I'm Bonafied!

Tonight I graduated from Wilton I Cake Decorating Class. What an accomplishment! Here's my final cake. I didn't know what inscription to use, so Dave came up with an appropriate one. We shall celebrate Punxsuatawney Phil (yes, I looked it up) with a Devilsfood, Crisco and Sugar confection. I'm quite proud of the roses. They turned out well - and were the most fun to make. In fact, the beginning stages sent a bit of a twitter throughout the class.

You see, to start out a rose you need to pipe a 1-inch high tube-shaped pile of frosting on top of a piece of waxed paper (visualize a chocolate kiss, but skinnier). Then, you take a ribbon-type tip and pipe a little shawl around the very top of the tube. This is intended to form the internal bud of the rose. However, what you end up with looks just like a circumsized penis!! You don't know HOW much I wished I had my camera so that you, my blog-reading pretties, could see this!!

You can imagine the giggles when, in the spirit of practice we each piped ten tube-shaped piles of frosting, and then enrobed them in their little 'shawls'. It looked like we each had a garden of little 1" tall penis seedlings sprouting up around us. Of course, this is a very conservative town, so I chuckled internally until I heard several others snickering about theirs....especially one lady who was working on pale pink flowers.

The giggling was short-lived, however when we moved on to the next step of piping the rest of the leaves on the roses. Then it was back to work.

So there you have it. I'm grad-je-ated. Not sure if I'll take the next class in the series. It's a LOT of prep work, and there's still that aversion/repulsion with the Crisco frosting to consider.

Sorry I've been neglecting you again. Actually, it's for good business-related reasons. I have been focusing on a couple of things lately - mainly planning a Tasting event for the neighborhood ladies. A week from tonight the gals will come over and sample my wares. I'm making 3-4 cakes and 2 types of individual cheesecakes. I'm also making cupcakes for each lady to take home.

Another time-sucker is that I have come up with a cool new way to make and package cupcakes, which I will share with you soon. I'm just nervous about letting the cat out of the bag, lest Ms. Martha Whatshername steal my idea. I want it to be my 'good thing' for a while. Cupcakes are really big right now, so I want to try to capture some business in that space.

Along with all that, I have applied to the state for dibs on the business name "Buttercream" by paying my $50 to secure it for 10 years. Now I'm just waiting for them to tell me it's mine. (Apologies to you who have expressed the opinion that 'Buttercream Dreams' is a better name than just 'Buttercream'. When you get your own cake baking business you can name it that! Neener Neener. Seriously, I thought my blog title was pretty clever - Buttercream Dreams because this blog is about my quest to realize my dream of owning a business called Buttercream. Get it??)

So you see I have been moving right along....just not always bringing you along for the ride like I should. Mea culpa.

We're Not Special-Worthy

Dave and I dine out frequently – probably 1-3 times a week – and always at different restaurants. Sometimes we dine at restaurants that feature daily Specials. Daily Specials are interesting to me because (hopefully) either they feature something the chef is experimenting with, a departure from the ordinary – or because they feature some especially fresh and/or exotic ingredient that isn’t available on a consistent basis. (Anthony Bourdain would tell you that daily Specials are created to ‘move’ the food that is otherwise destined for the trashcan. Fortunately, I have the ability to suppress this bit of insider info when I dine out.)

Regardless of their origin, we hardly ever hear about these illusive and mysterious Specials – which makes me want them that much more. You see, we’re consistently victims of Special discrimination. Here’s the way it usually goes: We’re seated, menus are dealt, preliminary courtesies are exchanged with the waiter/waitress. This is followed by drink orders being taken, drinks delivered, the waiter takes our order, first course is delivered yada yada – typical restaurant meal progression. At some point while we're enjoying our meal people are seated at another table nearby. Then, as they work through their pre-meal progression, we overhear their waiter – usually the same one who is waiting on us – rattle off a list of Tonight's Specials! Dave and I usually look wide-eyed at each other at this point. What!? Why were we not offered a list of Specials? Are we not Special-worthy?

Really – this happens about 75% of the time, and we cannot figure out why. It’s not as if we are so resolute in our menu choices so as to appear as though we do not need additional suggestions. We're flexible! We can be swayed by Specials. It’s not as though we’re not congenial with our wait staff – because we do ask questions, leave ourselves open to dialog, etc. So we’re always amazed when we overhear what we could have eaten offered to the table next to us. Most of the time, there’s something on the Specials list one of us would have ordered. It's the darndest thing.

So I’ve decided on a two-pronged approach to get to the bottom of this discrimination. First, I plan to do a little debrief the next time this happens. The next time we overhear someone else being told about Specials that we were not offered I will ask our waiter to explain why we were not given the same courtesy. I want to understand their profiling criteria because if we exude some unapproachable attitude I want to know about it! I feel we are extremely Special-worthy.

As an alternate approach, maybe I should just start asking if there are any Specials as a matter of course. This would nip any discriminatory practice in the bud. Seriously – this must be stopped. Next thing you know, they’ll start profiling the offering of dessert based on weight – which would make me extremely cranky - since I look as though I should pass on that molten lava chocolate cake. We must stop the madness.

Then again, if what Anthony Bourdain says is true, maybe I’m better off not knowing about the Specials.

What I Should Have Said

This weekend my sister turned 50 years young. Her kids planned a party, and we all gathered to celebrate Wendy. When the time came to toast the guest of honor I mumbled a few dumb stories, but didn’t say exactly what I feel about my sister. So, since this is my blog and I get to pick the subject matter – neener neener - here’s what I should have said to that crowd of 40 or so who gathered:

My sister is an amazing woman. Granted, younger kids usually look up to their older siblings, but in this case my adoration is well-deserved. My sister has faced more than her share of adversity in her short 50 years. More than most face in a lifetime. Through marital problems, financial strife, the serious health issues of a spouse and major structural issues with her house she has always maintained a pretty even balance. There have been times when this woman just could not catch a break. Yet she always seemed to smile through the trouble. Sometimes I don’t know where she gets her strength. I admire her so much for that.

She is a nurturer like no other. Everyone around her, including co-workers (Hello, Steris!) feels taken under her wing. She gives so much to so many – including her children who are better for all that she has done for them. They are all terrific young adults with bright futures ahead. I just hope they appreciate all of the sacrifices she has made (and continues to make!) for them.

My sister is also highly intelligent, as I’ve mentioned here before. In fact, I love to brag about her chemistry major and biology and physics minors – and the fact that she has a job where the word ‘micro-organism’ is used on a daily basis. She was a wiz in school – graduating in the top 5 people in her class in high school. I admire this about her, since it never came easy to me. She has a bit of our grandfather’s engineering genious in her, too, when it comes to household repairs. Anything that requires tinkering or adjusting seems to intrigue her. She and her husband have also tackled some major home improvement projects and they’ve had great success.

Wendy has an amazing gift of gab and a great sense of humor. Sometimes it takes her a minute, but she’s quick with a laugh and a smile. She’s always ready with a story or an anecdote – told with a healthy dose of her bubbling personality and many hand gestures.

My sister is one of my biggest fans. She’s always been very supportive of everything I’ve done, for which I’m most appreciative. She is quick to point out my strengths when I can only see my weaknesses. She listens to my problems, encourages me to follow my dreams, and even tolerates my Martha Stewart-like tendencies. She is the best at giving big-sisterly advice. Most importantly, she has welcomed Dave, Sarah and Megan into the family with open arms – for which I will be eternally grateful. (Now, if we could only get her to stop talking about how tall Dave is…..!)

Wendy and I are very different – anyone who knows us will agree – yet we share a deep love and respect for each other and for our parents and brother. We are sisters first, but we are friends foremost.

Happy 50th Birthday Big Seeeeester! You’re not old!
I Love You!

p.s. Oh yeah, I made the cake. I call it Mocha Espresso Madness.
(Chocolate cake filled with chocolate espresso mousse and chocolate ganache, frosted with Chocolate Buttercream)

Behind the Scenes at Buttercream

I haven’t blogged in several days but that does not mean that I am not workin’ it behind the scenes. Here’s an update on everything going on in the cake biz:

That Darned Class So in our last episode I explained the evil Wilton ways, and vowed to revolt against mediocre ingredients. Well, this weekend I reluctantly but dutifully submitted and made said boxed cake mix and frosted it with said evil Crisco frosting – which we were supposed to color using, of course, Wilton icing coloring. (After doing so, I had bits of purple and green Crisco on almost every surface in my kitchen.) Then I packed it up, along with the 2 boxes of equipment we were told to bring, and schlepped it off (in the pouring rain, no less) to the next session. We proceeded to spend 7/8 of the class practicing decorating strokes with our piping bags on a board using various tips. We then spent 1/8 of the class decorating our cakes. Of course we did not finish before we were kicked out by the Joann folks (Store closes in 5 minutes). So now I have a semi-decorated cake, for which I have lost all enthusiasm. Here it is:

Now notice that the base frosting is not smooth. That's because I used the old paper towel trick our instructor told us about. You take a paper towel and put it on top of the iced cake and smooth it with your hand to make the frosting smooth out. What she failed to mention is that it you shouldn't use paper towels with any sort of pattern. *sigh*

Cyber-Fabulous Earlier this week I met with a guy at work who does website design work on the side. I showed him baking sites that appeal to me visually and gave him a storyboard (a technical term…ahem) with my ideas and sent him off to design me a website. I am aquiver with anticipation. After all, when you’re ‘on the web’ you’re somebody….. right?

Work with me Baby I have another co-worker who takes amazing photographs…so I enlisted his tutelage regarding my photography needs....because the cakes I feature on my website need to look fabulous, right? That's what will make people want to pay me money to have one. So he actually took the time to come up with a hand-out of tips for me, played with my camera to help me figure out how best to use it, and offered continuing consultation services!! Weeeeeeee! I’ll be baking for that man and his family…let me tellya! Whatever he wants. Now I just need to practice my photog skills and get a tripod. (Although Dave would say I already have one. Hee hee.)

Chocolate!! When you bake professionally you have to have supplies. You can’t run to the grocery store every time someone needs a cake. It just isn’t cost-effective. So, I’ve been doing a little research on suppliers and decided to order bulk chocolate over the internet. Alas, yesterday 50 lbs of Callebaut chocolate were delivered to my doorstep!! I ordered 3 kinds – bittersweet, unsweetened and white chocolate. I figured I saved about about 28% over supermarket cost by ordering in bulk....which is one benefit. The other major bene being that I now have the satisfaction of knowing that my PMS cravings can be sated with a quick jog to the basement!! (I have a mental image of Dave discovering a PMS-ravaged Lindi sitting on the floor in the dark in the basement with a 22 lb bag of chocolate spilled all over, a mouthful of chocolate pellets and melted chocolate goodness smeared all over my guilty face.)

So you see, I’ve been terribly busy trying to bring more structure and formality to this thing I call my little business. Believe me, I’ve felt guilty every night about not blogging more frequently. I promise to be better next week.

Just Say No to Clowns

As one embarks on a new business idea it’s important for that individual to assess their strengths and weaknesses in order to build on the weaknesses, right? So that’s what I decided to do with regard to cake/pastry decorating. I’m self-taught and it shows. So I searched and searched for some sort of ‘legitimate’ pastry class (remember, I am a food snob so a legitimate class would be offered by the French Pastry Institute or the Culinary Institute of America) but of course this is Columbus, Ohio so I am left with very few choices – namely the Wilton cake decorating classes offered at Joann Fabrics and Michaels Craft Stores. *sigh*

Now Wilton is a fine company that has been teaching amateur home bakers how to decorate their kids’ birthday cakes for decades. They even get pretty advanced in their wedding cake courses. But let us all remember why Lindi is here. To differentiate her business from the character cake (Sponge Bob is a popular cake character these days) and the wedding cake markets. We’re going for upscale gourmet fare here, right? Right!

So you can imagine my internal strife last night as I endured the week 1 demonstration on how to make the “Wilton Recipe” frosting. First you take a cup of Crisco (cringe), 2 cups of Powdered Sugar (ok, breathe), 1 tsp of Wilton Vanilla flavoring (wince), ½ tsp of Wilton Butter Flavoring (the bile begins to rise)…you get the picture.

My visceral reaction is due to the fact that this one frosting recipe goes against the core of my cake baking being. I use the highest quality ingredients in my cakes. No shortening to be found. No imitation this, artificial that. It is painfully obvious that this course (and the Wilton method) is all about how a cake looks – not how it tastes. (Well, it’s also about selling us $150 worth of Wilton product too.) So I found myself having an internal dialog that sounded something like this:

“Ok you just need to play along with this part of it so that you can learn the decorating skills. Forget about what’s in the cake for once – you’re focusing on learning the principles of decorating here.”

I took a lot of deep breaths.

So the assignments over the course of the class will be to bake and base-frost a cake per week at home, and bring them in to class to decorate. I will most certainly photograph my progress for your enjoyment. The decorating part should be fun if I can put aside my snobbishness about the ingredients.

I will have another dilemma when it comes to the finished cakes. They will not live up to my quality standards taste-wise – so what should I do with them? I will be using boxed mixes (sacrilege!) since I don’t want to waste my precious ingredients on a cake that will be topped with shortening-based frosting. I suppose I can bring them to work and caveat their existence with a disclaimer about it being a decorating exercise. After all….some of these people are my clients, and all of them have tasted lots of my cakes. I have a reputation to uphold.

Ok, enough snootiness. Well….maybe not.

Oh yeah, the clowns. So I was looking over the materials list and under week 4 it says that we need to purchase “2 Small Derby clown heads”. I got a good laugh out of that since I took a vow early on in life that I would never feature a clown in any of my cooking or baking or decorating, or clothing. Basically I just denounced clowns in general. Anyway the assignment for week 4 is to make this cake. Check out the photo. Scary, huh? Maybe I'll be sick. Oh wait! I have book club that night!!! Yay!!

Very anticlimactic

I was crestfallen when I opened the envelope from the OH Department of Agriculture yesterday and pulled from it this piece of copy paper. I know a gilt edged document on certificate bond is a little much to ask for from a government agency but couldn’t they have at least used a template that had a little scrollwork around the edges?

Really folks, this is hardly frameworthy. Couldn't someone have spent 2 minutes on www.microsoft.com and downloaded a certificate template? Besides…I should get something a little nicer for my $10.

Nevertheless, I am officially a licensed home bakery. So I got that going for me….which is nice.

Bowl Game Food

Yesterday we had friends over to watch the Fiesta Bowl featuring the local boys from OSU against the Golden Domers of Notre Dame. (This event is a.k.a. the closest OSU fans will come to having a religious experience – or so you would think, with all of the carrying on they do for weeks before and after. Can you tell I’m ‘not from around here’?)

Of course we needed good hearty fare to sustain us through the game, so I fixed a nice Cheddar Corn Chowder and made these really yummy chicken sandwiches. Both were a hit, although I might add bacon to the sandwiches next time. I always love avocado and bacon together. A couple of suggestions: Make sure the chicken is still a little warm when you toss with the aioli so the chicken can absorb more of the garlic and tarragon flavors. Get it right into the fridge afterwards until you’re ready to make the sandwiches and serve.

Chicken, Watercress and Avocado Sandwiches with Tarragon Garlic Aioli

The aioli is quickly made by mixing garlic and tarragon into purchased mayonnaise.

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh tarragon
  (I used dried and it was fine)
• 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves; 1 minced, 1 halved
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves
• 8 center slices country white bread (each about 5x3 inches), toasted
• 1 bunch watercress, stems trimmed
  (I used regular red leaf lettuce since the grocery store did not have watercress)
• 2 avocados, halved, pitted, peeled, each half thinly sliced but intact (By ‘intact’ they mean that you slice each half into strips lengthwise, but not all the way through. You leave all slices attached at the top of the avocado and fan the slices out across the sandwich. Make sense?)

Whisk mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons oil, tarragon, vinegar, minced garlic, and lemon juice in small bowl to blend well. Season aioli with salt and pepper.

Place chicken breasts between sheets of waxed paper. Using rolling pin, flatten chicken to even 1/2-inch thickness; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken; sauté until brown and cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Cool chicken, then tear or slice into narrow 3-inch strips. Place chicken in bowl. Mix in 3/4 cup aioli; season with salt and pepper (Reserve remaining aioli for spreading on bread slices.).

Rub 1 side of each toast slice with cut side of halved garlic. Arrange 4 toasts garlic side up. Top each with 1/4 of watercress, 1 fanned-out avocado half, and 1/4 of chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper; top with remaining toasts, garlic side down. Makes 4 servings.
Epicurious.com © CondéNet, Inc. All rights reserved.

Bloggy New Year!

I was discussing this blog thingy with my friend Caron who complimented me on it (thank you!) and said she thinks it could ‘go somewhere’. Not sure where that might be (the image of a cyberspace trashcan comes to mind) but I told her if she figures out a way for me to make money off of it, to let me know. She, and others have commented that when I have posted recipes people have actually tried them. Apparently the Rosemary Shortbread cookies were a big hit at another friend Maria’s holiday party!

So, that leads me to believe that I need to feature more recipes and less off-topic ramblings. This will be added to my list of goals in 2006 under the heading of “make food blog more related to food”. I know you guys are dying read about moi, but really – I must keep my initial purpose in mind – which was to document my business start-up foibles and talk about food and cooking.

Without further ado, right off the bat in 2006 here’s a recipe for you. I know this would have been more relevant, oh say 24-48 hours ago when you all were trying to figure out what kind of appetizers to make for that NYE party, but nonetheless….tuck this away in your recipe files for future reference.

It is a simple appetizer, however there is one component that is time-consuming. Do not let that deter you, however, because the finished product is yummy and worth the extra 10 minutes you will spend. The extra time comes in when you start peeling apart these Grands biscuit layers. They are infinitely easier to peel apart when cooked, however you need the raw dough for this recipe. It’s important that the dough be thin because they need to cook quickly. That’s why you peel them.

Sarah and I made these today and were able to get as many as 5 layers from each biscuit but that takes practice. I decided that patience should be listed on the recipe below as a key ingredient for success. I was wondering what these would be like if I used Wonton skins instead of biscuit dough. Maybe next time I will try that to see if it’s worth the trade-off. If any of you decide to try this with wonton skins let me know how they turn out.

Tomato Bacon Appetizers

8 slices bacon, cooked til crisp and crumbled
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
½ small onion, chopped
3 oz (3/4 cup) Swiss cheese, grated
½ cup mayonnaise
1 tsp. Basil
1 can (10 oz) refrigerator biscuits (I use Grands flaky layers)

Mix all ingredients together except biscuits. Separate each biscuit into 3-4 layers and place in a mini muffin pan. Fill each cup with a spoonful of the mixture. Bake 10-12 minutes at 400 degrees until golden brown.

Enjoy!!