(please click on the pictures to activate the lightbox for more vivid display!)

I’ve hinted on a project that I have been working on for a few weeks now. Well, now it can be revealed. Petites Bouchees has ventured into the stylized dessert table business!
This idea has been percolating in my brain since last year, but it was only this year that I had the guts to go through with it.
Wedding professional consultant, Meghan Ely of OFDconsulting has been instrumental in connecting me with great vendors in the area, with whom I am so thrilled to be now working with on current and future projects.

Wedding Cake - Sweetest Thing Bakery

It’s so easy to get carried away with a first project, but I wanted to pay tribute to the lovely wallpaper I first laid eyes on in an adorable pastry shop in San Francisco called Miette. I couldn’t not include a candy station for which Miette is also known for and their macarons were the first ones I tried that got me hooked on these little Parisian confections.

Wallpaper Shortbread cookies

I was lucky that they made the wallpaper cookies that matched the backdrop (yes, I’m going to use the “wallpapered” structure somewhere in my house after this project) - whimsical hydrangeas and starburst floral patterns - so I mailordered them to make an appearance on my very first dessert table.

Peadee Pops by Flour and Iced

I won’t deny that this has been a learning experience - I think I’ve spent enough time at Michael’s and on the internet sourcing paper and crafting ideas to bring into the dessert table. Many times, I thought my head would burst thinking of all the little details that need to be done. Sometimes they just fall into place and sometimes you just have to accept that the tarts and buttermilk panna cottas have no room on your little (or big)scheme of things. It’s picking and choosing and always remembering that there is always that next dessert table.

A little candy station- I just adore the lollipops

Dainty cupcakes

And of course, how can we forget the macarons?

Rose Litchi Macarons

More macs

Thanks to:
Jenny West of the Sweetest Thing Bakery for the beautiful wedding cake
Krissy Salmon-White of Flour and Iced for the gorgeous peadee pops (aka cake pops)
Paper and Pigtails for the adorable labels
Roshan and Dale of Quarterman Photography for the cool pictures
 

Peadee Pop!

Now for the giveaway. I love Crate and Barrel (CB)! They always have such sensible and cool vessels that lend themselves to showcase your baked goodies perfectly. To celebrate the launch of my dessert tables, I am giving away two CB- $50.00 gift cards, just leave a comment between now and July 19, 2010 stating what you would like to see on a dessert table besides cupcakes and cake pops. I will pick 2 winners using the trusty random number generator. The winners will be announced on July 20th and email notifications will be sent to the winners and they should respond within a week or a new winner will be chosen. The winners will be required to provide a mailing address for the gift-card to be sent.This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

I have a couple of events coming up that will showcase my dessert tables. The first one coming up is called "An Engagement" which is a Bridal seminar and showcase to be held at the Downtown Hilton on July 25. See you future brides there!

I got into the wedding business last year and learning and experimenting with new designs and recipes are an ongoing project. The first thing I ask the bride after the event date is whether the wedding is outdoor or indoor. Outdoor weddings are beautiful, but unfortunately you are at the mercy of the weather. In Richmond, the weather is very erratic , it could be already 90F and extremely humid in May and this limits the frosting possibilities for your cupcake. Fortunately, my buttercream had withstood 95F and a very humid June but there are other options albeit not very tasty ones.

Fondant, whether homemade or not, can never taste as good as buttercream, whipped cream or cream cheese frosting, but one thing it's got going for it is the possibilities it offers up as a lovely canvas and its ability to stay pretty while everyone else is sweating buckets.

Fondant-covered cuppies

Some people hate frosting (like my darling "Hungry" hubby) so domed-cuppies with half-inch buttercream and flat-topped ones with just enough frosting (or even strained apricot jam) to attach the fondant are options.

Sometimes I get carried away with er...the decorations.

blossom-filled cupcake

Sometimes, one can just forget the bling and go for scrumptious triple-threat chocolate goodness - chocolate cupcakes, filled with chocolate pastry cream and glazed with bittersweet chocolate ganache.

Triple chocolate

I'll be busy this week. Broad Appetit is June 6 and I've got some prep and baking to do. Wish me luck!

"WTF just happened?!"

*Spoilers*

*Spoilers*

*Spoilers*

"After all those fantastic reunions, they were dead this whole time?"

"Didn't the writers say it wasn't purgatory and they weren't dead?"

Thankfully the extra dose of sugar gave my mind some clarity. What happened on the island was real including the flash-forward. This flash-sideways (as they call it) of the sixth season was some kind of holding place for everyone (that mattered) in the show to catch up with each other and move on to the light together (yep, sounds like an episode of Ghost Whisperer here).

But I still couldn't process everything late at night. It wasn't until the next morning after I've assembled these floral cuppies for a customer that I had an "Aha!" moment.

The Losties didn't die in the plane crash. Everything that happened on the island and in flash-forward, happened. Jack died on the island after reclaiming the light and saving everyone that weren't dead. Sawyer, Kate, Lapidus, Richard and Miles flew off the island but it wasn't clear what happened to them. Hurley became the new Jacob and Ben, the new Richard.

The flash-sideways that was shown in season 6 was some kind of after-life where everyone that was connected during the intense events on the island decided to wait for each other to come to closure before crossing over to the light. Some of them died before or after Jack died. Spiritual? Yes, it is.

And I didn't care in the end if a lot of questions about the island were not answered, for example: why were women having fertility issues on the island? (my theory is the real mother of Jacob and the man-in-black put a curse after she was killed after giving birth) what the heck happened to Walt? what exactly is the island? (yes, I'm still not really sure).

Lost was about relationships fostered, about sacrifice and redemption. I actually cared about the characters, they weren't perfect, they were flawed, they were searching for something. Sounds familiar?

Lost is brilliant.

And my prediction came true: Jack was going to die but not until he passes on stewardship of the island to Hurley.

And if I've lost you, that's okay...

Just have a cupcake...

birthday cupcakes

* Sorry readers, I had to get the Lost Finale off my chest. I think it's better to do it in a post than to do several tweets of 140 characters.

Cupcakes and macarons seem to be the dessert of choice this October. I had so much fun making these and thought you all would want to see what this obsessive macaron maker was up to. The above dessert table was for a bead store opening. The Fandangled Bead store is located at the Shops at Stony point. I can't believe the selection of beads in this store.  I can see how gorgeous it would be to decorate a cuppie with beads except I have to make sure that no one eats the beads: "Warning, take beads off before eating!"

My other store event was for the 30th anniversary of Rostov's Coffee. The "Hungry" hubby has been getting coffee from them since 1985 and they have the best selection in my opinion. We like to mix the following beans (equal amounts): Excelso and Yirgacheffe.  And boy, did we underestimate how much macarons and cupcakes were needed. Since the owner was also having an oyster roast with other finger foods, I told her not everyone was going to eat dessert. Well, that day the weather was freezing and it was raining. Guess what the customers wanted first when they came in: coffee. And what went so well with coffee? Macarons! The 200+ macarons disappeared in 45 minutes. The 156 cupcakes? 30 minutes later.

Cupcake tower 1

Cupcake tower 2

Chocolate-Espresso/ Vanila Vanilla macarons

Caramel/ Pistachio/Passion fruit

In hindsight, it probably was not a good idea to put the macarons by the coffee area.

Chocolate cupcakes were the first to disappear

Owner said, she would order 500 of each next time. Ofcourse, I hope she was joking.

And here's another little project for a small wedding. Rose cuppies.

Rose chocolate cupcakes

Above , some cupcakes I sent out on their merry way. The official photographer (Hungry Hubby) was not around , so I took the picture myself.

Anyway, here was how my diet went today:

breakfast : Chocolate cupcake

lunch : Red velvet cupcake

early dinner : Raspberries and cream cupcake

All that sugar, I guess, made me hungrier so I begged HH for some real food at dinner.

I guess man cannot subsist on cupcake alone, but at least I tried .

As if cream doesn’t have enough fat … well truly it doesn’t. When I first came to the United States, I noticed how thin “heavy” whipping creams were over here. They also took forever to whip into a peak and didn’t hold it very well once formed either. Turns out most creams in the U.S. are less than the 40% butterfat than most countries use. I longed for that luxurious flavor of full fat whipped cream and luckily, I found Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Real old-fashioned whipped cream.

I had a ton of raspberries to use. I was going to make Pierre Herme’s Ispahan Emotion but woke up late Sunday and was lazy to go through all the stages of making this. Raspberries have a very short shelf life so I decided to make raspberries and cream cupcakes instead.

I wanted to play with a new recipe for cupcake- picking out RLB’s almond cake one. I did not have sour cream but had 6 lbs of mascarpone cream that I did not know what to do with (please don’t say tiramisu) – so I substituted that instead.

Raspberries and Cream Cupcakes

Golden Almond Cupcakes

• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup sour cream (I used mascarpone)
• ¼ tsp vanilla
• 1 2/3 cups sifted cake flour
• 1/3-cup ground almonds
• 1-cup sugar
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 12 tbs unsalted butter
  
  

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a medium bowl, lightly combine the eggs, ¼ of the sour cream, and the extract.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix on low speed for 30 seconds to blend. Add the butter and remaining sour cream. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium speed and beat for 1-½ minutes to aerate and develop the cake’s structure. Scrape down the sides, and gradually add the egg mixture in 3 batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition to incorporate the ingredients and strengthen the structure. Scrape down the sides. Fill the cupcake liners and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Real old-fashioned Whipped Cream

• 1-cup heavy cream
• ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
• ½ tsp. vanilla
• 1 tbs. sugar

Refrigerate the mixing bowl and beater for at least 15 minutes.

In a small saucepan melt together ¼ cup cream and the butter, stirring constantly until the butter is fully melted. Pour into a small heatproof measuring cup and cool to room temperature. Add vanilla.

In a chilled mixing bowl beat the remaining ¾ cup cream and sugar just until traces of the beater marks begin to show distinctly. Add the butter mixture on low speed in a steady stream beating constantly. Beat until stiff peaks just form when the beater is raised.

Cooking Notes:

The almond cupcakes were very easy to make. I did notice though that my cupcake had a very dense crumb. I think because I used mascarpone it did not have enough acid in it to activate the baking soda, as the sour cream would have. It was also a bit too rich for my taste. The cream as expected was heavenly, it was thicker than your average heavy cream but still have a very light mouthfeel. If you were going to leave the cupcakes out for longer than 30 minutes then it is best to stabilize the cream with gelatin (½ tsp dissolved in 4 tsp. of water).

Update:

Took the cupcakes to work this morning. I've never seen cupcakes disappear so fast. The modified whipped cream frosting was a big hit - a typical comment was: fluffy yet rich!

To be honest, I am not that familiar with Italian cooking as I am with French. For some reason whenever the “Hungry” Hubby talks about pasta I always think marinara, alfredo or butter and garlic sauce. After taking the French Cuisine Boot camp at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) last year, we have wanted to take an immersion course in Italian cooking – maybe a culinary tour to Italy is in order. Until then, we decided to learn from the pre-eminent teacher of old-school Italian cooking, Giuliano Bugialli.

Giuliano was teaching a three-day Italian cooking class at Tante Marie – we were signed up for the first two. He was a slender, short man with a raspy voice and looked like he was in his seventies. I wonder how well he could hold the attention of a crowd of 35 chatty people. All doubts about his teaching abilities were dispelled once he took center stage. The man was a born teacher. In between dishes, he would pepper some humor in his lessons like the story of a person who called him after reading one of his books:

     “ Mr. Bugialli your pasta recipe is delicious but I found it was quite difficult to incorporate the eggs into the flour.” Apparently when the recipe said whole eggs, the guy included the shells.

Or the time when a student of his went home to try one of his techniques to repair a broken sauce and called him later:

    “Giulliano, the cold cream worked perfectly to pull the broken sauce together, texture is great but what do you do about the taste?” The student used Ponds cold cream.

     Whether his stories were true or tall tales, they managed to get the class engaged. He would also taunt us repeatedly about his use of salt.

            “Why you Americans so afraid of salt”, he says as he scoops up a palmful and throws it into his sputtering leek sauce.

What really impressed me about Bugialli is his ease at making pasta – he is literally poetry in motion as he handles the pasta dough. As he stretches and twirls it in the air - he makes it look so easy and encouraging for one to dust off the pasta roller that has been sitting unused in one's pantry.

      Just look how long he stretched the pasta without breaking at the thinnest setting for the roller – isn’t it amazing?

            The recipe I have below assumes a knowledge of how to make pasta from scratch – as the recipe does not go into the details of this. I must say when I saw this dish being assembled I told HH that it did not look appetizing – all those leeks. But after my first bite – I quickly finished my plate and went back for more. The sauce was there to highlight the pasta - it is not the main star – you savor the tacconi and the nuances of leeks in its entirety and the leaves of fresh basil is a must. I have not made this recipe myself – yet.

            I will never look at dried pasta the same again.

Tacconi o Maccheroni ai Porri

Tacconi with Leeks by Giulliano Bugialli

For the sauce:

6 large leeks, all the green part removed and the white part sliced into thin rings, left soaking in a bowl of cold water

4 tbs (2 ounces) unsalted butter

4 tbs extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

About 2 cups completely defatted chicken broth, preferably homemade

For the pasta:

4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

4 extra-large eggs

3 extra-large yolks

A pinch of salt

To cook the pasta:

4 quarts of completely defatted chicken broth, preferably homemade, coarse grained salt if needed

To serve:

4 tbs (2 ounces) unsalted butter if needed

15 springs Italian parsley, leaves only, finely chopped

Whole leaves of fresh basil

Abundant fresh basil

Prepare the sauce:

Heat the butter and the oil in a large casserole over medium heat. When the butter is melted, drain the leeks, add them to casserole and season with salt and pepper. Saute leeks for about 15 minutes, stirring every so often with a wooden spoon. Cover casserole and cook for about 40 minutes stirring every so often and adding broth as needed. By that time leeks should be very soft and a rather thick but smooth sauce formed.

Prepare the pasta with the ingredients and quantities listed above, but let the dough rest, wrapped in a cotton dish towel for 20 minutes. Stretch the layer of pasta to a thickness of less than 1/16 of an inch; on the pasta machine take it to the last notch. Use a pastry wheel to cut the layer of pasta into 2-inch squares and let them rest on cotton towels until needed.

Bring a large pot with the broth to a boil, add salt if needed, then the pasta and cook it from 1 to 3 minutes, depending on its dryness. Drain the pasta and add it to casserole containing the leek sauce, still over low heat. Mix very well and add the butter if needed. Sprinkle the parsley over and mix again. Transfer contents of casserole to a large warmed serving platter, sprinkle the cheese over and serve hot, with a few leaves of fresh basil over each serving.

And here's a picture of Giuliano, Mary Risley (Tante Marie owner) and HH.

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And the rest of my Cupcake tasting in San Francisco :

Citizen Cake

Verdict: I was really disappointed after all the hype surrounding Elizabeth Falkner’s book. The chocolate cupcake was dry and the frosting was typical- at $3.50 I expected more. The chocolate-mousse devil cake was unimpressive either.

Miette

Verdict: By this time my tastebuds were rebelling against chocolate and I wanted something lighter. This yellow-butter cupcake was good but nothing extraordinary – it was very pretty though. The light chocolate frosting was better than Kara’s cupcake.

That Takes the Cake

What I want to bring to attention is this little shop that just opened (according to our friends in San Francisco) in the Cow Hollow district. We were on our way home when our friend suggested one last stop – by this time I was near a sugar coma. It was just a few blocks from his house so he dropped me off so I can do my investigation. It was a very cute store with a few tables – a lot of cupcakes to choose from but I chose 4 minis, two flavors - Chocolate peanut butter cups and banana cupcake.

Verdict: After dinner, I was ready for some sweet tasting. The Chocolate PB cups were devoured before I could have a taste but my friend said that it was delicious. I had a bite of the banana cupcake expecting nothing special but I was pleasantly surprised at how fresh and light it tasted. Great cupcakes, finally!

Ah, cupcakes. You either love them or you hate them. As a lover of everything cute, of course I love them! But what is available is usually cloyingly sweet. My dilemma was that I wanted to offer cupcakes for my new business, Petites Bouchees, simply because they looked adorable in those paper cups. Yes, I’m silly that way.

But finding a recipe for cupcakes that I myself would eat proved to be difficult. First off, Vanilla Vanilla cupcakes. I realized the only frosting I am willing to eat is cream cheese frosting - oh and how delicious it is! (None of that buttercream frosting made with powdered sugar and butter only – or worse shortening!) Cream cheese helps maintain the body of the frosting without making it too sweet and it adds a pleasant tangy flavor. The cupcake itself is moist and has a wonderful crumb to go with it. Both cupcake and frosting are speckled with vanilla dots. Hint: I based my recipe -with a little tweaking- from a popular bakery in New York City and they are known for their cupcakes.

Second - Chocolate, chocolate cupcakes. I was stomped with chocolate cupcakes for a while. I always ended up with cupcakes that were both too dense and metallic tasting or would be too dry the next day. Though I cannot write the recipe here, I can tell you what can cause your chocolate cupcakes to fail miserably. I knew that there were two types of cocoa: Dutch-processed and Natural. The Dutch-processed cocoa is treated with alkali that reduces its acidity and is darker in color. Though its box does not say so I assume Valrhona is dutch-processed because it is incredibly dark and has been a culprit in some of my chocolate experiments. But I am getting ahead of myself. The natural cocoa powder like Sharffen Berger has more reddish brown color and has all of its acid. I tried a recipe one time for chocolate cupcakes that used crème fraiche. I was so excited I imagined myself biting into incredibly soft chocolatey cupcakes. It had both baking powder and baking soda in its recipe. I thought that the baking soda was there to interact with the acidity of the crème fraiche. I used Valrhona cocoa powder. The result was an odd-tasting chocolate cupcake that was as hard as a rock. The taste and hard denseness I now know come from the baking soda having not enough acid to react with thus giving the cupcake an off-flavor and failing to leaven it. Unfortunately, most recipes do not specifically tell you what type of cocoa to use. By my deduction and research, if the sole leavening is baking powder then it is safe to use Dutch-processed because baking powder is a complete leavening system by itself containing both sodium bicarbonate and an acidifying agent. If there is baking soda in the recipe, use natural cocoa. In the end, I found out I like to use more melted chocolate in the batter of my cupcake anyway and very little flour and cocoa powder – love the soft denseness but more expensive to produce - sigh... the cost of yumminess.

I really don't know where these cupcakes will take me since they are not the mainstream sweetness and the "Hungry" Hubby is there to make sure I won't sell out to commercialism - so I guess it's a wait and see.