Appropriate Packaging

Last year at about this same time I made a friend a cake that was to replicate a pint of Guinness. While making that cake I had a bit of an epiphany...I should add Guinness to my cake!! This revelation gave birth to my Mocha Stout cake. The union of beer, coffee, and chocolate cake is a blissful trio that I have been enjoying ever sense that fateful day. This year I decided to take this sought after cake and shape it into an appropriate cake for my dear friend and pay homage to one of our favorite beverages.



Although I am sure that some of you would like this post to be about the recipe, I am going to make it more about the cake and decorating process that produced my finished product. The first and most important of all the steps is to bake a stellar cake. If you have a nicely decorated cake that is dry and tastes like cardboard you are simply teasing your taste buds, and that is CRUEL! Once the cake is baked and cooled thoroughly, you can begin to assemble the cake. You always want to make sure that you have more cake than you will need so that you can carve off what you need. If you do not start with enough cake you are sunk before you even get away from the dock! I also like to assure that I have enough frosting throughout the cake so that you have an adequate amount of frosting once you cut into the masterpiece. The carving is something that you just have to go with. You know what you want the structure of your cake to look like, so use a good seratted knife and carve it like a sculpture. (It can be easier if the cake is chilled slightly.) Once you have carved the outer structure of the cake you need to slap on a crumb layer. This works best with really thin frosting. The crumb layer will not look nice, but it will see off all the unwanted crumbs that can ruin your design.


Once the crumb layer is complete I like to chill the cake for thirty minutes or so to firm up the frosting. The next layer is going to be the key layer. This layer operates as the foundation and canvas for the rest of your cake. Your frosting for this layer should be slightly thicker than the crumb layer, but very spreadable. Getting the right consistency can be hard, but with practice you can do it.



After you have your foundation layer of frosting down it is time to have fun. I like to tint all of my frostings that I will need for the cake and make sure that I have more than I think I will need of each color. The last thing that you want to do is get 80% through a part of your design and run out of a color. It becomes very difficult to match colors. My approach to pipping on frosting is to focus on one color at a time. I did all of the white for this cake first before moving on to the brown. Take your time and use a steady hand. For really intricate writing you need to thin our your frosting. It becomes difficult to pipe frosting through a #2 tip if it is too thick. I know that when you are half way through a letter and your tip gets clogged you become VERY irritated. The first cake that I ever made I did not plan out my letters and ended up with my most infamous cake of all time. It read, "HAVE A DAY!" rather than "Happy Birthday." You have to plan out what you are going to put on the cake. I have found that using a toothpick to map out a design works great.



As you work through your design just remember that you will notice far more mistakes than anyone else. You know that they are there, while others will never see many of them. Take your time and know that less can be more. Get creative. I have found that keeping a mug or glass of water near by can really help for smoothing lines or blending colors. The brown and black on the "box" were blended with my finger and some water.



The thing that I urge you to never forget is to have fun!! This stuff takes time and practice. If it is not fun you are wasting your time. Enjoy every step of the journey and just make your next cake better! The thought is really what counts here and when you know the cake behind the frosting is going to be great, how can you go wrong!?!?

So simple and yet so complex

Coffee is something that I have become become very passionate about over the past six years. From learning to roast coffee on the most basic level, to really studying the science behind roasting the perfect bean. (I am not sure if that will ever be achieved, but here is to trying!) Roasting coffee is extremely simple at its core. Apply high heat to a green bean and agitate the beans until they have reached the desired temperature. Some choose to use electric heat and an electric fan to circulate the heat. Others opt for wood or gas to produce the optimum level of heat. The coffee ceremony is a key component of Ethiopian culture and has the participants roast their beans at their table over a flame. Although the basic premise of roasting is simple, the nuances of producing the right roast level and the changes that take place in the bean are complex. A green coffee bean will have hundreds of chemical reactions that take place within the bean during the roasting process. A roasted will choose to add extra heat at times and reduce it at others throughout the process to allow the desired flavors in the bean to be accentuated once they reach your palate. All of this says nothing about the growing and milling practices that play crucial roles in the end flavors that are in the bean profile.

One thing that I love about coffee is that producing a great cup in your home is extremely easy. You do not need an expensive pot or the latest technology to have outstanding coffee every time. What you really need is high quality fresh beans, a consistent grind, steaming (NOT BOILING)water, a vessel in which to combine both of them, and a way to leave the grounds behind so that you are not chewing your coffee. (Insert French Press here!) Many people have told me that they are either intimidated by the French Press (plunger pot) or that they just don't like to clean up the grounds. As I just mentioned, the French Press is not complicated. Here is how you can have success with your French Press:

1. Start heating enough water on your stove to fill your press and about a cup more.
2. Once you see the steam start to rise out of your kettle or pot grind your beans.
-You want a semi coarse grind. (Sand like)
3. Once the water is steaming (but not boiling) add it to your grounds in the press.
-You usually want to fill it up to the metal band or neck of the press.
(I like to pour the extra hot water into my carafe to begin to heat it up.)
4. Set timer for five minutes and walk away, but not too far.
5. When you hear the timer plunge down your beans and pour off your great coffee.
-It is essential to pour it off because the beans in the bottom will continue
to leech over extracted coffee into your pot.
6. The carafe or thermos will allow you keep your remaining coffee hot while not allowing it to become over extracted.
7. When the pot has cooled you can simply use a spatula to scoop the beans into a container for composting or the garbage. Coffee beans make great compost for the garden.

Certainly many of you will argue that the electric pot is far easier and produces less of a mess. This may be true, but it produces inferior coffee. The oil in the coffee beans are where the great flavors are and by using a paper filter you lose a lot of those flavors. Why buy high quality coffee and then do it a disservice by brewing it in a less than quality fashion? Also, the brewing time and water temperatures in most counter top coffee pots are too quick and too cool. The French Press is not complex, and I think that once you use it a few times you will realize how quick and easy it is to use. Sure you can't set a timer for your Press, but most things that are great in life take a little effort. If you make the change you will not be sorry.