It's The Grey Pumpkin Charlie Brown

There is nothing better than eating a slice of cake for lunch.  Decadent, naughty, frosting covered cake…it goes down much more pleasurably than light salads don’t you think?  What makes the cake even better is when it comes from your oven, via your lovingly made hands and is filled with all the wonderful flavors that fall has to offer.  What’s even better in this particular instance is when the cake doesn’t look like it should taste very good, but it does.  Here we have the essence of the Grey Pumpkin Cake.

Today is Halloween!!!  The kids will be out in full force in a mere couple of hours, donning their most frightening (and not so frightening) getups, going from house to house exclaiming trick or treat at the tops of their lungs in the hopes of filling up bags and plastic jack-o-lanterns full to capacity with cavity inducing commercial treats.  Gone are the days of caramelizing and candying apples in your kitchen or making sweet balls of popcorn to hand out.  In fact, those days were gone when I was a kid.  It’s that pesky legend about the razor in the apple that got everyone riled up, and with good reason. 

It’s a fitting day for Halloween.  The wind is blowing strong and chilly.  The leaves have been ripped off most of the trees leaving them bare and claw-like, grappling to hang on to the last few precious burgundy and brown decorations before going completely naked for the winter.  I like it when the day fits the mood and the time, I mean, there is nothing worse than either a warm October 31st, or one with snow on the ground.  The wind makes everything creak and gives a haunted sense to the neighborhood street helped out by inspired neighbors with cobwebs and creatures on their porches and flowerbeds turned into graveyards.  Halloween gives adults an opportunity to be a kid nearly as much as Christmas.

In honor of the day I decided to take a trip to the cemetery…that most maudlin and obvious choices for a day such as this.  I traveled to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery last year in search of Ichabod and the Headless Horsemen, but today I merely went for a walk down the street.  We live only a couple moments walk form Dale Cemetery, a very large and historic gravesite in Ossining.  The road I live on dead ends right near the gates (a little creepy, yes) and I enjoy going for a stroll there from time to time to clear my head.  That may sound a little morose, but I’m usually guaranteed peace and quite with very few living people to deal with.

The cemetery was even quieter today because it was closed off for some road construction, but I walked a little further down past the gates and into a nearby park.  Near the swing-set runs a small creek, which separates the neighborhood park from the land the cemetery sits on.  We’ve had very little rain and the creek was low, so after a hop skip and a jump over the rocks I was in! 

That strong wind was bringing down more and more leaves left and right.  They crinkled along the paths with each passing gust and shot out over the hilly landscape falling into windswept piles around the bases of trees and rocks.  I love the sound of walking through the leaves, the crinkling, crunchy sound that kicks up that all too familiar smell I keep writing about.  The only sound other than the wind and leafy crunch were the squirrels.  They were busy hopping from oak to oak, knocking down branches and digging acorns into the ground where they would be able to find them later in the colder months.

The stones in this cemetery are quite old dating as far back as the 1700’s.  On top of a steep hill not far from the gates reside the oldest makers and mausoleums, surrounded by giant maples and firs.  Here the wind is the strongest, blowing with a sense of dread, urging the living to get out and go somewhere else, especially on All Hallows Eve.  Undaunted I moved through the woodsy gravesite, snapping photos and feeling quite peaceful.   I always enjoy a good scare and a bit of spooky atmosphere.  It has a feeling like coming home.

After returning home from Dale, I wanted to get to work on my cake photography while the sun was still at a good place in the sky.  This week’s cake was inspired by two very important things, a) It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, and b) grey pumpkins.

I remember writing last year, albeit briefly, about grey pumpkins.  I have mentioned them from time to time and I have a passion for them.  Every year, toward the end of September they start to show up at the farmer’s markets.  I think they are technically a “blue” pumpkin, but they look grey to me and I absolutely adore them.  Grey is one of my favorite colors (if you can call it that) and has been for years.  It’s the neutral that keeps on giving and can pick up bounced color from almost any object.  Grey can look slightly green or red depending on the light, and we have slowly been painting the rooms in our house varying shades of this most user-friendly and contemporary color.

Grey goes with anything and that means pumpkins as well as cakes.  Maybe I like the pumpkins for their traditional reference, but the contemporary color elevates them into something different, more akin to sculpture than just an ordinary jack-o-lantern in waiting.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the orange traditional pumpkins…I’m as traditional as it gets, but when it comes to a modern update for your holidays, I say grey pumpkins (and grey frosting) are the way to go.

The other inspiration I mentioned was Charles Schultz’ beloved classic from 1966, It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.  This is one of those shows I remember loving as a kid and I couldn’t wait for it to come on.  It meant Halloween and candy was right around the corner.  It has all the makings of everything a kid could want…cartoon kids in costumes, candy, pumpkins, WWII flying ace in the guise of Snoopy, wait, what???  Yea, that’s what I said when I watched it again.

It must be twenty years or so since I sat down to watch this cartoon, and it is so different from what I remembered.  Truthfully I don’t remember much other than Linus waiting in the pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin to show up, but it’s funny that I didn’t remember that he/she never comes.  

The story instead is about Linus and Sally waiting all night long in a pumpkin patch never getting to go trick or treating or to the big Halloween party.  Linus keeps talking about how the Great Pumpkin will come to the pumpkin patch that has been tended to by the most “sincere” believer in the Spirit and will then impart toys and candy for the waiting children.  Hmmmm…does sound suspiciously quite a bit like Christmas.  But the potentially morbid thing here is that the Great Pumpkin never comes.  About the only good thing to happen is that Lucy develops a bit of a heart and brings her frozen sleepy brother home from the pumpkin patch in the middle of the night.  Linus is left yelling at Charlie Brown, telling him how the Great Pumpkin is sure to come next year.

I’m not altogether sure what the message is.  Are we supposed to believe in something we can’t see regardless of what other people think, a.k.a. a very Christian sort of mentality, or are we supposed to think Linus is a fool because all the other kids went out and had fun all night with no consequences?  I obviously don’t have an answer to this one nor am I making any moral judgments about it, I just don’t remember it being that way, and I also didn’t remember the endless segment of Snoopy flying on top of his house while being fired at as if he’s in World War II. 

The funny thing is, though, that I was still left with that happy Halloween/fall feeling I used to have while watching it as a kid.  Maybe that’s the point, the feeling and impression you are left with as opposed to the specific story.  I think Charles Schultz was going for something deeper, quite possibly, but I’m happy just to look at Charlie Brown trying to kick the old football while Lucy pulls it away. 

Having said all of that, now you can understand a little more where I was coming from with this week’s dessert (or hopefully you can).  I wanted something pumpkin for Halloween and autumn, and with grey pumpkins being my favorite I decided to make a pumpkin cake recipe I found in the November 2010 Martha Stewart Living and shake things up a bit by making a grey frosting.  Grey frosting you say???  Disgusting you say???  Ahhh…but no.  It’s is a pumpkin cake in disguise, a Halloween cake if you will wearing a color scheme not thought of as appetizing, but once you taste it you will completely change your mind…I hope.

The pumpkin cake itself is a very straightforward cake recipe where one of the ingredients happens to be our old friend the canned pumpkin.  I thought about roasting some small sugar pumpkins but I didn’t really have that kind of time on my hands.  And a point of fact, I like canned pumpkin.  I was raised with canned pumpkin.  Heck, we were all raised with Libby’s canned pumpkin.  It’s what we know, what we are used to and what we like and far be it from me to break that part of the holiday tradition. 

The cake is full of cinnamon, freshly grated nutmeg and ginger and I added a 1/4-teapsoon of allspice to add that little extra punch of spice flavor I like in a cake, pie or quick-bread.  I also added and extra 1/2-teaspoon of salt to the recipe to balance out all the sweet ingredients.  This cake gets made in two 8-inch buttered and floured cakes pans and baked at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or so, until a toothpick comes out clean when you pierce them and the cakes have started to pull away from the sides of the pans.

The frosting is the fun part.  The cake recipe in the magazine calls for a cream cheese and goat cheese frosting, but I’m not a big fan of goat cheese.  What I am a big fan of is butter, and buttercream more specifically.  I had seen another recipe (while online doing a pumpkin recipe related search) that was a similar pumpkin cake that had a brown butter frosting.  I thought to myself what could be better than a brown buttercream/cream cheese frosting?  Nothing.  It is amazing…especially when you turn it grey.

I sort of melded the two recipes and came up with this:

Grey Browned Butter Cream Cheese Frosting:

12 oz cream cheese (a block and a half)

1 stick of browned butter (cooked in a skillet over medium-high heat for 5 or so minutes until amber colored, then poured through a strainer to get rid of any solids.  Chill for a few minutes.)

1/2 stick of room temperature butter

1 1/2-Cups confectioner’s sugar

1-tablespoon vanilla extract or paste

10-20 drops of black food coloring (to desired grey color)

Combine all of these things in a kitchen aid or use a hand mixer.   Blend with a paddle attachment for about 5 minutes on medium-high or until the frosting is light and spreadable and a lovely cement grey color.

All you have to do is take your two cakes and sandwich them together with a layer of frosting in the middle, then just cover the stacked cake with the remaining buttercream.  I went for a smooth, stone-like finish, but you could take a lot of liberties with this and do some interesting patterns with your offset spatula (or whatever you are using to spread on your icing).  With the clean slate look, I was able to dress it up with some bittersweet branches from out in the garden and a cute little white pumpkin I found at Grand Central market the other day.

Ding Dong!!!  Trick or Treat!!! Wow, it’s only 4:30 and the kids have started coming.  I guess they get out a little earlier these days?  I never wanted to go out until it was dark, but I guess with younger kids maybe it’s a safety thing.  Well that’s good, though, I would hate to have to eat all the bags of candy myself if no one came along to ring our doorbell.  I don’t have the willpower to have candy just lying around the house.  It’s time to get the spooky music going (the theme from John Carpenter’s Halloween and Psycho) mingled with other horror movie favorites, light up the candles, turn the porch light blue and prepare for the general madness and mayhem which this night provides.

I did want to quickly share one other recipe that I made last week still with the intention of honoring fall and the apple, and one that I think will be a great way to use up any remaining apples you may have left sitting in a bowl on your kitchen counter.  They are called Apple Currant Cookies, but I couldn’t find any currants at the market last week so they became Apple and Dried Cherry Cookies.  I was watching an old episode of Martha Stewart Living (as I am want to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon) and she made these cookies, which are really quite a bit like oatmeal raisin cookies, just given an update with both freshly grated apples and homemade apple butter. 

Now I didn’t take the time to make apple butter as a good devotee of Martha should be doing, but I had purchased a jar at the apple orchard a couple of weeks ago and it was sitting around doing nothing more than filling up my limited pantry space.  What really excited me about these cookies, other than all the apples in the batter was the dried apple chip that goes on top for decoration.  You slice 2-3 apples very thinly (this is most easily accomplished with a mandolin) in a crosswise fashion.  You don’t even need to core them because the seed and core shape left in the thin chips look almost like a flower (which I found to be pretty).  As you bake the cookies, the apple slices dry out and adhere to the top giving a rather strange and almost sand-dollar like impression.

It’s almost like these cookies are wearing a mask, so they would work for a Halloween party buffet or for just an average fall or potentially Thanksgiving sideboard treat.  Paired with the Grey Pumpkin Cake and a good old fashioned Bloody Mary, you’ve got a Halloween party on your hands people will be raving about…. in a mental asylum because they just couldn’t handle the way the grey frosting made them feel.

If I were to be honest, I have mixed feelings about Halloween.  It’s something I love to decorate for but am not apt to dress up in general.  I’m not sure why that is exactly, maybe because it’s scary enough just being myself most of the time.  What I do like to see are the excited kids in the neighborhood cautiously walking up our front steps, almost daring themselves (with their parents coaching in the background) to get a piece of candy (or two or three) and walking away proud of their haul.  Taking home and eating a lot of sugar never gets old in my opinion.

So for tonight, I will listen to the ominous music blaring from our window (now the theme to The Shining and Jaws), hand out goodies, take a trip over to The Great Jack-O-Lantern Blaze at Van Cortland Manner to look at carved jack-o-lantern sculptures and return home to watch a scary movie or two.  AMC has been playing a Michael Myers Halloween marathon since I got up…and I love them for it.  Whether you are out for tricks or treats tonight, have a frighteningly good time and don’t eat any razorblade apples.  Though ghosts and goblins abound, I think there are probably a few good witches and disco divas out there too.  Those are the one’s I want to hang out with.  It’s just who I am.

October Road

I’m in a James Taylor frame of mind.  Long winding roads, simple romance and a warm sunny drive through the countryside.  Not a bad place to be really, a somewhat enlightened state of bliss brought about by the change of seasons and changes in life, but largely from the pure and easy joy one can get from hopping into the car, playing a familiar tune and going for a drive. 

My relaxed state of mind increases dramatically when fall comes about.  I’m not sure what it is exactly.  I’ve spent a lot of time commenting on the joy I find in particular scenarios, adventures and book reading (It’s time to read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow once more), but nothing ever fully explains the feeling I get when I see colorful leaves falling to the ground through chilly air tinged with firewood smoke.  Perfection.

The past couple of weekends Brian and I have been on day trips for one reason or other.  First and foremost we had to get to the apple orchard with our friend Kassi.  Kassi loves a good country excursion (she’s still a city slicker living in Manhattan) and it’s always fun when she comes up and pays a visit.  I love going to the apple orchard, and having fun partners in crime to go along for the hunt makes it that much more exciting.

We went on a Sunday about a week and a half ago…and apparently so did all of New York City.  I couldn’t believe the mob of people when we got there, but at the same time I was overwhelmingly pleased.  The farm we go to is about 15-20 minutes from our house.  Though I’ve mentioned it before, I’ll mention the name again because I think everyone should get up there if they get a chance and before all the trees are picked clean: Wilkens Farm.

Our drive to the farm took us around a body of water known as the Croton reservoir.  The homes and woods along this stretch or road are absolutely mind boggling to me.  Some of the houses look very old but extremely well maintained and all are lined with stone fences and a periodic gate or two.  In my fantasy world we will live out here one day with the peace and quiet of the forest.  The water from the reservoir shines visibly through the trunks of mythic golden trees all along the way and beckons you to stop and lay down for a hundred years or so.  When I think of something magical, I think of this drive. 

There is a smell of fallen leaves here, that musty, slightly old and damp woodsy smell which puts me so much at ease.  Again, I’m not sure what about this causes such a soporific response in my body, but it’s unquestionably present.  With the windows down and the afternoon sun cutting through the forest all becomes right with the world once more.   All that is missing from this picture is a lovely dessert or two, thus the need to head to the orchard.

As I was transitioning out of my recent maple phase, I found a hybrid recipe I wanted to make calling for both maple sugar and apple cider.  What better place to look for cider than at an apple orchard?  I’ve also been yearning to make a pie, a proper pie (to the best of my knowledge I’ve never made a regular old, fairly straight forward two crust traditional pie for the blog) and with the weather change and the impending holiday season getting under my skin (why does Home Depot already have Christmas trees out?) and the knowledge that we would be going to an apple orchard…well, the obvious choice was to make an apple pie.  Between Kassi’s visit (Miss BUTT*R herself) and my October food magazine induced apple fetish, all things seemed to be converging on a cosmic apple moment, so off to the farm we went.

As I stated before the place was packed!  I lived near an orchard growing up in Missouri and I don’t ever remember seeing more than one or two cars in the parking lot, but I swear to you it seemed like the summer fair had come to town with the number of cars waiting in line just to get into the overflow lot at Wilkens.  People of all shapes, sizes and ages had come to connect with their food a bit and get to spend some much needed time in the sunshine.  I think you tend to appreciate the sun more in October because you know it’s going to be pairing up with a chilly fall/winter wind once November rolls around.  October’s sunshine is still warm and gently kisses your face with a lover’s touch, leaving you wanting more but knowing you can’t have it for long.  October is a month for healthy longing.

After we made it out of the parking lot we had to wait in yet another line to acquire our baskets and be allowed into the fruity kingdom.  Kids were running around happily screaming, excited to take a hay ride pulled by an honest to goodness tractor and also to eat apples until their stomachs cramped up and they couldn’t walk anymore.  Sounds perfectly logical to me.  They were also revved up to get out to the pumpkin patch, which seemed more like a field where pumpkins had been placed (we couldn’t find any trace of vines or growing pumpkins, which was probably best considering the number of tiny tennis shoes running around in the dirt) than a proper growing patch.  The children were trying to lift pumpkins larger than themselves, toppling over and rolling around in the dried grass as parents tried to capture their moments of pleasure on film.  It was fun to see and their energy was contagious.

Brian, Kassi and I veered off into the orchard proper and began to scout the trees.  Many had been picked over, especially the red varieties of apples, but there were plenty of Golden Delicious to be had and I knew they would work perfectly in my pie.  We traipsed over several acres taking it all in, eating apples directly from the tree and of course posing for a few photos befitting this month’s special apple edition of BUTT*R magazine.  I can’t imagine a more pleasant afternoon out with friends and family “hunting and gathering”. 

There were plenty of apples left for us to get our fill and we ended up with nearly a bushel, much more than I would need for my desserts.  After our very exhausting afternoon we retired to the car once more for another drive back along the water.  We thought it might be fun to take Kassi to the Croton Dam.  It’s only about 10 minutes from our house and is really one of the most beautiful stone-works I’ve ever seen.  The road driving over the dam is now closed, but you can still park nearby and walk out on top of it.  The sound of the water is intense, powerful and all consuming, but also soothing.  This place seems like a mini wonder of the world and it’s hard to believe we live so close by. 

Later that night I began to dream about apples, gold and red, pink and luscious (like sugarplums dancing) and all the things I would be able to do with them.  Sure, they were great for immediate eating, but as with most things I eat I wanted to honor them with a little alchemy in the oven paired with some sugar and buttery pastry.  First up is the Apple Cider and Maple Cream Tart with Maple-Cranberry Compote.  It’s in the October 2010 Bon Appetit (same as the Maple Gingerbread Cake from last week and a particularly good dessert issue I might add). 

Both the desserts I made this past week are great examples of something I would like to have on my Thanksgiving table and are good practice desserts to get your crust making skills in order before any major holiday events you might be attending.  Both the crust for this tart and the crust for the apple pie are conveniently made using a food processor, but the tart is a little simpler because no dough rolling is involved.  In fact, you pulse the crust ingredients just a few times and let the butter do all the work.  There is no water for binding in this one and you may think the crust won’t hold together at all, but I assure you it will.  It may seem crumbly, but pour the “dough” into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom and use a small drinking glass to even it out along the bottom and push it up the sides of the pan.  It really works, I promise.

While the crust is pre-baking in the oven, you can take a half-gallon of apple cider and put it on the stove to boil.  It will boil for nearly an hour and reduce into the most luscious concentrated apple flavor.  I added some mulling spices to give mine that extra spicy fragrance and taste I so enjoy.  Also, you can be cooking your cranberries for the compote.  All of these things can be done ahead of time so that they have time to cool off before assembling the final maple cream filling and baking.  This tart was thick and rich, custard-like (from the eggs no doubt) and paired with the slight tartness of the orange zest and cranberries served on top made a very well balanced pairing that we scarfed down in no time.

As for the pie, I had to wait until last weekend to make it because rarely do I find time to make two desserts in a week while trying to work not only at my “new” job, but also trying to finish all the “last minute” house projects we want to get done before the baby comes.  Finding yourself suddenly expecting really lights a fire under your butt in the home improvement department.  No more time for procrastination…a deadline is now truly a deadline (and an unpredictable one at that).

I used my week wisely to locate a pie recipe I felt fitting to honor our delicious orchard apples, and it comes from my dear favorite the Barefoot Contessa.  The recipe is called Deep-Dish Apple Pie, and not only was it a good excuse for me to test my piecrust making skills but also a good reason to buy a deep-dish pie plate.  All task oriented dishware purchases are a necessity in my book. 

What can I say about this pie to convey the joy I had making it and witnessing the final product?  Again, the word perfection comes to mind. 

This crust is once more very straightforward and comes together in the food processor in no time flat.  This is definitely one of the “don’t over mix crusts” I like to talk about.  You want to see your pea-sized butter pieces smiling out at you in the rolled out dough.  The butter pieces are your friends and you don’t want to kill them! 

The dough makes enough for a top and bottom crust of a 9 or 10-inch pie.  The key here is to roll it out quite thin, making sure the bottom crust has at least a half an inch overhang once you place it in the bottom of your baking pan.  This recipe calls for four pounds of apples and thus the reason you are going to need a nice deep dish.  You peel, core and slice the apples in fairly standard fair, mixing them with not only lemon juice to prevent discoloring, but also lemon and orange zests as well as orange juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, all-spice, and sugar.  I won’t lie, the citrus is a bit on the heavy side for my taste and when consulting the recipe you might think about cutting it back by half if you are more of an apple pie purist. 

Once you put the apples into the dish, you are ready to roll out the dough for the top.  Again, rolling it out to about 1/8-inch thick, make sure there is enough for a half-inch overhang.  Brush the edge of the bottom crust with egg wash (an egg beaten with a tablespoon of water in this case) and then lay the top crust over, gently sealing the two crusts together and holding the precious apples inside their happy little space.  You can trim the top and bottom crusts simultaneously if you find you have more than the half-inch overhang, and then fold the top and bottom crusts together.  Tuck the folded dough under itself and lay it along the edge of the dish, making a pretty border.  You could use a fork to make a design at this point or leave it plain depending on your preference.

After cutting a few slices for steam to escape, you are ready to bake for at least an hour until you have the most precious apple pie smell floating through your house.  If this doesn’t make people hungry, happy and sentimental all at once then they must not have a soul.  This apple pie is not only beautiful, but tastes every bit as good as, well, your mom’s apple pie.  In fact, your mother may want to make it herself.

Where has all this talk of apples and wandering led us?  To the table of course:  the place of the harvest, the bounty and all things lovely and amazing in the fall season.  Whether you are out for a country drive to pick some fruit or are starting to gear up for the chilly and spooky impending Halloween celebrations, take some time to smell the leaves…and I mean really smell them, crinkle and crackle them up in your hands and memorize the scent.  It’s the smell of a hard working summer spent blowing in the breeze and the quiet payoff that comes when it’s times to rest and head back to the ground for a nap.  To me it smells like dust and rain and burning wood and occasionally apples baking; all the good things I cherish in a memory. 

Your October road may make you think of different things, but hopefully they will inspire you to bake something harvest-y and warm, with a hint of spice and a little sass.  I'm sure James Taylor would approve.  That’s all I can ask.  It’s just who I am.

Cake 2.0

Well friends, here we are once more.  It’s morning.  I’m sitting in the garden with the sun shining in its full glory and not a cloud is in the sky.  Things seem the same, but yet they are very different.  This has been an amazing week of change on many fronts.  There are obvious changes such as the weather and fall’s chilly approach, the tips of maple leaves turning from lustrous green to bright oranges and reds, my favorite gourds and grey pumpkins have returned to the farmer’s market and it is the one year “blog-i-versary” of Fabulous Pastries.

How did this happen exactly?  How has one whole year passed since I decided to take my love of baking, eating and telling tales to the web?  It doesn’t seem quite possible to me, but it’s simply a fact.  I wanted to honor this time with the things I find most important and what I enjoy writing about most:  cakes and traditions.

It was one year ago this week that I casually wrote the first posting about going to Harvest Festival at Stone Barns, and out of the necessity and pleasure of tradition we returned there once more this year to get a taste of the BBQ pork, see the wares being offered by local vendors and to see the kids running around the property excitedly pointing at and interacting with all the animals.  There is a sparkle in their eye when they get up close to a pig or can see a sheep standing no further away than the length of their arm…especially for city kids who spend so much time surrounded by cement.

A range of activities are held on the farm largely aimed at children, but there are also mini classes for adults on gardening, bee-keeping, cooking with herbs etc…but I think the most exciting thing for the kids is egg collecting.  Watching them get into the chicken coup (some excited and some screaming while clutching their parents in shear terror) “searching” for eggs and coming out with a trophy or two is very sweet.  Sure, it’s a hunting game, but this gathering process instructs the child on a deeper level about the connection of food and the land.  This is the mission of Dan Barber and the Stone Barns team.  Even the First Lady of the United States recognizes this importance and paid a visit to the farm the weekend before Harvest Festival.  I figure if the farm is good enough for Michelle Obama, then it’s good enough for me.

Walking the property is soothing to my country soul.  Winding paths through the woods and the sense of being slightly lost (though the farm is never really too far away) is one of my favorite sensations.  Strolling the fields lined with old stone walls watching happy animals is a pleasant way to pass an afternoon.  When I see the animals I know they are going to be food (most of them anyway), but I also know they have had a good life, a life where they have been allowed to roam and graze and have been given the best home to live out their time in this busy circle of life. 

The stone buildings are (to me) the most beautiful part of the space as a whole.  I do profess to love architecture, and stone buildings in a particular give such a feeling of not only history, but security and structure, a space that can’t erode away so easily, is cool in the summer, warm and cozy by the fire in winter and a place you want to hang your hat…or in this case dry some herbs and vegetables, and have dinner (or a wedding for that matter).  Growing up I never thought a farm could be an attraction (or would need to be), but Stone Barns seems a perfect escape for city locked parents and children alike.  It certainly was a nice escape for Randy, Brian and myself.

In thinking of this “blog-i-versary” celebration…because it is a celebration for me, I wanted to make something spectacular.  I just finished up a big job last week at work and therefore took most of this week off, giving me the baking time necessary for creating what I have dubbed Cake 2.0.  The recipe for creating this cake is a bit of a hodge-podge I took from the October 2010 Bon Appetit and a recipe Martha Stewart has for maple buttercream.  I was in the mood for the ultimate fall cake and the October food magazines are full of apple, maple and pecan recipes respectively (and some in combination with one another). 

The past few weeks I’ve been in the spice cabinet looking for bold Autumnal flavors, and I wasn’t about to change my tune this week.  I made a list of many different desserts I was interested in making, but most of them were my usual fare…which I love, don’t get me wrong, but as I said before it was important for me to honor this week with something extra special.  To me, when I think of extra special I think of wedding cakes (or something in that vein).  After deciding to save apple recipes for later in the month…we are going to the orchard this weekend…I went with the maple and pecan combination. 

There were several new and interesting ingredients (for me at least) listed in some of these fall recipes such as maple sugar and crystallized ginger.  I’ve never even seen maple sugar before so I thought if I could find it I would make the Maple-Gingerbread Layer Cake with Salted Maple-Caramel Sauce in this month’s Bon Appetit.  Not only does it have maple sugar, but also maple syrup, maple extract and candied maple pecans.  Shwooo!!!  It’s a maple extravaganza y’all!!  I have some of the beautiful organic pecans from my friend Kathryn’s family farm hiding in the freezer for such special occasions and only needed to acquire maple sugar and the candied ginger to complete my task.

I went on a hunt last week to specialty food shops and was able to find maple sugar at Dean and DeLuca’s as well as the candied ginger.  My local organic market, Mrs. Green’s, also had the necessary ingredients, so if you go to look for these special items check your local grocery and you might discover them without too much trouble.  The other strangely favorite ingredient of mine in these cakes is Chinese Five-Spice Powder.  For me, the overwhelming flavor is anise, but it’s obviously mixed in with 4 other powders hinting at something toward a pumpkin pie spice blend.  This flavor combined with ginger, maple, molasses and caramel was a most beautiful combination.

The recipe for the cake calls for using a frosting made from crème fraiche and whipping cream…I’m sure this would be amazing and throw the cake into more of a “carrot cake” flavor profile, but because I wanted to create a larger format cake I thought of buttercream topped with fondant.  This is the general process many pastry chefs and wedding cake designers use for creating the spectacular sculptures found on a brides’ most special day.  I have only used fondant (a rolled out sugar paste) on two occasions, once for the final cake of my pastry class at FCI and once for my friend’s Andrea and Nathan’s wedding.  It has been over two years now since I touched the stuff…but I was ready.

Buttercream is a great frosting base for any cake using fondant.  You can get a beautifully smooth coating on your cakes; chill them in the refrigerator and the fondant will lie nicely on top.  The key to a successfully smooth cake topped with fondant is your buttercream.  It is very, very important to get the frosting perfectly smooth because this will be the final shape of the cake.  Fondant is unforgiving.  It’s like the spandex running shorts of the pastry world.  Any flaw underneath is maximized 1000%.  I must admit it takes a little practice to get good with applying buttercream and I would highly recommend getting a “lazy Susan” which will allow you to rotate the cake around as you apply the frosting.  It’s a bit like using a pottery wheel (though much slower and hand rotated), but it allows you to hold your tools close to the spinning cake and get very clean, smooth edges.

With regard to buttercream, I made Martha Stewart’s Maple Buttercream.  It seemed a fitting addition to all the maple I already had going on.  The recipe may sound overwhelmingly maple as I write about it, but both the pecans and caramel sauce contain quite a bit of kosher salt.  The “salt” balances out the “sweet” in a surprising and subtle way that is very homogenous.  

My desire to use fondant came from a desire to paint.  I haven’t made an actual painting in quite some time…most of my artwork is done on the computer (or in the oven), but my hand was itching to paint, to make marks on a blank canvas and see what might come out.  I knew I wanted a harvest type of cake to celebrate Harvest Fest, but also the bounty of life in general.  When I think of harvest I think of oranges, browns and reds and I knew I wanted to make a cake that would take these colors into consideration and would also reflect some of my sensibility as an artist both personal and commercial.  This is the essence of Cake 2.0.

After trimming the cakes, filling them with the pecans and caramel sauce, coating them with buttercream and rolling and applying fondant to each tier I was ready for assembly and color.  I went through my cupboard and found some water based food colorings, but also discovered some forgotten about colored gel pastes and vials of luster dust.  Taking a scrap of fondant I mixed colors together in plastic cups…much like Easter egg dyes and practiced my technique a bit before moving onto the whole cake.  Through a bit of trial and error I was able to get a consistency of “paint” color I liked and applied an orange base coat to the fondant.  After that I used straight red and yellow gels to give the cake a glossy sheen, fairly reminiscent of car paint.  I mixed up some darker food colorings with water to give a dark wash to the cake and finally applied some copper luster dust to create matte patches within the glossy gelled surface.   The result, I think, is awesome.

Much like a regular painting, I spent several hours walking away, mixing up more color, coming back and painting another layer letting the cake evolve until I finally thought it felt “done”, or as done as art can ever feel.  The final autumnal touch was the leaf.  I had a maple leaf cookie cutter in the pantry and when I finished with all the painting I thought the cake still needed something.  Taking the cookie cutter and using it on the scrap piece of fondant I had used for paint testing, I cut out the leaf and draped it on top.  Perfect.  “Don’t touch it anymore”.

And I didn’t.  I’m thinking of it as my fall racecar cake.  The sheen looks like car paint; even picking up specular highlights the way a real car would do.  The shine made photography a bit challenging, but in my basement studio on black it really came together.  The best part?  The cake tastes as good as it looks.  I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of a “fabulous pastry” because it is undoubtedly me.  The cake approaches something else, which is unlike cake.  A couple of people have said it looks like Jell-O with its shining translucence.  I think it has a 3d quality about it…but I would since creating 3d is my “regular” job.  Whatever it is the cake feels special, it feels like Cake 2.0.

I admit it took a couple of days, on and off, to achieve this.  Because I had time I made the cakes and pecans on Monday, the buttercream and salted caramel on Tuesday, assembled and painted the cakes on Wednesday and on Thursday accepted a staff position where I’ve been working and found out Brian and I are 6 months pregnant!!!!!  Now it’s Friday and I’m not sure what to do with myself!!!

I knew the cake I was making was special for many reasons, but who knew there would be so many things to celebrate?  Not only was Harvest Festival a year ago this week, but also Andrea and Nathan told me a year ago this week they were pregnant.  “A Year and Change” was the name of that posting, and I think it suddenly applies here too.

This year has been difficult for many people and for many reasons.  There are still major problems with the economy and the world in general…and there probably always will be…it’s the state of human affairs, but on a more personal level Brian and I have had a hard year with the loss of his mother and how best to take care of his father in the aftermath, insecurity on the job front, the constant waiting to be chosen for adoption…a process we started 2 years and 7 months ago and just general anxiety watching our friends and families with problems of their own.

Sometimes I think I’m a bit silly…and truth be told there may be a lot of people who think that about me.  I want so much for people to try and be the best they can, to feel love, to feel proud of themselves, to get everything they ever wanted and I may come off a touch flippant from time to time, but it’s so important to get outside of yourself for just a little while each day and be thankful for what you have.  Baking helps me do that.  It’s a focused passion/distraction with the goal of sustaining not only my creative and food related needs but also my need to connect with other people.  Call baking an excuse if you will, but it helps me to be with others, share my love with others and to give everyone a sugar rush pick-me up even if it’s only for a short while.

I know with the coming year things are going to be changing drastically for both Brian and myself.  The time is coming that I never really thought possible…the time where I’m going to be a dad.  I’m not going to fool myself or anyone else into thinking I’ll still be able to make a weekly dessert and blog post, but I will keep on baking, taking photos, writing and sharing when I can.  It’s something that I love to do, something that is apart of me and something I need to help me connect with the world around me…meaning you, my dear readers, family and friends.  Phase two of Fabulous Pastries is beginning, starting with Cake 2.0.  Where things will go from here I have no idea, but that’s the joy and terror of living, isn’t it?  I’m excited, nervous, giddy, nauseous, overjoyed and always hungry.  It’s just who I am.