Pastry and Baking Classes

A few years ago Mary Moore, the owner of Cook’s Warehouse in Atlanta asked me if I was interested in teaching some classes at the midtown location.  I , of course was honored just to be asked!  So I agreed and started a 3 day class that covers the making of mousses, frostings and the basics of wedding cakes.  It has been really fun for me teaching people some of the things I know about and am passionate about.  My classes fill up quite quickly, so if you are interested, watch for the class schedule to come out every 3 months or so.

One of the best parts of the classes for me is the feedback I get from the students.  I freely give out my the recipes that have taken me years to develop and love hearing back from the students on how they made out recreating it.

11 years ago I created a bakery for a restaurant owner to provide awesome desserts for his 5 stores.  Little did I know how successful it would become.  Metrotainment Bakery became a very popular destination for people to buy the desserts we sold in the restaurants for their special occasions and everyday delight.  Many (over a 100) other restaurants and clubs became loyal customers with some coming from as far away as North Carolina!  After working like a crazy woman for so many years, I decided I needed a break from 60 – 70 hour work weeks, so I resigned from Metrotainment in November of 2007.  One of the most important things I taught my employees was the quality and consistency of what we made.  Hopefully that essence continues today.

So, in my teaching at Cook’s I am able to share all of my recipes with my students.  Many times I will get a request from someone that has taken a class and wants a recipe they know I have made or will ask a question about why something happened!

I also teach a 1 day class that covers desserts that many restaurants serve that may seem daunting for the home cook but really are not.  I teach them how easy it is to make a creme brulee or lava cake or your own caramel sauce or creme anglaise.

I have copied some of the interesting emails I have received from some of my past students and also some pictures of classes.  Thanks to Sherri Shapiro, a student and an assistant for sharing her pictures with me and allowing me to use them on my blog!

Barb

3 day class

Sherri getting ready to decorate her tiered cake!

Callebaut Chocolate is so good for making chocolate transfer sheets

Cupcake Art Work!

Filling the Chocolate Bags

A finished Chocolate Bag with Creme Anglaise

Making Baked Alaska

Almond Bliss Wedding Cake

Wedding Cakes

A few years ago I was visiting my brother Twig and his wife Linda in Utah for Christmas. I brought an Almond Bliss cake with me along with some other desserts.  Linda’s daughter Eliza tasted the cake and loved it.  She asked me if I would make her that cake for her wedding when she got married!    Little did I know years later the wedding would take place in New Orleans.  It is always an honor for me to do a wedding cake, but to have the bride to be a person close to me makes it all the more special for me.

I drove to New Orleans last weekend with all of the things I needed to finish the cake for the wedding.  My trunk was full of gallons of white buttercream frosting, layers of cake and the tools needed to frost and decorate this delicious cake.  I spent a few hours Friday doing the initial frosting and then met an old friend that lives in NO for drinks and oysters.  Lots of oysters and of course a Bloody Mary or two!  We first went to Drago for grilled oysters.  I am accustomed to eating oysters raw, Rockefeller or fried.  These were so good - would love to know what sauce that they top them with….  Then we went to Felix’s in the Quarter and ate more oysters, Bienville and Rockefeller - yum, yum. Last stop was Cafe duMonde for beignets and cafe au lait. Sweet dreams.

Saturday after a trip to a few of the old cemetaries – not as morbid as you would think, a walk through Audubon Park and a ride out to some of the areas hit by Hurricane Katrina- (so amazing the amount of distruction that is still there) we headed to Cooter Browns for fried oysters with some raw oysters as a side!   And what would a trip to New Orleans be without a frozen daiquiri!  On the way back to the Board of Trade to put the final touches on the cake, we stopped at Whole Foods on Magazine to buy fresh flowers for the cake.   The cake was done and it was time to get ready for the ceremony and reception.  One of the guests asked me if I would do a  wedding cake in Colorado – she had 5 children and loved my cake!

Sunday morning we went to breakfast and had an interesting version of Eggs Benedict at a restaurant called Suave.  Bloody Mary’s for all with those pickled beans that make you pucker.  Kelly and I did some shopping at the French Market and shops in the quarter.  We met up a bunch of friends that had been at the wedding for a haunted house tour later on in the day and learned about some of the history of the French Quarter, stopping at the oldest tavern in the US for a Hurricane – a must have on any trip to NO! Since it was Easter Sunday we went to one of the parades in the Quarter and got our share of beads.

So a little education, meeting with old friends and family and wonderful food made it a fantastic trip.  Ooops – almost forgot our last night at Harrah’s to try our luck at the craps table!  I actually walked out with $20 more than I went in with.

Wedding Cake Design

Wedding cakes are one of the things that I do. People Magazine chose one of my wedding cakes for their special wedding issue. They selected one wedding cake from each state, which you can see by clicking here: 

http://www.people.com/people/package/gallery/0,,20042118_20041107_10,00.html

This is the wedding cake I made that was selected for this special issue. It was a white chocolate buttercream frosted vanilla cake. Kris and Jeff chose the ”swiss dot” design with fresh hydrangeas that I picked from their garden.

Pricing and design Information

Wedding Cake Price List

Cakes are priced per slice

Round Cakes                                                   $3.75

Square Cakes                                                  $4.00

Buttercream frosting                                                Included

Cream Cheese, Italian Cream,                        Add $1.00

Or White chocolate frostings                                  Add $1.00

Special Designs –                                             Priced accordingly

Triple Dot, Scroll, Swiss dot design                    Included

Delivery and setup local area                             $75

Fresh flowers                                                  PA

Grooms Cakes                                                            PA

 

50% Deposit due on booking

Balance due 2 weeks before wedding

 

Cake flavors:

Chocolate

Carrot

Butter

Red Velvet

Almond

Lemon

 

Frostings:

White Buttercream Chocolate Buttercream

Chocolate Fudge

White Chocolate Buttercream

Italian Cream

Lemon Buttercream

Lemon Cream Cheese

Cream Cheese

 

11.17.08

Oystering on Cape Cod

Myles, John and Barb

It has been an amazing summer – I went out with one of the local oyster “farmers” to his farm on the bay in Dennis and learned all about oyster farming.  I had no clue what this entails previous to our day on Crows Neck. These oysters were the best I have ever had.  How can you beat eating an oyster fresh out of Cape Cod Bay!

John Lowell is a local oyster farmer that started farming oysters about 5 years ago.  He has about 200,000 oysters growing to maturity right now.  They are all in different stages depending on tides, age of the initial “seed” planting, the moon and basically mother nature. 

The difference between an oyster from a farm and other oysters taken from bays etc. is that they are grown in a crate.  Almost like a bread crate, but much thinner.  They are stacked into the water 2 high on poles that keep them elevated off the sand.  

Unlike salmon farms, these do not get anything but nutrients from the salt water.  So no chemicals or artificial anything.  The waters on the bay were crystal clear and very cold today – about 59 degrees. 

The oysters that are not taken will stay on the farm until late December when they will be pulled and stored until late March.  They will be kept in an old Sysco refer truck and cooled with snow or ice depending on how much snow is around.  At this point oysters are not growing since there is nothing for them to feed on.  It is like the whales that come to the Cape waters in spring and leave in the early winter.  Almost like hibernation.  They are still edible and will be sold throughout the winter until they are put back into the bay.  John told us the best tasting oysters are around Thanksgiving until Christmas.  Hard to believe they could taste much better than they did today.

The state of MA has licensed these guys to farm these oysters and are doing extensive research on the process and results of these particular farms. 

Thursday John is bringing in some bigger oysters for us to make PoBoys out of.  Myles – the CIA extern at the Ocean House (www.oceanhouserestaurant.com), is from New Orleans and will be creating our Dennis Oyster PoBoys.

Can’t wait – oh and by the way – John does ship!

 

Barb

 

This picture is of the start of a “wet” picking of cranberries in Harwich Cape Cod! 

 

What a day.

 

Cranberry Bogs, Harwich MA, October 2008

An Evening In The City

Last Friday, members of the Atlanta chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier hosted the first annual Evening In The City at The Mansion in Atlanta.  Francine Reed was the fantastic entertainment for the evening.  Amy Hoopes of Wente Vineyards presented beautiful wines that were paired with each of the 5 courses that Chef Eric Chopin prepared.  Each guest was also given a copy of the new Les Dames d’Escoffier International Cookbook – Les Dames d’Escoffier – At Home With the Women Who Shape the Way We Eat and Drink.

Sunday was the 8th annual An Afternoon In The Country at Serenbe Farm presented by LDEI Atlanta.  A fantastic food and wine extravaganza that was enjoyed by all.  It included hayrides for the kids (and adults!), a cake raffle that had cakes and desserts made by the best pastry chefs in Atlanta and 2 live bands, Drive Train and The Farmland band.  Of course wines and food were prepared by a select group of chefs and wineries.  It was a sold out event again this year.

Coconut Cake

My coconut cake recipe is featured on EveningEdge.com, the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s food page. Read about it here.

A few years ago the readers of Creative Loafing chose it as the BEST Coconut Cake in Atlanta!!

Back from Hawaii

 

View from our villa in Maui.

 

I just spent a wonderful 10 days in Hawaii. I was there for the Les Dames d’Escoffier International annual conference. In between presentations and seminars, I was able to visit a volcano on horseback, take the pilgrimage to Hana, and try lots of wonderful food. The Hawaii Les Dames chapter were wonderful hostesses.