PIE!

Hope everyone had a fantastical thanksgiving weekend!

Making my mom's recipe for pie crust was a bit of an adventure for me. It's been a long time since I've used shortening and hopefully it will be a long time until I use it again. For our thanksgiving feast I made blackberry pie for the first time. The crust was a little thick and I was worried about the filling being runny but everything worked out fine. It isn't the prettiest but I think I did pretty well considering it was my first time making pie at home.

I also made an apple pie with a leaf/acorn motif. I totally under estimated on the number of apples I needed so the filling was a little skimpy but still delicious nonetheless. A little secret my mom shared, if you lightly cover and microwave the apples for 4-5 minutes you can drain out the excess moisture and you won't get a soggy pie. The apples still have the perfect amount of crisp to them and it's still moist and perfect without the soaked crust.

Tips and Tools Tuesday: Cupcake Courier

There are so many products and tips that I want to share and today I decided that I need to share one of my most favorite baking related presents I've received. Just in time for christmas, folks, I introduce you to the Cupcake Courier.

Cupcakes are annoying because they're small and top heavy, not to mention delicate. Finally you can safely transport cupcakes and can bring enough for the entire party. The cupcake courier comes with 3 shelves that each hold a dozen cupcakes. The shelves fit together and are secured with little plastic pieces in each corner. Overall the shelves are incredibly stable.

Not a big cupcake person? The best part is that the shelves can be removed and the base can be used as a cake courier! The base is wide enough to fit a 10" round cake. The cover snaps on at 4 places and I've never worried about the snaps coming undone while carrying it around. It's super easy to clean although I wouldn't trust it in the dishwasher.

My cupcake courier was purchased online through ebay (my husband wanted a particular color) and during shipping some of the plastic pieces in the corners that secure the tray had broken off. We received credit for the product and just decided to keep it, even with the broken pieces it still functions beautifully. I've seen them at a few TJ MAXX's here and there but other then that I have no idea where else to find them locally.

The only downfall is that it does take a lot of shelving space. Check the width and height to make sure that you have space for it. I do love the cupcake courier though and was more than happy to find a home for it in my kitchen.

go speed racer go!

@betaloft challenged me yesterday by seeing how quickly I could get them some treats. I had to get my stuff in order and made to toasted nuts on the fly and everything turned out peachy. Here's a pic they took...minus a cookie or two.

http://twitpic.com/q0zvp

Tips and Tools Tuesday: Where do I find this stuff?

I decided to start a new feature on this blog, I'm calling it Tips and Tools Tuesday. I've been baking since my teens and after some time in commercial bakeries I've used a lot of products and have learned a lot of tips. Every Tuesday I will make a post featuring a product that I love or sharing a helpful tip that I've learned in my baking life. Since we're a small and humble little beehive over here you won't have to worry that I'm getting paid by some company to feature their product or to advertise their services. People, these are things that I actually own, places that I actually shop at and tips that I actually use.

To get things started I thought it would be most appropriate to share locations where I shop. Consider yourself warned, once you step foot into these places you can get carried away.

First and foremost, I usually start with the internet. Researching products on the internet is priceless. Not sure if a store has what you're looking for? Visiting the sites of stores can save you a car ride. Even if their website isn't fully developed, at the very least you can find a phone number where you can call and ask. You might be able to find a better price online but after tacking on shipping, worrying about something getting damaged in the shipping process and possibly having to deal with their return policy, I like to buy local as often as possible. I feel better about purchases that I can feel and hold rather then hoping that what you purchase online will work.

That being said, here's a list of my favorite places to shop in the Salt Lake Valley:

Bakers Cash and Carry - This place is a little hard to find but once you do you will find GREAT savings on chocolate. From giant 10 lb bricks to 1 lb bags of chocolate chips, this place has it all. Their assortment of cookie chips (chocolate, white, butterscotch, etc) will save you some money verses buying smaller bags at the grocery store. They also have candy making supplies and a small selection of cake decorating supplies.

Gygi- Gygi is one store that's easy to get lost in. They have everything that a bakers heart could ever desire. From cute aprons to ready to use fondant to cooking classes, this is definitely a one stop shop. The staff is always super friendly and knowledgeable. They have the best selection of cake decorating supplies and their catering section is great for grabbing a plastic tray or two that you wouldn't mind leaving at a friends house after dropping off some treats. Gygi also has a great selection of cake pans and all the little accessories that go with baking/cooking (thermometers, spatulas, knives, oh my!). Don't miss the wall of cookie cutters near the checkout line. A gift card here would be the perfect wedding present.

Standard Restaurant Supply- Don't let the name fool ya, this place is definitely open to the public and an amazing resource. This is a no frills warehouse that is MASSIVE and stocked to the rafters. I've picked up some really neat white plates for a super duper cheap price here. There is a baking aisle with pans and tools but the real savings is over in the packaging aisle. You'll have to wonder through the warehouse portion a little bit but the packaging aisle is huge and they have a lot to offer and a great price. We've found that their prices beat everything we found online. Although it is pretty basic stuff (white boxes, cardboard cake rounds, disposable tin loaf pans, to-go packaging for restaurants) they do sell most items individually so you can buy bits and pieces to keep at the house. Trust me, to-go restaurant packing becomes handy when you have a dinner party with too many leftovers.

Sur La Table- There are quite a few chain stores that cater to the cooking enthusiast in all of us but I've always been drawn to Sur La Table. Their prices are a bit higher than the other places I've mentioned but sometimes they have products that I can't find anywhere else. This is always a good choice for a gift card for that hard to shop for person. I must say though, they do have items that are fun but not made to last so research your purchases.

Xpedex- So you've baked something delicious and now want to share with your friends and family. Xpedex is definitely the place to go for adorable packaging. They have an entire aisle of cute plastic bags to put your cookies in and keep an eye out for the gable boxes, they're my favorite. There's a fairly good selection of affordable ribbon and don't forget to check out the south wall to get a cardboard box to mail your goodies to those out of state friends and family. If you go around christmas time they have a great selection of wrapping paper too. Their website is annoying and doesn't offer a good understanding of what they have to offer so just use it to find the nearest store.

Hopefully that's a good starting point for everyone. If anyone has favorites stores in Salt Lake, please share!

Butterscotch Bars

I was packaging up an order and running out the door this morning and had to stop and take a quick picture.

That's right, 4 dozen chocolate and butterscotch caramel bars. I think that today there was one happy office in the salt lake valley.

Christmas is around the corner!

Today I did a quick tour of salt lake gathering information on Christmas packaging for my gift baskets. I spent the morning/afternoon pouring over catalogs, unable to cut down my list of favorites to a manageable size. I don't know why, but I just love love LOVE packaging and wrapping. I have a hard time throwing away cardboard boxes, especially when they're an odd size because I know that somewhere down the road I will use it for something. Picking a box size, color, ribbon, tissue paper.. this is all just too much excitement for me. I think I'll take a break and go bake.

oh la la

I was presented the challenge of coming up with a gluten free treat that would fit into a french themed party. At the bakery I worked at we had a whole line of gluten free treats but none of them screamed french. Luckily, the host of the party suggested something to do with meringues. I never thought about it but meringues are easily made gluten free, substitute potato starch for the flour and ta-da, deliciousness that everyone can enjoy. Also, on a side note, if anyone else in the same predicament I also realized that mousse is also gluten free. A martini glass filled with chocolate mousse and some fresh whipped cream would have also been a delicious option.

The party host requested almond and hazelnut meringues which meant that I got to wander around the nut store trying to figure out why they have every nut in the world aside from hazelnuts. After I cornered someone who worked there I learned that hazelnuts are also called filberts. No idea why. I think that hazelnut is a much better name than filbert but I digress.

The actual process of making the meringues was actually pretty fun and I really enjoyed it. Not to mention that it was nice to be doing something new. The rounder meringues were actually from a star tip but the nuts gummed it up. The bulb-y meringues are hazelnut (which turned out to be my favorite) and the swirly meringues are almond. To make these little crisp treats even more decadent, I dipped them in ganache. Bon appetite!

ah, self employment, I welcome you

It's finally here..my last day at the day job. It's been a stressful experience trying to balance life between starting a business and having a day job but now it's all paid off. I can give 100% of my attention to The Bumbling Bee and really work on getting things to take off. I think I will miss the reliability of an every day job but taking a stab at self employment is also terribly exciting.

I ain't afraid of no ghost

My sisters friend was having a birthday party and asked that I do his birthday cake. They wanted a spice cake with cream cheese frosting and they wanted it decorated in a ghost busters theme. I thought that the logo with the white ghost and red crossing sign was a little played out and decided to go for the Stay Puft marshmallow guy. I must confess, not only am I not a ghost buster fan but I hardly remember seeing the movies but the giant stay puft guy tromping down the city is the one scene I do remember. While doing this cake I learned that cream cheese frosting is not easy to decorate with because it's so heavy so I kept the actual frosting decorations to a minimum. I did a layer of white frosting and then did the blue so I could take the blue frosting down and a little bit of white would show through to had some depth to the sky. I googled ghost buster quotes and around the side I wrote "We Came, We Saw, We Kicked It's Butt (ok, or maybe a more inappropriate word)". The actual marshmallow man is made out of marshmallow fondant which I thought was a little whitty. From what I heard the cake was a hit and the party goers were more than happy to demolish the rest of the city scape.