Strawberry Picking: Cavendish

Strawberry pick number three. This variety is called Cavendish and it's pretty good—slightly better than Cabot, which actually turned out to be better than I first thought. Still anticipating the berries from peak season.

Strawberry Picking: Cabot

Another trip to the strawberry field. This variety is called Cabot. The berries are huge and though they're better than the first batch, I'm still unsatisfied.

Blooming & Growing

Strawberry Picking: Annapolis

Mom, James and I went strawberry picking this week, on the farm's opening day (June 14th). It was nice, but the strawberries—a variety called Annapolis—are a bit watery tasting. I'm excited to go again and taste the next batch.

Raw Dough-Nots

Fruit is my typical raw dessert, but James was visiting this week, and I wanted something to distract him from my cherries and watermelons. So, I made raw dough-nots.

June Garden

Cake Decorating: Mocha Buttercream & Butterscotch Filling

This cake is a chocolate genoise, with mocha buttercream and butterscotch fudge icing for the filling—all recipes came from my school baking file. The inspiration for the piping came from here.

This is part II of Michelle's birthday. I made it to supplement the first cake, in case it wasn't enough for everyone (I delivered it to work), and also to say "goodbye Home Hardware"—I worked my last shift there on Tuesday...because I've started a full-time job in a pastry kitchen! That's my excuse for limited posting—it's been two weeks since my last day off, as I was working both jobs for a while.

Cake Decorating: Piping & Cream Cheese Icing

I made a spice cake with cream cheese icing and blueberry jam for my best friend's birthday. I used this cake recipe, which I converted to weight, a cream cheese icing recipe from my school recipe file, a heavy sugar syrup and this blueberry jam. My piping was inspired by this cake.

All this cake decorating has left me desperate for a revolving cake stand. Right now I'm using an inverted cake pan...

Happy Birthday Michelle!

Spinach & Spiders

Raw Rhubarb & Strawberry Crumble

I usually care more about eating locally than eating raw, so I was disappointed when I realized that rhubarb season was here, and that I didn't know how to enjoy it raw. Inspired by a couple of recipes, I decided to make a raw crumble. 

Spring

Green Apple Guacamole

A problem I have with a lot of prepared raw food is that it's often heavy on the nuts. I love nuts, very much, but my stomach reacts negatively when I eat large quantities of them. So, I've been looking for more vegetable based meal ideas.

Hazelnut Milk

Hazelnut milk is the answer to my mild aversion to Almond Milk. It's strange that hazelnut milk tastes just like you'd expect—hazelnuts—but almond milk doesn't taste much like almonds to me. Not only do I prefer the taste, but I am a bit obsessive about not repeating too many of the same foods in one day. I like to diversify my nut consumption, and since there are already whole almonds in my muesli, I'd rather eat it with hazelnut milk, than more almonds.

Cake Decorating: Birthday Cake (Buttercream Roses & Piped Chocolate)

I was asked to make a cake for some fellow employees' birthdays. I may have over-done the decorations...the cake turned out a bit feminine—Mother's Day-ish, even—but, they got what they paid for. If you notice a bit of roughness around Birthday, it's because, on my first attempt, I wrote Happy Bithday. Don't judge, I have an excuse—someone called right when my chocolate had come to working temperature, and instead of accepting my inability to multitask, I decided to go ahead with the spelling, while on the phone. Fortunately, chocolate becomes stiff when cool, so I just removed the letters with a paring knife and tried again.

Happy Birthday Dan & Hannah!

Black Forest Cake

I made a Black Forest Cake for my friend's mom's birthday. I used the recipes from my course's recipe file and got the idea for the chocolate trees from here. Next time, I'll remember to turn the trees around before sticking them on there.

Happy Birthday Darlene!