A little bon appetit for you, a big Bon Appetit for me

As mentioned before, food blogging is a hobby for me as in I don't really make any money from it. The gratification that I've finally found an outlet that lets me express myself as well as create physical things (cakes, anyone?)is enough. But it's pretty kick ass when you get a little recognition.

For me, this recognition came in the form of an invitation to an exclusive Bon Appetit blogger party. Only 25 bloggers were invited, so I've been feeling pretty good since I stopped hyperventilating from excitement upon receiving the invite.

I was asked to bring a baked good to the party as part of the contest element of the event. Trained chefs and Editor-in-Chief Barbara Fairchild publicly eating (and possibly publicly ridiculing) said dessert were on the agenda for the evening, and I was determined to make something that wouldn't end up with me crying in the bathroom after the judges barfed on the table. My baked good of choice? A spiced pear cake topped with cream cheese frosting.

Let me be honest. Baking a cake with the intention of feeding it to people that are the creme de la creme of the food world is scary. And when I say scary, I mean the type of scary that keeps you up the entire night before worrying that everyone will think you're a hack and all the judges will come down with food poison from a cake you prepared. However, I charged through the fear and found myself on the fourth floor of the Conde Nast building last night, rubbing elbows with Bon Appetit staffers and fellow food bloggers.

The event was a great success and considering that most of my cake was eaten by the end of the night, I feel pretty good. I walked out of that party with some new friends, a bit of a validation that I'm a pretty good food blogger, and a ton of free schwag (thanks Bon Appetit!)

As a result of the warm fuzzies I'm currently experiencing, I want to share my cake recipe with you in hopes that you'll use it for some sort of seasonal awesomeness.

Also, sorry for the lack of photos. There were a ton of photogs at the event last night, so I'm hoping to find some of the photos online and share them here. Stay tuned!

Spiced Pear Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from Bon Appetit’s Fuji Apple Spice Cake Recipe (October 2009)

Ingredients

Cake
3 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg or ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons rum
1 1/2 cups pureed canned Bartlett pears
2 medium Bartlett pears (peeled, halved, cored, cut into cubes)
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans


Frosting
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
3 cups powdered sugar
Coarsely chopped pecans


Preparation

Cake
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Whisk flour, ground cinnamon, baking powder, teaspoon salt, ground allspice, nutmeg, and baking soda in medium bowl. Using electric mixer (countertop or hand-held), beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add both sugars and beat until smooth. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and rum if desired. Add flour mixture to egg mixture in 3 additions alternately with pureed pears in 2 additions, beating until blended after each addition. Stir in cubed pears and pecans. Divide batter between cake pans evenly.

Bake cakes until tester inserted into center of each comes out clean, about 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer cakes to racks and cool in pans 15 minutes. Cut around pan sides to loosen cakes. Invert cakes onto racks. Place another rack atop 1 cake and invert again so that cake is rounded side up. Repeat with second cake. Cool completely.


Frosting
Using electric mixer (countertop or hand-held), beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until smooth. Beat in vanilla extract and pinch of salt. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until frosting is creamy.

Drop half of frosting (about 1 1/2 cups) by spoonfuls atop cake. Spread frosting evenly to edges of cake. Top with second cake, trimmed side down. Drop remaining frosting by spoonfuls onto top of cake, leaving sides of cake plain. Spread frosting to top edges of cake. Sprinkle with pecans. Let cake stand at room temperature 1 hour to allow frosting to set slightly.

Vote for me on Bon Appetit!

Recently, I was asked by the web editor of Bon Appetit to submit a recipe for their Holiday Blog Envy Bake-off. I decided to share the recipe I use for coconut macaroons with chocolate ganache - yum! Now, I need your help!

Vote for my recipe! The first part of the contest is open to readers to vote on their favorites in each baking category (my recipe is in the Cookie, Brownies, and Bars category). The recipes with the most votes from each category move onto the second round which involves Bon Appetit testing each recipe. From there, a winner is chosen. The grand prize is a dinner with Bon Appetit Editor-in-Chief Barbara Fairchild! This could be my opportunity to get down on my knees and beg for a food writing opportunity (part-time, of course)!

When I signed up to vote, I had to register on Bon Appetit. It's easy to do (and free!) and you can opt out of receiving anything via e-mail, so don't worry aboutr spam mail. Please please please please please help me get to the second round of the competition! If I do, I promise to bake all of you cookies! And tell all your friends to vote too!

You can find the site here. All you need to do is look for the Coconut Macaroon with Chocolate Ganache recipe from Puff and Choux (that's my blog).

Sometimes you just have to bake some cookies

I've been in a baking funk lately. It's been a combination of a somewhat new (and inferior) kitchen and just lack of time, but I won't lie and say my inspiration hasn't been at a dribble too.

This past weekend, I caught a cold and couldn't go out for Halloween. I was bummed as a good friend of mine was throwing her annual Halloween party, and instead of having a great time with friends and dressing up as a Day of the Dead doll, I was lying on the couch watching So I Married an Axe Murderer and wondering what my life would have been like if I had been my age now in 1993 and when exactly Mike Meyers became NOT funny.

After I wrapped up Axe Murderer, I found myself bored. I wasn't tired as I had been sleeping all day. I didn't feel like getting online and playing around on Facebook, so I was left with few options. I went into the kitchen and began what has become my routine the past two months - opening the fridge with the brief hope that somehow it has filled itself magically with ingredients so I could whip up a sweet feast. What did I have? Two onions, half a stick of unsalted butter and black truffle butter. A feast I did not have.

Before meandering back into my bedroom, I remembered the peanut butter and jelly I had bought a couple of weeks earlier. I had bought these household mainstays with the idea of making a cookie recipe I had seen in Martha Stewart Living. I was craving some sweets, so making these comfort cookies became my mission for the night.


To call this recipe a "mission" is a bit dramatic. Time-wise, these bad boys took me less than an hour to make, and that includes bake time.

Even though I'm still getting over this cold, I have to believe that the chicken noodle soup and PB&J cookie combo is what's really speeding along the healing process.


Peanut Butter & Jelly Thumbprint Cookies
Makes 40

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup raspberry jam

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat peanut butter and butter with a mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add sugars, and beat until pale and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, and beat until incorporated. Reduce speed to low. Add dry ingredients, and mix until combined.

Scoop level tablespoons of dough, and form into balls. Roll each ball in granulated sugar, and transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart.
Bake until cookies are puffy, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and make indentations in centers by pressing with the handle end of a wooden spoon. Return to oven, and bake until edges are golden, 6 to 7 minutes more. Transfer sheets to wire racks, and let cool completely.

Heat jam in a small saucepan, stirring, until loosened, about 30 seconds. Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon into each indentation. Cookies can be stored in a single layer for up to 1 week.

This isn't TOTALLY pastry/baking related...

...but I'm attending the #140conf in Los Angeles this week on behalf of my company, Ask.com, and I had this terrific video made by the brains behind Mashcat. Since it features a doughnut, I thought it kind of fit on Puff and Choux. Enjoy!

Interview with Eric Erwin, the Executive Vice President of Marketing & Product Development for Wilton

This column originally appeared on Cupcakes Take the Cake where I write the weekly CakeWalk column. I thought it was worth posting on my personal baking site as well.



As much as I love cupcake blogging, it's not something that really gets the bills paid on my end. So, I'm proud to say that I'm also the Social Media Marketing Manager at Ask.com. I've learned that not only our my Ask colleagues cupcake fanatics too, they love that I write for this blog. You really can't find a better place to work.

While visiting our corporate headquarters in Oakland earlier this week, I learned that one of my colleague's is the daughter of the head honcho over at Wilton. I was thrilled with the idea of doing a Q&A with the company as I'm a major fan of their baking products and as an employee of Ask.com, it's in my nature to ask AND answer questions.

Eric Erwin, the Executive Vice President of Marketing & Product Development for Wilton, was kind enough to sign on board to answer my questions. In even better news, I've been told that I will be receiving some Wilton goodies in the mail, and I will be giving those away to some lucky Cupcakes Take the Cake readers as soon as I receive them! Keep your eyes peeled for future CakeWalk columns to find out about the upcoming contest...


What is your top seller related to cupcakes?
We noticed about 4 years ago that muffin pans started to sell at a much greater rate than other baking pans. That insight lead us to ask the question why? What occurred to us was that cupcakes had become the ‘individual and personalized’ treat for many celebrations. To leverage this insight, we developed a large assortment of truly innovative products that allowed the home baker a chance to truly deliver inspired and personalized amazing cupcakes. To support this we published a book called Cupcake Fun!

Wilton published Cupcake Fun! to celebrate the cupcake and the people who love it.

Have you seen an uptick in business with the cupcake trend in the past 4 to 5 years?
Definitely. For a long time we serviced the ‘personalized cake’ treat market by allowing consumers to use our cake decorating products for cupcakes. Today, we have cupcake decorating kits, kits that have just the right ‘tips’ for decorating cupcakes, sprinkles that are oversized just for cupcakes, and a whole range of cupcake wraps that allow even the most novice of decorators to present their creations well.


In your opinion, is the cupcake phenomenon still growing?
Cupcakes work well in many celebrations and parties where individual ‘cakes’ can be put out and left. They can be handled as ‘finger food.’ We are creating some amazing new products that allow you to present and display cupcakes at many parties: Halloween and Graduation for example. Everyone loves a cupcake because it reminds them of childhood and happy memories. Different types and flavors of cupcakes are still very popular but probably as more of a tradition than a trend now.

Wilton carries everything from baking pans to cupcake liners and holiday decorative toppers - these are just some of the products you can find for Halloween on Wilton.com.

According to your sales and/or gut feeling, what is the next big baking fad we’re sure to see?
We just introduced a whole new line of products around brownies. We supported this with a book called Brownie Fun! Many of the new product forms have done very well and this has developed into a basic line of products within our cake decorating assortments. That said we are very excited about the increased interest in cookie baking. Holiday cookie baking and the rise of ‘cookie exchanges’ is invigorating the home baking market. Maybe it is the economy forcing people to think about giving gifts that they hand make, or maybe it is because you can be very creative making a gift and the presentation box. Both activities are exciting, fun and gratifying. Last year there were more cookie exchange parties happening than ever before. To support this we have just launched our Cookie Exchange program. It includes a Cookie Exchange book with instructions on how to host a party plus more than 150 recipes and project ideas, baking and decorating equipment needed plus a Cookie Memories Contest on Facebook and at Wilton.com.

Wilton has a robust cupcake section on Wilton.com – has Wilton always put an emphasis on this tiny cake or is this a new effort emerging from the general consumer interest in cupcakes?
It is reflective of the broad interests in personalized individual baked treats. We’ve always had cupcake products but we now make it easier for the consumer to find all of the different products and inspirational ideas related to cupcakes.


What sort of MUST HAVE tools would you recommend for a new baker on a budget?
A good aluminum pan for cake so that you get the perfect ‘cake skin’— that is cake skin that doesn’t crumble into your icing. Wilton will introduce Ultra Gold bakeware in the spring of 2010 that really are the most innovative baking pans ever! If you can’t wait until then, try our Performance Pans or Decorating Preferred pans.


Who creates the cupcake recipes featured on Wilton.com?
The Wilton Test Kitchen at our corporate location in Woodridge, Illinois.

This little cupcake vampire is the result of Wilton's in-house team, led by Steve Rocco.

Who comes up with the decorating tips on Wilton.com? (The Halloween ideas are FANTASTIC, by the way)
Steve Rocco, our Director of Cake and Visual Design, comes up with the decorating tips. He has worked at Wilton for over 20 years. Steve is special and world famous for the great fun, color, and sweetness he adds to the ideas for the products that our managers develop. Steve has a staff of 12 highly talented decorators who execute the designs you see in our creative content.