Sweet Farewells

We bid farewell to 3 wonderful colleagues at work.  They are all really fun people and deserved only the best farewell.  So..logically...I was commissioned to bake the cakes!  Yeah!!

Happy Customers Devour My Cakes!

The cake menu included two new specials as well as two of my favorites!  Actually, they are all so delicious I can't say which is my favorite!!!  It was a great challenge to bake 4 cakes after work, while still getting enough sleep to function at work and being able to deliver delicious fresh cakes!  But really, the bigger challenge was the transportation of the cakes!  I only have one cake carrying case and one of the cakes was too big to fit in the case anyway.  My solution:  Clean EVERYTHING out of the fridge so no flavors spoil the cakes, turn the air on full blast in the car, and recruit friends to hold the cakes on the way there :)  It worked!

Chocolate, Chocolate, Yum!

Chocolate Chocolate Yum - I'm still working on names :)  but I don't know what else to call this one.  It is the most decadent chocolate deliciousness!  When you put the first bite in your mouth a great rich chocolate flavor sweeps over you.  The cake is moist and somehow light and melts on your tongue.  Before you know it, the bite is gone!  A chocolate cake is layered and topped with a light (in texture) whipped chocolate ganache frosting and sprinkled with beautiful and playful dark chocolate shavings!  Chocolate...more chocolate...and Yum!
 

Dulce de Leche

Yellow Butter Cake with Dulce de Leche Frosting - So cake two is a take on my cake role model's recipe (Warren Brown of Cake Love in D.C.).  The cake is creamy and hearty (fully of love, and slightly heavy).  The simple flavors of the eggs, butter, and sugar shine without the fuss and vanity of other flavors.  But the real love is in the frosting.  Oh my gosh.  I didn't milk the cow or harvest the sugar cane, but I did MAKE the dulce de leche (thanks for the recipe mom!) and then I beat the butter into submission and delicately folded it all together.  I could eat this whole cake.

JC's Orange Sponge Cake - If I had a signature cake, this is it.  I love it!  I won't ever say my cakes are healthy - they are treats or splurges to be enjoyed in moderation.  To do them justice, I only use the best ingredients..which means real butter, real cream, real sugar, real fruit - real food.  So this cake is healthier because it has fruit (haha), less sugar, and less flour.  The texture is light, the flavor is fresh.  The butter cream frosting (which is usually spiked with Cointreau) hints at something special and sophisticated. And the orange slice is a great final bite to cleanse your pallet.

Sweet Margarita!

Sweet Margarita - This final cake (which I was most excited about) is similar to the Orange Sponge Cake.  I was exceptionally excited about this one because limes are only available about one week a year in Israel - and this was the week!!!  So I made a lime sponge cake which is just a light and fresh as the orange one, but slightly more sour.  To mimic the salt rim on a margarita I added just a touch more salt (which also intensified the flavors!).  I frosted the cake in a lime butter cream frosting with just a hint of orange (to mimic the Cointreau or Triple Sec in a margarita).  Finally, I topped the cake off with a deliciously sinful lime curd.  A curd is basically eggs, butter and lots of sugar boiled down (the sweetest part of the cake condensed into a jelly-like syrup, sans the flour).  Like a rum cake - I would recommend pouring a bit of tequila over the cake after it has cooled, before you frost it.  Of course, I didn't follow my own recommendation (and probably wouldn't).  Instead, I let the lucky cake eater choose to either chase their cake with a shot of tequila (and then the slice of lime), or chase the tequila with a slice of lime cake (instead of a lime)!  It was a huge hit!  If only we had limes, I'd make it again!!!

Framing the First 100 Shekels

You know how you always see $1 bills framed in restaurants and such, representing the first dollar the business owned?  Well...I'm ready to frame my first...100 shekels :) 

I can't say I wasn't thinking of selling cakes, that would be a total lie.  I even went so far as to try to come up with a name for the bakery and collected menus to get ideas for the popular flavors.  But - that was a distant distant daydream.  Until last week.

I had a minor cake crisis last week making a cake for a party when I whisked up my eggs and delicately folded the whole thing together...only to find my oven was still cold.  I asked the host to pre-heat her oven and jumped in the car.  It is about 85-90* out, so the cake...pre-baked....on the way.  I frosted the cake at the party when I arrived (fashionably late) and thought it would be a total disaster...but no.  Instead, a colleague asked if I could make a cake for his birthday.                   AND HE WOULD PAY ME!

I modestly tell him the cost of the ingredients (which is not so cheap in Israel, especially since the State just upped the price of butter!) and he doubles it!  My first cake sold for roughly $30!

But wait...it gets better!!! He and his colleagues were so impressed by my cake (which they ate a day later, so it was a little too dry) that they want to buy "a couple" of cakes from me for a farewell event!  HA!!!  This is taking off much faster than I thought.  My audience will be about 140 people, roughly 30 of which are Americans (so who know cakes) and the rest Israelis and Palestinians (who don't know great cakes)!  Oh, if only all the Israelis and Palestinians could come together around my cakes :)  Hahaha. 

Anyway, it will be quite the challenge in terms of timing (a much bigger scale than I've done before) and in terms of it being a PICNIC!  I'm picturing the frosting just sliding right off the precious little dessert.  Maybe I'll have them slightly frozen..oh then there will be water droplets.  There is also the dilemma of having only one cake carrying case.  Boxes?  Cake platters with plastic bowls taped on top ($5 a bowl)?  If anyone is up for the challenge..it is me!