Small Measure

If y'all haven't checked out Ashley English's sweet and lovely blog, Small Measure, now's a good time to check it out. Besides having lots to say about beekeeping, baking, chicken husbandry, and the like, she's giving away beautiful hand-crafted canned item once a month. (Hands off. The Peach-Lavender Butter is MINE.) Its also a crafty little way to drum up interest in her series of books coming out next year from Lark Books. And how we do love crafty, food-a-licious people in our lovely little mountain town!
xo

Aria Floral and this weekend's wedding...

This is Jess:

And this is Meredith:

Jess, owner and designer of Aria Floral, and Meredith, a designer with Aria, do a totally amazing job in their floral design. I always recommend them, and when they are doing a wedding, I am always more than happy to allow them to do the floral design on the cake. They have an extensive knowledge of edibles, use local botanicals whenever possible, and focus on sustainable design, which means they maintain a greenhouse with perennials and earth elements that they use continually for their events.
They're also friends of the family, and I've known Jess for many years, since before either of us became mamas or business owners. (and I'm not being paid to say any of this). I'm just very proud of the caliber of work that they are bringing to events here in Western North Carolina.


For this wedding, I created a two tier Peach Cake with Raspberry Filling and Cream Cheese Icing, as well as four large round cakes in two kinds of chocolate, and one Italian Cream Cake.

Then Aria decorated them with a lush display of local blueberry branches, mint sprigs, and borage branches. Beautiful!




As I watched them do the design work, I said, "I wish y'all could do the floral design on all my cakes!" To which Jess responded, "we can!" It got us thinking and talking about how easy it would be to hire Aria just to do the wedding cake floral design, even if you have another designer or farmer doing your flowers. So if you are interested, contact them at:
828.682.9971 or www.blueridgeflowers.com
And I hear tell that they are looking at sourcing some of their flowers from Katie Grear at Lady Luck Flower Farm!
Bonus!
xo

Transfigurations!

Friends, I want you to know, if you don't already, about what our friends at Harvest Records are doing this summer. Its big. Really really big. I'm so proud of them. Listen up:
(from a recent press release from Harvest):

*Transfigurations 2009: Celebrating five years of Harvest Records*

*3 days of your music in the mountains of Asheville, NC August 13th-15th*

Asheville, NC--Harvest Records celebrates five groundbreaking years as one
of America’s best independent record stores with Transfigurations--an
intimate first time music festival outside the norm of large, multi-stage
summer festivals in Asheville, NC. Transfigurations is bringing together
an incredible lineup of independent artists from all over the country August
13-15th including Akron/Family, Bonnie Prince Billy, The Books, Budos Band,
Circulatory System, Mount Eerie, Espers, War on Drugs, Brightblack Morning
Light, Kurt Vile, Ice Cream, Jonathan Kane, Coathangers, Villages, and Steve
Gunn. In addition to live music Transfigurations will present a panel
discussion and films from three record label heads who, through their own
unique methods, are at the forefront of documenting musics, new and old,
from the United States & around the world.



Transfigurations is a down-home gathering consisting of three venues (550
capacity or less) with virtually no overlap of artist performance. The
gathering is a culmination of co-owners Matt Schnable and Mark Capon sharing
a mutual love for creating a space dedicated to the discovery of music in a
supportive community. “Transfigurations brings together the spirits of the
musicians that we have brought to this city, the artists who have displayed
on our walls, the sounds people have found in our shop and the togetherness
that we have attempted to breathe into the community...hour by hour, day by
day," says Capon.



Over the last five years Harvest Records has brought new and old musicians
to Asheville as well as fresh ideas and an inclusive attitude. Through hard
work and a do-it-yourself business style, Harvest Records gained Honorable
Mention in Spin Magazines America’s Best Indy Record Stores in 2009 with, “a
savvy selection to rival any big-city shop, in a comfortably sleepy mountain
town.” Harvest has also been awarded “Best Music Store” in Western North
Carolina for the past four years by the Mountain Xpress readers’ poll.



Harvest Records has filled an important niche in Asheville, in the
southeast, and among record stores. “You may have been in a small,
independent record store, but we feel Harvest Records is unique and we want
everyone who walks through the door to have a satisfying exchange and an
inclusive experience,” says co-owner Matt Schnable. “That fresh perspective
has kept us going every day, and that same attitude of sharing a love of
music and creativity is what we are bringing to Transfigurations.”



Tickets are on sale now--Regular weekend passes ("Regafigurations") are
limited, and special weekend passes ("Megafigurations" ) are extremely
limited, so hurry!



For more information, please visit
http://www.harvest-records.com/transfigurations.php
or contact:
Matt Schnable or Mark Capon
828-258-2999 or transfigurationsasheville@gmail.com

New Cakes!

Today we introduce two new cakes at the cake shop: Lemon Sunshine Cake, and Shannon's Checkerboard Cake!
The Lemon Sunshine is a lemon pound cake with a lemon curd filling and a lemon buttercream icing, and the Checkerboard is alternating squares of Dark Chocolate and Sour Cream Poundcake. Yum!

Fresh Coconut Cake with Seven Minute Icing: an illustrated recipe in 30 parts.

Or: On Doing Things the Hard Way.
By Jodi Rhoden
Short Street Cakes

My mom has been in town for the past week, renting a house in Montreat for her lady friends to come visit, as is her tradition every summer. On Tuesday, as I was hanging out on the porch with the ladies, the conversation turned to cake. Several of my mother's guests were reminiscing about making cake "the old way," and how they had to crack and peel coconuts for their mothers, because "you just couldn't BUY shredded coconut back then, you had to make it." My mom said that her mom (my Mimi, from Cordele, Georgia) used to make fresh coconut cake for special occasions. The kids would have to crack and peel the coconuts, and the Mimi would grate it. She used seven minute icing and would put loads of fresh coconut on top. After gathering the descriptions from the my mom and her friends, I went to work this morning on making a cake from fresh coconut. Here's what happened:
To get fresh coconut from a coconut, first, you poke a hole in one of the three eyes. (two of the eyes will be too hard; one will be just soft enough for an ice pick or candy thermometer).

Puncture the coconut, then wiggle your pick around to widen the hole, then drain out the water.

(Shannon Approves.)



Taste it. The water should be fresh, and coconutty. If it is at all greasy, or foul-tasting, start over with a fresh coconut. (Mindy told me today that coconut water has the perfect balance of sugar and electrolytes for the body. So if you are ever in a tsunami, and need a source of nourishment, try to find some coconuts.)

Then place the coconuts in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes to loosen the hull.

Pull the coconuts out, and go at them with a mallet until they crack.

Peel off the hull with your hands,

and peel the inner rind with a vegetable peeler.

Grate your coconut meat.

Here's where it got tricky. The coconut was really hard, and was making the food processor jump and whine. Eventually, we had to cut the coconut meat into small chunks, and coax the food processor a little bit at a time. And eventually, we had all the coconut grated.

Viola! Those two small organic Mexican coconuts yielded a surprising 5 cups of grated fresh coconut.

And now: The cake.
I will reproduce the recipe here, and you can follow along in the pictures below. This recipe is Short Street Cakes' adaptation of several basic coconut cake recipes.

Sift your dry ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream in a mixer:
8 ounces salted butter (softened)
2 cups sugar

add, one at a time:
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Add, alternating with dry mixture:
1 cup coconut milk

when combined, add 2 cups fresh grated coconut.



Divide batter into three nine inch pans (we did two eight inch layers and a dozen and a half cupcakes)
Bake at 350 degrees until the sides pull away from the pan and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Now: The seven minute icing.
(recipe straight outta the Joy of Cooking, Seven Minute Icing Method I.)
combine in the top of a double boiler:
2 unbeaten egg whites
1 1/2 cup sugar
5 tablespoons cold water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar



(By the way, this recipe is from the beloved Joy of Cooking- 1975 edition)


Place ingredients over rapidly boiling water and beat constantly with a wire whip, for seven minutes.

Remove from heat, whisk in one teaspoon vanilla, and beat until spreadable consistency. (I had to ask Anna to take a turn, as my arm was getting tired). Y'all, I swear to god, this stuff tastes just like marshmallows.

Spread it on yer cupcakes.

Put some of that there fresh coconut on it.


Spread the icing between the layers of the cake.
Ice the sides and top, pulling the spatula back from the icing every so often to form soft peaks.

Cover that mammajamma with fresh coconut.

Make it beautiful.

make some people happy.




My thanks to Shannon and Anna, who tolerated my coffee-and-sugar-buzzed self today, and who helped me with the recipe, the photos, and creative direction.
Thanks, also, to my Mom and my Mimi, who inspired me to (re-)create this cake.
Look for this cake in the "deluxe" section of the new fall menu, coming out sometime in the "future."
And who's the lucky duckling who got the pretty cake? Why, Duncan, of course. Happy Father's Day!
xo
jodi

Happy Birthday Ada!

This is Ada.
She's one of my Number One Cake Fans (there are at least 4 others... Heather, Linda, Ryan, and Lexi, just off the top of my head, so don't anybody get mad that I'm giving preferential treatment!)
But today is Ada's special day. And the birthday girl came in for a cupcake.

She chose triple chocolate ganache.

And made a wish!

And headed to the forest to swim.
Happy Birthday, Ada!
xo
jodi

Howard Street Handmade Today!

At 227 Haywood Road, right next door to the cake shop.
xo