Category: Misc.

Well I Thought I was the Cake Diva… Nasturtium 40th Anniversary Cake

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Those of you that have been reading Coco Cooks know I dabble in Cake decorating. In fact that’s is how this blog came to be. My firsts posts were on my ventures into Cake decorating and sugar craft. This year I finally mustered up the nerve to enter The 4th Annual Student Cake Decorating Competition sponsored by the French Pastry School Chicago. Its for students at both culinary and high school level , of which I fall into neither. But they said as long as I wasn’t a professional , I was good. So I paid my $10 donation as entry fee, to benefit Esperanza Community Services and got to work thinking of a 40th anniversary themed cake. I choice the nasturtium flower and accents of Ruby as they are symbolic of the 40th anniversary.
Earlier in the month I started making the gum paste flowers and leaves using a rose cutter and stretching and manipulating the petals to form the Nasturtiums. Then I went back over and brushed color and shimmer over the flowers to give more detail. You can call my style Impressionistic. I let thse dry for sevral days to become hard.
The cakes were actual cake dummies of 6, 10, and 12 inch. I decided to stick with simple white fondant as there would be a lot of color with the flowers. I rolled the fondant, took about 3 Wilton boxes, and centered with a wooden skewer.
The flowers and leaves were applied with royal icing and I made more flowers on the fondant with royal icing using the brush embroidery method. That’s piping the icing and taking a damp brush and stroking int outline inwards to create an almost raised Waterford type of effect on the fondant.
Chef Laura Ragano gave an excellent demo with Wayne Johnson of local NBC on basic sugar craft and how she made her cake for Esperanza and a television segment with Wayne earlier in the week. While they did this Celebrity Cake Decorator Nicholas Lodge judged with other experts from Wilton and the community.

I wish I had a picture of the High School levels 1st prize winner. My Blackberry ran out of memory. The boy was phenomenal and it was great to see his family and friends go all out to support him.

This cakes creator was 18 and drove all the way from Massachusetts to compete. She hopes to go to French Pastry School and placed 2nd!


Here is the Culinary level in which I was competing.The first and 4th cakes on the table placed 1st and 3rd respectively.
Certain Someone was very supportive with emails and said mine was still good and to hurry up and get my frickin license so I can make my cakes and sell them.The Twitter and Facebook support was awesome and uplifting. The organizers said the they would email the judges comments for feedback and I am looking forward to hearing what they have to say. My theories are that I didn’t include any writing or anything pointing to a 40th anniversary or Esperanza . My images were more symbolic. Maybe my style isn’t as neat and precise and I have always had a more painterly style. The teachers in school always pointed this out. I plan to study more int actual anatomy of the flower to be as realistic as possible. Competition is tough and plays at all your insecurities, but the trick is to move on learn from it. Next time!

Easter Sunday…Dungeness Crab,Spinach and Salmon En Croute

Christian, Jewish , Agnostic, Atheist this time of year heralds renewal, new beginning, and rebirth. I was fortunate to spend Easter Sunday cooking for my Auntie Mame and two special old girlfriends. One was Gabi who I’ve only known for a few years, but through many twists and turns was instrumental to me meeting Certain Someone.
And Deborah, and old Shopgirl friend of mine from when I first moved to Chicago who is one the nicest, elegant , and giving people you can ever meet. I always remember how she was the first one of my ‘friends’ who showed up at the house when my Mommy died. Schedules keep us apart so I felt Easter was perfect to get us reacquainted with a girly lunch with Certain Someone away in Europe.

In the previous post I gave a link to articles I had written for the Ebony Jet.com site. This lunch used some elements from that post but made some changes. I served the salmon in a new way,

Asparagus Spears with Hollandaise
And Hot Cross Buns!
Gabi and Deborah brought some excellent wines . The highlight being a dry Tokaji from Hungry.
Dessert will be revealed later on this month so hold tight. I will tell you they were a success! This time I decided to place the salmon on a bed of sauteed spinach on puff pastry. The topping had a Dungeness Crab Imperial . Via Twitter one night watching the Number One Ladies Detective Agency, I struck up a conversation with the people of Ocean Harvest out of Charleston Oregon.
They checked out my site and offered to send me Dungeness Crab. How could I refuse!Please check out their informative site. If you are a seafood lover it has chock full of information and they also offer low Mercury Albacore Tuna. It’s a wonderful thing to see such pride and dedication in a family owned business.
Dungeness Crab, Spinach and Salmon En Croute
Serves 4
4 fillets of salmon
1 package of Puff Pastry
2 5 1/2 oz cans Ocean Harvest Dungeness Crab drained
1 bag of spinach washed and dried.
2-3 Tablespoons Mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
Old Bay Crab Seasoning
Paprika
1 Tablespoon capers
Butter
Olive Oil
1 egg beaten
Sea Salt
Prep:
Defrost puff pastry and divide each sheet in half. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. In a sauce pan melt a little butter and olive oil. Add spinach and saute until wilted.In a small bowl mix the crab, mayonnaise, mustard, Old Bay, and capers.
Assemble:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Brush inside of Puff pastry with egg. Place spinach on top of pastry. Add salmon fillet on top. Sprinkle with sea salt. Place a mound of crab mixture on top of salmon. Spread along the length of fillet. Dust with Paprika. Fold up ends and sides to encase the edges of salmon.Brush outside with egg. Bake for 15-20 minutes until pastry is golden and salmon is done.

My Legume Love Affair 10…Starters and Desserts

My Legume Love Affair 10…Starters and Desserts

I am so happy to host this months My Legume Love Affair 10 this month. As I always love a challenge, I decided to put a theme on the event. This month’s entry must be either a Starter or Dessert. I can think of several dishes already. In Asian cuisine, it is not unusual to find desserts made of Adzuki or Mung beans. Moreover, I was just reading the Rooibos teas is in the legume family. Is this helping you? Susan of the Well Seasoned Cook is the brainchild behind this phenomenal event which draws a large volume of entries each month.

Here are a few facts about MLLA 10:

*All recipes must have a legume as the star ingredient. A legume is
A pod, such as that of a pea or bean, that splits into two valves with the seeds attached to one edge of the valves.
Such a pod or seed used as food.
Legumes are not to be confused with the French term for vegetable. Think beans, lentils, pulses, and/or the sometimes edible pods that contain these seeds, and derivative products like tofu that are made from soy.
*Multiple recipes are permitted, but only the first submission is counted towards the random drawing.
*Recipes to other events are permitted.
*You don’t have to a blog to enter.
*Photos are preferred but optional. Please be sure send your photo in a reasonable size not to exceed 400 pixels.
*Recipes from your older archives are permissible, but must be updated with the event info and links. Archived posts need to be re posted as current.Or you may link to your older recipe in your most current post as an FYI with all the pertinent info and requirements for the current MLLA10.
*Feel free to use the badges on your post.
*You must link your entries to both my post and the MLLA Host Line Up
*All geographic locations are eligible for drawing.
*Last day for submissions is April 30. Email cococooks[AT]hotmail[DOT]com.
*Roundup will be posted the first week of May.

The prize for the Random Drawing will be The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.


Preserving and canning is such a lost art. With the economy being what it is what better way to reduce waste and preserve the flavors of your favorite fruits and vegetables?