Nibbles

For the Love of Fondant… or Not!

Nibbles

I am not a big fan of fondant. Just thought I should get that out in the open right off the bat. It’s a pain to work with, leaves much to be desired on the taste front and it’s just not my preferred medium when it comes to cakes.

On the other hand, fondant:

  • Acts as a short-term preserver of moisture and freshness, allowing a busy decorator to start early even if she  doesn’t have space for an 18″ layer in her refrigerator.
  • Provides a smooth surface ready to accept a variety of further decorations.
  • Is a favorite of brides all over.

Sigh.

Such was the case with the cake this weekend. The bride (now my sister-in-law) loved the smooth surface-look of fondant so I but the sugary bullet and rolled out 15 lbs of it Wednesday night. The cake received raves on both looks and taste at the reception, Saturday (though most folks did NOT eat the fondant covering) and the bride was especially pleased. Which was the entire point so, you know, it’s all good.

Kara's Wedding Cake

Kara's Wedding Cake

The last wedding cake I did (about 5 years ago) was also a fondant-strosity. I recently came across pictures of it (beautiful, by the way) but I can honestly say I must have blocked the experience because I barely remember it’s delivery and assembly (I never transport cakes assembled) and nothing of it’s creation. I suppose it’s akin to childbirth–you forget the pain when you see the result (or so I’ve heard–my hands have yet to forgive me!).

At any rate, in the unfortunate instance that you (or I, for that matter) find yourself elbow deep in a pile of fondant, here are some things to keep in mind:

  • Ice the cake smooth and let it crust a little bit before putting on the fondant–not only do folks want something underneath when they peel off the fondant, it helps hide any surface imperfections on the cake
  • Skip the powdered sugar/cornstarch mixture and just oil everything up with vegetable shortening–keeps the fondant pliable and helps the rolling pin glide along the surface
  • You can re-roll anything that hasn’t already contacted icing–this isn’t like pie crust or biscuit, think of it more like sugary play clay, too much sand and stuff and it’s no good
  • Patching is tough to do, or at least to do well–it’s best to avoid them by steering clear of thin spots in your sheet or tears, and stretching what’s already there; adding pieces of fondant to cover larger problem areas can be done, though
  • Icing, applied with an angled spatula, to fondant that’s been allowed to set actually makes a very good spackle and can cover up minor cracks and dents that are bound to happen during transport

There was this one guy at the wedding was so excited to try fondant. He’d watched those cake shows on television and, as he tells it, none of the cake shops in his area carried it. When he found out his cousin’s cake was covered in it he was over the moon. We cautioned him not to get his hopes up, those of us who did not care for the taste, but he loved it. He said it was like candy.

I suppose the lesson is not to knock it ’til you try it, but I’ve tried it and I will be quite happy if I’m never called to try it again.

Little Lessons from Big Cakes

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The first wedding cake I ever made was a bit of an architectural nightmare. Not because the bride wanted a conglomeration of little cakes but because I was living in student housing and we had a mini-stove with a half-sized oven that wouldn’t hold anything more than 12″ wide.

The bride and groom chose a private city hall ceremony and there was a surprise reception being thrown by her office-mates, one of which was a friend of Mom’s. So Cindy said, ‘Just do what you think would be good, I’m sure it’ll be fine.’ Not words the decorator hears often (if ever!).

This was during my basket-weave phase so paired that with pale green vines and leaves and some pink roses. It took a few nights, total, to build all the pieces and then it was the day to deliver the cake. Downtown. At lunchtime.

You know, I’d never before noticed how steep the road was at that first light leaving my street.

Stopping as slowly as humanly possible did not thwart gravity and, yes, one of the base cakes slid off the back seat and partially under the drivers’. I pulled into the nearby gas station, panicking as I threw open the doors, and surveyed the damage. You know what? There’s approximately 4 inches between the floor of the car and the bottom of the seat, just slightly shorter than my base cake. The damage was minimal and fixable.

I drove the rest of the way going no more than 20 mph. Downtown. At lunch. With the seat pushed as far back as possible, one hand on the steering wheel, the other stretched behind me to avoid any further gravitational issues that might arise.

Just because this was my first wedding cake doesn’t mean I was totally unprepared–I had icing in parchment bags all ready to go, the necessary decorating tips; I could and would fix the mistakes. The basket-weave proved easy enough to repair, a few vines needed re-piping and a rose was taken from the back of the center tier to replace the one that the seat smooshed.

Everyone loved it and I had a bit more confidence when the next cake request came in.

My First Wedding Cake, circa 1998

* * *

This story was on my mind because this weekend my baby brother is getting married to his high school sweetheart and I am coming out of my cake-retirement to do the wedding and groom’s cakes. It’s a destination wedding at a just-far-enough-away beach to necessitate renting a place down there for the weekend and doing half the baking and all of the decorating on site.

I’ve learned something from every one of my cakes, I’m sure this one will be no exception. Here are some past lessons:

  • Always bring extra icing–a little of the sweet stuff can smooth over any obstacle.
  • A spatula, pair of scissors, tape and confectioners sugar should always been in your toolbox.
  • Place tiers in sturdy, over-sized boxes and seat-belt them in before starting the car.
  • There is no such thing as too slow when you’ve got $300 of cake in the back seat.
  • Bring a helper.
  • Take a picture of the cake after it’s set up–for your book and to prove that when you left it was still standing (didn’t happen to me but it has happened to others).
  • Leave plenty of time to assemble the cake and do any finishing work before the wedding is due to start (especially if you’re also a bridesmaid!).
  • Ask to see the topper ahead of time. If the florist is bringing it, make sure they know just how big the cake is (or isn’t–I delivered a cake for 50 only to have the florist plop a foil-wrapped [classy!] package of flowers on top that was 2/3 the height of the cake).
  • If you’re stuck on a design element after 16 hours of decorating, take a break, take a shower, it’ll come to you.

Foodie Photography

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About 10 years ago or more I read an article about all the different “tricks” food stylists would use to make food look good on camera. Everything from cellophane “ice” and “milk” glue to browning agents and tweezer-applied sesame seeds–the works!

Oh, sure, we know folks put their best food front-loaded and forward when it’s time for an advertising campaign or cookbook shoot, but can the average foodie can make their not-so-average food stand out in a still shot?

Lighting

Regardless of subject, lighting is one of the major factors between blah and beautiful. Natural light is, by far, the most prized but, well, Mr Sun and my dinner don’t always cooperate. Not only is a lot of my cooking done in the evening when the light’s not so hot but it’s not always feasible to cart each item out onto the deck for a few snaps before supper. A well-lit window is the next best thing to the great outdoors, I’ve read, but it brings with it some of the same issues.

Stuffed Mirliton--no retouching!

What I found, completely by accident, was a way of working around the wonky indoor light. It happened while trying to take a picture of our Christmas tree this past December without each and every light looking like flares. Turning the setting dial on my Canon PowerShot S2 I came to “SCN” and it turns out it had tons of useful pre-sets that saved me having to crack open a dusty manual and figure out how to manually set the white balance and so forth. The “Fireworks” setting turned out to be great for the lit Christmas tree and the “Indoor” has done a wonder for my food pics!

Angle

Okay, so we’ve figured out the lighting situation, what else is there?

Do you find yourself automatically aiming the camera straight down onto the plate or platter? Do you do this because maybe there’s other stuff around the dish that you don’t want to be in the shot? Not that I’d know anything about that…

I blame part of this habit on my early experiences with food photography. A lot of decorated cakes look the same from a side view, the fun stuff is on the top! So you shoot the top. Then, in culinary school and after, at the Plantation, the point of taking photos was usually to see the plate clearly so someone else could recreate it. (Very useful in buffet settings or when you want to avoid having to work the dinner shift yourself but must ensure consistent presentation–again, not that I would know anything about that).

Anyway: overhead shots are second nature.

Salsatini

Bar towels make an instant backdrop!

I’ve been trying to remind myself, though, that it’s not the only way to go and practice close-up shots at a 3/4-view–hey, it’s flattering for faces, why not food? And when the counter isn’t providing the right backdrop do you know what can come in handy? A hand or tea towel “hung” in the door of the cabinet above. Keep a few of different colors or materials on hand and you’re golden!

The Extras

Which leads me to another thing… Props. I’m not a huge fan of too many props in a food picture. If you’ve ever seen those recipe cards from the 60s and 70s with their odd table-dressings, you know exactly what I mean! But a well-chosen plate or place mat certainly would not go amiss.

The plate, glass or other vessel should be your main prop and, in a perfect world, would contrast the color of the food nicely. Does this mean you need a butler’s pantry worth of serving-ware in order to take good food shots? Absolutely not! First of all, most foods fall into the white, red, green, brown or orange color-categories. Having a few white, yellow and purple plates for picture-purposes will cover most contrast requirements along with whatever other fun pieces you might find at thrift stores and garage sales. Choose a few cloth napkins or placemats in fun colors or patterns from a housewares open-stock section and you’ve got your primary needs covered! Keep in mind that salad plates rule for this sort of thing and are generally less expensive than the full-size options.

Catching mouth-watering images of your favorite foods doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Keep your shots simple, your props uncomplicated and the focus on the food. My camera now hangs out in the kitchen while I cook, where’s yours?

Happy snapping!

Egg-cellent Egg Salad

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Even though we’re all well past egg-hunting stage in my family, I still enjoy dying eggs for the occasion. The un-hunted egg is a prime candidate for egg salad sandwiches in the days after the holiday.

First, a tip for easy-peel eggs.

After the eggs have boiled (10 minutes is generally sufficient for a solid, yet tender, yolk) and you’ve drained off the boiling water, shake the eggs around in the pan enough to cause small cracks to appear. Then, as you cover the eggs with cold water to speed the cooling, water will seep in between the shells and the whites, making it easier to peel, later on.

I’ve also read that older eggs peel more easily than fresher ones.

Egg Salad

10 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
3 green onions, sliced
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 Tbsp sweet relish
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp dill
1/4 c mayonnaise

A pastry blender makes short work of a bowl of shelled eggs, just make sure you’ve got a good grip on the handle. Mix in the remaining ingredients before adding the mayonnaise, only adding as much of the latter as it will take to make a smooth mixture. Depending on your eggs you may need less or more.

Other ingredients that would be tasty would be freshly diced bell peppers or celery for crunch, capers in place of the relish or tarragon instead of dill.

We went with fairly simple sandwiches on toasted sourdough bread with salad greens though sprouts would have been tasty as well.

Going Off-List

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Week before last I did something I haven’t done in over 5 years: went shopping without my Menu Mailer grocery list.

For those not familiar with Menu Mailer, it’s the invention of Leanne Ely, the Dinner Diva, and features a set of dinner recipes, serving suggestions and an itemized, categorized shopping list each week. Even though I’ve got a culinary degree, am a veteran list-maker and perfectly capable of decided what to make for supper every night, it was nice to not have to make those decisions each week.

After so many years, though, I was starting to chafe at the repetition of flavors (all cooks have their favorites, after all) and some of the more questionable processes she recommends (there are very few times, after all, that any good comes of playing the hokey-pokey chicken: cook the chicken, take it out, make the sauce or something, put the chicken back in, finish cooking). And don’t get me started on caramelizing onions by adding brown sugar.

Sigh.

But I had become somewhat a slave to the convenience of it all. It was my turn to do the grocery shopping and I had plenty of things I wanted to road-test for the cookbook, so I made a quick list. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it might be, even if I was so very out of practice. Have you ever had a hard time making a grocery list? When you break it down into simple building blocks, it’s not difficult:

  • Proteins–choose 7; beef, pork, chicken, fish, beans, tofu, some can be repeated or skipped altogether
  • Vegetables–choose at least 7, 10 might be better; salads can cover you for a couple of meals, and a mix of fresh (whatever looks interesting) and frozen veggies (broccoli, cauliflower and green beans are always good staples) that can be easily steamed
  • Carbs–yup, you need these, too! Even when you’re watching your weight choosing healthy carbs can help keep your cholesterol in check and add fiber to your diet (especially for those who don’t like veggies). Brown rice, whole wheat pasta, sweet potatoes, whole wheat rolls.

After that it’s all a matter of matching the pieces together. Imagine it like one of those games with the revolving pieces–one for the head, one for the body, one for the legs. You just spin your pieces around til you like what you see and that’s what’s for dinner!

Of course, it helps to have a well-stocked spice cabinet and plenty of condiments at the ready to dress up whatever components make up your meal.

Another way to make your list is to pick specific recipes to try each week. This is what I used to do at 19, when first married, and charged with the task of having dinner ready each night when my husband came home. My cookbook collection was much smaller then and it was still in the darker days on the Internet so I only had a few sources to choose from. Still, I tended to choose one from here, one from there and it got a little confusing.

Instead, a better option might be to pick recipes all from the same book and just note down the page numbers for reference. Not only does it give us more use of these tomes we collect, but it makes things a little simpler. Granted, if the  book you picked was 101 ways to serve Chicken, you might get a bit bored over the course of a week. Then again, many flavor profiles can work regardless of the protein of choice and it could provide interesting for the adventurous.