EAT THIS NOW.

Do it. Make this. Any prepare to delve into the creamy, richness immediately. You will not be able to hold back. Just prepare ;)

Chocolate Fudge Pie (Minus the crust if you wish)

• 1 package silken or firm tofu, 12.3 oz
• 2 tsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 T nondairy milk....soy, almond, coconut, etc.
• pinch of salt
• 8-12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
• (optional) 2-3 T sweetener....honey, agave, stevia, etc.
• (optional) flavored liqueurs, extracts, flavoring

Melt the chocolate (microwave works fine). Add all ingredients to food processor, and blend until silky and smooth. Transfer to individual serving dishes, one giant bowl, a pie crust, mini pie crusts. Anything really. 

Chill in refrigerator.

Enjoy! Or else.

Side note: No one will know you used tofu in this recipe. Seriously, you can't tell.

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Apple Braid

Found this recipe while browsing the web this week, and it sounded fabulous tonight. Very simple, perfect for Sunday night fun activity to wind down before beginning another busy week. From start to finish, this took probably an hour or less. You slice the apples, and begin the baking process while the dough is developing. Then you roll out the dough, slice it, fill it, and braid. Stick in the oven, and about 30 min later....voila! Brush with simple, rich icing, and you have a scrumptious breakfast treat for the week. (or night).

Here is the link to the recipe and a great website for more recipes:
http://www.eatliverun.com/apple-braid/

I altered the cooking time to 30-35 minutes. Also, you can leave the skins on the apple slices if you wish...no biggie...and added nutrients.  Also I despise peeling apples.


Happy baking,
Love.

Recent projects

Yummy. Truffle brownies. Momma's recipe. The best, as always. 

Bacon-weave!

Lunch today. Veggie pasta with a parmesan-white wine pesto sauce and vine-ripened diced tomato. In tribute to the photographer who said I was fat last week. Right. Well, I'd rather be healthy and eat like a lady than have a sunken-in, malnourished body. Cheers, everyone!

Just for kicks. Obsessed with all kinds of pancakes lately. These were from 2 am after closing shift with one of my best friends the other day. Definitely the best Denny's pancakes I have tasted. They usually suck there, but you go anyways because it's the only place open in town. But these were actually good. For reals! Candied pecan/banana wheat pancakes.

Sketch for mini wedding cake. (the vintage bride/groom did not fit on the final product :( )

Peanut butter truffle with dark chocolate chip cookies.

First wedding cake EVER. Done.

Want some whoopie?

Catering event last weekend for debutantes.....raspberry dark and white chocolate truffle brownies. Mini lemon/lime creme pie bites with meringue. Pink cream cheese frosted shortbread sugar cookies with pearl dust.

Baking/Pastry Practicum Final Semester 2

Chamomile-lemon-honey custard pie

Heating pad on my bread to get it rising on a particularly cold day in sunny cali...it worked!

Vanilla bean creme brulee (Mom's favorite)

Monkey bread. Truly!

Gluten free sinfully delicious chocolate-peppermint cookies. Yummy chewy texture.

Gum paste experiment

Coffee bean and tea leaf tea tour.

Creme brulee....grapefruit/citrus and french vanilla

Vegan Cookie Friday.

My little brother's birthday cake. 

Reeses cake filled with peanut butter cream, frosted with nutella. Perfect for a group of teenage boys.

Mini Wedding Cake

Valentines Challah Bread

Pastillage

This semester I am taking Advanced Pastry Arts Class, and am LOVING it. The project for this week and last was working with pastillage. AKA Sugar HELL. I had heard from past classmates how much they despised working with pastillage, but thought "Oh, they're just whining. I will be able to do it. Easy-peasy." Well, they were right. My plan was to mold a hand as my pastillage base, palm up, with flowers and pearls overflowing out of it. Cool, right?? Well in theory, would have been awesome. We did the rolling out and molding of the dough last week so they could dry out for class this week. Today, we sanded, constructed our pieces, and painted them. 

Basically, I picked up my pastillage hand (no, not my real hand), and the index finger fell right off. Just snap. OOPS. Not off to such a great start.....but okay, I figured I could take some of the royal icing later on after I finished sanding the millions of pieces (around 30) and "glue" it back. At that moment, chef walked by and noticed my struggle unfortunately. And said my hand was not dainty enough to use. So I had to dispose of it :( Which left me without a centerpiece for my project :(( So I had a flat rectangle for my base, three hearts, and about 20 petals for flowers to compose my project out of. Boo. So, alas, I did not have much choice other than flowers at that point which left my quite despondent to the amusement of my bench partners I'm sure. 

From there, I sanded for the first half hour or so to get smooth pastillage pieces. Then grabbed the royal icing (in a bag for piping), and set out on the construction of my flowers. That went ok, so I moved on to painting. We used gel food colorings mixed with vodka (because water would dissolve the sugarwork, but vodka will evaporate quickly). Painting went relatively well. I had some minor mishaps which involved cracking my pieces three times in different places, but was able to make it work out in my favor. Thankyou God. 

All in all, I have never heard every student in my class cuss as much as we all did in class tonight as we took turns with our art pieces breaking, and needing to start over and over and over again. But we did it :)

Oh, and I don't plan on using pastillage again for a very long time because it tastes gross, is ridiculously frustrating to work with, and no one really wants to eat it!!

Back to Blogging....Take Two!!

Hey Everyone,
I am going to start up my blogsite for real this time! Not like last summer where I wrote a few times, and quickly staggered off to nothing (could also be attributed to lack of internet service..).
So.....let's get baking!! And talking food....and whatever else comes up, eh?