St Patrick's Day is next week and it's a day of corned beef accompanied by boiled potatoes and of course, green tinted beer. It's a traditional meal but not necessarily a tasty one.Thanks to bad cuts of beef and nasty corning methods, it would come out as a gummy, overly salty slab.That's changing, thanks to both professional and home chefs salting it themselves.
Sam Sifton wrote about this classic Irish -American dish in yesterday's New York Times Food section.The best corned beef comes from New York's Jewish delis where it shines. The meat is a ruddy pink, perfectly salted and fatty. Home chefs now can have this delicious version According to Bryan Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman, authors of "Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing" the process is easy , and will turn ordinary beef into something extraordinary.The process is an old one, starting in the 1800's, in where else - Ireland.The process is named after the large grains of salts that resembled corn kernels. Curing and.packing plants throughout the Emerald Isle used them to cure slabs of beef that eventually went into barrels and then cans and onto ships to feed others.Someone , either in Boston or the Bahamas, over boiled either a beef neck or brisket with a head of cabbage and called it dinner. That's the corned beef and cabbage we all grew up on.
That version of it will change with home brining and curing. The only reason home corned beef never caught on was the scarcity of the corns, These are sodium nitrate, that turns the meat that tender shade of pink.They can be found on Amazon under the name Prague powder or curing salt. Originally it was used for forestalling the growth of bacteria but it also gave plain beef a better taste. For those worried about ingesting nitrate, have no fear. Mr. Ruhlman says ingesting a small amount is harmless, noting that we ingest nitrates when we eat vegetables which draw nitrogen from the surrounding soil. It's then creating a brine with it and whatever spices are desirable.. Home chefs could try coriander, mustard seed and black peppercorns,. Allspice will give it a zippy, smoky flavor as well ground ginger and cinnamon. Bay leaves are good too. The recipe Mr. Sifton gives has pickling spices, which is all those spices aforementioned along with garlic cloves and sugar. A four to five pound brisket is used and is brined for four to five days. It is then cooked in a blend of beer and ginger beer.A novel idea is turning it into Irish tacos with shredded cabbage that have a jolt of jalapeno. - which is a whole lot better than having a slab of it with a boiled potato.
Home cured corned beef is the perfect treat for Saint Patrick's Day. Brine it the right way and it's a salty pink delight , perfect in a sandwich or as a taco. Enjoy it with a good stout or Guinness for the holiday.
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Women In The Kitchen
With this being International Women's Day . it's time we celebrate the impact of women on food and nutrition. After all it's not our dads anf grandads that fed us but our mothers and grandmothers. Yet there seems to be more male chefs than female chefs, while it seems there are more waitresses than waiters. What gives?
Since the earliest of our days, it's been the females that have been providing food, whether from the earliest hunter-gatherers to the first "home chefs" roasting meat on wood spits over a fire. It's the women who ground the wheat to make the bread that fed the family. They made sure children had the best nutrition for the time, as they tended to gardens. Our sisters from antiquity probably introduced fruits and vegetables to their families diets, expanding both their husbands and childrens' palates. Some of these recipes exist today in the form of matzoh and pita, roasted lamb and dumplings . The home chefs that lived during the Roman and Greek empires and the Han Dynasty realized the importance of meals being eaten together too, and how it would strengthen family ties.They passed down themselves and their stories in dishes that the next generation of both girls and boys are making today with electric stoves and all sorts of modern gadgets .Believe it or not we're all eating some form of the Paleo diets thanks to our early female ancestors.
You would think that with women ruling the kitchen , they'd be ruling the culinary world. Not so much, even in this day and age.The cookbooks, were written by women, with the first real one penned by Isabella Beeton in the 1860's but a woman owning a restaurant was unheard of , unless she ran it with her parents husband, or children.It was a man who gave us the famed Gilded Age eatery Delmonico's in lower Manhattan.it was the great chef Auguste Escoffier , a Frenchman who was the world's first celebrity chef. It took a century later for the first female, chef, Julia Child who captivated American home chefs and foodies in the 1960's./. She also laid the groundwork for the celebrity chef culture that came thirty years later in the 1990s. Still, there seems to be an imbalance with the number of male chefs to female chefs today. The only successful female chef now is Lidia Bastianich who has her TV show , restaurants,products and cookbooks. She's on the same par as Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsey but she' really the only one. There's an imbalance lower down the culinary ladder too.. Most of the fast food managers are men, Assistant managers are women, but it seems that this is the highest they can go. The first tier workers are usually female also. Could it be that boys would rather work in the Apple stores as opposed to a Wendy's or McDonald's? Or that girls are just pointed to kitchens.?
Today is the Internatioal Women's Day. We have fed and nurtured the world for millennia. Yet in some sectors of the food industry we're still treated like underlings. It has to change- and we have to change it.
Since the earliest of our days, it's been the females that have been providing food, whether from the earliest hunter-gatherers to the first "home chefs" roasting meat on wood spits over a fire. It's the women who ground the wheat to make the bread that fed the family. They made sure children had the best nutrition for the time, as they tended to gardens. Our sisters from antiquity probably introduced fruits and vegetables to their families diets, expanding both their husbands and childrens' palates. Some of these recipes exist today in the form of matzoh and pita, roasted lamb and dumplings . The home chefs that lived during the Roman and Greek empires and the Han Dynasty realized the importance of meals being eaten together too, and how it would strengthen family ties.They passed down themselves and their stories in dishes that the next generation of both girls and boys are making today with electric stoves and all sorts of modern gadgets .Believe it or not we're all eating some form of the Paleo diets thanks to our early female ancestors.
You would think that with women ruling the kitchen , they'd be ruling the culinary world. Not so much, even in this day and age.The cookbooks, were written by women, with the first real one penned by Isabella Beeton in the 1860's but a woman owning a restaurant was unheard of , unless she ran it with her parents husband, or children.It was a man who gave us the famed Gilded Age eatery Delmonico's in lower Manhattan.it was the great chef Auguste Escoffier , a Frenchman who was the world's first celebrity chef. It took a century later for the first female, chef, Julia Child who captivated American home chefs and foodies in the 1960's./. She also laid the groundwork for the celebrity chef culture that came thirty years later in the 1990s. Still, there seems to be an imbalance with the number of male chefs to female chefs today. The only successful female chef now is Lidia Bastianich who has her TV show , restaurants,products and cookbooks. She's on the same par as Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsey but she' really the only one. There's an imbalance lower down the culinary ladder too.. Most of the fast food managers are men, Assistant managers are women, but it seems that this is the highest they can go. The first tier workers are usually female also. Could it be that boys would rather work in the Apple stores as opposed to a Wendy's or McDonald's? Or that girls are just pointed to kitchens.?
Today is the Internatioal Women's Day. We have fed and nurtured the world for millennia. Yet in some sectors of the food industry we're still treated like underlings. It has to change- and we have to change it.
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Quick Dinners
There are those days when we come home too hungry to cook. It's usually after a hectic work day, or a day full of chores or activities. What to do - act quick. You can have meals that are easy and fast to make.
The most obvious answer to a quickly had meals would be take out. Unfortunately, there is a wait time for pizza and Chinese, unless you call from the office and car. Even then, there's some kind of prep and cooking time , especially if the restaurant is having a busy night. There is also the fast food joints, but again there are lines , and the off chance of having a very greasy supper. The best bet is stocking your fridge and pantry with ingredients that cook up quickly. One of my favorites is instant rice. Boil it with any kind of bouillon - beef, chicken or vegetable, add some butter and even a sprinkled of Parmesan and you have a kind of poor man's risotto. Pasta, too , is a quick make. Again add butter for pasta con burro or minced garlic and oil for aglia e olio. Fresh veggies can be also be mixed in for a pasta crudo. Even jsliced grape or cherry tomatoes mixed with vine ripes make for an interesting "raw" sauce.
If you want something more substantial, then get out the frying pan.One of my favorites is an easy spin on beef with scallions. It's sauteing soy meat crumbles (Morningstar Farms has the best) and chopped scallions. A slug of Kikoman soy sauce adds flavor and zest. As this is cooking, cellophane noodles are being boiled and are then mixed with the meat . Real beef and chicken can be subbed in for a more substantial dinner. Another quick meal is a one egg frittata or omelet. These are wonderful because you can add all sorts of extras in them to make them more satisfying. Chop up ham and American cheese for a Western Omelet, Serve it on toast for a sandwich.Think a fritatta zinged up with chopped vine ripe tomatoes and Parmesan cheese for an Italian spin . Have slices of toasted Italian bread with it for a heartier meal. Italian bread can also be the base for bruschetta. The tomatoes can be made the night before or earlier in the day. It requires the plum variety but vine ripes work well here too. It's then mixing in oil, balsamic vinegar and basil together to be spooned on slices of Italian bread or even sliced ciabatta rolls for a speedy and delicious dinner.Add minced Italian cold cuts such as pepperoni or soppressata for more substance.
A quick dinner can be made , without having to resort to take out or drive through. Cook up some rice or pasta, Create a tasty Chinese beef or omelet. Enjoy a frittata or bruschetta in minutes. These are easy meals, perfect after a busy , hectic day.
The most obvious answer to a quickly had meals would be take out. Unfortunately, there is a wait time for pizza and Chinese, unless you call from the office and car. Even then, there's some kind of prep and cooking time , especially if the restaurant is having a busy night. There is also the fast food joints, but again there are lines , and the off chance of having a very greasy supper. The best bet is stocking your fridge and pantry with ingredients that cook up quickly. One of my favorites is instant rice. Boil it with any kind of bouillon - beef, chicken or vegetable, add some butter and even a sprinkled of Parmesan and you have a kind of poor man's risotto. Pasta, too , is a quick make. Again add butter for pasta con burro or minced garlic and oil for aglia e olio. Fresh veggies can be also be mixed in for a pasta crudo. Even jsliced grape or cherry tomatoes mixed with vine ripes make for an interesting "raw" sauce.
If you want something more substantial, then get out the frying pan.One of my favorites is an easy spin on beef with scallions. It's sauteing soy meat crumbles (Morningstar Farms has the best) and chopped scallions. A slug of Kikoman soy sauce adds flavor and zest. As this is cooking, cellophane noodles are being boiled and are then mixed with the meat . Real beef and chicken can be subbed in for a more substantial dinner. Another quick meal is a one egg frittata or omelet. These are wonderful because you can add all sorts of extras in them to make them more satisfying. Chop up ham and American cheese for a Western Omelet, Serve it on toast for a sandwich.Think a fritatta zinged up with chopped vine ripe tomatoes and Parmesan cheese for an Italian spin . Have slices of toasted Italian bread with it for a heartier meal. Italian bread can also be the base for bruschetta. The tomatoes can be made the night before or earlier in the day. It requires the plum variety but vine ripes work well here too. It's then mixing in oil, balsamic vinegar and basil together to be spooned on slices of Italian bread or even sliced ciabatta rolls for a speedy and delicious dinner.Add minced Italian cold cuts such as pepperoni or soppressata for more substance.
A quick dinner can be made , without having to resort to take out or drive through. Cook up some rice or pasta, Create a tasty Chinese beef or omelet. Enjoy a frittata or bruschetta in minutes. These are easy meals, perfect after a busy , hectic day.
Monday, March 6, 2017
My Little Cake Shop
One more piece of my bake shop puzzle arrived today. The Ohuhu cake stand arrived, thanks to Amazon.
Soon I will have my icing spatula and icing comb to create those professional looking lines on the iced sides of a cake. I also have my Wilson icer
Thanks to my new , and sadly overworked oven, I will be trying all sorts of fun recipes and decorating. This week I will be making homemade fudge along with carrot cake cupcakes and banana bread.What I am looking forward to is making my friend's favorite cake - butter with chocolate buttercream. This will my masterpiece. It will have combed sides along with delicate puffs of icing along with pink buttercream roses and pale green leaves.
My baking days are starting up again.I'm looking forward to all sorts of creations, from coconut macarons to chocolate chip cookies to elegantly iced cakes.
And a few fudge bars too.
Saturday, March 4, 2017
Scandanavian Dishes For Lent
Scandanavian, cuisine whether Icelandic Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or Finnish has the perfect seafood dishes ready for Lent. The countries share a passion for all sorts of fish , from cod to salmon from herring to shrimp. The recipes are just right for these meatless days.
Salmon is a big dish in Scandinavian cooking, namely in the dish known as gravlax. It's basically curing the salmon for four to five days. It requires both salt and sugar to cure it along with dill and cognac for flavor.. It's an elegant main meal for pescatarians too as well as those who are temporarily off meat. A humbler recipe is the fish pie, filled with whitefish and potato, Unlike other fish pies that are usually loaded with onions, this one has the mild ,sweet taste of cucumber to counteract the sharpness of radishes which also add color. There's also the Scandanavian must have dill in it too for a spark of green and flavor. It's a nice dish to make on a Friday night when the family is gathered. Another cozy recipe is fish soup made with the Norwegian standard - cod. The fish's mildness matches up well with the carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms. Crushed tomatoes are also added to give it a vibe similar to the Portuguese soup, cioppino. It's served with warm crusty bread and butter.Norway also has a great flounder soup, from the seacoast town of Bergen.Like the other it's a cream soup, but also has flour to thicken it. Julienned carrots give it color. Shrimp can be added to it as well.
Flounder is also used in many other Norwegian and Swedish dishes. Try it baked with shrimp for an elegant spin. It's a casserole, with fish filets layered with shrimp , tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese, then topped with pats of butter. Another flounder dish is fish cakes, made with flour and tarragon leaves. Cod and haddock can be used too instead of the flounder. Serve with crispy potatoes as a great Friday night dinner. Not surprisingly Scandinavians also turn seafood into a pudding called fiskepudding. It's ground haddock mixed with milk and eggs to create a kind of custard. It's served with a shrimp and lobster sauce, heightened with a good slug of sherry. Herring is a big deal in all the northernmost countries. One of the easiest is a salad made with salted fillets mixed with sour cream, chopped dill and the dill's bulb also chopped. Lemon juice is spritzed in for some tang. Serve on rye crackers or with a dark bread such as kavring.
Scandinavian cooking is in perfect harmony with Lenten eating. The fish dishes are perfect for meatless Wednesdays and Fridays Try them in any way, from a savory pudding to .fishcakes for tasty dining.
Salmon is a big dish in Scandinavian cooking, namely in the dish known as gravlax. It's basically curing the salmon for four to five days. It requires both salt and sugar to cure it along with dill and cognac for flavor.. It's an elegant main meal for pescatarians too as well as those who are temporarily off meat. A humbler recipe is the fish pie, filled with whitefish and potato, Unlike other fish pies that are usually loaded with onions, this one has the mild ,sweet taste of cucumber to counteract the sharpness of radishes which also add color. There's also the Scandanavian must have dill in it too for a spark of green and flavor. It's a nice dish to make on a Friday night when the family is gathered. Another cozy recipe is fish soup made with the Norwegian standard - cod. The fish's mildness matches up well with the carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms. Crushed tomatoes are also added to give it a vibe similar to the Portuguese soup, cioppino. It's served with warm crusty bread and butter.Norway also has a great flounder soup, from the seacoast town of Bergen.Like the other it's a cream soup, but also has flour to thicken it. Julienned carrots give it color. Shrimp can be added to it as well.
Flounder is also used in many other Norwegian and Swedish dishes. Try it baked with shrimp for an elegant spin. It's a casserole, with fish filets layered with shrimp , tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese, then topped with pats of butter. Another flounder dish is fish cakes, made with flour and tarragon leaves. Cod and haddock can be used too instead of the flounder. Serve with crispy potatoes as a great Friday night dinner. Not surprisingly Scandinavians also turn seafood into a pudding called fiskepudding. It's ground haddock mixed with milk and eggs to create a kind of custard. It's served with a shrimp and lobster sauce, heightened with a good slug of sherry. Herring is a big deal in all the northernmost countries. One of the easiest is a salad made with salted fillets mixed with sour cream, chopped dill and the dill's bulb also chopped. Lemon juice is spritzed in for some tang. Serve on rye crackers or with a dark bread such as kavring.
Scandinavian cooking is in perfect harmony with Lenten eating. The fish dishes are perfect for meatless Wednesdays and Fridays Try them in any way, from a savory pudding to .fishcakes for tasty dining.
Friday, March 3, 2017
Black Bean Soup The Perfect Soup For Now
With the last days of winter and Lent coinciding, it's nice to have a hot meal that doesn't rely on meat. Black bean soup is the best dish for this.It is filling and satisfying, great for a chilly March night,
Julia Moskin wrote about in in Wednesday's New York Times' Food section. Black beans have been around for ages, being a decidedly American bean, growing only on the North American continent. There have always been recipes regarding them in soup, In fact , Ms. Moskin cites a recipe The Times has printed in 1879, that has home chefs cooking them for three to four hour and then rubbed against a colander to create a paste. The soup tirned out to be smooth and murky, often thinned with cream and served with a sliced lemon and sieved egg. The famed James Beard suggested stirring in a glass of madeira to brighten his black bean soup recipe.. (although a glass of madeira was added to every soup recipe of his). The bean became super popular in the 1970's thanks to the uprise in vegetrian cooking. Thanks to another famed chef, Jeremiah Towers, black beans became the defining ingredient in Califrnia cusine as he created black bean cakes, thick tortillas made from a kind of bean dough and topped with creme fraiche and salsa.What is great about these beans is that they don't need any kind of meat to give them more flavor. The beans absorn the flavors of the aromatics cooked with them.
The recipe is a tasty looking one and I'm eager to try it. Ms. Moskin does add chiles, chipotle and jalapeno for heat along with such aromatics as oregano and bay leaves. The recipe starts out with a non traditional kind of sofrito. Along with the chiles it has carrots and onions cooked in oil with garlic. This is then deglazd with a cup of red wine . The broth used can be chicken but vegetable can be used, especially if the soup is designated for a Lenten meal.. Salt isn't added until the beans are at least halfway cooked, and the heat can only be turmed up in the begiinning to create a hard boil for only ten to fifteen minutes. Home chefs can use an immersion blender for pureeing the mixture into a satiny soup.. This will give it a lush mouth feel, like a rich cream one. This way doesn't have to be set in stone. Home chefs can leave the beans whole and serve them over a bowl of white rice.It can also be used as a side dish with quesdadillas or fajitas.Ms. Moskin advises not to cook it in a pressure cooking because it will turn the texture into a kind of pudding with no liquid left. The finished dish is served with a blob of sour cream and avocado slices. I wouldn't mind adding a few crumbled tacos on top for more texture.
A fiery , creamy black bean soup is the perfect dinner for a blustery Lenten night. It is hearty and spicy without being too overpowering. It's the right soup for these days ahead.
Julia Moskin wrote about in in Wednesday's New York Times' Food section. Black beans have been around for ages, being a decidedly American bean, growing only on the North American continent. There have always been recipes regarding them in soup, In fact , Ms. Moskin cites a recipe The Times has printed in 1879, that has home chefs cooking them for three to four hour and then rubbed against a colander to create a paste. The soup tirned out to be smooth and murky, often thinned with cream and served with a sliced lemon and sieved egg. The famed James Beard suggested stirring in a glass of madeira to brighten his black bean soup recipe.. (although a glass of madeira was added to every soup recipe of his). The bean became super popular in the 1970's thanks to the uprise in vegetrian cooking. Thanks to another famed chef, Jeremiah Towers, black beans became the defining ingredient in Califrnia cusine as he created black bean cakes, thick tortillas made from a kind of bean dough and topped with creme fraiche and salsa.What is great about these beans is that they don't need any kind of meat to give them more flavor. The beans absorn the flavors of the aromatics cooked with them.
The recipe is a tasty looking one and I'm eager to try it. Ms. Moskin does add chiles, chipotle and jalapeno for heat along with such aromatics as oregano and bay leaves. The recipe starts out with a non traditional kind of sofrito. Along with the chiles it has carrots and onions cooked in oil with garlic. This is then deglazd with a cup of red wine . The broth used can be chicken but vegetable can be used, especially if the soup is designated for a Lenten meal.. Salt isn't added until the beans are at least halfway cooked, and the heat can only be turmed up in the begiinning to create a hard boil for only ten to fifteen minutes. Home chefs can use an immersion blender for pureeing the mixture into a satiny soup.. This will give it a lush mouth feel, like a rich cream one. This way doesn't have to be set in stone. Home chefs can leave the beans whole and serve them over a bowl of white rice.It can also be used as a side dish with quesdadillas or fajitas.Ms. Moskin advises not to cook it in a pressure cooking because it will turn the texture into a kind of pudding with no liquid left. The finished dish is served with a blob of sour cream and avocado slices. I wouldn't mind adding a few crumbled tacos on top for more texture.
A fiery , creamy black bean soup is the perfect dinner for a blustery Lenten night. It is hearty and spicy without being too overpowering. It's the right soup for these days ahead.
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Buttercream Basics A Baker's Dream Book
One of the most fun things about home baking is decorating one's cakes and cupcakes. There's nothing prettier than a shower cake festooned with roses or cupcakes livened up with squiggles and swirls. However, this art does have to be learned and luckily there is a brand new book to show us how.
Buttercream Basics: Learn The Art Of Buttercream Decorating (Robert Rose Publishers 2017) , a phenomenal how to was written by Carey Madden and shows how to create amazing decorations for cakes and cupcakes.Ms. Madden is known for her cake decorating books, She has previously written one just for cupcakes and small cakes. I love this book. One of the best things about it is that she eases novice decorators like myself from the very simple to the very elaborate. The book doesn't start off with elaborate roses and curlicues. That's for later. Another big plus is the pictorial on the different decorating tools and their use. The book also shows the difference between the tips' openings and how to employ them to create lines, leaves, and petals. Another aspect I 'm impressed with is her advice to left handers like myself. So often we just can't decorate properly because the decorations are for righties. Ms. Madden tells us to go counterclockwise when the directions say clockwise. There is also a chapter on how to mix colors and pair them up for the best color schemes along with chapters on not only icing the cake but also filling it too.Home bakers will likely follow her how to have a smooth surface as well as how to clean tips.
Of course, there is the buttercream recipe but it's the Swiss kind made with egg whites and cooked.She does offer the American kind, but it's sweeter , denser and stiffer than the other. The Swiss meringue is not sugary sweet and it's the perfect foil for the triple chocolate and yellow butter cake recipes that she also includes. All the cakes featured look amazing. Beginner icers will love recreating the vintage look of coiled rustic or the swoopy homestyle iced cakes. My favorites are the simple swirl and twine decorated ones where only a spatula is needed to create circles on the top and sides.Ms. Madden also has a chapter on adding sashes to cakes, making them look like elegant hats . There's an interesting one on decorating with crystallized fruits such as figs, blueberries, and blackberries. This would be not only perfect for a birthday but also for a wedding too. The more adventurous will undoubtedly like to attempt the dusting technique which involves stenciling. The cupcake section is adorably cute, especially with the caterpillar birthday cake, made with a line of cupcakes.I love the rosette swirls and definitely will be trying that one soon enough. There's also the bunch of balloons cupcakes that 's just so sweet and just the right thing for a kid's birthday cake.
Buttercream Basics :Learn The Art of Buttercream Decorating is the best book for home bakers wanting to create professional looking cakes and cupcakes. It's informative and fun. Learning all the techniques and tips is even better than having your cake and eating it too.
Buttercream Basics: Learn The Art Of Buttercream Decorating (Robert Rose Publishers 2017) , a phenomenal how to was written by Carey Madden and shows how to create amazing decorations for cakes and cupcakes.Ms. Madden is known for her cake decorating books, She has previously written one just for cupcakes and small cakes. I love this book. One of the best things about it is that she eases novice decorators like myself from the very simple to the very elaborate. The book doesn't start off with elaborate roses and curlicues. That's for later. Another big plus is the pictorial on the different decorating tools and their use. The book also shows the difference between the tips' openings and how to employ them to create lines, leaves, and petals. Another aspect I 'm impressed with is her advice to left handers like myself. So often we just can't decorate properly because the decorations are for righties. Ms. Madden tells us to go counterclockwise when the directions say clockwise. There is also a chapter on how to mix colors and pair them up for the best color schemes along with chapters on not only icing the cake but also filling it too.Home bakers will likely follow her how to have a smooth surface as well as how to clean tips.
Of course, there is the buttercream recipe but it's the Swiss kind made with egg whites and cooked.She does offer the American kind, but it's sweeter , denser and stiffer than the other. The Swiss meringue is not sugary sweet and it's the perfect foil for the triple chocolate and yellow butter cake recipes that she also includes. All the cakes featured look amazing. Beginner icers will love recreating the vintage look of coiled rustic or the swoopy homestyle iced cakes. My favorites are the simple swirl and twine decorated ones where only a spatula is needed to create circles on the top and sides.Ms. Madden also has a chapter on adding sashes to cakes, making them look like elegant hats . There's an interesting one on decorating with crystallized fruits such as figs, blueberries, and blackberries. This would be not only perfect for a birthday but also for a wedding too. The more adventurous will undoubtedly like to attempt the dusting technique which involves stenciling. The cupcake section is adorably cute, especially with the caterpillar birthday cake, made with a line of cupcakes.I love the rosette swirls and definitely will be trying that one soon enough. There's also the bunch of balloons cupcakes that 's just so sweet and just the right thing for a kid's birthday cake.
Buttercream Basics :Learn The Art of Buttercream Decorating is the best book for home bakers wanting to create professional looking cakes and cupcakes. It's informative and fun. Learning all the techniques and tips is even better than having your cake and eating it too.
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