry and might look a little like poop.

Thanksgiving is not just about the dinner

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. Christmas is beautiful with the whole season, and Easter has some great special candy, but Thanksgiving is a day dedicated to being thankful, watching TV, and eating all day. What’s more American than that??

But other than eating some classic turkey, stuffing, and applesauce, the dinner isn’t actually my favorite part. My family eats dinner around 4:30, but I’ve actually heard that some people do it around 2 pm. I don’t get it! When are there appetizers?? For me, the whole day is dedicated to eating, not just the dinner. I start with homemade muffins for breakfast, then I move into some nice soup and fresh bread, and a plethora of appetizers. With everything from pizza bagels and mini hot dogs to crab tarts, snacking on variety is my favorite. It’s kind of like tapas style, you get to try a little of everything. The best was when we made homemade bread bowls for everyone. It was a lot of work but it was wonderful. Having a bread machine totally saves your butt, I don’t like to get into any of that kneading business. We had the machine make the dough, and then just baked the rolls. The best part was that you have to hollow out the rolls to transform them into bowls, and I may or may not have eaten all of the insides like popcorn while I watched movies.

Thanksgiving for me is not just about eating dinner with your whole family, it’s about cooking and joking around and being with your family for a day while watching the parade and all the James Bond movies (we’re not into football). So even if you’re not a big cook, hang out in the kitchen and offer to peel a couple of potatoes. Even without the cooking or a huge dinner, Thanksgiving is a holiday for us to celebrate family, traditions, and some quality bonding in the kitchen.

The best bagel I ever ate was in…. Bordeaux??

Half of my family is from Long Island, NY, so it’s no surprise that I’m a bagel snob. It’s amazing that a short trip of three hours can change the quality of a bagel, but I’m not the only one who thinks this way. If you ever encounter a New Yorker outside of their home state, they are stereo-typically likely to talk about how much better their bagels and pizza are. I can’t blame them, because even I have a hard time eating a bagel outside of the empire state. 

I was in Bordeaux, France with my brother this summer (a whole different ball game), and was craving a bagel. This beautiful part of France is known for it’s wine, but  I was craving a bagel! It’s such a part of our culture in the US, but I had gone weeks without seeing a single bagel. So after doing a bus tour of the city, we went in search of brunch. After wandering around to a dozen cafés, we quite literally stumbled upon a bagel place. In France! I was so hungry that I ordered the first thing that I saw on the menu, which turned out to be the most delicious bagel-sandwich I have ever eaten.

It was an everything bagel with: arugula, prosciutto, cream cheese, honey, and goat cheese. The bagel was lightly toasted and the cheese was warm. I have tried re-creating it with minor success…  I guess I’ll just have to go back to have it again!

Things to do with Waffles

Breakfast is not only the most important meal of the day, but arguably the most delicious. Have you seen some of the pancake stacks that Denny’s and IHop serve?? Piled with nuts and sauces and whipped cream and fruit, let’s not forget that the word “cake” is used. It’s one of the most wonderful parts of american culture, a big sugary breakfast.

My family is no stranger to this tradition, up until 8th grade my mom would make me a plate-sized chocolate chip pancake for breakfast every day. I may have been spoiled, but at this point that’s a price I am willing to pay. Pancakes may be my personal favorite, but waffles are much more fun and creative. Here are my favorite ways to eat them:

In the shape of a heart

Aww how sweet! Heart waffles are special because you get to eat them with your hands, and possibly even make a sandwich with them. There’s a special iron for it (my family has like, four different kinds of waffle irons. We’re very strange), and it makes five connected hearts. I loved them when I was little because instead of eating them with a fork, they would be cut by heart and I would dunk them into syrup. But you can also eat them as a sandwich, which brings me to my next point…

Sandwiches or breakfast s’mores

A breakfast s’more is the epitome of dessert for breakfast. Nutella has become a regular item in my pantry, and one morning I found it next to the fluff in the pantry. My mom had made heart waffles that morning and thus, the breakfast s’more was born! It’s a very sugary way to start the day, but delicious, fun, and easy. And it still totally counts as breakfast!

Flavored fun things

Instead of looking forward to a pumpkin-spice latté every fall, I look forward to pumpkin pancakes and waffles. The mix comes out every year at Williams Sonoma and is absolutely delicious. We usually made it as pancakes, but the waffle version is even better because it gets a great crunch. I think they also have a gingerbread flavor mix, and of these things are so much better for waffles than for pancakes.

Actual dessert

I love dessert for breakfast, but it makes me feel like I have to disguise dessert as breakfast, when I’d much rather just have dessert. So when I make waffles in the morning, I make extra and freeze some. Then later when I am hunting for a dessert but too lazy to make anything extravagant, I will heat them up and cover them with ice cream. Instead of a waffle cone, it’s a waffle pile!

The 3 Coolest Cakes I’ve Made

Since I’ve taken an interest in baking and cake decorating, all of my family and friends have received a decorated cake for their birthday. They act so thankful and think I’m being nice; when really, I just enjoy doing the baking and decorating process. I was feeling nostalgic today so I was looking through the pictures of the cakes I’ve decorated, and I tried to pick a favorite. I was unsuccessful; I have a special love for all of my projects, and there are three that I got stuck on.

Formula 1 Racecar

Avengers Birthday Cake

Cat in the Hat

These are all pretty different, and took varying levels of life out of me. The Formula 1 Car cake took me about two days between pre-baking the cake (chocolate with coffee-mousse filling) to decorating it. It was for my uncle’s 55th birthday and this cake was really fun because the more I added to it the better it looked.

The Cat in the Hat cake was for my mom, it was actually a carrot cake. My brother helped me with this one; we made the hat stand up by stacking circles of cake layered with frosting and a smoothie straw stuck in them. Please pretend that you don’t see the number on the hat, my mom would not be happy with me posting this.

The avengers cake was so much fun to make and I think I am the most proud of it. I spent forever planning it and had to really use my limited art skills to make the Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, and Thor icons for the side. The best part about making cakes like this is planning them out. When I make them with my brother this takes way longer because we argue about how the cake should look, but surprisingly we haven’t killed each other yet. Never have I had a cake turn out exactly as I envisioned it, but I have always been pleasantly surprised to see the outcome.

Oktoberfest! Taste a new culture

October is a joyous time; you get to play dress-up, eat candy, drink beer, and eat pumpkin flavored everything! While Halloween is an American tradition that other countries have adopted in jest, America as we all know, has adopted many traditions from other cultures. Like Oktoberfest!

It’s a wonderful multi-day festival where you get to drink beer and eat pretzels. I went to the HarpoonO’Fest in Boston, there were over 23,000 people who showed up it was absolutely insane. Oktoberfest is a great way to enjoy some fall activities and experience another culture and cuisine. Pretzels and potato pancakes were at the top of my list, served with sour cream and applesauce. Potato pancakes were definitely new to me and I recommend them! Potatoes are delicious and pancakes are my third favorite food, so it was of course magical.

A festival about beer is a great way to learn about beer! There were many different kinds: IPA, Pumpkin UFO, Oktoberfest, cider, normally I wouldn’t try them. This gave me the opportunity to sample multiple kinds and be more adventurous, beer isn’t usually my top choice. So taste! Find a local tasting or Oktoberfest festival near you, it’s an experience you won’t forget with new foods and drinks to try.

 

 

Chocolate Demi-Delights

Last week I challenged myself to be inspired by the French and make more individual desserts. Well, voila! Here’s my idea: take a fabulous chocolate mousse recipe, some demi-cupcakes, ganache, and nuts. I give you: Demi-Delights.

This isn’t so much a recipe as an idea that you can run with. You can use cookies, cake, torte, maybe even pie crust? And top it with a dallop of chocolate mousse, ganache or caramel, and something crunchy. Be creative! Here I used chocolate ganache and caramel, but some marshmallow topping with graham cracker bits would be delicious too. With the ingredients in your fridge you can put together something tiny and delicious to eat or share with some friends!

French Pastries, oh là là!

This summer I had the good fortune to visit France and of course Paris. I don’t have to tell you that France is known for its fantastic pastries, bread, wine, ok just all things food. And it’s absolutely true, even the McDonald’s there is fantastic.

There is a famous pastry shop macaron bakery called Ladurée, maybe you’ve heard of it? I have never drooled so much in my life! You have to wait in line to get in the store, and a person ushers you in two at Then you wait in line in front of this spectacular case of the most magnificent pastries you have ever and will ever see. You have to decide while you’re waiting in line what to get, which is almost impossible because you want EVERYTHING.

And it’s true, the macarons there are spectacular and the pastries have the most intricate decoration. I was almost sad because I knew that my baking is no where near this heavenly goodness. But I can use it as inspiration to branch out into individualized desserts instead of just big cakes. France doesn’t have cupcakes, and while those little treats hold a special place in my heart, I think that there’s something to be said about a light yet decadent french pastry.

So I will be taking the challenge and I challenge you! Make something petit or take a stab at macarons, who knows what kind of beautiful creation you’ll end up with. À bientôt!

Bake for a Cause and Fund-Raise like a Pro

Someone very close to me has Multiple Sclerosis, a chronic disease that affects the nervous system with no known cause or cure. Since their diagnosis, I have participated in my local MS Walk with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Chapter to help raise awareness about this condition. The NMSS is a non-profit in need of donations and support to improve the quality of life for those affected by MS, and to go towards research to help those regain function and to end MS.

The first time I participated, I wanted to make a donation and raise awareness outside of the walk itself. I reached out to students and friends at my university with a bake sale, I had already had a reputation for baking some awesome stuff among my group of friends. After raising over $100 in a few weeks, I learned some valuable ways to have a successful bake sale that I’d like to share so you can raise money and awareness for the causes that are important to you.

The first step is to choose what you’re going to bake, which can be the most difficult. Variety can be beneficial for selling more, but it’s harder on the baker. Keep it simple! Hopefully you’ll be cranking out cookies faster than the Keebler factory, so set your self up with some simpler recipes, or recipes that yield a lot of goods. For my project, I decided on chocolate cupcakes with mint butter cream, chocolate chip cookie covered oreos, and Chocolate Crack.

I picked these things because they are appealing and delicious, easy to make, and easy to transport! Lugging this stuff around campus to deliver it to hungry students was a chore, don’t make it harder on yourself by making something that can expire without refrigeration. Packaging is another important part, but can be pretty expensive. Cupcakes were the hardest part, their frosting is easily smooshed and you want them to look pretty. Instead of buying expensive boxes, a woman in my local craft store gave me a genius idea: put the cupcake in a plastic cup and wrap it in cellophane with a bow.

This keeps your cupcake pretty and protected, and leaves a little weight for your wallet! Orange is the color for MS, so I used orange Tulle Ribbon to close all my bags and keep some nice branding in there. So reach out to your friends, make a Facebook event page for your bake sale, and do some good for your favorite non-profit!