What to do with left over lemon curd

When it comes to making treats for my family I've been feeling a bit.. lazy.. and uninspired. I opened my fridge to see what came to mind and I saw some left over lemon curd. I read a lot of food blogs and look at a lot of recipes and when I saw the lemon curd I instantly remembered that I saw a recipe for lemon curd brioche rolls. I'm not very comfortable when it comes to bread and doughs so I thought it would be nice to challenge myself. The dough was far too wet for mixing by hand so I was so very grateful for my bosch. You make the dough the day before and roll and bake the next day so it was perfect for Christmas because I wasn't spending hours in the kitchen. The result? Deeeelicious. I may or may not have eaten 2 of these for lunch on Christmas. And then ate another 1 1/2 later that night.

This was my first time making anything even brioche inspired so I was pleased with the results. They do take a bit of patience, work and time so I don't think they will be an everyday thing but next time I have some extra lemon curd hanging around it will be hard to deny myself.

Recipe and some great pictures here: http://carolinesbakeshop.blogspot.com/2009/04/lemon-brioche-rolls.html

Up top is a lousy picture of my own. But! Good news! For Christmas my sister gave my a light cube so my horribly lighted pictures will be a thing of the past. Hooray!

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater

Instead of the usual Tips and Tools Tuesday I thought that I'd do something a little different.

Whenever I make something with pumpkin the recipe rarely calls for an entire can so I almost always have extra pumpkin hanging around. I wanted to make something quick and easy that would use up some of the pumpkin I had.

Disclaimer: I am usually anti boxed cake mix because of all the additives and well, I'm a baking purist. I also understand that not everyone is as comfortable with baking as I am and sometimes you just don't have the time or patience to make a cake from scratch.

I found this great recipe for a pumpkin butterscotch cake. It's super quick and easy to put together and it's really good. Pumpkin and butterscotch really compliment each other. I baked it in a bundt pan but you can bake it in any cake pan. The texture is similar to the average butter cake, it's not a typical dense bundt cake. If you don't have pumpkin pie spice on hand I'd do 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1/4 tsp all spice.

Pumpkin Butterscotch Cake

1 box of yellow or white cake mix

3.4 oz box of instant butterscotch pudding

1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice mix

4 eggs

1 cup pumpkin

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare pans, either by using parchment paper or spray and flouring; set aside. Combine the cake mix, butterscotch pudding and pumpkin spice and mix until blended. Add the eggs, pumpkin, vegetable oil and water and mix until batter is well blended and not lumpy. Pour into cake pan and bake for 50-55 minutes or until cake bounces back when touched. Cool in pan for 15 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

I did a simple powdered sugar glaze for my cake but a cream cheese frosting would also be amazing.

Even bumbling bees believe in santa

At the close of another year, we want to say thank you and to wish you a warm and happy holiday season.

Spreading some office cheer

My husband just started a new job and we decided that it couldn't hurt to boost his popularity by having him bring in mini loafs of quickbread for Christmas. I made 22 loaves each of Chocolate Chocolate Chip (my favorite!) and Pumpkin Spice.

I had left over chocolate batter so I made a huge loaf, but not wanting to slow down I didn't even take my own advise and just sprayed the pan instead of using parchment. And you probably guess it, when I went to remove the loaf the bottom half decided to stay in the pan. Luckily for me, I get to eat an entire loaf of ugly chocolate chocolate chip bread :).

Tips and Tools Tuesday: IKEA FLÄCKIG

Oh no! Days before christmas and you still have shopping to do! What is a poor soul to do? Here's a suggestion, head to IKEA. Not only is IKEA affordable but it's massive, you're bound to find SOMETHING for someone. I love modern design so I usually spend a lot of time at IKEA but you'll be surprised with the little gems you'll find in the kitchen area downstairs. I can't speak for the pots and pans but some of the kitchen gadgets are a find. They might not be made to last long enough to pass on to your children after you die but they're good enough and cheap enough to try out and see how it goes.

Anyway, the whole reason behind this post? These guys!

Don't ask me how to say the name, it's a mystery to me too. These bowls are really the best purchase I've ever made at IKEA which is saying a lot because I spend a lot of money at IKEA. You get both bowls for $4! Hello! You don't find a deal like this every day. Ok, well.. yeah you can, at IKEA. I know, you can find cheap mixing bowls at the dollar store and whatnot but they're not of this quality. These bowls are microwave, freezer, dishwasher safe. The bottom half of the bowl is grippy silicone so mixing is a lot easier. The side handle and pouring lip make them PERFECT for pouring batter. Did I mention that you get both bowls for $4?

I picked a set up while randomly shopping one day and then purposely made a trip back to IKEA to buy more. I have 4 now, 2 small and 2 large and they still nest perfectly. I have noticed that when I make brownies in them that the dishwasher doesn't get them 100% clean but I don't mind washing a single bowl by hand. Now, don't get me wrong, if you're out hunting for a gift for your wife, do not give her a stack of these bowls and expect her to die of happiness. They're great but no one wants a stack of bowls for Christmas. But, since they're so cheap you can go buy that cookbook she's been eying or a gift certificate to a cooking class.

And, a nice little bonus to loving IKEA, if you use your debit card when you checkout and you get a percentage back in a mini gift certificate on the bottom of your receipt. It's a small percentage, 3% if I remember correctly, but if you save up your receipts the amount can add up. Plus, it's free money! It only applies to debit cards, not credit so make sure to put in your pin!

Breaking from the mold

When you baking for a living, it's easy to get sick of making the same thing over and over. I love donuts. Can't get enough of them. I know they're horrible for you but given the opportunity I'm the first one in line at Banbury Cross. I think this is because I don't make donuts. You have the fry them and it's just too much trouble so donuts are the one sweet treat that I'm not completely sick of. Whenever I started at a new bakery I was more than happy to "taste" every little thing that was offered to me but after a few months the novelty of eating anything and everything wares off and you just want a carrot stick.

This christmas I decided to make sugar cookies. At first I wasn't super excited about it because to be honest, they're kind of a pain. You have to make the dough, chill it, have a small window of opportunity to cut the cookies out before the dough warms too much, bake them and then frost them. Once I started though I realized how much I enjoyed myself because even though there are a lot of steps, it's something different. I'm glad that I made myself do it because I think I needed the break from baking the everyday bumbling menu.

I was surprised by how tasty they turned out so I'm submitting the recipes to the Department of Agriculture and soon I'll be able to sell em.

Tips and Tools Tuesday: Bosch Mixer

I think that every baker wishes for a counter top mixer under the christmas tree if they don't already own one. Luckily for me, my mom had one too many mixers and gave me her Bosch mixer and my life has been a dream since. The Bosch mixer isn't just a mixer, with attachments it's an entire army of kitchen tools. Aside from doing my taxes, I think that my Bosch can do anything. Just check out all the attachments you can get. I own pretty much all of them and my favorites are the food processor and the blender.
This isn't my mixer but the same model. On the base of the machine there is a little mixer kama sutra that shows all the exciting positions the mixer can be put in. Mmmmm..sexy... kinda. Not really.

The mixing attachments are attached to the middle of the bowl, unlike most mixers where the attachments are on a separate arm that gets lowered into the bowl. With most mixers you have the stop and scrape the bottom of the bowl where the attachment can't reach, a problem I've never had. Also, since the attachments are in the bowl I can remove the center of the lid and add ingredients while the mixer is moving. The lids are also great since they fully enclose the bowl so you don't want to worry about things spilling out. My favorite thing to do is to add all the flour at once, put on the lid and watch the flour cloud be contained to the bowl. The bowls I have are HUGE. I've tripled cookie batches and everything still mixes evenly.

The Bosch mixer is a work horse, it has more power than any Kitchen Aid I've used. My mixer is at least 12 years old and still runs perfectly. It runs like a champ and I can mix anything in it, including bread dough. When I first received my mixer I had to learn to not over mix because the mixer has so much power the mixing time is significantly reduced.
I'm not going to lie, Bosch mixers are significantly more than Kitchen Aid but I also believe that you get what you pay for.

Tips and Tools Tuesday: Parchment Paper

I don't know about you but when I was growing up when making cookies or really, any baked treats, when it came time to actually put the item in the oven we'd have to spray the cookie sheet. Cooking spray is pretty awful, it's pretty impossible to spray just the pan and when you're done baking you have to scrub the pan, trying to get the baked cooking spray off. Where there isn't a cookie, the spray bakes onto the pan and it's this horrible tacky yellow gunk that is near impossible to remove. When I would read through the baking instructions of a recipe and the phrase "grease and flour" appeared I pretty much knew that there was a 50% chance my beautiful baked item wasn't going to come out of the pan.

Muffin cups are pretty magical, aren't they? They keep the cupcake from sticking to the pan and it makes clean up a breeze. Parchment paper is pretty much the same idea but has so many uses that you'll never bake without it again. I never considered using parchment paper until I started my first bakery job in a grocery store bakery. They used parchment under EVERYTHING. Bread, cookies.. if it went in the oven it was pretty likely that there was parchment paper under it. When I switched jobs to a small commercial bakery I learned the they had even more uses for parchment paper.

Parchment paper is great for cookies because you'll never have to worry about cookies sticking to the pan. Just place a piece of parchment paper on the pan, place the dough on the paper and bake like normal. Your cookies turn out exactly the same but once they're cooled you can just lift them off without struggling with a spatula. And yes, there are nonstick pans these days but you still have to spend time cleaning them and hoping that you don't scratch the nonstick coating off. All the oil and butter from the cookies ends up on the parchment paper which you just throw away or recycle. Magic! To be fair, there are some cookies that still might stick (like macaroons) but spraying the parchment paper resolves that problem and it still helps you with cleanup. I like to stack cookies but some cookies have sticky bottoms (like oatmeal raisin) which makes stacking a headache. I cut up the parchment that I actually baked the cookies on and place a square between the cookies.

Even more impressive is using parchment paper under your cakes. Baking a cake can be a frustrating thing because sometimes you spend all the time and energy to bake a beautiful cake only to have the darn thing stick in the pan and sometimes even crumble or break as you try to unpan it. A trick I learned in the bakery; cut the parchment paper in a circle so that it fully covers the bottom of the cake pan but still lays flat. Bake your cake as normal and let it cool in the actual cake pan. Cover the top with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Because your cake is chilled it will be firm and more durable. To remove your cake the next day, tap the edge of the cake pan on the counter at a 45 degree angle. Rotate the pan and continue tapping. Eventually your cake will fall out, entact and beautiful. If the cake won't budge, try tapping harder or if all else fails, run a knife or spatula around the edge. Simply peel the paper off the bottom and you're done!

You can also make your own piping bag for decorating cakes with parchment. I've always used plastic bags but at the bakery I worked at we used melted chocolate to decorate with so I had to learn how to use parchment. Using parchment paper to decorate with is cheaper than buying a plastic bag and I always have parchment paper around but rarely remember to buy plastic piping bags. Plus, I like to save the plastic bags for when I'm using decorating tips. Here's a great video that shows how to fold a piping bag.

Parchment paper is avialable at pretty much any grocery store but it's sold on a roll, like foil. The paper will have a curl to it and I don't want to fight with the paper when I'm trying to scoop cookies. I prefer to buy parchment paper that is packaged flat. At gygi they have parchment paper in a 1/2 sheet size and a 1/4 sheet, it's up by the register. If you have the costco mentality and like buying in bulk to save, Standard Resturant supply has a great price.

Say wha? Grasshopper Brownies?!?

I've been thinking about it and you know what's missing from The Bumbling Bee's menu? Snickerdoodles. Who doesn't love a good snickerdoodle? Problem is, good snickerdoodles aren't as easy as I thought. Yesterday I baked a batch and they turned out like giant flat pancakes. The taste wasn't right either, it was more like a sugar cookie with a touch of cinnamon....close to a snickerdoodle but definitely not right. I've found that the best way to come up with a good recipe is to research other recipes to help troubleshoot your own. I think I might have worked something out so I'll be making even more snickerdoodles today, here's to high hopes!

I knew it was a long shot but I checked epicurious to see what they had to offer. I've used the website for dinner ideas but never used any of their baking recipes. As usual, I got distracted on their website and came across these little lovelies.

I looooove grasshopper cookies but I love brownies even more so I think this might be bad news for me! I don't think they'll work out for the bakery (maybe a tweaked version for a special..) but they would be a great addition to anyones cookie tray. Especially if that cookie tray ends up in my hands.

Tips and Tools Tuesday: Egg Whites

Beating egg whites are a great way to get volume to your cake and cookies but can also be a huge head ache. From separating the eggs to getting the right peak, there are a lot of opportunities for something to go wrong.

Separating yolks from whites

First, it's easiest to separate the yolk and white when the egg is cold; the white stays together better. There are different techniques and even little tools to help you separate the yolk from the egg whites but I've always used the old school method of cracking the egg, breaking the shell in half and shuffling the yolk between the two shells until the white is fully separated. Be careful though, when using the broken shell to transfer the yolk back and forth makes it more likely that the yolk will be punctured on the sharp edge of the shell.

I've also used the technique of cracking the egg into a bowl and using my fingers I gently cradle the yolk and let the whites slide through my fingers. When I need to separate a lot of eggs (in the commercial bakeries there were times when I had to separate over 50 eggs) I ALWAYS use the hand cradling method because it's faster. Even though the hand method is messier, it's preferred because it's less likely that the yolk will break.

Here's a video that shows both techniques; using the shell and using your hands.

I've worked with bakers who crack all the eggs into one large bowl and slowly remove the yolks one by one. I don't trust myself to do this because even the smallest bit of yolk will ruin the entire batch of whites so I prefer to get 3 separate bowls, one bowl I use for the actual process of separating of yolk and white (what I call the "action bowl") and then I use one bowl to hold the whites and the other for the yolk. After separating each egg I empty the action bowl. This way, if I break the yolk I can just wash out the action bowl and won't have to worry about all the other whites being contaminated. If you do get a little bit of yolk in the whites, all is not lost. Use a broken shell and scoop up the yolk. The yolk is attracted to the shell and makes it easier to fish out rather that using a spoon or your finger.

Building Egg Whites

You may think that you're ready to whip the whites but it's best to wait for the egg whites to come to room temperature. If you're impatient, you can whip the whites while they are cold but it takes a lot longer. If you're mixing by hand I definitely, definitely suggest that you wait for the whites to come to room temperature. Before adding the egg whites to a mixing bowl make sure that the bowl is clean. Any trace amount of fat (butter, grease) will deflate you egg whites which is why it's imperative that the egg whites don't contain any yolk. Begin beating your whites on low and gradually increase the speed. Once the egg whites have become opaque and are at a soft peak, if in the recipe, gradually add the sugar. The sugar will help stiffen the egg whites. Be careful not to over beat, if over mixed the egg whites will deflate and become liquid again. Beat the eggs to the desired thickness. Dip your finger in the egg whites, if the tip of peak falls over when you remove your finger, it's soft. If the peak stand straight up, it's firm. Another sign of stiff egg whites is when the wire whip is making ribbons while it mixes. You'll notice that the ribbons will become more defined the stiffer the egg whites get. If you added sugar to the whites you'll also notice a glossy look to the whites.

Remember, always watch the bowl. While baking I've been distracted and left egg whites mixing for too long. By the time I remembered them the egg whites were so firm they were super dense, almost like marshmallows. It made it incredibly hard to incorporate into the rest of the batter so pay attention!

When incorporating egg whites into the batter it is important to be gentle while folding. If you are too aggressive with folding in the egg whites (stirring instead of folding) you will deflate the egg whites and all that work will be for nothing.

Not sure how to fold egg whites? No problem, I've made a quick little video.

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.

Must.. eat.. cookies!

Bah! I can't help myself, I have to post a few teaser photos. I'm resizing the pictures for the website and they just look soooooo good! Some friends offered to take the pictures for us and they turned out amazing.

website woes

We are working feverishly this weekend to get the website up and functional. There's a lot more work than I anticipated. I'm just so so lucky to have a husband that is computer friendly.

Something that I had thought about but never really focused on was sampler trays. Today we bundled some of our favorite stuff into samplers and it's awfully exciting. I love everything we have on our menu but when you mix stuff up into a box full of tasty, I don't know, it just seems like it could really make someones day to get a sampler of cookies and brownies.

Our goal is to get the website up by tonight, here's to high hopes and a lot more work!

The Bumbling Bee, finally taking off!

Imaginary drumroll please...

The big announcement is that yesterday the bumbling bee was finally certified by the department of agriculture which means that .... dramatic pause... we're now open for business!! After 3 very long months of waiting patiently we finally have all our t's crossed and i's dotted. I put in my notice at my day job and soon enough the bumbling bee will be a dream come true. There's still a list of things to do, the first of which is to finish the website. We're also working on our holiday treats, so far the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are a huge hit and a must have on our menu.

Thank you all so much for being so patient with us. This moment has been a long time coming and has taken a lot of work and faith. Now I can offer delicious treats to everyone I meet and official call myself a business owner. Cheers to that!

little bit slower but far from dead

Sorry for the lack of updates! The day job has been taking every waking moment and every stitch of energy. Big news on Wednesday though, stay tuned!!

monkey business

Through the grapevine my husband heard that a coworker was looking for a bakery that would do a custom cake for his son's 1st birthday. Knowing that finding a bakery that will do a custom cake for a reasonable price is hard to find, I offered to do it for him. They gave me a reference to what they'd like and I did my own little take on it.

The cake is a yellow cake with chocolate buttercream filling and crumb coating. To match the glaze on the ear doughnuts I did a chocolate ganache on the face topped with a cut out layer of fondant for the bottom half. The nose is jellybeans and the little poky hairs at the top are black licorice jimmies. The eyes are colored fondant. I was super pleased with how this cake turned out.

bumbling along

We have been working hard to get our website up and going by September 1st but as luck would have it, we're still waiting on approval from some of the government agencies. There has been some back and forth and it seems like things are starting to make some progress on their side so hopefully within a few weeks we'll be good to go.

We had a difficult time at the zoning office because of our unique situation being that we're a cottage bakery. There was much researching and talking to management only to have summer vacations get in the way. We finally cleared things up with them and then waltzed across the hall to get our business license and it took mere minutes (and a lot of money!) and ta-da, we had our business license, just like that. We were dumbfounded that it was so easy compared to everything else.

Labor day weekend was spent baking every menu item because we took photos for our website. Some friends offered to take pictures for us and since they have a knack for it and have turned out some really great looking photos of food, we jumped all over their offer. There's converting and editing to be done on the photos but from what we saw on the camera screen ... well, I'm super excited.

This week I'm searching for super cute boxes/baskets for corporate gifts for this holiday season. I'm also thinking about Christmas specials, you know, those baked goods that totally undo your dieting plans but are totally worth it. Suggestions are always welcome!

not far from the lemon tree

We took a small side trip from the usual baking list and offered to do a cake for a friend of my sister who recently had some unpleasantness come into her life. My sister suggested that since I was making a cake for her friend, I might as well make one for her. We needed something notarized so we took it into her workplace where it was well received, very well. My sister is a lemon addict so I didn't even have to ask her what flavor she suggested. She even provided the lemons. The cake with the lemon curd on top went to her work, the one with the dots went to her friend.

heaven in a pan

I decided that I wanted to be a little bit adventurous and not do a cobbler with the blackberries I got at the farmers market. I made the most delicious blackberry bread pudding. I don't know if it's because I've never made bread pudding or that I've never tasted any decent bread pudding - but what I made totally rocked my world. It was literally the first thing I was a little disappointed to give up, which is exactly why I had to give it up. The bread pudding itself was divine but top it with some brown sugar sauce and it is HEAVEN. Forget birthday cake, for my birthday I am making up a giant pan of this stuff.

now THOSE are some berries!

Check out what I scored at the farmers market!

They weren't on the grocery list but they just looked too good, I couldn't pass them up. Now I just have to think of something delicious to make with them. A cobbler sounds tasty but a little too expected. So many options, so little time before I eat them all plain.

it's snowing in the kitchen!

I've been in the kitchen a lot lately. I finally found the perfect fudge brownie! It took a lot of tries and a lot of tampering with the ingredient levels but I think I finally can rest. Whew.

I decided to make a mess of my kitchen by doing cookies that are covered in powdered sugar. I made what most people know as wedding cookies. Pecan shortbread with powdered sugar on the outside. Mmmhmm. I also made chocolate fudge crackles. The crackles were a pain because the dough has to chill and it's hard to tell when they're done but they are worth the effort. I had to sample a few (a proper baker always samples the finished product, right?) and since it was pretty late at night I was on a sugar high when I should have been sleeping. Note to self, cookies are not a bed time snack.

Excuse the exceptionally poor photos, the lighting isn't the best.

the perfect brownie, take 2

I'm still on a brownie mission, this time I decided to test out some flavors. I decided to go with the two most popular, mint and raspberry. I added some green food coloring to the mint so I could tell them apart but I apparently didn't put enough. The mint brownie was an instant hit for me. I set some aside to snack on and I have to admit that they're already gone.

I'm calling the raspberry batch Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie. Yum, right? I didn't even bother taking a picture of them because I didn't think they turned out that great but after sampling them a day later I thought that I must have been nutso because they were pretty tasty.

Samples have been delivered to the taste tester (ie, my sister), we'll see what the results are.

the perfect brownie, take 1

Is there nothing more evil than a pan of brownies coming out the oven? I get so incredibly tempted by the smell but I know that I need to give it a few hours to cool. From the smell of the 3 batches I just pulled out I'm almost willing to suffer the 2nd degree burns in my mouth. Today my goal was to figure out a recipe for the perfect brownie. I've tried quite a few brownies in my day but none of the recipes changed my life. I hope that I have a winner out of the 3! If not, I'm always up for making more brownies. Yum.

ice cream sandwich anyone?

Thanks to all of those who were able to come out to the stuffed animal drive yesterday at the Riverton Iceberg. There were some fancy looking cars and some great raffle prizes.

We decided that cookies and ice cream are best friends, practically siblings, and should be paired together as often as possible.

Congrats to Nadia C. from Riverton for winning our raffle prize of an oversized sampler. Hopefully she'll have some friends to share with!

cookie factory

My brother in law is participating in a small local charity event tomorrow and offered to let us have a small display at this booth. We decided to offer up a tray of cookies for people to snack on and we also have our own raffle going on. The winner will get an oversized sampler of some super tasty stuff. For anyone who wants to stop by, the details are;

Salt Lake sCiKoTiCs Birthday Bash
and Teddy Bear Patrol

Day / Date: Saturday August 1 2009
Time: 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Place: Iceberg Drive Inn
Address: 13400 South 5049 West, Riverton UT 84065

Scikotics are just a local car club that love Scions, no need to protect the young and elderly from this group :).

Tonight we've been playing cookie factory and baking a lot of cookies. Mike has become involved in the baking and he made all the cookies tonight with minimal supervision. I've been told that I have a talent when it comes to baking but sometimes I feel that anyone can do it, it's just following instructions. Well, tonight we found out that my instructions are not very clear. When I typed out the recipes I didn't bother with all the details of how long to mix things and what size the cookie dough should be when placed on the baking sheet. These are all details that I know, that are engrained in my soul and I didn't consider the fact that someone else might be using my recipes. Oops. Everything still turned out great and now my recipes are in tip top shape.

just because they're quick doesn't mean they're easy

I've been working out and testing recipes for quick breads and it's a lot of work. So far I've come up with a bunch of duds. I tried my hand at a blueberry oatmeal bread and it was so bland and dry. Since I had 2 loaves I tried to make good use of it by making french toast out of it but it was so dry that it fell apart. I just had to move on, too frustrating!

I tried out an apple rhubarb bread that I absolutely loved the flavor of but it was very ugly and the texture was off. Rhubarb is a little difficult to get and the taste isn't super common so I'm wondering if it's even worth messing around with to get the texture right. My sister liked it so maybe I'll mess around with it a little later on.

I've also tried to master a sweet potato bread. I love sweet potatoes and in my world there is nothing tastier than a sweet potato french fry. Mmmhmm. I tried two variations of a recipe and both turned out way too sweet and spicy and the sweet potato flavor was completely lost. The looked beautiful, smelled beautiful but in the end I was left with just another sweet bread with no impressive flavor. I am definitely going to mess around with the spice and potato ratio, I love sweet potatoes too much to just give up on this one.

busy bee

So I've fallen off the face of the earth since a week or two before my sisters wedding and the few weeks after. I am happy to say that I have rested and am now ready to get my butt into action regarding the bakery. I've been doing research today and was elated to sign up for some free workshops and counseling at SCORE. The SCORE gang offers free advise to those of us who are crazy enough to start their own business. I think that after these meetings I'll not only be super pumped to get this puppy rolling but I'll have some advice as to which direction to put my energy towards.

For the time being I'm still working on recipes but need to focus more on packaging. I'm one tiny step away from finishing the kitchen before scheduling the inspection with the dept of ag. One of my sisters friends offered to help with photographing my items now I just to find someone to help me with my graphics for the website and marketing.

spicy goodness

Today we got my freezer, the last big purchase. I've been working on converting the recipes and by tomorrow I should have that completed. Up next is making every single thing to test the size, packaging and shelf life. I'm going to have A LOT of cookies over the next few weeks. 

Speaking of cookies, today I made a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip in order to test out a new recipe. Overall a pretty good success, just needs some minor tweaking. I made the pumpkin because my husband loves spice cookies and he's been working all weekend so I wanted to make a little treat for him. To make sure that I have everything that I need I made the cookies with the bakery items. It was great to have everything in one spot. I knew where everything was and it was magical. I didn't have to dig around, pull out stuff in order to get to what I needed. I feel so grateful to have this opportunity and to have such a supportive husband. 

Sorry for the crappy pic, I just used photo booth for convenience sake. 

mediocre people do exceptional things all the time

We've been working hard on getting this whole cottage kitchen together, so hard in fact that I rarely have the energy to update. On Sunday we took on the task of emptying out our storage cabinet in the kitchen in order to delegate it as 'bakery only'. One of the requirements for a cottage kitchen is to have your everyday utensils (spoons, mixing bowls, rolling pins..everything!) separate from the items you need to use in order to run a bakery. I thought that reorganizing the kitchen would be quick and somewhat easy but my husband as a touch of OCD and had a strong opinion of where things should go. I only wanted to use half of the storage unit, he wanted me to use all of it. After much negotiation I am happy to announce that our ikea storage unit in the kitchen devoted to the bakery. Whew. 

Last night we bought a great mini fridge for the bakery. Not only do I have to keep my cutting boards and mixing bowls separate but I also have to keep anything that needs to be refrigerated  or frozen separate. This new fridge seems a little large at first since I basically need it to store eggs, milk, butter but I also realized that down the line I might be doing cakes and I need a fridge to chill the cakes while I'm setting them up and frosting them. While doing my sisters practice wedding cake I quickly realized that the fridge is a necessity in cake construction. Soon enough I'm going to get a chest freezer to keep in the basement. Aside from business insurance, the fridge and freezer are the biggest investment so I consider last night the no turning back point. 

I've been working on converting my recipes from bits of paper that are scattered around into excel spreadsheets. I have to submit my recipes to the Dept of Food and Agriculture to ensure that they are people friendly so I figured that I might as well just get them all in one place and consistent. I'm also reading through all the documentation that the Dept emailed me and starting to get a grip on what's going on. My plan is to focus all my energy on getting this thing going until the distraction of my sisters wedding. 

Short and honey sweet

I'm really tired so this is going to be pretty short a sweet. 

After some stress at the bakery I currently work at, I suddenly found the encouragement to get my butt in action in regards to The Bumbling Bee. Mike and I went on a shopping spree to get duplicates of all the items I need in order to run a bakery since bakery items have to be kept separate from everyday living items. Needless to say, it's a long list and thus a long day of errands. 

Today I registered the name at all the hot spots, gmail, twitter .. you know, all of the places that the cool kids hang out. 

I do indeed have the sweetest cakes

With my sisters wedding peeping it's head around the corner I decided that I needed to do a practice wedding cake. The few tiered cakes that I've attempted have turned out well.. not good.. so I really wasn't comfortable giving it a go the day before the wedding. I set myself a delivery date in order to get myself in check.

Ok, so I'm going to disclose a secret that apparently only those in the food industry know. When you get a cake chances VERY likely that at some point in it's life it's been frozen. I know I know! The nerve! You wanted something fresh! Logistically it is pretty much impossible to have a business run on cakes that are made to order. I know that some bakeries do claim that they do this but they either have 18 people on staff or only do 1 cake a week. So, for the rest of us in the real world we bake cakes in a larger quantity and freeze them. In fact, at the grocery store I worked at we didn't bake a single cake. All those sheet cakes that go flying out the doors? Frozen. All those pretty cakes in the display case? Either frozen cakes that are decorated on site and some are even brought into the store already decorated. Crazy, I know, it surprised me too. But the truth is people, I don't use preservatives in my baking and in order to keep items fresh and tasty, I freeze them. Trust me, you would never be able to tell, they taste fantastical.

I disclose the dirty secret about the freeze because after buying the pan I quickly realized that a 14" cake was not going to fit into my side by side freezer. In order to keep the cake from drying out I had to bake the cakes close to the delivery date and since I only had 1 pan I had to bake them at separate times. All in all it worked out and I no longer fear over sized cakes. 

The bottom layer of the cake was a vanilla cake with a filling of pastry cream and fresh raspberries. The middle layer was a lemon cake with layers of lemon curd and butter cream frosting. The top cake was a chocolate cake the a chocolate mousse filling. My sister didn't ask for chocolate but I was so sick of making lemon that I had to do a chocolate one in order to keep my sanity. I covered each layer with marshmallow fondant. In a nutshell this thing was a BEAST. I am not comfortable in disclosing how much butter I used in it but I will say that it was A LOT. I was covered in powdered sugar from making the marshmallow fondant but it was worth it because it was super tasty and way better then your typical fondant. The bottom layer of the cake is a little jacked up, I wasn't striving for perfection and when the fondant started to stick to itself when I was applying it to the cake I just kept going. Of course I would have redone the fondant if this was anything but a practice cake. I also didn't want to really decorate it but had some gum paste flowers hanging around so I used them to cover the seams.

All in all, a huge success. The cakes were tasty, the cake was sturdy and the whole experience was a huge esteem boost when it comes to the actual wedding cake. 

The bumbling bee takes off!

I decided to start a food blog because I felt like my personal blog was becoming nothing but cakes and cookies. This isn't just a food blog though, I'm going to be commenting on my journey on starting my own bakery. I never thought I'd be a business order but after some research into cottage kitchens, it all seems very plausible now. There is some cost associated with the start up and there are pretty strict rules that need to be followed but I think it's pretty great that the state realizes that people are able to produce products out of their house in a safe and customer friendly way.

I decided to name my bakery The Bumbling Bee because well ... I love Utah. Seems corny I know but I really like living in the state and especially downtown. A few months ago my husband and I went on a tour of the capital and the bee motif is everywhere and it is gorgeous. Even the base guards around the tree trunks downtown have a honeycomb pattern. Plus it's an adorable name. A little nod towards the state and a cute bakery name, what isn't there to love?