Getting really sweet and scary

I am so sorry to all my followers for taking the small hiatus from posting. Things have been taking lots of weird turns for me, my parents moved to Florida and we almost bought a house but then we lost out on it. So we are back to square one in the house hunting business. But as for school we are still cooking or hearts out. Right now we are in a chocolate and sugar showpiece class. I have realized that I am bad at tempering chocolate, but awesome at melting and pulling sugar. It has become challenging to remember all the different temperatures for each chocolate and sugar. But I have been pulling through. I will include pictures of my sugar work, I have recently gotten a new phone so I haven't transfered my pictures yet. But I do have pictures of my chocolate work posted on Facebook for those of you that are my friends on there too.

Life taking over with some Asian cuisine.

I am really sorry to everyone for taking such a long break between my blogs. Everything became a little more complicated in life. My parents moved to Florida, which meant I needed to find shelter. We are now living with our best friends till my home loan gets approved and we get a house. Plus I have been working full time hours. But anyways lets get down to business shall we.
I have just taken my final in my Asian cuisine class, which I might also say I just found out I didn't need to take the class(GGRRR). But none the less I really enjoyed the class. We started by making Kimchi- Korean pickled vegetables. I also made an amazing sausage and tofu dish that was delicious. I also made these cute and yummy things called porcupine balls, they were a sausage and veggie mix rolled up in rice and then steamed, which made the rice poke out everywhere- hence porcupine balls. I am also including a picture of the cutest little mushrooms I have ever seen.
I am really looking forward to next quarter. We are taking a class that is beverage and restaurant management. The first part of the class is what we call bev i.d. We get to sit in class, since we are over 21, and drink different wines and things to test our pallets and learn from taste what would go with what. The second part of class is learning about managing a restaurant. Plus we will be taking an online course of career development and management.
I will try my hardest not to take such a long break till my next blog. Thanks for reading and keeping it mixed up for me.

Cupycakes and life

Sorry to all my followers who have been waiting patiently for a post from me. It has been quite a long time since I have had the time to sit and write a post. Life has taken a strong grasp on me and shook me all about. For a little while my husband and I have been living in my parents basement while we do the college thing and try to get our own house. Well good news came for my father when he got offered a job in Florida. So it has been topsy-turvy trying to find an apartment and pack all our stuff and have mental breakdowns because this will be the first time for me to be away from my momma.
But through all of my struggles several of you have sent me well wishes even when you didn't know what was going on in my life. So I thank you from the bottom of my heart for putting up with my long absence and listening to my rants on twitter.
On to the fun stuff now. For thanksgiving the hubby and I and our besties made some cupycakes to take to a party. We made some black forest cupycakes and some peach cobbler cupycakes. They were the talk of the party after dessert. They were fun to make as well. Put a little batter in then a little of the fruit and then a little batter on top to make them layered. I can not wait to make them again and again, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they might be the reason that I can't seem to lose weight. Hahaha.
Thanks again for waiting around for me to write again. I hope you kept it mixed up while I was away.

Cake recipe.

It has been requested, so here it is! This is a recipe for a high-ratio yellow cake, meaning very fattening, but very good. The recipe calls for emulsified shortening, but as a substitute you can use crisco, or any other shortening, or even butter. Emulsified shortening is even hard for us chefs to find and can only be bought in giant tubs.

High-ratio Yellow Cake
Yield: 1½ to 2 Full-Sheet Pans

Cake flour
2 lb. 8 oz.

Granulated sugar
2 lb. 10 oz.

Emulsified shortening
1 lb. 4 oz.

Salt
1 oz.

Baking powder
2 oz.

Dry milk powder
4 oz.

Light corn syrup
6 oz.

Water, cold
36 fl. oz.

Eggs
1 lb. 4 oz.

Lemon extract
0.5 fl. oz.

1 Combine the flour, sugar, shortening, salt, baking powder, milk powder, corn syrup and 16 fluid ounces (480 milliliters) of the cold water in the large bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat 5 minutes on low speed.

2 Combine the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl. Add these liquid ingredients to the creamed-fat mixture in three additions. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

3 Beat 2 minutes on low speed.

4 Divide the batter into greased and floured pans. Pans should be filled only halfway. One gallon of batter is sufficient for an 18-inch × 24-inch × 2-inch (45-centimeter × 60-centimeter × 5-centimeter) sheet pan. Bake at 340°F (170°C) until a cake tester comes out clean and the cake springs back when lightly touched, approximately 12 to 18 minutes.

Also as a reminder, this is done by weight. A pound of flour will be more than a pound of sugar by volume. I messed up so many recipes at school and at home because I converted to cups and tablespoons and such, instead of just weighing it out. Hopefully that is all understandable to everyone, and continue to mix it up.

Buttercream and Cake! Finally!

Making buttercream icing is kind of gross to me, the fact I don't really like it topped off with now I know how to make it. There is so much butter in it, Paula Deen would be proud. So today I decided to share the simple buttercream icing recipe with you.

Simple Buttercream
Yield : 3 pounds 2 ounces

Lightly salted butter, softened
1 lb.

Pasteurized egg (optional)
2 oz.

Powdered sugar, sifted
2 lb.

Vanilla extract
0.3 fl. oz. (2 tsp.)

1 In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until light and fluffy.

2 Beat in the egg (if using). Gradually add the sugar, frequently scraping down the bowl.

3 Add the vanilla and continue beating until the icing is smooth and light.

There you have it, lots of butter and sugar, but everyone loves it. When I made it in class at the end I added in some raspberry extract and purée, which made it a beautiful pink and added some good sweet flavor to it.
This takes a lot of mixing, so keep it mixed up!

Desserts for charity

In class we got the honor of making many, many, many finger sized desserts for a charity event held in downtown Atlanta. But it was also a learning experience for us as well. We made for the first time chocolate mousse and raspberry mousse. It was also the first time I messed up making whipped cream. Fun fact : if you over whip heavy cream it separates to butter and buttermilk.
We got to make éclairs for the first time too, which were a lot easier than I thought they would be. The chocolate glaze was easy and fun to make, plus licking my fingers was a bonus. For all this I got the honor of being chosen by my teacher to do all of the piping for the class. Meaning I had to pipe the mousse into the tartlet shells and then pipe cream on top of that. It felt like I did hundreds, but it was worth it. There is nothing better than to have an entire class watch you work and tell you how good you are for a real big confidence boost.
Hopefully you will all have a chance like this for some charity in your area. But always keep it mixed up.

Skulls and cakes

A little while back was our best friend's birthday. We all enjoy a certain book series called the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. In these books there is a character named Bob the skull, obviously he is a skull, that talks. So for tony's birthday we created a cake shaped like a skull sitting on a shelf surrounded by candles reading a romance novel. Which he does constantly throughout the books.
Yes I know it happened awhile ago, but I am still proud of the work that I have done on he cake. It took a lot of hard work to make the top of the cake to look like wood. Also his skull is covered in runes, cause he is an entity and the runes are like a protective coating. The candles are fondant covered rice crispy treats that have been molded into tapered candles. Also, yes those are lights you see glowing in the eye sockets. In the books his eyes glow orange.
So thank you for letting me go back into my recent history. Hope everyone is keeping it mixed up.