Thursday, January 24, 2008
Cupcakes
cupcakes their due, so here's just a little cupcake inspiration to get
us through January. Then we'll have... uh... February. Damn, its gonna
be a long cold winter.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
As promised: A Recipe!
Sugar-Free Vegan Mexican Chocolate Cake
From Short Street Cakes, Asheville, NC
½ cup dark cocoa powder
1 ½ t. baking soda
½ t. cayenne pepper
1 t. cinnamon
½ t. salt
Combine:
1 cup rice syrup
1 cup applesauce
¾ cup vegetable oil
1 T. vanilla extract
Combine liquid ingredients with dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Add and combine:
1 c. strong brewed hot coffee
2 T. apple cider vinegar
Vegan Mexican Ganache
In food processor with blade attachment, puree:
1 package silken firm tofu
2 cups melted grain-sweetened vegan chocolate chips
½ t. cayenne pepper
1 t. cinnamon
Cool until spreadable.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Wheat-Free Pumpkin Spice Wedding Cake
exchange their wedding "wows." This is a wheat-free cake, made with a
combination of rice, garbanzo and spelt flours.
Addendum: from the Bride:
Dear Jodi,
I just want to tell you how fantastic your cake was!
Thank God there was enough to nibble away over the
hours of the evening and even have some for Breakfast!
Every last bite was delightfully enjoyed. I will highly
recommend you to anyone needing a wheat free cake..
Thank you Thank you YUM YUM YUM.
love and Light
Hilarie and Ratus
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The Fabulous Flair
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
This week in cake, and Candlemas
I had alot of orders over the weekend, and some wedding tastings. One of the highlights was making 5 dozen cupcakes with sun designs for the ribbon cutting for NC's largest solar power system- Deltec homes built it, and it means that they are generating as much energy as they are using at their Asheville factory. Pretty f-in cool.
OK, so this is the part of the blog where i reveal myself to be the witchy woman that i am: the new moon in january. its a powerful thing. the new moon is the time to plant seeds of intention that you want to grow in the coming cycle (think: farmers almanac, but with ideas and feelings instead of actual plants). So I put some stuff out there, especially the dream of finding a space in town for my bakery. The cool thing about the new year new moon is that you are effecting many cycles: the short-term lunar cycle (ie, your seeds bear fruit at the full moon), but also the 6-month cycle (when the moon is new again in the same sign, in this case, capricorn) and in addition, you are planting seeds for the whole new year. so, again, let me say how happy i am that it it 2008.
One of the things I love about cake is its symbolic use in seasonal celebration. Somewhere along the way I remember reading that the first cakes were actually triangle-shaped offerings to the goddess of somewhere-long-ago meant to symbolize the yoni. Now that's my kinda cake. Also, the word "lady" originally meant "baker." So one of my hopes with this blog is to give ideas and suggestions on how to use cake to celebrate the cycles of life. And first off is: Imbolc! also know as Candlemas, Groundhog day, and the feast of St. Brigid, "February 2 is one of the great cross-quarter days which make up the wheel of the year. It falls midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox and in many traditions is considered the beginning of spring." "Certian foods are traditional for Candlemas, including crepes, pancakes and cakes, all grain-based foods. Pancakes and crepes are considered symbols of the sun because of thier round shape and golden color." (Waverly Fitzgerald, www.schooloftheseasons.com) This reminded me of the solar-panel party cupcakes I made...see next post for a picture.
Next holiday recipe i will post, as per miss "hottdish" elyse's request, will be king cake for mardi gras, along with some lore. even though, being a yeasted dough, is not what we now consider to be "cake." But I'm JUST THAT CRAZY. Speaking of lore, I consider recipes to be folklore, meant to be passed around hither and thither. i just don't have time to transcribe one right now. but soon. I think that's all for now. xo jodi
Monday, January 7, 2008
Brides Magazine!
![Photobucket](http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg217/shortstreetcakes/Brides-ShortStreetCakes.jpg)
Saturday, January 5, 2008
2008 is going to rock.
I, in fact, have a bakery in my house. It is called Short Street Cakes. I started it when Jasper (my son) was 3 months old, because people kept asking me to make cakes for them. After the 3rd unsolicited wedding cake job, I thought to myself, "what if I actually TRIED to work for myself as a cake baker? what would happen then?" Thus, Short Street Cakes was born. I still work out of my kitchen, on Short Street, with various children and other vermin underfoot. (Just kidding about the vermin. I love children and my kitchen is impeccably clean.) I make wedding cakes, ALOT of birthday cakes, cupcakes, and I sell frozen cakes to greenlife grocery. I work in the early mornings, before Duncan (my husband) goes to work, I bake at night after bedtime. I bake with the little guy sometimes, but it takes the whole process into a different realm- and goes really slow, so I try to avoid it. Anyway, there will be more on all of that later.
So: my life in cake. This is how my life in cake started: I used to bake bread when I lived in Athens, GA. They were these terrible bricks of gluten, that my friends graciously pretended to enjoy. Then I got a job as a professional baker when I lived in Boston, from 1999 to 2001, baking bread in the Haley House Soup Kitchen/job training program. It was basically a social work job that required me to learn how to be a baker in order to teach people job skills through baking. That's where it started. Monica Contois taught me everything I know. Then I moved to Asheville, and worked at the West End, where Cathy Cleary and April Moon taught me everything I know. It was also in Asheville that I first met Elyse Manning, who taught me everything I know. Elyse is a force of nature in the kitchen, a terrible witchy mess of a mind-blowing baker. She's a legend. Whenever I'm stuck, having trouble with an icing that won't set right or a wedding that's starting too soon, I hear Elyse's voice, telling me to ease up, and let the cake be itself.
I have a website (www.shortstreetcakes.com), and a brochure, and fancy business cards that Michael Frey made for me. I have big dreams too, of lots of good cake for the people of asheville. it involves buying lots of eggs and flour and fruits from local farmers. It involves meeting, befriending, baking for, and working with lots of people that I would otherwise not know, and whom, furthermore, I LIKE. It involves the hope of making a living at my craft. It involves integrating many different parts of myself, my past, my ancestors, my friends, my future, my family, my values, and my love of cake. It involves transformation (of the firey kind). Cake is art: its the the little extra that you don't "need" but that makes life sweet. Cake is the celebration, the sacrificial lamb at the feast. Cake is my medium and my muse and it reminds everybody of their mama. So, this is my blog: my life in cake.
Look out for pictures, experiments, recipes, cookbook reviews, anectdotes, and general cake-related hilarity. I plan to spend LOTS of time procrastinating quickbooks here. Also, I look forward to meeting other cake-minded peeps.
happy new year, to my newfound friend, the "blogosphere."
xo
jodi